New Testament BIBLE STORY #33

 New Testament BIBLE STORY

#33

 

Especially written for children

Chapter Forty-two:

Jesus is Crucified on Golgotha - part two

THE CRIMINAL WHO JESUS WILL REMEMBER

     And two criminals were crucified with Jesus, one on His

right hand and one on His left hand. One looked over at Jesus,

and with disdain sarcasm in his voice said, "Are you not the

Christ? Save yourself and us also!" The other criminal on hearing

this, immediately replied to him, "Do you not fear God, since you

are under the same sentence of condemnation and death? And we

indeed justly are condemned, for we are receiving our due reward

for our actions; but this man Jesus has done nothing wrong." 

Then looking and speaking directly to Jesus, he said, "Please

remember me when you come into the power of your Kingdom." 

Jesus replied, "Yes, for truly I say to you today, you will be with 

me in Paradise" (Luke 23: 39-43).

     Jesus could see that the heart of this man was in a humble

state of repentance, a heart that was in the right godly attitude. 

He had never been called by God in this physical life as far as 

we know. He will one day be resurrected in the great White Throne 

Judgment resurrection spoken about in the last verses of Revelation 

chapter 20. This resurrection takes place after the 1,000 year reign 

of Christ and His Kingdom on earth.

    Millions who never had a chance for salvation, who were never

called by God in their physical life (like babies who die, young

children that die, people in remote areas of the world who never

hear the Gospel, and people just plain blinded to the truths of

God's Kingdom and salvation) will be raised again and the book 

of LIFE will be opened to them. They will live and they will be

judged by the word of God, just as we today who are called

and chosen are being judged. If they, like us, will confess their

sins, repent of being a sinner, call on God for mercy, accept

Jesus as our personal savior, be willing to serve and obey God 

in a humble attitude, and  remain faithful to their calling to the

end of their physical lives, then they, like us, will inherit eternal 

life and be with God in His paradise for ever more.

     Jesus could see this man's attitude was in the right condition. 

When he is raised again in that general resurrection, his attitude 

that he died with on the cross, will be the same. 

     It will be the right attitude to receive salvation. Jesus was

confident that he would serve God and so would indeed inherit

eternal life, so He was able to say to him that very day, as they

hung on their crosses together, that he would be with Him, Jesus,

in Paradise. 

     The paradise of God is shown to us in the book of

Revelation, it is the throne of God in the eternal holy city of

God, the new Jerusalem that will one day come down from 

heaven and be placed on the earth that is made new (see 

Rev. 2: 7 with 22: 2, 14; read the context of all of 

Rev. 20, 21, 22).

     God has a wonderful plan of salvation for ALL people that

have ever lived. That plan of salvation will not be finished

until the GREAT general resurrection, spoken about in Revelation

20, has taken place. Everyone will have their day when salvation

will be plainly offered them. No more deception, no more

blindness of mind. They will have revealed to them the truths 

of God. They will then have to decide which way they will go,

the way and life that is of God, or the way and life that is of

Satan the Devil. They will have to choose, the way of life or the

way of death, but all in their time will be clearly offered that

choice, with no blindness of heart or mind standing in the way.

God will be there to ask them to choose LIFE!(see Deut. 30: 19).

     Praise the Lord for His wonderful ways and work and great

mercy.

JESUS TAKES CARE OF HIS MOTHER

     There were many standing around the cross of Jesus. Many

were weeping and crying for Him. Many bewildered and confused, 

in anguish of mind, just not understanding why all this was

happening. There was standing close by, Jesus' mother, and also

Mary the wife of Clopas, and there was Mary Magdalene.  Jesus

turned His eyes towards His mother and towards the disciple He

had a close bond with. Many believe this was the apostle John,

the John who wrote the Gospel that bears his name. Jesus said 

to them both, "Mother, behold your son!" And to the disciple,

"Behold your mother!" 

     From that very hour the disciple took her to his own home

and looked after her. We are left to presume that Joseph, the

husband of Mary, Jesus' mother, was no longer living, hence 

Jesus wanted His mother to be taken care of by this particular

disciple.

DARKNESS COVERS THE LAND

     It was about the sixth hour, for us today that would be

anywhere from 11 a.m. to noon or 12 p.m.

     "Look...look, see what's happening to the sun," someone

shouted. Dozens of pairs of eyes immediately looked up, 

and what they saw was shocking and terrifying, they could 

hardly believe their eyes we would say. The bright shinning 

of the sun was dimming. The sunshine of the day was beginning 

to fade away as if it was evening time. It was growing darker 

much faster than it did at the natural sunset time of the day. 

