Friday
The night leading into Friday was truly one of spectacles. The Jewish Council, with the high priest Caiaphas as the point man, had decided that Jesus would be hustled away. Jesus' popularity and salvation revivalism filled people with the courage to defy the unjust decree, and disturb the delicate balance between the Jewish priests and the occupying Roman’s power.
Worse yet was that Jesus began to acknowledge and affirm the people's tributes to the Messiah, the Son of God. The interrogation by the high priest was like a warm-up. The questions levied concerned whether Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, or if someone had heard Him declare it. Jesus handled it brilliantly; appeared to have His own preconceived plan with how to handle this and answered only if it served His purposes.
It was not proceeding anywhere near as splendidly for Peter. His resolve to come forward, stand up and defend Jesus crumbled completely. Three times he spat and spluttered, denying he even knew Jesus. The clergy though were not really interested in Jesus' response. He was to die and false witnesses were easy to recruit in return for a bribe.
The problem was to present Jesus, to have Him appear as a dangerous criminal before the Roman governor Pilate, the only person with the power to pronounce the death decree.
Pilate rose in the middle of the night, disturbed, despite his reluctance to interfere in a religious dispute. He tried to squirm his way out of a fate forcing him to condemn a man he believed to be innocent, and sent the prisoner to Herod, however, this did not lead to anything. Pilate tried to appease the incited Jewish faction, and staged a quick election on this year's ‘release’; would the person granted freedom be the rascal Barabbas or Jesus - but nothing succeeded. In addition, his wife said, that Jesus gave her nightmares.
What provoked Pilate the most was that Jesus did not seem to want to be free. The proud Roman took refuge in the power of language once again. "Do you not understand that I have power to free you or to crucify you?" It sounded like a trump card but Jesus' response had a very different impact. "You would have no power over me if you had not received it from above."
Crucifixion
Inevitably Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Pilate thought his had been the last word when he erected the sign on the cross, in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, with the text "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". The world would know! This angered the chief priests and this pleased Pilate a great deal
When the one we love is tortured to death through suffering and a lingering death it becomes unbearable. Between nightmarish and painful reality, we watched how an exhausted Jesus dragged His heavy cross. The soldiers provoked and taunted, men and women wept and lashed out, our own fear and grief caused us to wish for an immediate escape. And then the sledge hammers’ rhythm driving rough spikes, breaking skin and bursting through His veins. This is hell on earth.
Commissioner Marie Willermark
Sweden and Latvia Territory
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