Early Friday morning, Pilate has Jesus flogged and beaten and the soldiers put him into a purple robe and a crown of thorns as a mockery of his being called a king. In this state, they return him to the Jewish leadership. Pilate says, “Behold the man.”
They called for Jesus’s crucifixion, but Pilate said he found no guilt in him. They countered that he has broken their law because, “He has made himself a Son of God.” This makes Pilate afraid. In Matthew, Pilate’s wife has a vivid dream about Jesus and warned her husband not to have anything to do with “this righteous man.” Pilate asks Jesus where he comes from, and urges him to talk because he has the authority to release or kill him. Jesus says all authority is from above. The Jewish leadership tells Pilate that Jesus is no friend of Caesar because any king is a threat to Rome.
Pilate sends Jesus to them to be crucified. They take Jesus, carrying his cross, to the hill called skull, Golgotha. He is crucified between two thieves. Pilate inscribed on the cross “King of the Jews” in three languages, Greek, Latin and Aramaic, the version of Hebrew spoken at the time. The Jews said it should say, claimed to be King of the Jews. Pilate responds, “I have written what I have written.”
The soldiers divide up Jesus’s things for themselves and throw lots, old school dice, for his tunic. This is mirrored in Psalm 22:18, “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
Jesus’s mother, aunt and Mary Magdalene stand by the cross along with his disciple John. Jesus tells his beloved friend “behold your mother,” and his mom, “behold your son.” Even at his death, he was making sure his friends and family were taking care of each other. If we love Jesus in our hearts, we should live it out by caring for each other. Jesus says, “It is finished” and dies.
In the Jewish tradition, all work must end before dusk in Friday, so they need to hurry. The soldiers break the legs of the thieves. Seeing Jesus is already dead, they just stab him in the side. This aligns with the scripture in Zechariah, “When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.”
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret follower of Jesus, asks Pilate for his body and puts Jesus in his unused tomb. Nicodemus brings the spices and linen to wrap his body to their custom. All the people go home and many in Jerusalem mourn his death.
