The Crucifixion

187:3.1At about half past nine o’clock this Fri­day morn­ing, Je­sus was hung upon the cross. Be­fore eleven o’clock, up­ward of one thou­sand per­sons had as­sem­bled to wit­ness this spec­ta­cle of the cru­ci­fix­ion of the Son of Man. Through­out these dread­ful hours the un­seen hosts of a uni­verse stood in si­lence while they gazed upon this ex­traor­di­nary phe­nom­e­non of the Cre­ator as he was dy­ing the death of the crea­ture, even the most ig­no­ble death of a con­demned crim­i­nal.

187:3.2Stand­ing near the cross at one time or an­other dur­ing the cru­ci­fix­ion were Mary, Ruth, Jude, John, Sa­lome (John’s mother), and a group of earnest women be­liev­ers in­clud­ing Mary the wife of Clopas and sis­ter of Je­sus’ mother, Mary Mag­da­lene, and Re­becca, one­time of Sep­pho­ris. These and other friends of Je­sus held their peace while they wit­nessed his great pa­tience and for­ti­tude and gazed upon his in­tense suf­fer­ings.

187:3.3Many who passed by wagged their heads and, rail­ing at him, said: “You who would de­stroy the tem­ple and build it again in three days, save your­self. If you are the Son of God, why do you not come down from your cross?” In like man­ner some of the rulers of the Jews mocked him, say­ing, “He saved oth­ers, but him­self he can­not save.” Oth­ers said, “If you are the king of the Jews, come down from the cross, and we will be­lieve in you.” And later on they mocked him the more, say­ing: “He trusted in God to de­liver him. He even claimed to be the Son of God—look at him now—cru­ci­fied be­tween two thieves.” Even the two thieves also railed at him and cast re­proach upon him.

187:3.4Inas­much as Je­sus would make no re­ply to their taunts, and since it was near­ing noon­time of this spe­cial prepa­ra­tion day, by half past eleven o’clock most of the jest­ing and jeer­ing crowd had gone its way; less than fifty per­sons re­mained on the scene. The sol­diers now pre­pared to eat lunch and drink their cheap, sour wine as they set­tled down for the long death­watch. As they par­took of their wine, they de­ri­sively of­fered a toast to Je­sus, say­ing, “Hail and good for­tune! to the king of the Jews.” And they were as­ton­ished at the Mas­ter’s tol­er­ant re­gard of their ridicule and mock­ing.

187:3.5When Je­sus saw them eat and drink, he looked down upon them and said, “I thirst.” When the cap­tain of the guard heard Je­sus say, “I thirst,” he took some of the wine from his bot­tle and, putting the sat­u­rated sponge stop­per upon the end of a javelin, raised it to Je­sus so that he could moisten his parched lips.

187:3.6Je­sus had pur­posed to live with­out re­sort to his super­nat­u­ral power, and he like­wise elected to die as an or­di­nary mor­tal upon the cross. He had lived as a man, and he would die as a man—do­ing the Fa­ther’s will.