“Hey, you king of the Jews!” someone
shouted. “Don’t you know you’re on a bunny-trail? Has no one ever told
you in all honesty that you are a deluded madman?” Now loud cackling could
be heard from the balcony facing Yeshua.
“What
on earth makes you think you are a son of God? Look at yourself! Is that
what would happen to a true son of god? Would any god allow this to be
done to his son?” Others ‘yeah-yeahed’ this by stomping their foot in rhythm.
“You’re so deceived, man, you’re so deluded! Sure,
you haven’t done any wrong, for Pilate and Herod found you not guilty of
any charges brought against you by your religious leaders. But all the
same, you’re a poor idiot fantasizing about yourself, and all that you’ve
been good for after all is having some fun with you.” Roaring laughter
by all, then more bowing mockingly while clapping their hands.
It was the worst of mockery I’d ever seen or heard,
ever imagined possible. But a much worse one was yet to come.
Just then Pilate came into the praetorium, and
when he saw Yeshua he shivered from the shock of what the Galilean looked
like – utterly disfigured and bloody. Is that what should be done to an
innocent man?
Pilate shook himself vigorously as though he could
shake off the guilt that momentarily assaulted him. He reached for Yeshua’s
hand and took Him out before the crowd one more time, in a final desperate
attempt to free this gentle albeit deluded Nazarean from death by crucifixion.
“Behold
the Man!”, he shouted. But in vain, the rabble only mocked and ridiculed
Yeshua, their hearts as of stone so callous despite Yeshua’s heart-rending
appearance. They kept screaming for Yeshua’s death on a Roman cruxifix119.
Then Pilate ordered a bowl of water to be brought,
and in the presence of all the people and Yeshua he washed his hands and
declared, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then
all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children.”120
Then Pilate released Him to be crucified.
In an instant the Spirit took me to the site of
the crucifixion, a sight that no artfully carved, empty cross hanging in
a church over an altar can convey.
The Holy Spirit had me look at this scene from
a different perspective than when He showed it to me the first time.
I saw Yeshua, the Son of Man, hanging helplessly
from a rough wooden cross, forsaken by all His disciples save one, John,
and even His family stood far off except for His dearly beloved, gentle
mother Miriam.
Here
He was, pinned with huge nails inescapably to this instrument of slow,
torturous death, visibly in horrific agony of pain and thirst. He looked
so awful, so pitiful, so utterly forsaken and forlorn. The rabble that
had followed to watch the spectacle of the crucifixion was yelling, jeering
and shouting obscene insults, while some of the Roman soldiers were sitting
on the ground in front of the cross, laughing and gambling for Yeshua’s
seamless tunic of fine linen made by his mother121.
Others were standing around, watching him and
the two robbers crucified together with Him, waiting to see what would
happen and listening to what He and the other two were muttering up there
on their crosses. They moved to the side when the chief priests and scribes
and some Pharisees walked up to the cross, posting themselves in front
of Yeshua.
There they stood, dressed in their finest of religious
garments, hands on their hips, feet apart as one who takes a stand, and
wagging their heads in a mocking gesture.
“Oy! Oy!” they said, sarcastically, “He saved
others but cannot save himself. He is the King of the Jews?” they said
with scornful laughter in reference to the sign, written in three languages
of the time – Hebrew, Latin and Greek - Pilate had the soldiers place
on the cross, which served as justification for the execution: “Yeshua
of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”122
This indirectly implied that He had challenged
the supremacy of Caesar over the Jews whose leaders claimed that they had
no other king but Caesar.
“Let him come down now from the cross, and we
will believe in him,” one of the scribes taunted Yeshua.
“Yes,” another one laughed, rocking from side
to side in an almost dancing fashion, “He trusts in G-d; let G-d deliver
him now, if He desires him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of G-d.”YU
The robbers on either side of Yeshua also reviled
him in the same way123, but one
of them repented after he heard Yeshua’s words of forgiveness, His cries
to the Father, and saw His loving care for His mother despite His unspeakable
agony. He said to Yeshua, “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
Then Yeshua promised, “I tell you the truth, today you shall be with me
in Paradise.”124
| 119 John
19:1-16 |
120 Matthew
27:24-26 |
121 Mt
27:33-36; Jn 19:23-25; Lk 23:32-38 |
| 122 John
19:19-20 |
123 Matthew
27:39-44 |
124 Luke
23:42 |
YU
Isaiah 52:13-15 - "Behold, My Servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted
and lifted up, and shall be very high. As many were astonished at Him -
His
appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, so shall He startle
many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which
has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard
they shall understand."
Isaiah 53:1-1-12 - "Who has believed what
we have heard? And to whom has the Arm of the LORD been revealed? For He
grew grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry
ground; He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no
beauty what we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men
and forsaken; a man of sorrows and great pains, and acquainted with grief
and man’s sickness; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was
despised, and we esteemed Him not.
“Surely He has borne our griefs and sicknesses and carried our sorrows
and pains; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by G-d, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.
“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like
a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers
is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression, false accusations,
lies and slander and by unjust judgment He was taken away. And as for His
generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of My people? And they
made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although
He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth.
“Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief
and made Him sick [with our sicknesses]; when He makes Himself,
even His very soul, an offering for sin, He shall see His spiritual
seed and offspring, He shall prolong His days; and the will and pleasure
of the LORD shall prosper in His hand; He shall see the fruit of the travail
of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One,
My Servant [the Branch] make many to be accounted righteous; and HE SHALL
BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES.
“Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide
the spoil with the mighty and strong; because He poured out His soul
to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin
of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” |
