It’s Friday the 33rd of our era. It’s the darkest day in human history, although most men have no idea. In Rome, Tiberius took charge of the demanding affairs of the empire. All over the inhabited world, babies are born, people eat and drink, get married and marry, buy and sell, sail on merchant ships and fight battles. Children play, old gossip, young people covet and people die.
But today, a brutal and terrible death, the worst and best of all human deaths, will leave the darkest brushstroke in human history. In Jerusalem, God the Son, the Creator of all that exists (John 1. 3), will be executed.
- The Jewish day begins with the night.
- And this has never been more appropriate.
- For today is the hour and power of darkness (Lk 22:53).
- Jesus is in Gethsemane.
- Where he prayed with great cries and tears.
- Being heard by his Father (He 5:7).
- Whose will will will be done.
- Jesus hears noises and looks up.
- Whispering torches and voices signal the arrival of the group that came to stop him.
Jesus awakens his sleeping friends, who are alert when he sees his brother Judas deceive his rabbi with a kiss; soldiers and servants surround Jesus; Peter, red with anger, draws his sword and wields it against those closest to Jesus. Malco backs up, but not enough. Great pain and a lot of blood appears where your ear was, people scream, but Malco only hears the throbbing wound, and there he directs his hands, feels a hand touching his hands and the pain goes, under your hands there is an ear. Stunned, look at Jesus, already carried, the disciples disperse. Malco looks at his bloodied hands.
Jesus is suddenly taken to the house of Anne, a former high priest, who asks him about his teachings. Jesus knows that this informal interrogation serves to stop you, disoriented, and unprotected. He doesn’t give anything to this manipulative leader. Instead, he sends Anas to his listeners and is ironically slapped by a Jewish officer for disrespecting him. Frustrated, Anas sends Jesus to his son-in-law Caiaphas, the current high priest.
In Caiaphas, the trial begins quickly. He’ll be up soon. The council needs a damning verdict at dawn. The review continues as members of the Sanedrín continue to enter.
The trial was hastily organized and witnesses were not properly evaluated. The testimony doesn’t match. The members of the Council seem bewildered, Jesus remains silent as a lamb. Irritated and impatient, Caiaphas asks vividly, “I pray you for the living God to tell us if you are Christ, the Son of God” (Mt 26:63).
The time has come. Summoned in the name of his Father to respond, Jesus pronounces the words that seal the misfortune that he has come to suffer (Jn 12:27): “You have said it; however, I declare to you that from now on, will you see? of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven? (Mt 26,64).
In a moment of violation of the law (Lv 10:6; 21:10), in a politically religious theater, Caiaphas tears his clothes with a fake indignation and a finely hidden relief from Jesus’ blasphemy. Declare the end of the trial with: “What more testimony do we need?Why do we hear it ourselves from your own mouth?(Lk 22:71).
When the sun rises on the eastern top of Jerusalem, Judas hangs himself, Peter squeals with pain for his failure, and Jesus’ face is covered in dry blood and saliva from the morning activities of temple guards. blasphemy. His conviction: death. But it’s a sentence they can’t execute. Rome refuses to delegate the death penalty.
Pilate’s mood, already soured by the Sanedrín’s sudden and insistent intrusion so early in the morning, worsens when he realizes the situation. You want me to execute one? Galileo. Your experienced instincts tell you something’s wrong. He questions Jesus and then says to the council, “Do I not see any crime in this man?”(Lk 23:4).
A game of political chess takes place between Pilate and the Sanedrín, they do not realize that they are pawns, not kings.
Pilate walks, as a Galilean, Jesus falls under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who judges Herod. Herod first receives Jesus with joy, hoping to see a miracle; but Jesus refuses to entertain him or even answer him. Antipas, disappointed, blocks movement by sending Jesus back to Pilate.
Pilate takes another step. He proposes to release Jesus as an Easter prisoner forgiven that year. The council is blocking movement. ” Not this one, but Barabbas!”shout (Jn 18:40). Pilate is surprised, does the Sanedrín prefer a thief and a murderer to this prophetic peasant?