It was a cold foreboding darkness that was fast coming, even 

an unnerving darkness. Many were looking white like snow as 

their blood drained from their faces at the sight of the sun being 

darkened.

     It was only a few minutes of time, and all the land was

covered with darkness as if it was night. It would last for about

three hours, and most by then knew it was something that only 

the power of God had brought about.

     The Roman soldiers in charge of the three crucifixion

crosses, on which hung Jesus and the two criminals, tried to be

bold and strong, not wanting anyone to see that in their minds

they were also getting worried and a little scared at what had

taken place in the heavens above.

     Three hours of this intimidating, harrowing, and shivering

darkness passed. It was now about the ninth hour, which for us

would be between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Jesus had been silent. All the

people that were still gathered there were mostly silent. Because

of the extraordinary and peculiarly bizarre darkness over the

land, some were looking for Jesus to work a great miracle, maybe,

they thought, He would heal Himself of all His wounds and pull

out the nails that fastened Him to the cross, and climb down.

Many of Jesus' disciples were still expecting Him to come down

from the cross. All that they were witnessing must be a dream,

and was not really happening, many of them were thinking.

They were excepting Jesus to perform a miracle for Himself, just

as He had performed many miracles for so many others during His

ministry.

     But nothing was happening, one hour had gone by, then two

hours, and now it was the third hour of this darkness over the

land. 

     Suddenly, the dark silence was shattered by Jesus crying out

with as loud a voice as they had ever heard from a human being,

"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" Which being translated was, "My

God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

     The time had come for the Father to step aside, to step back

into the darkness that was all around. Jesus would have to bear

the sins of the whole world on Himself now, without any help or

any kind of softening pillow to cushion the sacrifice of His life

in death, for the sins of mankind.

     Some of the bystanders hearing Jesus cry out, said, "This

man is calling for Elijah." And one of them ran and filled a

sponge full of vinegar, put it on a long reed and raised it up to

Jesus' mouth for Him to drink. As the person was doing this they

said, "Wait, let us see if he is going to work a miracle, and bring 

Elijah to save him and help him come down from his cross."

(Mat. 27: 45-49).

JESUS IS KILLED AS A LAMB LED TO THE SLAUGHTER

     There was again only silence from Jesus. No miracle was

happening, no Elijah the prophet of old was appearing to save

Jesus.  

     Now it was all just too much for one soldier standing there,

who was thinking that kind of talk from people about Elijah, 

and people crying for this Jesus man, people thinking that Jesus

would yet work a mighty miracle, was just too much.  It was now,

for this hardened soldier, all way too much. He would show

everyone that this man was just a man, and nothing more, that he

could not work any miracles. He would show everyone that he 

as a soldier of the mighty Roman army, had the power to kill this

Jesus that hung helpless before him. He would show those Jews

that were Jesus' disciples, that this man they thought of as the

Son of God, the Messiah, was just merely a human man and nothing

more. This soldier also knew that Jews who were crucified were to

have their life ended on the same day as they were nailed and hung 

up on their cross.

     He, this tough powerful soldier....well he would now show

everyone that he was greater than this Jesus, he would now

finally KILL this man called Jesus Christ, and so  declare to all

standing there that Jesus was not the Son of God.

     The soldier grabbed hold of his long war spear and with one

thrust plunged it into the side of Jesus' body, the spear head

breaking through Jesus' bladder. As the soldier pulled it out of

Jesus' body out came the water from His bladder together with a

gushing flow of His blood.

     Jesus cried out, "It is finished! Father, into your hands I

commit my spirit!" and having said those words, He bowed His 

head and breathed His last breath.

     Jesus, God in the flesh, the Messiah, the Son of God, and

the Son of man, was now hanging DEAD on the cross. The soldier

walked away a few steps with a large confident grin on his face.

The scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and elders of the people

that were present and who had longed for this event, the death of

Jesus, were smiling also. The moment they had planned for and

wanted to see, had finally come, this Jesus was finished and done

with. They thought they were rid of Him forever, and that the

people would soon forget about Him and they would once more 

have full power and control over their "religious little empire." 

They were, in a very short while, to see how wrong they were 

for thinking such thoughts.

     

     As Jesus hung there dead, so very dead, His disciples were

now in complete and utter shock and disbelief. They had up to

this point still clung to the thought that He just could not die,

that He would somehow live and come down from His cross. 

The eleven disciples were specially broken to pieces, like dropping 

a china dish from the top of a twenty-story building on to the

concrete pavement below. They were shattered in heart and mind.

