Suddenly the Holy Spirit halted again
and there was Yeshua, standing bound before Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee 
who
happened to be in Jerusalem just then. Herod had heard all sorts of reports
about the miracles Yeshua had done, and so he wanted this Galilean – purportedly
a mere carpenter – give a performance for his entertainment and that of
his entourage.
He questioned Yeshua at length, but He made no
reply. No matter, the chief priests and scribes who had come as well vehemently
accused Him, all shouting furiously at the same time. Seeing that the Nazarean
was a complete bore and disappointment and not anything of what these Jewish
religious fanatics accused Him of, Herod and his soldiers decided to get
still some entertainment out of Him.
They arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe taken from
Herod’s garments, spoke to and treated Him contemptuously and mocked Him
of pursuing a “bunny-trail” by believing that He was the Messiah, the Son
of G-d, Israel’s Savior and King112.
Herod’s
soldiers bowed before Yeshua while one of them said, “O King of the Jews,
will you not give me new hair on my head? It has all fallen out.” Roaring
laughter. Then another said, “Oh yes, mighty King of the Jews, won’t you
please make me more virile to please my wife?” Now even Herod held his
belly for laughing. Insult after insult, mockery after mockery, accompanied
by the Jews’ vile accusations, yet Yeshua only kept His head bowed, His
eyes toward the ground, never saying so much as one syllable, not making
any sound at all.
Watching and listening, my heart cringed and I
felt hot yet mute anger against Herod and his men. But there was nothing
I could say or do for I was held fast in a time bubble from which I could
only watch and observe. I was on a journey of “bunny-trails” Abba in heaven
had chosen to let me experience, but with no option of interference or
altering the happenings or outcome of events.
Yeshua was sent back to Pilate with the verdict
of being innocent of all of the charges brought against Him by the high
priests, scribes and Pharisees. Nevertheless, in order to placate them
and the rabble, Pilate yielded to their clamor – despite his wife’s
warning to have nothing to do with this righteous man113
- and promised to have the innocent man flogged, a severe punishment114
for a man found guilty of wrong doing. For Pilate cared more for Pilate
and his position and career than for justice, especially when it concerned
the Jews’ religious matters115.
In
an instant I was in the praetorium
of the Roman cohort, Pilate’s own battalion of soldiers, as they were
mocking and beating Yeshua with bamboo reeds (after He had already been
beaten a first time with thirty-nine lashes116
with that terrible Roman whip made of leather strings with sharp bones
attached at their tips).
I
knew this account in dreadful detail because when I wrote The Unchangeable
Calendar of G-d 117, the Lord
revealed to me the inhuman, awful, most horrible suffering the Son of G-d
had to endure as Son of Man for our redemption and salvation.
In fact, I have come to suspect that Mel
Gibson YU and his
team, when doing research for the film he was going to make, may have come
also upon the web site of the Electronic Tabernacle and read the account
of the last 48 hours in Yeshua’s life on earth as Son of Man and Lamb of
G-d. Gibson is the only film maker who has produced a work that is the
most faithful to the actual happenings in the last 48 hours in Yeshua’s
life. All other movies about Yeshua, His ministry of three years and His
suffering and death and resurrection, have been “politically correct,”
carefully avoiding to offend anyone, including, of course, the Jews.
While I fully understand the fear of Jews that
Gibson’s
movie might trigger what happened after every Easter Sunday preachings
in Russia, when Christian masses rushed upon Jews in hot fury, beating,
killing, burning - what became known as Russian “pogroms” – the movie is
nevertheless Gibson’s
crowning work. It is impossible for him to ever top this one, which represents
the most accurate depiction of these happenings and Yeshua’s suffering.
Fearing a renewed outbreak of pogroms set off
by Gibons’s film, “The
Passion of the Christ,” every Jewish organization and every Jew of
any influence at all came against this movie and Mel Gibson. It evidently
so totally upset him that he tried to drown out his anger, disappointment
and humiliation by drinking. He made the mistake to drive in this condition,
got stopped by police, and without thinking first gave vent to his utter
frustration about the Jewish antagonism against him and the movie and their
defiance. One has not heard from him since, even though he did sincerely
apologize.
But back to this voyage of bunny-trails.
The
soldiers stripped Yeshua of Herod’s gorgeous robe stuck to the dried up
blood, ripping Yehua’s wounds open and bleeding again, and put a scarlet
robe on Him instead. Then they pressed a crown of horribly long thorns
into His forehead so that blood spouted forth and ran down His face. Kneeling
before Him they mocked Him, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
On the balcony of the first floor, encircling
the inner court of the praetorium filled with onlooking soldiers, more
soldiers stood and laughed, inciting their comrades to more vile and hateful
mockings.
Indeed,
was this supposed to be the King of the Jews? Look at Him, He was so disfigured
He hardly was recognizable as a human being, His body covered with horrible
wounds and gaping stripes. This was not a man one would desire for one’s
acquaintance, much less to have for king118.
What a religious madman!
| 112 Luke
23:6-11 |
113 Matt.
27:19 |
114 Luke
23:16 |
115 Luke
23:13-25 |
| 116 The
lashing was so severe that just one more lash, the fortieth, often would
lead to the death of the victim |
