1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews[a] answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic[b] Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.[c] He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. John 19:1-16 (ESV)
While the preparations were under way for Passover, Jesus was preparing to sit at a different table.
Pilate might have thought he was the ultimate judge on the judgment seat at Gabbatha, but the real Judge would be raised up at Golgatha.
He knew there was no other way for us to pay the price for our costly sin.
Don’t you realize that He tried every other way
Throughout the Scriptures, God continued to try and save as many of His people as He could.
Through deliverance, answered prayer, prophets, the Kings – God never stopped rescuing His people from themselves.
He knew it would take an ultimate act only by His hand to release the freedom only He could command.
He could not pass-over the sins of the world any longer.
The Passover blood, previously seen as a symbol of death passing over became the full blown expression of His heart accepting the sacrifice of His own Son’s live giving blood for us to be restored.
As His life flowed out, our life, our real life, could begin.
The Lamb went willingly to the cross, enduring the betrayals, strikes, blows, beating, humiliation & mocking which we should have received.
For even on the cross, in dreadful pain, He could not help trying to save those he came to set free.
The thieves, His best friend, His mother…. and all of us yet to be.
The cost? One sacrifice paid the debt humanity had built up against the very one who set the plan in motion from the beginning of time.
He was broken, to death to appease the Law.
And for a split second after He breathed His last labored breath, and gave Himself up to His plan, the enemy thought he had won.
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, & the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city & appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him,keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake & what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:50-54
And with His death, there was immediate victory released, although the best was yet to come. The soldiers stationed at the cross believed.
Can you imagine? You were one of the soldiers who mocked Him, flogged Him, stabbed His with your spear or forced Him to carry the cross…and after you did your job, your eyes were opened to the truth of who it was you helped to kill?
God wasn’t surprised.
It is only when we become aware of just how broken we are, and how dirty our hands are that we can acknowledge Jesus as our desperately needed Savior.
His broken body, His precious blood.
Given up for you and I.
The first Communion lived out only hours after He revealed it was to come to His disciples.
Broken so God can now Passover our sins, because the full price was paid in Jesus.
KARLA LEES 