To Kill A King {PART IV}

Twisting, turning, a puncture in a soldier’s thumb. They bent the crown of thorns, and forced it onto Jesus’ head, drawing blood from his forehead; it was falling, seeping down his cheeks, much like tears. The soldiers made him dress in a purple gown, and mocked him, over and over again, and hit him. Hail, king of the Jews! Hail, king of the Jews! Hail now, you king!

Pilate brought Jesus outside to stand before the Jews, looking like this. He looked weak, pitiful, and was covered in his own blood; he was an open target for ridicule. Pilate said to the crowd, “Look, here he is! I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him…”

The people began to chant, with passion and vigor: Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!

But Pilate responded by saying, “You can take him and crucify him if you see fit. As for me, I believe he is innocent.”

The Jews said, “We have a law, and according to that law, this man must die! You see, he claimed to be the Son of God!”

When Pilate heard this, fear and confusion rose up inside of him. He went back inside with Jesus and immediately asked him, “Where do you come from?”

Silence.

Jesus was silent.

“Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the power to either save your life or end it? Yet, you choose to keep your mouth shut!”

Then, Jesus spoke: “You are not the one with the power to kill me. You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you in the first place is the one who hold the greater power, and also is the one guilty of the greater sin.”

From that point on, something changed in Pilate. He wanted to set Jesus free, but the people convinced him of his duty to honor Caesar.

Pilate brought Jesus back outside, and then went over to sit on the judge’s seat.

“Here is your king,” he said to the crowd.

Take him away! Crucify! Take him away! Away! Crucify! The chants were deafening.

Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your king?”

“We have no king but Caesar,” responded the chief priests, with all their religious pride.

With that, Pilate gave in. He handed Jesus over to the Jews. He handed him over to be crucified.

~ ~ ~

The soldiers seized Jesus, and forced him to drag his own cross up to the top of a hill called Golgotha. They crucified him on this hill, with him in the middle and two others on either side.
The soldiers divided up Jesus’ clothing between four of them, leaving one garment remaining on his body.

Nailed to the top of Jesus’ cross, Pilate had prepared a sign. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

The chief priests whined about this, and asked Pilate to changed the sign so that it did not say that Jesus was the king of the Jews, but that he only claimed to be the king of the Jews. Pilate refused to change what he had written.

~ ~ ~

After much time had passed, Jesus had lost nearly all of his strength and was almost ready to go to the Father.

In a dry, cracked voice, Jesus whispered the words, “I am thirsty.”

A soldier nearby soaked a sponge in wine vinegar, and stuck it on the end of a hyssop stalk, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. Jesus felt the bitter liquid seep into the cracks of his lips and down his throat.

With that, Jesus spoke his last words: “It is finished.”

He bowed his head, and breathed his last breath.

And his spirit left his body. His spirit left his skin.

~ ~ ~

The soldiers came to take down the bodies of the crucified men, and before doing so, it was appropriate to break the men’s legs. They broke the legs of the other two men, but when they came to Jesus, they decided it was not necessary, since he was already dead. Instead, a soldier plunged a spear deep into Jesus’ side.

Suddenly, out of the wound flowed blood and water…