All the women disciples were weeping and crying even more than

they would have imagined possible. All the hopes and dreams and

expectations of all of Jesus' followers that were present there,

had flown away, disappeared it would seem into the blackness all

around them, with that one action of that one soldier who had

thrust his spear into the side of Jesus, and put an end to His life.

     Yes, Jesus did not die of a broken heart, or of not being

able to breath. He did not die of suffocation. He died as the

prophet Isaiah had been inspired to write about. He died as a

sheep led to the slaughter. He was slain with an instrument

designed to slay and kill people. He had His blood SHED, 

for the sins of mankind. That through the shedding of His 

blood, people who will accept Jesus as their personal Savior, 

can have forgiveness of their sins, and can have the grace and 

mercy of God the Father bestowed upon them, so they need 

not die, but live in the Father's Kingdom for all eternity 

(see Isaiah 52: 13-15; with chapter 53; and Ephesians 2: 8; 

with Romans 3: 23-26).

     We know that Jesus died with a spear thrust into His side

from the original Greek manuscripts of Matthew 27. There is 

a verse missing in most translations, but it is in the original

Greek.  All of verse 50 of Matthew 27, should read this way, 

"But another taking a spear pierced His side, when blood and 

water came out. Jesus, however, having again cried out with 

a loud voice, resigned His spirit" (Fenton translation). 

     We shall see shortly that John in his Gospel account

verifies that Jesus died by being slain, so indeed like a lamb 

is led to the slaughter.

THE FATHER MAKES CLEAR JESUS WAS HIS SON

     No sooner had the soldier walked away from slaying Jesus

with his spear, and the ground started to shake and rumble and

roll. There was an earthquake over the whole Jerusalem area.

People were screaming in fear. Many were running this way and

that way. Many large rocks were broken into pieces, and many 

of the tombs of the dead were opened, the stones sealing the

entrances flung to one side. And it is recorded for us that

AFTER Jesus had been resurrected, many of these physical people

in the tombs were resurrected back to physical life and walked

back into Jerusalem, and showed themselves to their friends and

relatives and others.

     Among all this shaking of the earth, the mighty curtain of

the Temple that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy 

Place (see Pictorial Bible Dictionary of the Temple structure) was,

with one tremendous and mighty crack, split into two from top to

bottom. The Most Holy Place of the Temple (that no one ever

entered except the High Priest, and only on one day of the year -

the Day or Feast of Atonement, on the 10th day of the 7th month

in the Hebrew calendar) was open  for all to view (whoever

stepped into the Holy Place of the Temple). 

     This happening to the monstrous curtain of the Temple, would

have put into panic and complete disarray all that may have been

taking place in the Temple at the time, which would also have

been put into some disarray from the three hours of darkness

covering the land. Some of the activity that was going on within

the Temple was the evening sacrifice and the slaying of Passover

lambs, as the Pharisees and their followers were traditionally

doing, in preparation for observing the Passover on the evening

of the 15th day of Nisan, that was only hours away.  Remember

Jesus had observed the Passover with His disciples already, at

the beginning of the 14th, and on into the night of the 14th,

when He was betrayed by Judas, as we have already seen. The

correct Passover, and time to observe it, was when Jesus observed

it, but the Pharisees had built their own traditions over the

centuries and were observing the Passover at the beginning of 

the 15th, which is really the first day of the Feast of Unleavened

Bread, a totally different festival of the Lord, than the Passover. 

Such false traditions of the Pharisees, was why Jesus said what 

He said, as recorded in Mark 7: 5-13.

     Well, whatever was going on in the Temple when Jesus was

slain and the earthquake it the area, and the curtain of the

Temple torn into two, you can pretty well guess correctly that

everything would have come to a grinding, and chaotic STOP! 

There was nothing but confusion, perplexity, disorder, and 

pandemonium, going on inside and outside the Temple, and in 

and around Jerusalem. 

     Then on top of all that, after all that had taken place, the

darkness suddenly, and as quickly as it came on the land, it was

gone! Light, and the sun was blazing brightly once more in the

heaven.

     So amazing was it all that the centurion, and all who were

with him watching over Jesus, were filled with great awe and 

said to each other, "Truly, indeed, this man was innocent, and 

THIS WAS the SON of God!"

     The earth stopped shaking, the darkness was lifted, the sun

was casting forth its mighty light again.  There was no more

physical signs of anything, all returned to being as the physical

day had begun. The soldiers and the crowd of people around the

crucifixion area, also returned to a somewhat normal disposition

of mind. They were no longer thinking the end of the world had

come upon them.  Many of the women that had served in different

ways Jesus and His men, when they were in the Galilee area, were

present, looking on, but keeping themselves at a distance. Among

those women were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James 

and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and many other

women who had come up with Jesus to Jerusalem. Other of Jesus'

followers did not stay around for very long after He had been

killed. They departed to their homes, downcast and very

distraught, still in confusion of mind about all that had taken

place (Mat.27: 51-56; Mark 15: 38-41; Luke 23: 45-49).

