Tag: Crucifiction

Episode NT31 – The Crucifixion

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on Mark chapter 15 verses 16 to 47 & Luke chapter 23 verses 39 to 43

The Crucifixion

What a victory! The religious leaders could hardly believe it was true – Jesus, the One they’d hated – the One who’d been nothing but a … but a pain in the neck since He’d first arrived, showing them up and embarrassing them with all His talk about the Kingdom of God, was finally going to get what He deserved – death!

It was almost too good to be true! This Jesus, who spoke so much about God, was now going to die the most disgraceful death imaginable. He was going to be crucified! Crucified with the scum of society; a death so horrible it was reserved for the most vile villains and murderers! Surely now, everyone would see what a phoney Jesus was because, if He’d been considered even slightly important, then the very least the Romans would have done for Him was give Him a quick death by the sword – but now He’d have to face the disgrace of dying like a common criminal. He was finished, and His teaching could be forgotten along with Him. In fact, it was almost funny! Didn’t the Bible say that anyone hung on a tree was under the curse of God? Now Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God, was to die nailed to a tree – on a rough wooden cross!

As Jesus was led away after being whipped, the Jewish leaders started celebrating. At long last they’d won, Jesus had lost – it was over! (PAUSE)

After whipping Jesus, the Roman soldiers took Him to their headquarters. They wanted to have a little fun with the condemned man! The charge had been that Jesus was ‘the King of the Jews’, so now the all-conquering Romans – who bowed the knee to no one except their own leaders – would show just what they thought of anyone who claimed to be a king.

Stripping Jesus of His clothes, the soldiers took a purple robe, the kind of thing only rulers and leaders wore, and draped it around His shoulders – laughing at how pathetic He looked. But this wasn’t enough; surely a king deserves a crown? So taking some thin branches covered in long vicious thorns, the soldiers carefully weaved a makeshift crown and rammed it on His head until the blood poured down His face. And as Jesus stood before them, weak from the whipping, a crown of thorns on His head and a purple cloak over His shoulders – they took it in turns to salute their defeated enemy, then spit in His face and beat Him on the head with a stick – on and on until they were bored, bored of the beatings and ready to get on with the execution. So, removing the purple cloak, they put Jesus’ own clothes back on Him, put a cross on His back and forced Him to start the climb to Skull Hill – or as it was known in the local language – Golgotha, where the crucifixion was to take place.

But after His whipping, beating and humiliation, Jesus was too weak to carry His cross very far. (P) A man called Simon, who was from a place called Cyrene, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and the soldiers grabbed him and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross the rest of the way to Skull Hill. (P)

The soldiers had executed many people before, they knew how to crucify, they also knew how painful it was and so offered Jesus some drugged wine to ease what was to follow, but Jesus refused to take it. Then, with a shrug of their shoulders, they laid the cross on the ground, put Jesus on top and stretched out His hands, put His feet one on top of the other and nailed His hands and feet in place. Above His head they nailed the charge He’d been found guilty of. It said simply: ‘King of the Jews’. (P) The cross, with Jesus, nailed on, was raised up and secured in place. Then, leaving Jesus for a moment, they laid out two other criminals who were to be crucified that same day and put one up on either side of Him. And then, to pass the time, they divided Jesus’ clothes into four piles, one for each of them, and tried to work out what to do with Jesus’ undergarment. It was a nice piece of clothing, and they didn’t want to rip it up and ruin it, so after some discussion, they decided to cast lots for it, which is like throwing dice, where the one who gets the highest number wins! So they cast lots for His clothes and then waited – because death by crucifixion can be a long, slow process. (PAUSE)

It was nine o’clock in the morning when Jesus was crucified, and Skull Hill was near enough to Jerusalem for many people to pass by and see what was happening. Of course, everyone already knew what had taken place and some just came to gloat over the end of this so-called Holy Man – this person who was supposed to be sent from God and yet ended up being executed under the curse of God! But it was the religious leaders who enjoyed it most, standing by the cross they shouted out for everyone to hear, ‘He SAVED others, but look at Him now! He can’t even save Himself! Let this ‘Messiah’, this ‘King of the Jews’, come down from the cross so that we can all see it with our own eyes! Only then will we believe anything He’s said!’ (P) And then, everyone was hurling insults at Him, even the criminals being executed on each side started mocking Him. At least, one of them did while the other one began to take notice of this special man nailed between them. And reading the charge nailed above Him – ‘King of the Jews’ – he began to wonder – or God began to speak to him even as he was being executed for his many crimes.

