Matthew has taken us to the day Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judah. Although Pilate found Jesus guilty of nothing, he was in a political bind. If he released Jesus, the crowds surrounding the Praetorium would riot. And that is why he had Jesus scourged, and then handed Him over to be crucified.
Scourging was the act of whipping a prisoner with an instrument designed to both bruise and tear open the victim. It is hard to imagine the baby Jesus we celebrate on Christmas morning facing such a brutal torture 33 years later.
Before taking Jesus to be crucified, the Roman soldiers made sport of Him. Hearing that He had claimed to be the king of the Jews, they put Him in a robe and crown. However, the robe would most certainly have stuck to His back as His blood began to congeal into the fabric. When they later ripped it off of Him, it would most certainly have been excruciatingly painful.
The crown they made for Jesus was constructed by twisting together branches from a thorn bush. Then they mercilessly shoved it down upon His head.
In dressing Jesus up as a king, they had placed a reed in His hand to be His scepter. But then one of them got the idea to take it out of His hand and beat Him with it. The others spat upon Him, and they all mocked Him. When they finally tired of this game, they led Him out to be crucified.
At this point, Jesus was too weakened from blood loss and the beatings to even carry the cross by Himself.
A man named Simon from Cyrene in Northern Africa had travelled more than 800 miles to come to Jerusalem for the Passover. Unfortunately for Him, when he was entering Jerusalem, he ran into this group coming out, and was pressed into service to carry the cross behind Jesus (Luke 23:26).
Getting to the top of the hill of Golgotha, called the Place of a Skull (John 19:17), they tried to give Jesus wine mixed with gall. The gall the Romans used was myrrh (Mark 15:23). Its purpose being to drug up the prisoner, to deaden His senses. But as soon as Jesus tasted what it was, He refused to drink it. He would not partake of any painkillers. He was willing to take the full force of what was being done to Him.
It was about 9:00 in the morning when Jesus was crucified (Mark 15:25). Simply put, crucifixion is having your hands and feet nailed to a wooded cross, with the cross then being stood upright.
Medically speaking, it produces an array of incredibly painful conditions in the human body, which cannot be long withstood.
When the cross was elevated, literally tons of pressure were put on the arms of the victim. When it was then dropped into a hole several feet deep, the impact with the ground caused both shoulders and elbows to dislocate. Each arm would instantly become about six inches longer.
With the cross upright, the pressure on the rib cage and lungs prevented him from being able to breathe - he would immediately begin to suffocate. The only way to alleviate the pressure would be to lift himself up, using the nail in his feet as leverage.
The medical complications would begin to compound upon one another, and the neverending pain took its toll quickly on the prisoner. If he passed out, he would suffocate. If he continued to attempt to breathe in this manner, his heart would become fatigued and he would die of high output failure. Either way, death was certain. It was only a matter of time.
Once Jesus was securely on the cross, the soldiers decided to divide up His garments among themselves. His tunic, however, was one piece, and rather than tear it, they cast lots for it (John 19:24).
Then they sat down and waited for Him to die.
Above Jesus' head a sign was placed, which had been written by Pilate. It said, "The king of the Jews" in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (John 19:20). Of course, that had been protested. The chief priests said, "You shouldn't write that. Write that He SAID He was the king of the Jews."
John 19:22 Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."
When Jesus had been crucified, He wasn't the only one. Three men were being killed that day. Two robbers were crucified on either side of Him. And they were actually insulting Him!
Not only them, but those passing by (Matt. 27:39), the chief priests, scribes, and elders (Matt. 27:41), the rulers (Luke 23:35), and the soldiers (Luke 23:36) also cast insults. They were sneering at Him, mocking and hurling abuse at Him. They yelled, "Save yourself!! We'll believe if You can get down from the cross!"
From noon until three, the sun was obscured (Luke 23:45), bringing the whole land into darkness.
After Jesus had suffered on the cross for six full hours, He cried out to God with a loud voice. The words He spoke were the opening line of Psalm 22.
Psa. 22:1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Many people misunderstood what He was saying, and thought that He was crying out for Elijah, not for God.
It is so very hard to imagine that God could die. And yet, that is exactly what happened. On the cross, Jesus' heart stopped, and He breathed His last. He was dead.
But although many supernatural events took place visibly when He died, the most important one was not visible - it was spiritual. It was the payment of a debt. You see, the death of Jesus Christ had been God's plan - the only solution to pay the debt of mankind's sin.
Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus' death was the only way for the price of our sin to be paid for us. When Jesus died, the cost of our sin was met. Our ransom was paid.
Based on what the soldiers could see happening, they realized that this was no ordinary prisoner they'd just killed. When the soldiers saw Jesus breathe His last (Mark 15:39) and what happened as He died, they realized they'd done something terrible. Surely, this man had not only been innocent (Luke 23:47), but He had been the Son of God! And once they realized this, they made the declaration out loud:
Matt. 27:54 ..."Truly this was the Son of God!"
Today, God is calling for each human being on earth to come to the same conclusion and make the same declaration. The Bible says,
Rom. 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
Maybe today is the day that some people in our midst could make that declaration for the first time.