In reading the account of our blessed Lord's condemnation, it may seem strange to us that Pilate was ready to receive Him so early as five o'clock in the morning; though we can understand the Priests and the Sanhedrim sitting up all night, to accomplish their wicked purpose. But we must remember, that the Jews were at all times ready to make disturbances; and that as very great multitudes came into Jerusalem for the Passover, those who were in authority were obliged to be very watchful, so as to check the first symptoms of a riot: and no doubt they were doubly watchful now, remembering that when Jesus rode into the city, a few days before, all the people accompanied Him, shouting, and declaring Him to be that King, the promised Messiah. "And they took Jesus, and led him away. And after that they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called, in the Hebrew, Golgotha."

It was the custom of the Jews and Romans never to put condemned persons to death within the city walls. Golgotha was a hill outside the city, set apart for executions, and was, of course, an unclean and polluted place. It is thought that the name Golgotha was given to this hill because, in shape, it resembled a head or skull; and that for the same reason, the Romans called it Calvary: the Latin word so translated, meaning the same as the Hebrew word Golgotha.

The Romans compelled those who were to undergo the terrible death by crucifixion, to carry their own cross to the appointed place. Thus we find Jesus "bearing his cross": but when we remember how our blessed Lord had passed the whole night, we shall not be surprised that He had no strength to carry a heavy cross of wood up a hill. Most likely He fell under the load; and those who led Him out saw, that faint and weary as He was, it was impossible for this part of His sentence to be carried out, and therefore, "they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country: him they compelled to bear his cross. And on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus."

"And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him."

Many of these, doubtless, had benefited by His miracles of healing, either in themselves or in their children; and all were grieved to see such cruelty practised upon One, who had ever gone amongst them doing good.

Jesus, always mindful of others, and foreseeing the dreadful sufferings that would come upon the city in consequence of His death, "turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren" (that is, the women who have no children to suffer). "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"

This is figurative language, meaning that the calamities about to fall on Jerusalem would be so dreadful, that the Jewish women, who considered it a great misfortune to have no children, would then be thankful, and considered blessed because they had none: and that, in the impossibility of escaping from their miseries, all people would be glad if the mountains could fall and crush them.

Then Jesus reminded them, that if a green tree is quickly burnt up, a dry and withered one will be burnt much more quickly. In the Scriptures, good men are often compared to green and flourishing trees; and bad men to dry and barren ones. The meaning of our Lord was therefore, If God in His wisdom sees fit to let Me, who am holy and righteous in His sight, suffer such things as ye have seen; what think ye will He do to the wicked and unrighteous?

Jesus was not crucified alone: it seems that at this time there were two criminals sentenced to a similar death. "And there were two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death." In reading these words, we must be very careful to pause at the comma after other, because the meaning is, "and there were two other (persons, who were) malefactors, led with him," &c.

Malefactors mean persons that have done evil. St. Matthew tells us that these men were thieves: probably some of those robbers who troubled JudÆa at that time, carrying off cattle and whatever they could lay their hands upon, and often killing those who tried to defend their property. These men were justly condemned to death in punishment of their sins, and they were now led out to be crucified with the innocent and holy Jesus. The prophet Isaiah, speaking seven hundred years before of the Messiah, had said, "He was numbered with the transgressors"; "and he made his grave with the wicked." He was, indeed, "numbered," or considered to be one of the transgressors, fit only to share the fate of such. Literally was Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled, when Jesus was led out with two malefactors to die with them.

"And when they were come to the place, which is called Golgotha, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not." St. Matthew mentions the vinegar and gall; St. Mark, the wine and myrrh. Some people have thought that both mean the same thing; but it is most probable that two separate mixtures were offered to Christ at this time.

The Jews always gave wine, with myrrh in it, to the criminal about to be executed, to stupefy him, and make him less able to feel pain. The first draught of vinegar and gall was probably offered to Jesus in mockery. Any one expecting the usual stupefying draught, would be disappointed at getting another instead. Jesus submitted for our sakes to every suffering and insult inflicted by His persecutors, therefore He tasted the mixture; but when the stupefying draught was offered, "he received it not"; for He would do nothing to lessen His appointed sufferings, nor to render Him less able to pray to God.

"And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, and Jesus in the midst." "And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, And He was numbered with the transgressors."

Crucifixion was not only a most painful death, but it was also looked upon as a very shameful one; only to be awarded to the vilest criminals, in order to show contempt and hatred. Sometimes the criminal was merely bound to the cross with ropes, and there left to die of hunger and exposure. But our Saviour was actually nailed to the cross, according to the words spoken by King David, one thousand years before, "they pierced my hands and my feet."

The manner of crucifixion was as follows: the cross of wood being laid upon the ground, the poor victim was laid upon it; and his arms being stretched out along the cross bar, a great nail was driven through the hollow of each hand into the wood: the feet were then crossed over each other upon the perpendicular part of the cross, and then a very long nail was forced through both into the wood beyond. There appears to have been under the feet a small ledge of wood, just to support them. The poor victim being thus made fast to the wood, the cross was raised up, and placed upright in a hole already prepared to receive it. The torture felt by the unhappy sufferer was most intense: the ledge beneath the feet did not prevent the weight of the body hanging from the hands, nailed to the upper part of the cross. The agony of such a position was beyond all that we can conceive; and this agony often lasted many hours, before death put an end to suffering.

Such was the death Christ endured for us. Surely no one can think of all Jesus suffered at this time, without feeling the deepest grief, and shrinking with horror from the idea that we could have joined His enemies. And yet the Word of God tells us that, if we persist in sin, we "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

We can all understand, that if we have taken a great deal of trouble, and put ourselves to inconvenience and even to pain, in order to do good to some person, it would be very grievous to see that person not a bit better or happier than he would have been, had we not troubled ourselves about him. Then let us remember that Jesus Christ suffered and died that we might be taken into heaven. But we cannot go into heaven, unless we forsake our sins and try to obey God: if, therefore, we will not take the trouble to resist the Devil, all that Jesus has done and suffered will be of no use to us. Let us take care that He has not suffered in vain: let us pray for faith; that true and lively faith which will constrain us to repent, and love, and obey.

Now let us turn our thoughts again to Jesus hanging on His cross, between those upon which the two thieves were fastened.

It was the custom of the Romans, to cause a list of the crimes for which a malefactor was condemned, to be carried before him, or fastened to the instrument of his punishment. This was called his "accusation."

In compliance with this custom, "Pilate wrote a title, and set up over his head his accusation written, and put it on the cross. And the writing was in letters of Greek, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS; and in Latin, THE KING OF THE JEWS; and in Hebrew, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin"; so that all strangers who did not understand Hebrew might also read this "accusation."