It is now approaching morning on the preparation day. Remember how Jesus had been beaten, spit upon, and mocked at His trial before the high priest. “And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.” (Mark 15:11And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. (Mark 15:1).) The Jews could convict Him of no sin, and Pilate can find no fault in Him. He fully declares this. He is greatly puzzled. He knows well that for envy the Jews had delivered Him to him.
Oh, what a sight! The weary, bruised, beaten Jesus! There He stands: see how His blessed face has been smitten. And there stand the multitude of the Jews, fiercely accusing the Prisoner, who created the universe. Yes, the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate. And in their cruel hatred they could only belch out lies against the Holy One. “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar,” &c. And when the Roman governor declared he could find no fault in Him, they were the more fierce.
Pilate, hearing He was from Galilee, seeks to escape from his difficulty by sending Him to Herod, who happened to be in Jerusalem at this time. Yes, every possible insult must be heaped upon the Lamb of God. He must be led again through the dark streets of Jerusalem to stand before the wicked Idumean Herod—the voluptuous, cruel murderer. And this wicked man was glad, and hoped to have his curiosity gratified. Not a single word of complaint, even now, escapes the holy lips of Jesus. “He answered him nothing.” Blessed Jesus, may we learn of Thee!
And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him. They followed Him like bloodhounds on this preparation day. Yes, they accused Him, their Messiah, to the murderer Herod. They had blindfolded Him, and beaten Him with rods, and in the face. And is there any pity in the heart of Herod? Just as much as the true followers of Jesus have found, and may again find, in the dungeons of the Inquisition. “Herod with his men of war set him at naught, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.”
Thus, Ο Jerusalem, was thy Jehovah, King, and Lord, dragged and mocked by the cruel crowd through thy dark streets. Not a word of pity, or a look of sympathy for Him, who came to do the Father’s will.
Pilate felt the deep wickedness of the chief priests and rulers of the people. Again he tries to set Him free. He says, “I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him.” (Luke 23) Herod, too, had pronounced no sentence of death on Him. The struggle to release Him was made still greater by a message from his wife. This poor Gentile alone pleads for Jesus with Pilate her husband. She says: “Have thou nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” (Matt. 27:1919When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. (Matthew 27:19).)
Pilate tried hard to escape the evident guilt of giving up “that just man” by using his privilege of releasing one prisoner at the feast of passover. But no, the Lamb must die on this passover day. The chief priests demand His death, and deliberately prefer a murderer and a robber to the holy and the just One of God—the Lamb without spot. They demand that Jesus shall be crucified. And now Pilate joins them in their wickedness. No evil could they lay to His charge, “But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it.” Then the bold words from the Jews were uttered: “His blood be on us, and on our children.”
And what did this representative of the Gentile power then do, convinced, judge as he was, that there was no fault in Jesus? He deliberately released the robber and murderer. And then what? Was there a little respite now? Was the bruised and beaten prisoner, the declared just one, allowed to rest His weary body awhile? The first thing done was to inflict the cruel torment of the Roman lash—a torment under which prisoners often died. Pilate has Him stripped and scourged. How that back was torn with the cruel lash!
Isaiah, more than 600 years before, had described this scene. He who clothes the heavens said, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” (Isa. 1:66From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:6).) “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isa. 53:77He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7).) Yes, He loved the church and gave Himself for it. Oh, look at that bleeding, bruised Lamb of God, silently suffering all the cruel agony that man could inflict!
How long they tare His back we are not told. Surely this was enough! No. He was now given up to the brutal Roman soldiers. The whole Gentile band was called together. And after all that He had suffered at the hands of His own people the Jews, was there no pity, no relaxation in the cruel torture? No, none! The first twelve hours of the preparation day had about closed (John 19:1414And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (John 19:14)) and the first of the measured three hours began with the scourging, about the sixth hour of Roman time: and lasted until the third hour of Jewish time (9 a.m.) when He was crucified.
What took place during these three hours? The awful scourging. This may have been nearly unto death. But all was borne in holy silence, the silence of undying love. No tender hand to wash and dress those bleeding wounds. They took Jesus after the awful torture into the common hall. Patiently He bore the pain as they stripped Him there. “And put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews!” Oh, hold! is not this enough? No, no. “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.” And when they, the Gentiles, had had their fill of cruel torture and mockery, then Pilate must add one more act of deep degradation. At this very time when the soldiers were wearied out with their mockery, and beating Him with their hands; whilst Jesus was wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, “Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.” And Pilate saith unto them, “Behold the man! Behold the man! Ah, behold the Lamb of God! See the blood drop from His holy crowned brow! Yet this is He who shall come in glory and show that nation his wounded hands. And is there no melting of the Jewish hearts to Him? Was ever sorrow like His sorrow? No, the very priests cried out again, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate at last delivers Him up to them.
There was no rest for Jesus on the preparation day. The soldiers spit on Him, and smite Him on the head, and then take the robe from off Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. Oh, what He went through during these three hours from His condemnation to the cross! His perfectly tender human heart needed sympathy; but lover and friend were far from Him.
It was customary to compel the malefactor to bear his own cross to the place of execution. From John we learn this was carried out on Jesus. After all the beating, scourging, smiting on the head, and torture, we read, “And he bearing his cross went forth.” (John 19:1717And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (John 19:17).) In Luke 23 we read, “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.” Was this pity to Him in His extreme weakness? No, from all we have seen they may have feared He would die on the way, and so they might lose the Satanic gratification of witnessing His torture on the cross.
Oh, look at that last procession on the preparation day. All that was past was as nothing to what was before Him, yet to come. He was about to drink the dreadful cup of wrath due to millions of souls. Let us look at the procession in Luke 23:2727And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. (Luke 23:27). It is now approaching nine o’clock a.m. A great company of people follow Him. “And of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” His tender heart was occupied with the terrible judgments so soon to fall on them and their city. What love! God is love.
One other indignity must be added, that the words of Isaiah might be fulfilled, “And he was numbered with the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12).) “And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.” What a sight! He who was God, walking with two thieves, to that place where the great work of the preparation day must be accomplished, that shall bring lost sinners into the sabbath, the rest of God. The procession halts at the place of a skull, Calvary. “There they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” This is at the third hour of Jewish time, or 9 o’clock a.m. The cross was not merely an instrument of death, but of torture and death, the most prolonged and painful torture. The six hours’ torture is divided into two distinct parts. Let us inquire what took place in each.