Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 56
The Cross
Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.
For parents
This chapter tells how the soldiers crucified Jesus between two other men, and how people passing by, the chief priests, the soldiers and the men crucified with him mocked and insulted him (Matthew 27:32–44; Mark 15:21–32; Luke 23:26–43; John 19:17–24). It tells of his death (Matthew 27:45–50; Mark 15:33–37; Luke 23:44–46; John 19:28–30), of soldiers breaking the legs of the two men crucified with him and a soldier piercing Jesus’ side with a spear (John 19:31–37), and of tombs opening and many who had died being raised (Matthew 27:52–53). It is told plainly, without gory detail.
As they led out, they found a man passing by who was coming from the country. The man was , and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. They seized him and forced him to go with them and carry Jesus’ . Luke says they laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. In John, Jesus went out carrying his cross.
A great crowd followed him, including women who mourned and grieved for him.
Jesus turned to face them and said, “Daughters of , don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Look, a time is coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are those who could never have children, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed a baby.’ Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’ If they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
Two criminals were also led along with him to be put to death.
They brought him to the place called , a name that means “The place of a skull,” as Mark and Matthew explain. Luke calls it “The Skull.” John calls it “The Place of a Skull,” and says that in Hebrew it is called “Golgotha.”
They offered him wine mixed with to drink, but he didn’t take it. Matthew says it was sour wine mixed with gall, a bitter oil from a plant; when he had tasted it, he would not drink it.
And there they crucified him.
Luke tells that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
They shared out his clothes, over them to see what each man would take. Then, Matthew says, they sat and watched him there.
John says that once the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothing and made four parts of it, one for each soldier. They took his tunic too, a garment like a long shirt. It had no seam. It was woven from the top all the way down. Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be.” This happened to fulfill the Scripture that says, “They split my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.” So the soldiers did these things.
Mark says they crucified him at the third hour, about nine o’clock in the morning.
The charge against him was written above him: “The King of the Jews.” In Matthew it was set up over his head and said, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Luke says it was written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew letters: “This is the King of the Jews.”
John says that wrote a sign too and put it on the cross. It said, “Jesus of , the King of the Jews.” Because the place where Jesus was crucified was close to the city, many of the Jews read it. It was written in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek.
The of the Jews told Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews.’ Write, ‘He said, “I am King of the Jews.”’”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
They crucified the two criminals with him, one on his right hand and one on his left. John says Jesus was in the middle. Mark and Matthew call the two men robbers. Mark says this fulfilled the Scripture that says, “He was counted with lawbreakers.”
People going by shook their heads at him and insulted him. “Ha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In Matthew they also said, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”
The chief priests joined in. They mocked him among themselves, along with the . Matthew names the and the with them. “He saved others,” they said. “He can’t save himself. Let the , the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we can see and believe him.”
In Matthew they added, “He trusts in God. Let God save him now, if he wants him, because he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Luke says the people stood watching, and the rulers with them scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
The soldiers mocked him too. They came to him and held out sour wine for him. “If you are the King of the Jews,” they said, “save yourself!”
And the men who were crucified with him insulted him as well.
In Luke, one of the criminals on the crosses insulted Jesus. “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
But the other one rebuked him. “Don’t you even fear God, when you are condemned the same way? And it is fair that we are condemned, because we are getting what our deeds have earned. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
John says that standing by Jesus’ cross were , his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and .
Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, look, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Look, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
When the sixth hour came, about noon, darkness covered the whole land until the ninth hour, about three in the afternoon. Luke says the sun was darkened.
Mark says that at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Mark gives the meaning: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew gives his words as “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of those standing there heard it and said, “Look, he is calling .”
One of them ran, filled a sponge full of sour wine, set it on a reed and gave Jesus a drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.”
In Matthew, it was the rest who said, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”
Once more Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and he gave up his spirit.
In Luke, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” After he said this, he breathed his last.
John tells it this way. Jesus saw that all things were now finished. So that the Scripture would be fulfilled, he said, “I am thirsty!” Now a jar full of sour wine had been set there, so they put a sponge full of it on some and held it to his mouth. When he had received it, Jesus said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The temple’s was torn in two from the top to the bottom. In Luke it comes with the darkening of the sun, before Jesus cried out and breathed his last.
Matthew tells that the earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the who had died were raised. Coming out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection, they came into the holy city and appeared to many.
The stood there, across from Jesus. When he saw how Jesus cried out and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
In Matthew, the centurion and the others watching Jesus with him saw the earthquake and the things that were done, and they were terrified. “Truly this was the Son of God!” they said.
Luke says that when the centurion saw what was done, he gave glory to God. “Certainly this was a righteous man,” he said.
The crowds that had come together to watch saw what was done, and they all went home beating their chests.
There were women too, watching from far off. Mary Magdalene was among these women, and so were , and . These women had followed Jesus and served him when he was in . Many other women were there too. They had come up to Jerusalem with him. Matthew names Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of . Luke says that all the people who knew Jesus stood at a distance, watching these things, and so did the women who had followed him from Galilee.
It was the , the day before the , and that Sabbath was a special one. So that the bodies would not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the crucified men’s legs broken and their bodies taken away.
The soldiers came and broke the first man’s legs, and the legs of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs.
However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
The one who saw this has told what he saw, John says, and what he says is true. He knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you may believe.
These things happened to fulfill the Scripture that says, “None of his bones will be broken.” And another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”
Evening had now come, and since it was the Preparation Day, the day before the Sabbath, came. He was a respected member, and he too was waiting for God’s Kingdom. Matthew says he was a rich man and a disciple of Jesus. Luke calls him a good and righteous man from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews. He had not agreed to the council’s plan or to what they had done. John says he was a disciple of Jesus, but kept it secret because he was afraid of the Jews.
He boldly went in to see Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.
Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus had already died. He sent for the centurion and asked him whether Jesus had been dead long. Once he had heard from the centurion, he gave Joseph the body. In Matthew, Pilate ordered the body to be handed over. John says Pilate gave him permission.
Joseph bought a linen cloth. He came and took Jesus down and wrapped him in it. Matthew calls it a clean linen cloth.
John says that came too, the man who had first come to Jesus by night. He brought a mixture of myrrh and , about a hundred Roman pounds, or about seventy-two pounds today. They took Jesus’ body and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, the way the Jews bury their dead.
Joseph laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Matthew says it was Joseph’s own new tomb, which he had cut out in the rock, and that the stone was a large one. Then Joseph went away. Luke says no one had ever been laid in the tomb. John tells that there was a garden where Jesus was crucified, with a new tomb in it where no one had yet been laid. Since it was the Jews’ Preparation Day, and the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. Matthew says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting across from the tomb.
It was the Preparation Day, Luke says, and the Sabbath was drawing near. The women who had come with him out of Galilee went along behind and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. They went back and got spices and perfumed oils ready. On the Sabbath they rested, as the commandment says.
The next day, the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees came to Pilate together. “Sir,” they said, “we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, or else his disciples might come at night and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead.’ Then the last deception will be worse than the first.”
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you can.”
So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone.