From the cross to the grave

FROM THE CROSS TO THE GRAVE

Pontius Pilate asked the Centurion to command an escort of guards around Jesus to take him to Calvary, or Golgotha, which means The place of the Skull. One of the Centurion's men put the beam on Jesus' bleeding shoulder as they left the yard and went into the crowded street. The already large crowd continued to grow, some of them followers and friends, others bitter enemies, and yet others who were just confused and angry. Jesus staggered and buckled under the weight of the beam but he continued to drag it behind him. It was the custom to write a description of the crime committed on a clay plate and fix it to the top of the cross. Pontius Pilate had written an inscription that read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS”
An angry voice called out above the crowd “Who wrote that stupid inscription?”
One of the temple priests shouted back “It should say ‘He said he was king of the Jews’”
Pilate stepped forward “I wrote that inscription and it stays as it is,”.

A few paces further on Jesus staggered again but this time fell headlong to the ground. Some women rushed forward to help him and Centurion recognized Mary, as she tried to reach out and help her son. Centurion was seized with compassion as he touched her sorrow. He could see blood flowing freely from Jesus now and he knew that he had to keep him on his feet. He must not let Jesus die here on the street. A burly lumbering man who, by the look of his clothing was visiting from some other region, kept close by Jesus as he stumbled forward, and the man balked now and again, as if to reach out and grasp hold of the beam, only to pull back. Centurion called out to the man.
“You, help him. He is too weak to carry that on his own.”
The man from Cyrene leapt forward and took the beam. The peace that surged through his heart overcame the strain of the heavy burden, as he strode on into endless time. The trek to Calvary, with its frequent stops took just under an hour from the time Centurion picked Jesus up in the yard. The process of crucifixion had begun, but it would take many more hours on Calvary for Jesus to die.

John saw Mary walking falteringly up an incline with her companions and he went over and helped her. She saw him coming, and turning, she held out her hand for him to help her up the slope. Mary asked John to stay close by her, and he assured her that he would.
John didn’t know where the others were - he just knew that they were hanging back from the crowd a little, and like them he did not comprehend the fulness of what Jesus actually wanted to achieve - Their beloved leader whom they didn’t fully know how to follow.

As John and Mary reached the flat terrain at the top of Calvary they could hear the dull clink of hammers beating against metal, bone, and timber, mingled with the muffled sound of agony. Two other criminals were already hanging on crosses either side of the hole where Jesus pole was to be fixed, but these two men were tied to their crosses, not nailed. Jesus was finally hoisted up and then the pole was crudely dumped into the hole prepared for it. Some time was spent securing its placement so that it stood erect and stable in the rocky ground. A range of utterances rushed from the mouths of people standing watching when the cross fell into place and when the nails tugged on the body they were pinned into. Some of the sounds were stifled cries of shock and dismay while others were more like startled yells of alarm. But overriding these noises was the swelling chant of taunts and slogans coming from the crowd.
Then the priests and the leaders of the Jews joined in the chant. “You were pretty good at saving others, but you can’t even save yourself. If you are the Promised One, our Messiah, then come on down from that cross and prove it to us.” Weren’t you going to pull down our temple and rebuild it again in three days? Well why not get yourself down from that cross?”

John winced when he heard Jesus splutter as a soldier tried to push a sponge of sour wine and myrrh into Jesus' mouth. Jesus turned his face aside and refused the swab. Centurion ordered the soldier away and the man joined the other soldiers who were throwing dice to see who was going to keep Jesus’ robe. Dust was spitting itself into peoples' faces on this strangest of days and gusts of wind blew as storm clouds raced faster than usual across the sky, causing a flickering of sunshine and deep shadow. As Jesus hung there the criminals beside him were weakening, groaning in their pain, when one of them turned to Jesus. He had earlier on joined the choir of obscenity, picking up the ugly chant with gusto. He now wanted to have his last few words of bravado heard in this dark prison of life and death he had made for himself.
“They're telling you to get yourself down, but how about us? That would be a real miracle, even I would believe you.” He was delighted with the impression this made on the crowd, as they clapped and cheered him, but the man on the other side shouted at him angrily.”
“Are you mad? Don't you even fear God? Don't you know who this is? We deserve to be here but he doesn’t. He has never done a wrong thing.” He then turned to Jesus and said.
“Lord, will you remember me when you are in your mighty kingdom?” Jesus turned his head and looked at him with love and said,
“Today you are coming home with me to Paradise.