THE APOSTLE JOHN'S FURTHER ACCOUNT

     It was now about the tenth hour or between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

as we reckon time. Much of the crowd had dispersed and were

making their way to their homes or back into Jerusalem. Jesus'

disciples were so upset and confused, none of them thought about

Jesus' dead body on the cross, and what they should do with it.

Not one of them at that time had their mind on such a detail.

Jesus was left there, dead on the cross, and none talked about

removing it.

     But there was still two criminals alive. And as we have

seen, Jewish law (actually a law given to them from God) said

that persons hung on a stake should be taken down and buried 

the same day as when put on the stake, or tree (Deut. 21: 22-23).

     It was also what many Jews (especially those of the Pharisee

sect) called "the preparation" day. It was the 14th of Nisan and

not a Sabbath day, and the Jews who followed the Pharisees were

getting ready to observe their Passover supper, starting at evening 

time, which was the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, and which 

was also an annual Sabbath day, the first day of the Feast of 

Unleavened Bread. They were also cleaning out their homes of

leaven bread and getting ready to eat unleavened bread for

the next seven days. So the 14th day of Nisan, for many Jews,

became known as "preparation day." They were preparing for 

the 15th day. 

     The Sabbath day that was coming at evening time, was not the

weekly Sabbath, but the Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,

and such a Sabbath became known as "a high day" or "a high

Sabbath day." That high Sabbath day was a Thursday. Jesus

had observed the Passover with His disciples on a Tuesday

evening, the beginning of the 14th of Nisan.  He was put on the

cross Wednesday morning, and died as we have seen, in the early

afternoon of Wednesday. 

     The evening and the beginning of the high Sabbath day of the

15th of Nisan, a Wednesday evening, was fast arriving. Many of

the Jews knew that no Jew should be left for the night hanging on

a tree or cross. The Romans allowed the Jews to obey that law

given to them by God through Moses. The Jews went to Pilate and

asked if they might break the legs of those on the crosses, to

speed up their death and so be taken down from the crosses and

buried, before the Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread

arrived. 

     Pilate was in Jerusalem, and he granted them their wish, but

did not send a message to the soldiers already keeping watch over

Jesus and the other two criminals, but sent a few other soldiers

that were at his palace in Jerusalem, to go and do the job of 

breaking the legs of those on the three crosses.

     So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first

criminal, and then of the other criminal. But coming to Jesus

they saw He was ALREADY DEAD. No one had told them, 

well....there was by this time just about no one standing around 

to tell them anything. It would seem even the original soldiers 

that had been keeping guard from the beginning of the crucifying, 

were no longer there to say anything to them.

     They saw that Jesus was already dead and so did not break

His legs, no need to, as He was dead. Then John says this in his

Gospel, "But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear,

and at once there came out blood and water."

     Now, in the Greek that John wrote, the word "pierced" is in

the "aorist" or past tense (an single action done and completed

in the past), and so what John actually wrote was this, "But one

of the soldiers HAD ALREADY pierced His side with a spear...."

     John is telling us the reason as to WHY the soldiers coming

to break Jesus' legs, found Him already dead, it was BECAUSE

another soldier HAD BEFORE those soldiers came, ALREADY 

plunged a spear into Jesus' side and killed Him, hence He was 

already dead when the new soldiers arrived to start breaking the l

egs of all three men on the crosses. They then had no need to break

Jesus' legs to speed up His death, as He was already dead. And

exactly how that took place we have seen just a short while back.

It was indeed by a soldier taking his spear and thrusting it into

Jesus' side.

     The apostle John finishes this part of his Gospel by saying,

"He who saw it (referring to himself) has borne witness - his

testimony is true, and he knows that he has told the truth - that

you also may believe. For these things took place that the

Scripture might be fulfilled, 'Not a bone of Him shall be broken'

(Psalm 34: 20). And again another Scripture says, 'They shall

look on Him whom they had pierced' " (Psalm 22: 16, 17).

     This part of God the Father's plan of salvation was indeed

as Jesus cried out just before He died, FINISHED! (John 19: 31-

37).

     

     The power of Satan and sin, had been forever broken and

defeated. Through the shed blood and death of Jesus on the cross,

all who want and desire to be saved from eternal death, can find

the way to eternal life through Jesus as their personal Savior. 

     

     "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have

everlasting life" (John 3: 16).

               ..............................

Written January 2003