But the first criminal hadn’t seen anything special in Jesus, ‘So you’re the ‘Messiah’ are you?’ he mocked. ‘Well come on then!’ he continued, ‘Don’t just stay there, prove it to us all and save yourself! (P) Oh! And while you’re at it, you can save us too!’

At this, the other criminal could take no more. ‘Shut up, will you! Don’t you fear God even when you’re dying? We deserve what’s coming to us for what we’ve done, but this man,’ he nodded in Jesus’ direction. ‘This man hasn’t done anything wrong.’ At this, he turned his head as best he could to look at Jesus. ‘Jesus,’ he called, and Jesus looked his way. ‘When you, come into your Kingdom, please, remember me’. (P)

‘I will tell you something that’s absolutely true,’ Jesus replied as He looked into the eyes of the dying man. ‘Today – you will be with me in paradise.’ (PAUSE)

At 12 midday, it was almost as if the sun could no longer bear to look upon Jesus as He was dying on that cross, and darkness spread across the whole land until 3 in the afternoon. And then, after 6 hours on the cross, Jesus raised His head and called out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ Which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Then Jesus let out another loud cry and died. At that moment, the large thick curtain in the temple in Jerusalem, the curtain that separated the people from the Most Holy Place where they could not go because of their sin, was torn in two from top to bottom. And the Roman officer who stood watching Jesus die exclaimed, ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God!’ (PAUSE)

As evening drew near, a member of the high council called Joseph from the town of Arimathea, plucked up the courage to go and see Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died already and, after calling in the Roman officer to confirm He was dead, Pilate allowed Joseph to take the body. There wasn’t much time before the Sabbath day began because, for Jews, the day starts at sunset and sunset was close at hand. On the Sabbath day, no working could take place. So quickly taking Jesus’ body down from the cross, Joseph wrapped it in a long linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone over the entrance and went sadly away. Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ disciples, saw where the body had been left.

Episode NT30 – Peter’s failure and Pilate’s Trial

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on Matthew chapter 26 verse 69 to chapter 27 verse 26

Peter’s failure and Pilate’s Trial

While Jesus was being tried by the leaders of Israel, Peter sat outside in the cold courtyard. He was thinking about how Jesus had encouraged them to pray with Him on the Mount of Olives and how they’d let Him down by falling asleep. But there was something else Jesus had said that’d hurt his pride – ‘What was it?’ he thought as he waited to hear what would happen to Jesus.

As he sat there, thinking about all that’d happened, how Judas had betrayed Jesus and how Jesus had been arrested, a young servant girl walked up to him staring closely at his face in the firelight. ‘I thought so,’ she said out loud, ‘you were one of those with Jesus.’

A surge of fear rushed through Peter’s body and he felt his cheeks flush, ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.’ And he stood up and walked over to the gate.

But a little later, while he was standing at the gate, another servant girl came up and also looked at him closely. ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth,’ she told the people standing around.

Again Peter felt the surge of fear, the flushing of his cheeks and, looking nervously at the people around him who were paying him much closer attention now, he swore an oath! ‘Look, I promise, I don’t even know the man – leave me alone.’

As Peter moved away again to another part of the courtyard, some other people started murmuring to each other nearby. After talking to each other for a few moments, they came over to Peter. ‘You must have been one of His followers,’ they said, ‘we can tell from your accent.’