John put his arm around Mary's shoulders as she looked on, with tears rolling down her cheeks and her countenance numbed from all expression. John tried to shield Mary from watching but she pulled away from him. She remembered tending his little body when he was a baby, that life that was part of her life. It was then that Jesus looked down at his mother standing next to John. He spoke to her through parched lips.
“Mother let him be your son.” His head then turned towards John. Mary looked at John and clung on to his arm.
“Son let her be your mother.”
John stood with her and watched her son's life draining from him. As they stood shielding their faces from the biting dust that came in bursts, and their eyes from the intermittent dazzle of the sun, they were astonished to see the sun dimmed and the dazzle become a weak gleam. High noon surrendered to a deep darkness which remained for three full hours. Darkness has an authority that can intrude into any company and announce that it is now taking over whatever else is happening. It will put a stop to things. If there is noise and commotion, sudden darkness will announce silence. People who thought they were in a crowd suddenly feel alone, and they look into the gloom for one another and move closer together. Darkness took over that day, in those hours. Shouts of bravado that just moments ago would have roused audacious echoes now hung hollow in the still air. Those mockers that had stood close to the action at the foot of the cross now slid back into the crowd, and nervous fear could be seen in many eyes.

Lucifer was watching from the headquarters of darkness above, waiting impatiently to hurl darkness at the one who was the sum of all goodness and light upon the earth. That darkness would have to wait its turn in the gloom for three more hours. Even the carrion crows and the ravens hung in the air queuing up to eat, because it was the tradition to leave the bodies hanging on the crosses to rot. Lucifer was exhilarated with the absolute certainty of this impending triumph, and he desperately wanted to close this chapter, shut the book and throw it into the vast domain of refuse he had accumulated over his destructive existence. This was to be the treasure of his trash. His plan was to attack the mind of Jesus, that place in all of humanity which he had chosen as his battleground. He would attempt to wrench all hope from his heart and plunge him into despair, where he assumed that Jesus would have no way back into his hope or his faith, let alone his love.

There were Angels suspended within this pall of sadness that shrouded the desolation below. It was something like the tranquility of that first day of creation, when darkness covered the earth and The Three spoke light and life into existence. There was the same unmoving basin of profound energy poised to create all light, beauty and movement, into the darkness below.
So heaven waited in eternity and three hours of darkness passed on earth.

Lucifer shot himself like a dart into the one that hung between two criminals on a lonely plateau of the place of the Skull. The gigantic spirit of Jesus absorbed the full impact of Satan as all hell's hateful fury hit him, and as every vile thing ever done by countless millions of crippled hearts down through the ages and for the ages to come assailed his being. Thunder cracked and the earth began to shake. The magnitude of this kind of collision, the sum of all sin hitting the sum of all innocence, shakes all created things. Jesus felt that all hope of overcoming that bank of injustice was futile, but he hoped against all hope and steeled himself to go on. He then sensed what seemed like a swirling sea billowing somewhere beneath the faculties of his mind and will. The feeling clawed at him. It was the swirling sea of fear, and it came from the armory of Satan. The fear sought to pull him under but Jesus hoisted the banner of his faith above it and kept it flying there with absolute trust in his Father's love, while phantom images of horror assaulted his mind and imagination. His great spirit swallowed every vile accusation that Satan hurled at him, and he took them all into himself and locked them safely within the vault of his love. He owned it all. He had become the reservoir of all evil in one moment of time, and he was completely innocent of any one wrong deed.

He rallied his strength once more, but a missile of horror careened into him more powerfully and more deadly than anything before, sweeping over him and submerging him into an impotence and a canceling of all hope. But this was not from Lucifer, it was from his home in heaven. It was black and fathomless, nothingness. It was like annihilation, `This was the cup that he told Father he would accept. But he did not know it would be like this. He called out to Father.
“Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?”
He knew the answer to his question. He had become forsaken for a moment so that no living soul from this time on would ever have to feel forsaken by God again because of their human weakness. As he hung there he embraced the tragic weakness of humanity and touched the feelings of every human soul throughout all ages. The vast bank of love that filled heaven filled his heart and went out to a beloved humanity. He looked at the mocking faces standing round the cross and he loved them. He sent his voice into a waiting heaven and cried out.
“Father forgive them – they don’t know what they are doing.”
He had done it. It was finished. The Plan OF SALVATION could now be put into effect.

Jesus had something more to say but his throat was parched and he wanted to speak with strength.
“I'm thirsty,” he croaked out.
The Centurion, who was ever there on duty, called the soldier over who had shoved the sponge in Jesus' face earlier.
“Give him the wine sponge” he ordered.
The soldier jumped to the command and put the sponge up on a pole to Jesus, who could now say loudly and clearly what had to be said in his last moments.
“Father into your hands I now offer my Spirit.”
Then in one last gasp he shouted loudly for all about him to hear. “It is finished!”
Then he died. And he and we were placed securely in The Father's loving hands.

