Lesson 26
“To This End Was I Born”
Matthew 26:47-27:66; Mark 14: 43-15;
Luke 22:47-23;56; John
18-19
Book Excerpt from Source of the Light, A Witness and Testimony
of Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of All
By Maurine Jensen Proctor and Scot Facer Proctor
Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane when a string of torchlights
came up the Mt of Olives, a multitude of armed soldiers led by
Judas. "Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which
did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."1 Approaching
Jesus, Judas greeted Him and "not only kissed [him], but covered
Him with kisses, kissed Him repeatedly, loudly, effusively."2 Defending
Jesus against the arrest, Peter raised his sword and cut off the
right ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Touching the ear,
Jesus healed it, saying, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels?"3 But now was
the time for divine restraint as He allowed Himself to be taken
captive that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
As the soldiers took Jesus, "they saw before them nothing
but a weary unarmed man, whom one of His own most intimate
followers had betrayed, and whose arrest was simply watched
in helpless agony by a few terrified Galileans"4 who finally
fled in panic. This was the beginning of a long and terrible
night of inquisition. First, He was led to degenerate Annas,
the former High Priest for seven years, the money-hungry usurper
of Jewish power. One of the abominable men of the earth, He
appointed and controlled the High Priest, who would have slavishly
followed his word.
Bound and
Led to Caiaphas
Next, in exhaustion, He was led bound to Caiaphas, the legal
High Priest in whose palace at least a quorum of the Sanhedrin
was gathered. They had before them a prisoner innocent of any
crime. "Their dilemma was real, for they themselves were
sharply divided on all major issues save one—that the man Jesus
must die."5However,
since they needed to find a charge, they sought false witnesses.
Many were eager to bare false witness, but "their testimony
was so false, so shadowy, so self-contradictory, that it all
melted to nothing."6 Through all
their hopeless argument, Jesus listened in majestic silence,
which only confounded them more until Caiaphas, enraged, hurled
this question: "Answerest thou nothing? . . . I adjure
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the
Christ, the Son of God." Jesus answered, for it had never
been a secret, "Thou hast said."7
Meanwhile, Peter waited in the courtyard below, mingling with
the crowd and listening to malcontents tell stories of the
arrest. The damsel who had admitted him to the palace said, "Art
not thou also one of this man's disciples?" "I am
not,"8 he said.
Later another maid said, "This fellow was also with Jesus
of Nazareth." This time Peter, more threatened, denied
with an oath, saying, "I do not know the man."9 Then later
as Peter was warming himself by the fire, another said, "Surely
thou art one of them,"10 and "Did
not I see thee in the garden with him?"11 Peter cursed
and swore with an oath, "Man, I know not what thou sayest."12 Just then
the cock crew, and the Lord, probably being led out a suffering
prisoner, turned and looked upon Peter. Seeing that face of
love, those suffering eyes, and knowing his own desperation,
Peter went out and wept bitterly.
After the Savior's interview with Caiaphas, Christ's captors
spit in His face and buffeted Him and made up a cruel game.
Blindfolding Him, they slapped Him with the palms of their
hands and then taunted, "Prophesy, who is it that smote
thee?" When, at last, the lingering hours of the night
had passed, Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin for the
sham of a trial, which would be in flagrant violation of their
own laws. The charge was blasphemy against the only one who
could not commit blasphemy—the Lord Himself. "What need
we any further witness?"13
Bound and
Led to Herod
They were, however, bent on His death, and being subject to
Roman overlords, they could not impose it themselves. So, followed
by a riotous mob, they led Him bound to Herod's magnificent
palace, where Pilate, the Roman procurator, was keeping a wary
watch over the Passover rabble. This being a Gentile house
with leavened bread, the fastidious Jewish leaders would not
defile themselves and enter, though ironically they found no
defilement in seeking to kill the innocent. Thus it was that
Pilate came out to them, asking, "What accusation bring
ye against this man?" It was a hard question from a practical
politician, and they had searched for and found the charge—not
blasphemy, which would mean nothing to a Roman. No, this time
they charged Him with sedition. He is a traitor to Caesar.
He calls Himself the king of the Jews! Of all those who examined
Jesus, Pilate was the least guilty of malice toward Him. Something
about the Lord touched the man, and after questioning Him he
said frankly, "I find in him no fault at all."14 To this
the chief priests responded in a clamor of accusations, among
which a single word stood out: "Galilee." Pilate
thought he saw a way out. With relief, he sent the Savior on
to Herod, whose jurisdiction included the green hills of Galilee.
Herod had killed John the Baptist, so before the cruel and
insolent questioning of this despot, Jesus said not a word.
For the weak, the sick, the child, the sinner, Christ had soothing,
loving tones, but for the tyrant He had only silence, all the
more infuriating to Herod, for he had longed to see a miracle
performed.