‘Leave me alone,’ Peter shouted, ‘I swear by God Himself that I do NOT know this man!’ (P) No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than the cockerel crowed. And Peter remembered the thing that had bothered him earlier, the thing that had hurt his pride. It was Jesus’ words to him, ‘Before the cockerel crows you will have said three times that you don’t know me.’ And so Peter went away, crying bitterly. (PAUSE)

Early the next morning all the leaders of Israel met once again to work out how they were going to persuade the Romans to sentence Jesus to death. Then they bound Jesus up tightly and took Him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

Judas had been paid thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus. But early the next day, when he realised that Jesus had been sentenced to death – he was overwhelmed with feelings of guilt! Going back to the temple with the money, he went to see the chief priests. ‘I’ve sinned,’ he told them, ‘by betraying an innocent man.’

‘So what,’ they replied, ‘what do we care? That’s your problem.’ So Judas took the thirty pieces of silver, threw them onto the floor of the temple and went out and hung himself. (PAUSE)

By this time Jesus was standing before the Roman governor Pilate. Pilate wasn’t too happy about being made to work so early in the morning. And to make matters worse, the Jews refused to go into his palace to see him because it would make them ceremonially unclean and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover feast. (P) Anyway, at their insistence, Pilate went to see them. ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ he asked, looking Jesus up and down.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ replied Jesus.

Then the chief priests and the other leaders made all their accusations against Jesus as Pilate patiently listened. But all the time these lies were being told about Him, Jesus said nothing. ‘Can’t You hear what they’re saying against You?’ Pilate demanded. But to Pilate’s great surprise Jesus remained silent.

Now it didn’t take a genius to work out that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of jealousy, so Pilate decided he’d take the opportunity to use a custom that he’d set in place over the last few years. It had become his custom, once a year at the Passover celebrations, to release one prisoner to the crowds, anyone they wanted. This last year a particularly evil man named Barabbas had been caught, arrested and sentenced to death for leading a rebellion and for murder. As the crowds started to gather before Pilate’s palace he called out to them, ‘Which of these two do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Messiah?’

At that moment, as Pilate sat on his seat of judgement before the people, an urgent message came through to him from his wife. ‘Your wife says that you must leave that innocent man alone,’ the messenger reported, ‘because she says that she had a terrible nightmare about Him last night.’ But it was too late to back down now; Pilate had to see the thing through.

Meanwhile, while Pilate received the message from his wife, the chief priests and the other leaders urged the crowds to ask for Barabbas to be set free and for Jesus to be put to death! So when Pilate asked again, ‘Which of these two do you want me to release?’ The crowds screamed ‘Barabbas,’ and not ‘Jesus’!

‘But if I release Barabbas to you,’ Pilate called back, ‘then what should I do with the one called Jesus, the Messiah?’

And then, the same crowd who a week earlier had waved palm branches welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem as the long-awaited Messiah shouted, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’

Pilate couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The Jews hated crucifixion! It was a Roman punishment to put to death the lowest kinds of criminals! And so he called back to the crowd, ‘Why should I crucify Him? What crime has He committed?’

But the crowd’s mood started to change, and more angrily and louder than before they shouted back, ‘Crucify Him!’

Quickly Pilate realised that the situation was in danger of becoming a riot! So, with the crowd watching he called for a bowl of water, and washing his hands in front of them he said, ‘I declare before you all that I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!’

At this, the people yelled back, ‘Let the responsibility fall on us and our children!’

So Pilate released Barabbas to the crowd and ordered that Jesus be flogged with a whip that had pieces of lead and bone in its strands so that it stuck in His back and pulled the skin off. Then he turned Jesus over to the soldiers so that they could crucify Him. (PAUSE)

And so a guilty man, a man who’d murdered others – walked free, while in His place an innocent man, a man who would do no wrong – was sent to crucifixion! But that was the whole point of what was to follow, the innocent dying for the guilty.

7 Sayings From the Cross

A story told from the perspective of the Roman soldier who crucified Jesus and saw Him die.