Pilate tries another move. He commands to severely whip and humiliate Jesus, hoping to quell the bloodthoth of the Council. Is the movement again blocked when the Council insists that Jesus must be crucified because he became The Son of God?(Jo 19:7). Vérifier. La fear of Pilate is on the rise. Jesus’ divine claim could threaten Rome. Worse, that could be true. Roman deities could supposedly take a human form, and he is concerned about the additional interrogation of Jesus.
One last move. Pilate tries to persuade the Sanedir to deliver Jesus. One last blockade and trap. ” If you let go, you’re not Caesar’s friend!”Who becomes king is against Caesar!? wants: cornered, failed and bored.
And the Trinitarian God has the counsel, Pilate, and Satan wherever he wants them; they would have no authority over the Son unless he gave it to him from above (John 19:11). Fallen Jews, Gentiles, and spiritual powers unconsciously collaborate in execution. of the only innocent death that could bring the culprit to life. Failed and boring.
The morning declines when Jesus leaves the courtroom, terribly beaten and bleeding profusely. Roman soldiers were brutal in their creative cruelty. The thorns tossed Jesus’ scalp and his back is a grotesque, bleeding wound. Golgotha is almost a third milla. de the garden door, but Jesus does not have the strength to handle the heavy horizontal beam. Simon of Cyrene is recruited from the crowd.
Twenty-five minutes later, Jesus is distressed by one of the cruellest instruments of torture ever invented: his wrists are squeezed with his fingernails (which is known only by the doubt Thomas will express in a few days, Jn 20:25). above Jesus declares in Greek, Latin and Aramaic who he is: the king of the Jews.
The king is accompanied on both sides by thieves, and around him there are curious and contemptuous people. He saved others; to save himself, if he is, indeed, the Christ of God, the chosen one?, some shout (Lr 23:35). A dying thief joins even contempt. They do not understand that if the king flees, his only hope of salvation is lost, Jesus asks the Father to forgive them. The other crucified thief sees the Messiah in the mutilated man next to him and asks the Messiah to remember him. Jesus’ prayer begins to be answered. Hundreds of millions will follow.
We are now in the middle of the afternoon and the dreadful darkness that has fallen worries everyone, but for Jesus the darkness is a horror he never knew, this, more than nails, thorns and eyelashes, is what made him sweat blood in the garden. The wrath of the Father strikes him with all his might, at that moment he is no longer the blessed one, but the condemned one (Galatians 3:13). It became a sin (2C 5. 21). In the terrifying isolation, separated from his Father and all humans, he shouts in Aramaic: “Eli, Eli, lamo sabactani”: “My God, my God, why have you helpless me?”(Mt 27. 46; Come out 22,1). Never has love (Jn 15:13), humility (Phil 2:8) or obedience been shown or demonstrated (Hen 5:8).
Shortly after three in the afternoon, Jesus whispers hoarsely for a drink. In love, he drank the cup of his Father’s wrath to the stool. He endured all our curse. There’s no debt to pay anymore, and he’s got nothing left to give. Vinegar moistens your mouth just enough to say one last word: “Is it over?”(Jn 19:30). And God the Son dies.
It is the worst and best of all human deaths. Why does Jesus carry our sins in his body in this wood (1 Peter 2:24), “only for the unrighteous, to bring them to God?”(1 Peter 3. 18). And now it’s over.
A brilliant irony in these darker days is that the men who come to claim the body of Christ for burial are not family members or disciples, they are members of the Sanhedrín: Joseph of Arimatéia and Nicodemos. It’s another thread of unexpected grace, woven into this tapestry of redemption. They quickly wrap Jesus’ body in a sheet and place it in a nearby tomb. Night falls and they don’t have time to wrap it completely with spices.
They are accompanied by Mary Magdalene and Mary, Joseph’s mother, taking care to record the location of the tomb, and plan to return with more spices after Saturday, the first day of the week, to make sure it is over.