Do Not Weep For Me

*image originated here

Matthew 27:27-66, Mark 15:16-47, Luke 22:63, 23:26-56, John 19:1-42

This is maybe the hardest post of all to write, not just because of its emotional bend but also because it has been written about so much. There are movies, books, sermons, songs, etc…all that address this horrifying part of our story with far more eloquence than I ever could. For that matter and most importantly the literal story of what happened in the Bible truly speaks for itself!

This is what Christ went through to pay the price for every person’s sin for all time.

This was, is, and will always be the cost of sin: utter destruction. To be honest there are also parts of the story that I had never heard or been taught about in church before. I will include those parts and leave them open for your comment and consideration.

After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 27:26

Remember at this point that Jesus was first flogged by Pilate’s soldiers while he was still trying to convince the crowd that it was unreasonable to kill Jesus. We use that word flogged in a very matter of fact way as something that happened often not understanding what it actually means. The whip used to flog someone had the end split into several tails to the tails were attached sharp shards of glass or metal. So every strike tore flesh from bone. During Roman executions, you would either be crucified or flogged to death but only in very rare cases both. I’m not sure if Jesus was the only documented one killed in such a brutal way but it is certain that at this point he has lost a lot of blood and would bearly have appeared human. They had shoved a crown of thorns down on his head shoving it in deep enough to stay on its own.

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then ” ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ‘ For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

Luke 23:26-32

Choices have consequences. Just because Christ had to come in order to bear the punishment for our sin doesn’t mean that those who killed Him would not be punished for the murder they committed. To falsely accuse him, to mock him, to flog him, and to crucify him were all choices they made. But we make them too. Every time we break the Law of God we are the sin Christ carried to the cross. He was slaughtered worse even than the criminals that hung beside him and they too mocked him.

Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Matthew 27:38-44

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know  what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he siad, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:34-43

We refer to becoming a Christian as being saved and we are, from the rightful eternal punishment we would be sentenced to on judgment day for breaking God’s Law. However, it does not mean that our sins here on earth will not have consequences, the thief on the cross understood this. He did not ask Jesus to save him from the cross though he knew that Jesus could, instead he asked Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. Jesus promised the thief that he would that very day be with Him in paradise.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene. 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 19:25-27

All the way to the end Jesus’ mother was with him, along with the other women who had followed and supported Jesus throughout his ministry, and one of the Twelve. They grieve Jesus’ death and see where he is buried but even these last few faithful remaining do not expect that He will rise again as He said He would!

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Wne some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” And when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those who were with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27:45-54

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of a hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a speacial Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

John 19:28-37

The final hours of Jesus’ life have arrived. He dies and he is buried. The blood and water flowing from his side confirm that he is dead and a rich man’s tomb becomes His resting place. But not for long…

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 19:38-42

The chief priests and the Pharisees knew enough about scripture however, and enough of what Jesus had said to be concerned. They wanted every assurance made so that this man they had killed would not come again to make further trouble as their long-awaited Messiah!

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This las deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.

Matthew 27:62-66