Music: ‘Bats’ by Phil Syonds – Partners in Rhyme, Inc From SmartSound

Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash

 Full script and notes:

Seven Saying from the Cross – The Centurions Story

‘I’d seen men die before – lots of them coz it’s me job, I execute the ‘enemies of the state’. ‘Corse, ‘enemies of the state’s a cover all – a phrase to mean we execute anyone and everyone we don’t like. Rome rules – and seeing our power displayed in the bodies of the dead – tends to keep people in line.

But this one was different. The other two were just like everyone else we’d crucified. Pleading, panicking, promising, cursing and threatening as we nailed ‘em in place. But not this man Jesus.

When ‘e was passed on to us to crucify ‘ – already ‘e was in a bad state. ‘is back was more jelly than flesh ‘caz of the whipping the others ‘ad given ‘im and ‘e’d lost a lot of blood. They’d also rammed a crown on thick thorns on ‘is ‘ed which ‘ad the blood flowing down ‘is face. Honestly? It was pretty much a miracle ‘e was still alive for us to nail up there – but that said, ‘e was alive, ‘e knew what was ‘appening and spent the next 6 hours being the kind of person – I’d never met or seen before in all my life.

As I said, usually when we nail ‘em in place there’s screaming, crying, panicking, pleading – you know that kind of thing, but not this Jesus. Instead through the stress of it all, ‘e looks up at us and at the hate filled faces all-around – of people ‘ow seem to be loving every moment of ‘is suffering – and instead of cursing us all – ‘e calls out to ‘is ‘Father’! He calls, ‘Father, forgive ‘em because they don’t know what they’re doing.’

It took a moment to sink in, but then I realized that this ‘Father’ ‘e was talking to – was God. ‘e was pleading to God for God to forgive us! I’d never heard anything like it – forgiveness and no hate. I shook my head in wonder – and got on with ‘me job.

One of the ‘perks’ of the job is that whatever the ones we’re to crucify ‘av when they get to us, we get to keep. So ‘aving stripped them we got down to divide up their clothes between us – probably worth a few pennies. But this Jesus ‘ad a really nice garment, woven all in one piece and we didn’t see the point of running its value by ripping it up to share between ourselves, so we threw dice to see who’d get it. I guess it was my lucky day!

As I was smiling to myself at my good fortune I noticed Jesus once again. ‘e couldn’t care less about ‘is clothes, instead ‘e’s looking towards some people in the crowd. I turned to see who ‘e was looking at and there in the crowd were some people whose sadness seemed to flow from their faces. I guess it must ‘ave been ‘is family – some women and a man.

Now, once you’re on one of them crosses life aint to easy caz they’re designed to give maximum pain. You breath in ok, but to breath out you’ve got to push down on your feet – feet nailed in place. So breathing’s a bit of an issue – which also means speaking’s pretty tough. But Jesus sees these people and looks with such love towards one of the women – it didn’t take a genius to realise it was probably ‘is mother – and ‘e says. ‘Dear woman,’ then he indicates with ‘is head to the man standing near her and carries on. ‘here is your son’. Then ‘e turns ‘is eyes to the man – and with a knowing look ‘e says, ‘Here is your mother’. At that, the man moved next to the woman. Even as ‘e was dying, this Jesus was still looking after ‘is family!

Honestly, the next thing that happened ‘ad me shaking my ‘ed in disbelief. You see the level of hatred towards this Jesus bloke was off the chart – all kinds of well to do people kept coming by to shout all kinds of stuff at ‘im. Even the criminals on the other two crosses mocked ‘im – at least at first. But then one of those criminals quickly stopped ‘is mocking. Maybe ‘e heard what Jesus said to us and to ‘is mother, or maybe it was the hatred of the leaders – I don’t know, it’s beyond me. But for a while this other criminal just watched and listened then, ‘e seemed to just snap. The first criminal had been using ‘is energy up throwing hate at Jesus along with all the others. But then this second criminal takes a breath, pushes down on ‘is feet: – and almost as if ‘e doesn’t feel it ‘e shouts at the first criminal. ‘Don’t you fear God? We’ve been condemned the same as Him but we deserve it for all the things we’ve done. But this man’s innocent!’ That shut the other one up for a while. Then, this criminal turned as best ‘e could towards Jesus and pushing down once again so ‘e could speak ‘e asks, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’.

