From Gethsemane to Golgotha

Introduction

Good evening. Today is Good Friday, a day where we reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Tonight, I would like for us to take a journey through the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as we follow Jesus, some of the disciples, and the key players from the Garden of Gethsemane until His final breath on the cross. Throughout the evening as these events play out. I have taken the accounts from the four Gospel authors and merge them together, mixed it with some images from Jerusalem, and some supplemental narrative and description as we journey back to those final hours of the life of Jesus.

Prayers in the Garden

The Passover meal was over. The night had descended over Jerusalem as Jesus the Rabbi from Nazareth and His disciples crossed the Kidron brook with the massive Temple shown illuminated from the oil lamps and the full moon. One of His disciples, a man by the name of Judas Iscariot, had left the meal to go to the Chief Priests to turn over his teacher for a payment of what could have been made in four months! As Jesus and the disciples began to ascend the Mount of Olives they went to a garden, an olive grove called Gethsemane, and He said to eight of the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.”

He then took the three disciples in His inner circle, Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and He became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

He went on a little farther into the grove and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “Abba, Father! Everything is possible for You! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Then He returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with Me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

So He went to pray a third time and an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. Then He came to the disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!”

Betrayal and Arrest

And immediately, even as Jesus said this, Judas Iscariot who had left the Passover meal, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the chief priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders. The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss. Then you can take him away under guard.” As soon as they arrived, Judas walked up to Jesus. “Rabbi!” as he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss. Jesus replied, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus (MALE-kis), the high priest’s servant. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” Then Jesus touched Malchus ear and healed him.

Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me.”

Out of fear of the arrest of their Rabbi all His disciples deserted him and ran away.

Denial/Before the High Priest

Jesus was led arrested by the temple guards from the Garden on the Mount of Olives across the Kidron brook to the neighborhood near where, only hours earlier Jesus and His disciples had celebrated Passover. Now the Lamb of God was being taken to trial in dark of night by the light of torches to the home of the High Priest, Caiaphas and his father-in-law Annas.

While most of the disciples did run two decided to follow at a distance, Peter and John. John was known to the High Priest and made his way into the courtyard.

False witnesses began to come forward at the request of the chief priests and elders, but testimonies did not agree. Then two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”

And the high priest arose and said to Jesus, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”

At this Jesus said to him with a quote from the prophet Daniel, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?”

Then the crowd answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”

Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”

As this trial was happening in the courtyard where Peter and John were, Peter was questioned by a servant girl. She came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” Yet Peter denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.” And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!” And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” Then Peter began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”

Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him only hours earlier at the Passover meal, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly. He had denied the Man who he said he would die for.

To Pilate

As their hatred for Jesus mounted in the very early morning, the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. They would take Him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. So they bound Jesus, led Him to the headquarters of the Roman government on the northside of the Temple Mount.

He was taken by the Roman guards into the His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them. So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?”

“We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!” they retorted.

“Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them.

“Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied. (This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way He would die.)

Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to Him. “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”

Pilate said, “So you are a king?”

Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime.

Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

Then they became insistent. “But he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes—all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”

To Herod

“Oh, is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked. When they said that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.

Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. (Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before, became friends that day.)

Barabbas

Then Pilate called together the leading priests and other religious leaders, along with the people, and he announced his verdict. “You brought this man to me, accusing him of leading a revolt. I have examined him thoroughly on this point in your presence and find him innocent. Herod came to the same conclusion and sent him back to us. Nothing this man has done calls for the death penalty. So I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.”

Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas who was a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”

Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”

The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”

Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”

And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”

So Pilate released Barabbas to them.

Pilate’s Final Verdict

The hatred was mounting, and Jerusalem was on the brink of revolution. So Pilate had Jesus lead away to the flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers had a sadistic pleasure in whipping the back of this Man in the custody as they did with many other people. These whips had lead on them, metal, glass, bone and it would come down on the flesh and rip into the flesh causing blood to pour from the wounds. Many times people would die from the blood loss or infection. The soldiers then wove a crown of thorns and shoved it on Jesus’ head. The thorns dug deep into His brow. Then they put a purple robe given by Herod back on Him and a rod was put in His hands. Mockingly they bowed down chanting “Hail! King of the Jews!” As they mocked Him they slapped Him across the face, and they spat on Him and grabbed the rod and struck Him on the head with it.

Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.” Then Jesus bloody and bruised, came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”

When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”

The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”

When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”

Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”

When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement. It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”

“Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”

“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.

Then Pilate turned Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified.

So they took Jesus away laying the large hunk of splintered wood on His raw shoulders and back.

To Calvary

The journey from Pilate’s courtyard to the place of execution was going to be a half a mile journey. Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” As Jesus spoke of the coming destruction of Jerusalem only a few decades later. And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”) a former stone quarry on the edge of Jerusalem. It lay by the side of the road to serve the people who passed a warning. The soldiers gave Jesus wine mixed with bitter myrrh, but when He had tasted it, he refused to drink it.

Jesus’ bloody and flesh torn body was thrown onto the chunk of timber. Then with thunderous hammers they drove rusty pieces of metal into the wrists of One who had formed them in their mother’s wombs. Then they took another spike and drove it into the feet that had walked on water. All into a tree that He had known before it was even a seed. After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. Pilate posted a sign on the cross above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against Him that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.

Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”

Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”

Two criminals were crucified with Him, one on his right and one on his left.

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Jesus as He hung there in pain said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice for them.

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

From the late night arrest and trial, the Apostle John had followed. Jesus’ mother Mary was also near the cross watching her first born beaten and bloody, taking shallow breaths as He slowly suffocated. His mother’s sister was also there and Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw His mother and John next to her, He said to her “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to John, “Here is your mother.” And from then on John took her into his home.

Completed!

From noon until 3 PM darkness covered the land as the sin of the world past, present, and future was poured onto Jesus Christ. Taking that cup of wrath that He had asked His Father to take away if it is was possible, but not His will, but His Father’s will be done! At around 3 PM, Jesus cried out with a loud voice the beginning words of the 22nd Psalm!

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”

Conclusion

Jesus died on the cross, not for His own sake, but for mine and yours. We were lost, hopeless, doomed to Hell. Jesus Christ is God! God in the flesh. He came to pay a bill you and I could never pay without spending eternity in Hell. That is not a week, month, year, decade, or even a lifetime on this earth. That is never ending life separated from Him and all His goodness and love. For that moment 2 millennia ago the Trinity only had two members as Jesus took your place and had all the sins of the world past, present, and future placed on Him. After He breathed His last breath He would be placed in a tomb, but that is not the end of the story, because Sunday is coming. Read ahead in your Bible or I would encourage you to read these passages again from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that put together this evening.