Brought
Before Pilate
The chief priests and rulers of the people were assembled,
and the mocked, spat-upon, exhausted Jesus was once again brought
before Pilate. Word of His arrest had spread through the streets
of the city, and a mob of onlookers had gathered. To these
Pilate made his pronouncement: "Ye have brought this man
unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and behold, I,
having examined him before you, have found no fault in this
man."15 This could
have been enough; the Roman leader had spoken. But the pack
of fanatics before him thirsted for blood. Pilate's pity for
the Lord was crushed under his cowardice, for Pilate had that
most inconvenient of burdens, a guilty past. Several times
before, he had ignited Jewish fury against Him. One time, for
instance, he had confiscated money from the sacred treasury
to build an aqueduct and then had sent soldiers in Jewish costume
among the people carrying hidden daggers to punish those who
had opposed him. Now he was caught; for past sin, he would
sin again, violating his own best instincts.
So he tried another kind of appeasement. It was the custom
at Passover to release a criminal. Here were two men, perhaps
even standing before the mob as Pilate spoke. One was Barabbas,
the leader of an insurrection, a murderer. The other was Jesus,
the proclaimer of peace, who raised the dead. "Whom will
ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called
Christ?" 16 Some
in that crowd had been healed by the Lord, some had heard His
healing words, but the chief priests moved among the people
stirring them up until they shouted, "Barabbas. Release
Barabbas."
Pilate would have released Jesus, and his feelings were even
more stirred when his wife came to him pleading, "Have
thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered
many things this day in a dream because of him."17 Whatever
these flickerings of conscience, Pilate sent Jesus to be scourged.
The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and jammed it on that tired
head; they placed a purple robe on His shoulders and then,
gloating and leering, they smote Him and spit upon Him, saying, "Hail,
king of the Jews!"18 Consider
this humiliation, this stinging injustice, and know that He
who has suffered all things can succor us in every hour.
Behold the
Man!
Now Pilate brought the bleeding, wounded Jesus again before
the crowd. "Behold the man!" he said. Was there even
now no stirrings of pity for Him? Where was the man or woman
who would speak up? Where were all those who were waving palms
just five days before? Their hosannas had vanished on a fickle
wind. No, there was only Pilate's corrupt voice repeating, "I
find no fault in Him." It was still early morning when
Pilate gave in: "Shall I crucify your King?" and
the people answered, "Away with him, crucify him. . .
. We have no king but Caesar."19
"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." And the people shouted, "His blood
be on us, and on our children."20 So Jesus,
numbered with the transgressors, carried His cross to the place
of the skull, Golgotha, until He collapsed under the weight
and mounting misery. The men along the road were silent; some
women wept. The cross was raised between two thieves, and at
noon the earth turned dark in shame.
For capital punishment, the Jews stoned, burned, beheaded,
or strangled, but the Romans chose the cruelest punishment
of all—crucifixion. It was a lingering death for its tortured
victims. "The unnatural position made every movement painful;
the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant
anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened;
. . . there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning
and raging thirst,"21 dizziness,
cramp, starvation, sleeplessness, and shame. In Jerusalem,
a charitable women's group administered a mixture of wine and
drugs to dull the pain as the victim was stretched on the ground
and nailed to the crossbeam, but this Jesus refused.
The Son
of God Raised on a Cross
Stripped, He was raised on the cross with a mocking sign over
His head: "JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS."22 As the soldiers
beneath Him cast lots for what was probably His only material
possession, a coat without seam, He asked in their behalf, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." As He hung
in anguish, the rulers and people gaped and cursed and condemned
Him, taunting, "He saved others; let him save himself."23 Through
the anguish, He had only loving words. To His mother, Mary,
who must have felt the pangs of near-death in her own body,
it was concern that she be cared for. To the beloved John He
said, "Behold thy mother,"24 and from
that hour John took her into his own home. To the thief who
would repent, He gave hope. At noon the heavens grew black
for three hours, as if the universe itself were weeping for
the agony of the Creator. In that time all the infinite agonies
and merciless pains of Gethsemane returned, and His Father's
spirit itself withdrew that the victory might be His. At
the ninth hour, 3:00 P.M., "Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, . . . My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"25 In that
eerie midafternoon darkness, someone ran and filled a sponge
with vinegar. Having received the vinegar, Jesus said, "Father,
it is finished, thy will is done."26 As
He died, the veil of the temple was rent, and the earth quaked
and rocks were rent as if to say with a nearby centurion, "Truly
this man was the Son of God."27
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Notes:
1- Psalm 41:9
2- Edersheim, Jesus
the Messiah, 2: 543.
3- Matthew 26:53
4- Farrar, Life
of Christ, p. 586.
5- McConkie, The
Mortal Messiah, 4:150
6- Farrar, Life
of Christ, p. 597.
7- Matthew 26:62-63, 64
8- John 18:17
9- Matthew 26:71-72
10- Mark 14:70
11- John 18:26
12- Luke 22:60
13- Luke 22:64, 71
14- Isaiah 53:3
15- Luke 23:14
16-Matthew 27:17
17- Matthew 27:19
18- John 19:3
19- Matthew 27:24-25
20- Hymns, no. 86
21-Farrar, Life
of Christ, p. 619
22- John 19:19
23- Luke 23: 34, 35; Matthew 27:43
24- John 19:27
25- Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34
26- JST Matthew 27:54
27- Mark 15:39
