friday

At about 8:30 this morning, having been beaten, and nearly scourged to death, Jesus and the crossbeam he has carried on his bloodied back are laid down on the ground at Golgotha and affixed to the upright. A nail goes through the right hand, through the left hand, through the right wrist, through the left wrist and through both feet. The cross is lifted up at 9 a.m.

It has been a terrible night for the Savior, and need not have been so except for his transcendent love for us. Having more power than any man who had ever lived, Jesus at any time not only had the power to end the torment and toss his tormenters aside, but he had perfect faith to heal himself in every moment. Imagine that. How would you resist freezing a staff or a whip in the air before it strikes you if you could do so? How could you not, given the enormous pain of each blow, immediately heal yourself as if it was never there? I believe this was a greater trial than any of the physical injuries -- to show such perfect restraint in acceptance of the injuries and pain in order to fulfill the plan of the Atonement. Given our own inbred compelling instincts for self-protection and survival, which he had as well, it is impossible to imagine what power it took not to easily use the power he had to remove himself from all of it.

In his last sleepless night, Jesus first went through the agony of Gethsemane, which Bruce McConkie says was three or four hours of prayer and torment. "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But he was obedient to the plan of the Father that he had championed in pre-mortality: "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Judas the betrayer came with "a great multitude" and kissed Jesus, who was bound and taken to the palace of Caiaphas. During the "trial," they spit on his face as he spoke, "buffeted him" and hit him with the palms of their hands. At one point, they blindfolded him, mocking, and then hit him in the face challenging him to prophesy who had hit him. After judging him guilty of blasphemy, the Jewish penalty for which was death, the Jewish authorities needed permission to kill him -- so they maintained he had committed treason against the Roman state, for which the Roman authorities could put him to death.

About 6 this morning, he as taken to the Hall of Judgment in Antonia Fortress to appear before Pontius Pilate. After a short, courteous conversation and interrogatory, Pilate found no fault in him -- but could not release him because of the animus of the Jewish leaders.

Pilate sent him to a higher Roman authority who happened to be visiting Jerusalem at the time -- Herod. Jesus refused to speak to the wicked Herod, who sent him back to Pilate for further judgment.

Pilate again told the people he could find no fault with Jesus. Hoping a "lesser" punishment would appease the mob, he said: "I will therefore chastise him, and release him." To chastise was to scourge or whip.

Either in a public place, or in a dungeon-like scourging room, Jesus was tied to a post and whipped with a scourge called a flagrum whose cords ended in shards of glass, pottery or dumbbell-shaped balls of metal. This was a punishment of 39 whippings which was so brutal that prisoners often died from it. Not only was the Savior's strength so extraordinary that he survived, but he was able to stand upright soon after to be subjected to the Roman soldiers' favorite Game of Kings.

The "play" was to treat the prisoner like a king by putting a robe on him, giving him a staff and then, the painful part, affixing a crown of thorns to his head. Unlike the wreath or tiara of thorns depicted in most art, it was more like a cap or a basket of thorns which had been "invented" by Syrian mercenaries serving in the Roman legions -- who platted the crowns and then beat them upon the skull of the prisoner with rods.

Having stated he would release Jesus, Pilate relents because of the crowd and tries one last chance to free Jesus, pleading for his life with the crowd. They have a choice to free the murderer Barabbas or the innocent Jesus. They choose Barabbas, and Pilate washes his hands, sending the Savior to his death.

Despite all the terrible injuries, Jesus for a time was able to carry the 80- to 90-pound crossbeam of the cross for a ways after it was lashed to him. On the way to Golgotha, the place of the skull, he finally succumbed to his injuries and could go no further with the beam so a man named Simon was plucked from the crowd to carry it the rest of the way.

"And it was the third hour, and they crucified him." Jewish days began at 6 a.m., making the time the Savior was "lifted up" for us on the cross at 9 a.m. By the way, none of the accounts mention that he was nailed to the cross -- that is only revealed later when Thomas asks to see the prints of the nails in the hands and feet of the resurrected Savior.

Over his head on the cross is placed an "accusation" reading: "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews."

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

The soldiers cast lots for his garments.

One of the two thieves on crosses beside Jesus challenges his to save himself and them if he is Christ. The other, a penitent, rebukes his fellow thief and says that their reward is just, but Jesus has "done nothing amiss." Being a convert on the cross, and having faith in Jesus, the Savior promises him: "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Looking down from the cross, Jesus connects John and his mother Mary for the rest of their lives. She is to be his mother and he is to be her son.

Beginning at noon, darkness falls upon the face of the land. From the "sixth hour ... unto the ninth hour," or from noon to 3 p.m., the darkness remains.

At 3 p.m., or "the ninth hour," the Savior's mortal life comes to an end. Before it does, he lets us know that his final torment was the withdrawal of Heavenly Father's spirit from His Only Begotten Son. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Thinking he is thirsty, one tormenter fills a sponge with vinegar as if it is water, "and gave him to drink, which fulfilled prophesy, as did so many things on this day.

At 3 p.m. or so, Jesus "cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost." The key words are "gave up," because Jesus had to allow himself to die -- to give his mortality up, which no man had the power to take from him. As he died, an earthquake struck Jerusalem, and the veil in the Temple, which was a heavy curtain weighing many hundreds of pounds, inexplicably tore in half.

A centurion on the scene is converted and bears testimony: "Truly this man was the Son of God."

Because the Jews had pleaded with Pilate that the legs of all three being crucified -- Jesus and the two thieves -- be broken so that they would die before Sabbath evening came, when they should not hang on crosses, the soldiers went to do so. Death by crucifixion was from asphyxiation, and could sometimes take days if the victims could push themselves up to catch a breath. Breaking their legs insured they could no longer do so, and would soon die. But Jesus was to be the pure Lamb of sacrifice, in whom no bones would be broken. The soldiers broke the legs of the thieves but, seeing that Jesus might have expired, they pierced him with a lance and both blood and water issued out. This confirmed that he was dead.

Joseph of Arimethea (sp?) asked Pilate for the Savior's body and received consent. He and others took Jesus from the cross, laid him in "a clean linen cloth," and place him "in his own new tomb, which he (Joseph) had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door and departed."

Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" grieved against the stone for a time. Jesus, the beloved Master, Teacher and Friend, was gone. Though they did not know it, he was already gone from the tomb on a mission to the spirit world and other parts of the earth.