Trial before Pilate / Herod / Pilate / Crucifixion and Burial
· Mark 15:24-26 (Crucifixion)
Why is Good Friday called “good”? What the Jewish authorities and Romans did to our LORD was certainly not good.
They held a sham trial in the dead of night. Used false charges to unjustly convict Him.
They then brought Jesus to Pontus Pilate because he was the only authority in Jerusalem with the power to sentence someone to death.
Pilate ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned Him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
This is not good. Carrying His cross, with the help of Simon of Cyrene,
Jesus staggers to a hill called the “Place of the Skull” (in Hebrew, Golgotha).
“Then,” Mark writes, “the soldiers nailed him to the cross. (Hammer) They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. A sign was fastened to the cross, announcing the charge against him.
It read, ‘The King of the Jews.’” (Mark 15:24-26)
As Jesus hung there on Golgotha struggling to breathe. It is almost over; the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level.
Jesus’ compressed heart is fighting to pump. His mission of atonement is nearly complete.
Jesus knew that His mission was finished. To fulfill Scripture He said, “I am thirsty.”
A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to His lips.
When Jesus had tasted it, He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) “‘Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!’
And with those words he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed,
‘This man truly was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39)
Why is Good Friday called “good”? No, what the Jewish authorities and Romans did to Jesus was definitely not good,
however, the consequences of Jesus’ death are very good! For you and me. Romans 5:8,
“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” 1 Peter 3:18 reminds us,
“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God.”