CHAPTER 27

The Roman soldiers led Jesus outside of the walls of Jerusalem to the “Place of the Skull,” which is known as “Golgotha” and “Calvary.” The words Golgotha and Calvary mean “skull,” for it was a place of execution, with skulls and bones scattered around the area from past crucifixions.

The soldiers stripped Jesus of his clothes and crucified him about 9 a.m.

They also crucified two criminals alongside Jesus—one criminal hung on a cross at his right side, and the other criminal hung on a cross at his left side. Looking up at Jesus, the soldiers mocked him shouting, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” The soldiers offered Jesus some sour wine to numb his pain, but he refused to drink it. Then the soldiers took Jesus’ outer clothes and divided them into four parts—one part for each of them. Jesus’ undergarment was seamless—woven in one piece from top to bottom—so the soldiers said to one another, “Let’s not tear it. Let’s throw dice to decide who will get it.” This happened to fulfill Psalm 22:18, “They divided my clothes among them and cast dice for my clothing.” Then the soldiers sat down to keep watch over Jesus on the cross. Hanging on the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Following the command of Pilate, the soldiers nailed a sign on the main stake of the cross above Jesus’ head with the Roman charge against him, it read, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” The sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. In protest, the Jewish religious leaders went and said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The king of the Jews!’ Write that Jesus claimed to be ‘the king of the Jews.’” Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.”

The people walking by Jesus hanging on the cross yelled words of insults and shame at him. They shook their heads in disgust and shouted, “You were going to destroy the temple and build it again in three days. If you are the Son of God come down off the cross and save yourself! Sneering at Jesus, the people and rulers standing by watch- ing yelled, “He saved other people; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The religious leaders also mocked Jesus among themselves. They shouted, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah—this king of Israel—come down from the cross. If he comes down from the cross we will believe in him. He trusts in God, so let God rescue him if he is the ‘Son of God.’”

At that time the two criminals who hung next to Jesus shouted insults at him. Then one of the criminals shouted, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But feeling guilty, the other criminal rebuked him and said, “Don’t you fear God? You are under the same sentence of crucifixion. We are being punished justly, for we are get- ting what we deserve. But he has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth: Today you will be with me in paradise.”

When all the people who gathered to witness Jesus’ crucifixion saw what had happened, they beat their chests in sorrow and went away. Jesus’ women disciples watched him hang on the cross from a distance, but his mother Mary stood near the cross. Jesus looked down at her and the apostle John standing nearby. He said to her, “Mother, here is your son,” and to John he said, “Here is your mother.” From that time on John took Mary into his home.

Darkness covered all the land from noon to 3 p.m. It was as if the sun stopped shining.

Jesus yelled out Psalm 22:1, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” which in Aramaic means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” When the soldiers standing nearby heard Jesus, they said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge that he filled with sour wine and put the sponge on a stick and lifted it up to Jesus to drink. But the others said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him by taking him down from the cross.”

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, so God’s word would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” So a soldier once again dipped a sponge into a container of sour wine and lifted it to Jesus’ mouth. When Jesus tasted the sour wine, he cried out with a loud shout, “It is finished! Father, I commit my spirit into your hands!”

Then Jesus bowed his head, took his last breath, gave up his spirit and died. At the exact moment, the inner curtain of the temple—separating the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place—was torn in two from top to bottom. And then the earth shook and the rocks split and the tombs broke open.

A high-ranking Roman soldier was standing in front of Jesus and saw how he died. When the Roman solider and the guards with him felt the earthquake, they trembled in fear and proclaimed, “He was a righteous man! It is true, he is the Son of God!”

The next day was the Sabbath and the religious leaders did not want dead bodies hanging on the crosses. So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken of the crucified men to hasten their deaths and take their bodies down. Then the soldiers went and broke the legs of the two men who were crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, a soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, and a flow of blood and water poured from his side.

This happened to fulfill what is written in Exodus 12:46, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and what is written in Zechariah 12:10, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”