Who brought about the death of Jesus? Was it Jesus, His Father, The Jews, The Romans, our sin? All of these played very significant parts, and there are Scriptures for each of their roles. But it was finally Jesus;

John 10:15… and I lay down My life for the sheep… 17. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.”
John 12:23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

At the moment of his death the cosmos convulsed. An earthquake tore a searing gash into the mountainside and people were toppled off their feet. Rocks split apart and the graves and tombs on a nearby hill cracked open. People ran in fear from the place, but they did not know where to go. At that moment there were priests in the temple about to sacrifice the Passover lamb. At the very moment that the knife pierced the sacrificial animal the priests were thrown off their feet by the earthquake. The temple shook as huge stones fell from the parapets and the great veil in the temple proper, which separated the place of God’s presence from the rest of the temple was lightning torn from top to bottom. The priests fled in panic as tempest swirled through the city.

Lucifer’s dark mind was being assaulted by a force he had not felt before. It was a desperate feeling of failure and futility. What was going wrong? Jesus was dying with a magnificent hope, not a dark and dreadful despair. The offering of Jesus’ spirit to Father God had released a tangible power into the universe. Lucifer turned to the three dark archons who always accompanied him and shouted. “Let's get out of here, something’s wrong.”

He tried to flee back into the darkness but a huge bolt of lightning from the throne room gathered him up and catapulted him downwards. He was traveling face down at a furious speed, and for a split second he thought he saw a burning lake beneath him. It struck him with horror, and he believed he must have imagined it. He was turned on his back and drawn up with the same speed into the darkness above, and then turned back onto his face as he found himself again being plummeted downwards.

The carrion crows were in for a disappointment that day. They were not to know that the next day was the Sabbath, and that it was against temple law for dead bodies to be left hanging on a holy day, so all the criminals had to be dead before sundown and taken off their crosses. The two criminals who were tied to their crosses were still a long way from death so Centurion had his men break their legs that they would die quickly. The Centurion then had the task of ascertaining if Jesus was indeed dead. He called over one of his guards.
“Give me a lance,” he commanded.
He took the shaft and instructed the guard on how to plunge it into Jesus body, under his heart, where the pericardial sac would have amassed his body fluids if he had expired. Water gushed out and the Centurion knew the day's work was done. He knew that this man was indeed the Son of God.

Pilate had received a report that Jesus was dead but he wanted to confirm the certainty of this from the centurion whom he knew was there at the time. This was because Pilate had been told that someone from Arimathea, a man called Joseph, was making arrangements for the burial.
The Centurion confirmed all this and that this Joseph was a very wealthy man and wanted Jesus buried in his own tomb that had just been hewn out in a prestigious place in Jerusalem, practically in the temple itself. He told Pilate that some women followers had a shroud prepared and anointing oils and spices.

Pilate asked if Jesus had to be clubbed to death, and the Centurion said no, and explained that they we had to club the others, the ones who were tied, but not Jesus who was nailed, and that it was hardly surprising after the beating he was given. He told Pilate that Jesus died without them breaking one bone of his body.
Early the next day Pontius Pilate received a visit from the leaders of the temple priests and lawgivers who were anxious that the followers of Jesus might conspire to take his body from the tomb and try to fabricate a story that he had been resurrected, because they had heard that he had said he would come back to life after three days. They insisted that guards be placed at the tomb to prevent this from happening. Pilate advised them to appoint their own temple guards at the tomb, and they agreed to this.

So now we go from the cross to the grave.

The Prince of Darkness now realized that this man’s body, which had just been destroyed on Calvary had contained no fault or sin, and therefore could no longer be kept captive in this lower world. Jesus again recalled what had been written in the Psalms. You will not let my soul rest in the grave, you will not let your Holy One see destruction. (Psalm 16:10)

As Jesus hung on the cross and offered his spirit to his Father he felt his spirit being lifted up above his body. From there he saw the scene on Calvary and all the people standing around, still looking at his dead body hanging on the cross, and he saw the Centurion call for the lance. He also saw the bolt of lightning and Lucifer being caught in it and hurled downwards. He then began to travel downwards himself, and knew he was on a mission of great purpose. Below him was a place called Paradise, and next to Paradise was a place called Hades (Luke 16:19).

Jesus descended to these places. Paradise was where there were millions of souls who had been waiting for him from the beginning of time. These had lived their lives on earth in hope, many of them guided by the Commandments through Moses, but many simply by a good conscience, God having written law upon their hearts. They were locked away from eternity till eternity would now come to get them. He would also visit Hades, the grave, the prison of lost hope.

Lucifer had thought that all he had to do was get Jesus killed as a human being and Jesus would then be forever locked away from human life and from God life. When darkness entered our world at the fall of man human beings began to live spiritually separated in their minds from the Life of God (Ephesians 4:17). So Lucifer had laid claim to the ownership of physical death and spiritual separation of every human being. From that time of separation the Prince of darkness, the Prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, held sway over the minds of men (Ephesians 2:2). But death and spiritual separation could not demand payment for something it did not own. It did not own the perfection of the sinless life of the very virtue of God resident in Jesus’ body. The moment Jesus died a cosmic law of sin and death was overturned and became the cosmic law of the Spirit of life in Christ. To be continued…