Kingdom? What Kingdom? ‘e seemed to think this Jesus was some kind of King? Maybe it was the sign the governor ‘ad ‘ad nailed on the cross above Jesus ’ed which read, ‘King of the Jews’. It was all a bit beyond me and I just snorted. Anyway, I knew what this man was like – scum, an’ ‘e was right, ‘e did deserve to be on that cross and there was no way I could see Jesus wanting to talk to the likes of ‘im.

But again, Jesus didn’t follow the rules. Instead, taking a breath and pushing down on ‘is own feet Jesus turned as best ‘e could towards that criminal and said, ‘I tell you the truth. Today you will be with me in the garden of delights.’

I stood there shaking my head – something was going on that was beyond my understanding. And, a change came over that criminal – or maybe I should say – something changed … intangible but real. But what really scared me was that I found I didn’t doubt what Jesus said.

Strange things happened from about midday. It was as if the sun didn’t want to shine anymore and darkness covered … everywhere from what I could tell. The hours ticked by with the three on their crosses unable to do much more than survive. But at about 3 in the afternoon the silence of slow death was suddenly shattered. Jesus cried out in a way that seemed impossible – and ‘e cried out in words that were in a language I didn’t know, but they were words from so deep inside ‘im it was as if the whole of Jesus sobbed them out – words of a broken heart. He cried out, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ Which I later found out meant, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’

Things were moving fast for Jesus, you could tell the end was close. Now, from hours of bleeding and dying on the cross, gently he said, ‘I’m thristy’. And someone lifted a sponge up to ‘im to take a drink.

When people die from crucifixion, usually it’s a quite affair as they expire – but as I said before, Jesus wasn’t following the rules because after ‘ed ‘ad a drink – it was as if there was a change. Moments before, it was as if ‘is heart was broken but then, with a power, a strength the likes of while ‘e shouldn’t really of ‘ad ‘e cries out. ‘It … is … FINSIHED’.

I didn’t know what was finished – but there was a new strength in ‘im – a joy of some kind – somehow whatever ‘e’d done or … or finished ‘ad changed … everything. Then once again in a loud voice – not a moan or a murmur like the other died. Clearly and for all to hear – ‘e cries out. ‘Father, into your hands I commend My Spirit’. Then it was as if ‘e dismissed ‘is spirit – and then ‘e was dead.

I saw it – I saw it all. And when ‘e died, a death the likes I’ve never seen before – I praised the God ‘e talked to – the God He called Father – and said, ‘Surely, this man was the Son of God.’

© Story Copyright Andrew Devis – June 13th 2016 – all rights reserved

NOTES: Here is a list of the sayings and where they can be found

While they were nailing his hands and feet to the cross, or a little later, when they were putting up the cross, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Touched by the repentant attitude and the faith of one of the thieves crucified with him, Jesus turned towards him and declared, “ I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Even while dying, Jesus was preoccupied with others. He thought of his mother, among others, and made arrangements to ensure that she would not lack anything. “When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:2627)

After five and a half hours of agony, at the peak of his pain, the Lord cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

As he was on the point of dying, Jesus, with parched lips, cried out “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)

Just before giving up his spirit, Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Usually a crucified person at the point of death did not have the strength to cry out but rendered his spirit with a moan. Jesus gave out a loud cry. His cry was not a cry of death but a cry of victory.

At the moment of rendering his spirit, Jesus opened his mouth again and cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) This prayer is an expression of total trust in God.

Music: ‘Bats’ by Phil Syonds – Partners in Rhyme, Inc From SmartSound

Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash