1. The Common People Hear Jesus Gladly.—The mission of Jesus was full of comfort to the poor. As one of the signs that he was the promised Messiah, he said to a delegation of John's disciples—"The poor have the gospel preached to them."^[43] He claimed to be anointed of the Lord to that work; and in doing it was fulfilling that which had been predicted by the prophets.^[44] He often reproved the rich, not merely because they were rich, however, but because of their pride and hypocrisy which led them to oppress the poor. In like manner he reproved the chief elders and scribes and Pharisees who loved fine clothing, and loved to receive salutations in the market places; who coveted the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at the feasts; who devoured widows' houses, and for a pretense made long prayers.^[45] This with a free reproof of their other vices and crimes brought upon him the enmity of the wealthy, and of the rulers of the people; but the common people heard him gladly.^[46] (See note 1, end of section.)

2. Religious Jealousy—Political Fear.—Another thing which embittered the minds of the chief priests and elders against Jesus was religious jealousy. The numerous evidences of his divine authority, to be seen in his character and works, led many of the Jews to revere him as the Son of God. Especially was this the case after he raised Lazarus from the dead.^[47] They said: "If we let this man alone all men will believe in him; and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation." It was religious jealousy that dictated the first half of the sentence; and political fear the rest. The Jews had but a precarious hold upon their political rights; already it had been intimated that Jesus was king of the Jews;^[48] and if the people should under a sudden impulse accept him as king, the result in their judgment, must be a loss of those political rights which the Romans permitted them to exercise. To allow Jesus, therefore, to continue preaching was dangerous to their supposed honors and privileges; and this consideration was sufficient to induce the leading men among all parties to plot against his life.

3. The Charges Against Jesus.—The principal charges which the Jews brought against Jesus were: (1) violation of the Sabbath; he had healed a man on the Sabbath day, and had commanded him to take up his bed and walk:^[49] (2) blasphemy; he had said God was his Father, "making himself equal with God" (see note 2, end of section):^[50] (3) It was said that he was king of the Jews; and, on one occasion, the people hearing of his coming to Jerusalem took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting Hosannah: blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.^[51] For this he was said to be an enemy to Caesar's government and a seditious person.

4. Treason of Judas.—For some time the efforts of the chief priests to arrest Jesus were baffled. They feared to proceed openly against him lest the people should stand in his favor and overthrow them. At last, however, Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, met with some of the chief rulers and promised to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. This offer they gladly accepted and agreed to pay him thirty pieces of silver for his treachery.

5. Institution of the Sacrament.—The time chosen by Judas for the betrayal of his Master was the night of the passover feast. Jesus with the twelve ate the feast in an upper room in Jerusalem. It was on this occasion that he instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's supper. He took bread and gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. He also took wine, gave thanks, saying as he gave it to them: This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.^[52]

6. After the supper was over, having sung a hymn, Jesus with the twelve, excepting Judas Iscariot, went out to the garden of Gethsemane [Geth-sem-e-na] where Jesus prayed in great agony of spirit so that he sweat great drops of blood. He prayed that the bitter cup of suffering now about to be held to his lips might be removed from him. Thrice he so prayed, but closed each petition to his Father with—"not my will, but thine, will be done."

7. The Betrayal.—Meantime, Judas Iscariot having stolen out in the midst of the feast, went to the chief priests and directed a multitude with a company of Roman soldiers to the garden, and running to Jesus cried, "Hail, Master!" and kissed him. That was the sign agreed upon by the traitor and those who came to make the arrest, that they might know which one to take. And when they had secured him, they took him first to the house of Annas [An-nas], who, after questioning him, sent him bound to Caiaphas [Kai-ya-fas], the high priest, where he was arraigned before the Sanhedrim [San-he-drim].

8. The Trial.—The court before which Jesus was arraigned was not one before which his case was to be investigated, they had come together with the fixed determination to adjudge him guilty; hence they sought for witnesses who would testify something against him that would furnish a pretext for putting him to death. Many false witnesses testified against him; but their testimony was unsatisfactory and failed of its purpose. At last the high priest, evidently losing patience at the silence of the prisoner—for he made no defense against the charges of the false witnesses—adjured him by the living God to say if he were the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus acknowledged that he was, and told them that hereafter they should see him at the right hand of Power, coming in the clouds of heaven. At this the high priest rent his clothes, saying, "he hath spoken blasphemy," and claimed that they had no need of further witnesses, since they themselves had heard his "blasphemy" (see note 3, end of section). The council at once decided him worthy of death.

9. Christ Before Pilate and Herod.—The Romans had taken from the Sanhedrim of the Jews the power of executing those whom it adjudged guilty of death, unless the sentence was confirmed by the Roman governor; hence after sentence of death was passed upon Jesus by the Sanhedrim they took him to Pilate's judgment hall to have that sentence confirmed.

10. Learning incidentally that Jesus was a Galilean, and belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sent him to Herod who, at the time, was in Jerusalem. Before Herod Jesus was silent; neither the contempt of the murderer of his forerunner, nor the mockery of the common soldiers could provoke him into breaking his dignified silence. So in ridicule of his claims to kingship—although, as Jesus himself said, his kingdom was not of this world^[53]—Herod clothed him in gorgeous apparel and sent him back to Pilate.

11. Satisfied that there was nothing in Messiah's conduct worthy of death, Pilate sought to let him go; but the Jews insisted upon his execution. It was the custom among the Jews to have released to them a prisoner at the feast of the Passover, and on that ground Pilate sought to release Jesus; but the Jews would not listen to it, and preferred that the robber, Barabbas, a murderer, should be released. They told Pilate that whosoever made himself a king was an enemy to Caesar; and if he let Jesus go he was not Caesar's friend. By such arguments on the part of the chief priests, and the persistent cry of the people to crucify him, Pilate was over-awed, and at last confirmed the sentence of death. (See note 4, end of section.) 12. The Crucifixion.—From the hall of judgment Jesus was led into the common hall, where the soldiers stripped him of his own raiment, and put upon him a scarlet robe in mockery of his claims to kingship. They also platted a crown of thorns and placed it on his brow, and for a scepter gave him a reed in his right hand. They bowed the knee before him, and mockingly cried: "Hail, king of the Jews!" They spit upon him, beat him with their hands and with the reed they had given him for a scepter.

13. From the common hall he was led away under a guard of soldiers to a place called Golgotha [Gol-go-tha], which, as well as its Latin equivalent—Calvaria-Calvary^[54]—means, the place of a skull. Here Jesus was stripped, and nailed to the cross, which was erected between two other crosses, on each of which was a thief. Above the his head in Latin, Greek and Hebrew was fixed the superscription written by Pilate—"This is the King of the Jews." As he hung there between the two thieves, the soldiers mocked him as did also the chief scribes and the Pharisees, saying: He saved others, let him save himself; if he is Christ, the chosen of God; let him come down from the cross and we will believe him; he trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. In the midst of his great suffering, in which his mental agony was greater than his physical pain; the Son of God cried, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

14. At the sixth hour—mid-day—there was a darkness that spread over the whole land, and continued until the ninth hour (see note 5, end of section). About the ninth hour Jesus said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," then he bowed his head and expired. At the same moment the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, an earthquake shook the solid earth and rent the rocks, all the elements of nature seemed agitated as if anxious to bear witness that a God had died!

15. The Convulsions of Nature on the Western Hemisphere.—On the western hemisphere during the crucifixion of our Lord, the elements of nature were more disturbed than on the eastern hemisphere. During the time that Jesus was upon the cross, great and terrible tempests accompanied with terrific lightning raged throughout the land. Earthquakes shattered cities into confused piles of ruins; level plains were broken up and left in confused mountainous heaps; solid rocks were rent in twain; many cities were swept out of existence by fierce whirl-winds; others were sunk into the depths of the sea, others covered with mountain chains thrown up by the convulsions of the trembling earth; and others still were burned with fire. For the space of about three hours this awful disturbance of the elements continued, during which the whole face of the land both in North and South America was greatly changed, and most of the inhabitants destroyed. After the storm and tempest and the quakings of the earth had ceased, there followed intense darkness which lasted for three days, the time that Jesus was lying in the tomb.^[55]

16. The Burial.—Towards evening of the day of the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathaea [Ar-ra-ma-thee-ya], a rich man and a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate, and begged that the body of the Lord be given him that he might bury it. Pilate granted the request; and Joseph took the body, wrapt in clean linen and put it in his own new tomb. The Pharisees also went to Pilate and reminded him how Jesus had said when living that after three days in the tomb he would rise again, and asked that the sepulchre wherein he was buried should be placed under guard until the third day should pass, lest his disciples should come and steal his body by night, and then spread abroad the rumor that he had arisen from the dead. Pilate granted them permission to seal up the sepulchre and set a watch to guard it. (See note 6, end of section.)

NOTES.

1. The Common People Begin Reforms.—The case of the common people hearing Jesus gladly is not singular; it may be said to be true in nearly all great movements. It is a truth so generally accepted that a modern writer (Lew Wallace) has said: "To begin a reform, go not into the palaces of the great and rich; go rather to those whose cups of happiness are empty—to the poor and humble."

2. Jesus' Defense Against the Charge of Blasphemy.—The following scene occurred in Solomon's porch, at the temple, where Jesus was walking. A number of Jews gathered about him and said: How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ tell us so plainly.

JESUS.—I told you and ye believed not; the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me * * * I and my Father are one. [Then the Jews took up stones to stone him.]

JESUS.—Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?

JEWS.—For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

JESUS.—Is it not written in your law; I said ye are Gods? If he called them Gods unto whom the word of God come, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent unto the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

Then they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hands. (John x.)

3. The Law Against Blasphemy.—The law against blasphemy is to be found in Leviticus (xxiv:15, 16) and is as follows: "Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin; and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him; as well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." The Jews claimed that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, because he claimed to be the Son of God, thus making himself equal with God; when to their eyes he was merely a man. Therein consisted his alleged blasphemy. Christ's own defense against the charge (see note above) is the best answer to the sophistry of the Jews by which they tried to make it appear that he had broken this law.—Roberts.

4. Character of Pilate.—If we now wish to form a judgment of Pilate's character, we easily see that he was one of that large class of men who aspire to public offices, not from a pure and lofty desire of benefitting the public and advancing the good of the world, but from selfish and personal considerations, from a love of distinction, from a love of power, from a love of self indulgence; being destitute of any fixed principles, and having no aim but office and influence, they act right only by chance and when convenient, and are wholly incapable of pursuing a consistent course, or of acting with firmness or self-denial in cases in which the preservation of integrity require the exercise of these qualities. Pilate was obviously a man of weak, and therefore, with his temptations, of corrupt character.—J. R. Beard, D. D., Member of the Historical Theological Society, Leipzig.

5. The Three Hours' Darkness.—In the gospel of Matthew and Luke, we read that while Jesus hung upon the cross, "from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land to the ninth hour." Most of the ancient commentators believed that this darkness extended to the whole world. But their arguments are now seldom regarded as satisfactory, and their proofs even less so. Of the latter the strongest is the mention of an eclipse of the sun, which is referred to this time by Phlegon Trallianus, and, after him by Thallus. But even an eclipse of the sun could not be visible to the whole world; and neither of these writers names the places of the eclipse. Some think it was Rome; but it is impossible that an eclipse could have happened from the sixth to the ninth hour both at Rome and Jerusalem. * * * That the darkness could not have proceeded from an eclipse of the sun is further placed beyond all doubt by the fact that, it being then the time of the Passover, the moon was at the full. This darkness may, therefore, be ascribed to an extraordinary and preternatural obscuration of the solar light, which might precede and accompany the earthquake which took place on the same occasion. For it has been noticed that often before an earthquake such a mist arises from sulphurous vapors as to occasion a darkness almost nocturnal.—Biblical Literature—Kitto.

6. Fate of the Chief Actors in Christ's Crucifixion.—Before the dread sacrifice was consummated, Judas died in the horrors of a loathsome suicide. Caiaphas (the high priest and president of the Sanhedrim) was deposed the year following. Herod died in infamy and exile. Stripped of his procuratorship very shortly afterwards, on the very charges he had tried by a wicked concession to avoid. Pilate, wearied out with misfortunes, died in suicide and banishment, leaving behind him an execrated name. The house of Annas was destroyed a generation later by an infuriated mob, and his son was dragged through the streets and scourged and beaten to his place of murder. Some of those who shared in and witnessed the scenes of that day—and thousands of their children—also shared in and witnessed the long horrors of that siege of Jerusalem, which stands unparalleled in history for its unutterable fearfulness.—Canon Farrar.

REVIEW.

1. What class of people heard Jesus gladly?

2. What classes of people did Jesus reprove? Why?

3. What was it that embittered the minds of the chief priests and rulers against Jesus?

4. Enumerate the charges against Jesus.

5. In what manner did Jesus defend himself against the charge of blasphemy? (Note 2.)

6. Who betrayed Jesus?

7. What time was chosen by Judas to betray Jesus?

8. Give an account of the institution of the sacrament.

9. Tell the story of the betrayal.

10. State the circumstances of the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrim.

11. Why did the Jews take Jesus before Pilate?

12. Why did Pilate send him to Herod?

13. What was Messiah's treatment at the hands of Herod?

14. What the deportment of Jesus?

15. How did Pilate look upon Jesus?

16. In what manner did the Roman governor try to save Jesus?

17. What was the character of Pilate? (Note 4).

18. Tell the story of the crucifixion.

19. What occurred on the Western hemisphere at the crucifixion, and during the time Jesus was in the tomb?

20. Tell about the burial of Jesus.

21. What was the fate of those who judged and condemned Jesus? (Note 6).