FRIDAY

Jesus is Crucified

Judas went through with his plan. He knew Jesus well enough to suspect that it would be to the Garden of Gethsemane that he would retreat. It was there that he betrayed his Master with a traitor’s kiss. Throughout Thursday night, Jesus stood trial. Although Pilate, the Roman governor, could find no cause for imposing the death penalty, he yielded to the crowd'’s demand when he presented Jesus to them:

“"Crucify him”!"

“Then the governo's soldiers took Jesus into the govern'r's place and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "‘Hail, king of the Jews!"’ they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.” (Matthew 27:27-31)

““A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him...Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left...There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS...It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:27-46)

They hammered nails into the wood through his hands,
they split his feet through cutting into the rough cross.
Helpless he was crucified, a shame and a mockery of a man,
pinned to death...
they had won. Destroyed, rejected, broken,
his very person seemed to have been shattered,
no one would follow his teaching,
or believe anything he had said any more.
His mother, Mary, with Mary Magdalene and John, stood by,
and millions of others of all times and nations,
who believe in Him as the Beloved Son of God.

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