What happened on Good Friday
The last day of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ entered the history of the Church as Good Friday. On this day, the Savior was finally condemned to death, carried His cross to the place of execution, where he accepted death for the sins of all mankind.
Shackled dawn
“When morning came, all the high priests and elders of the people had a conference about Jesus, in order to put Him to death …” (Matthew 27: 1).
Having condemned the Savior to death, the high priests, scribes and other members of the highest court of Israel, the Sanhedrin, nevertheless tried to relieve themselves of the burden of responsibility for outright murder. They sent Him to the procurator Pontius Pilate, the representative of the Roman government then operating in Judea.
Finding no fault in the actions of Christ, the Roman henchman sent Him to the king Herod Antipas, who nominally ruled Galilee. Herod, above all, longed for miracles from the Savior. However, without waiting for anything, and not even hearing a single word from the Lord, Herod, along with his court, outraged Him, laughed, dressed in bright clothes as a sign of innocence and sent him back.
By the time the Savior was again brought to the Roman governor, a multitude of people had gathered near his house, the praetorium. Everyone was waiting for the final verdict. Pilate went out to the audience and declared that he did not find any guilt behind Christ, just as King Herod did not find it. Trying to soften the crowd's discontent, he even offered to punish the Lord, but then still let him go. However, this was not what the restless crowd, incited by the elders, expected. The last thing that Pontius Pilate could offer was to release Christ in honor of the Passover holiday, since such a custom existed among the Jews. However, he did not succeed in doing this, the crowd demanded to release another - the robber Barabbas.
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Having presented both to the last people's court, Pilate still tried to tip the scales in favor of Christ, but all this was in vain. Spurred on and blinded by their "teachers", the people of Israel again and again demanded to crucify Christ, reaching in their demand the terrible words: "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27, 25).
What was left for Pilate to do? Wash your hands and send Christ to execution, which he, in fact, did.
The path traversed for all
Given for execution, Christ suffered much before her. The Roman soldiers, who were to accompany Him to the place of execution, betrayed the Savior's abuse, beating and ridicule. Having placed a crown of thorns on the Lord's head, which buried its thorns into the flesh, and given Him a heavy cross - an instrument of execution, they set out on the way to Calvary. Golgotha or Place of Place was the name of the hill to the west of Jerusalem, which could be reached through the city's Judgment Gate. The Savior went this way, having passed it in the end for all people.
On the way to the place of execution, Christ was accompanied by many people, both His enemies and friends. The women who had followed the Lord before, walked now, weeping and weeping for Him. However, the Savior told them to weep not for Him, but for themselves: “Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children, for the days are coming in which they will say: Blessed are the barren ones, and the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have not fed! Then they will begin to say to the mountains: fall on us! and the hills: cover us! (Luke 23, 28-30). Thus, Christ foretold the future catastrophe of Jerusalem and all Israel. (In 70 A. D. Jerusalem was captured and completely destroyed by the troops of the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus.)
When the Lord was completely exhausted from the weight of the cross and outrage, the Roman soldiers pulled out one person from the crowd - Simon of Cyrene, and forced him to carry the instrument of execution for some time.
At Calvary everything was already ready. The soldiers even prepared a special drink for those sentenced to death - a mixture of sour wine, vinegar and other substances. This drink put the crucified into a drugged state, in which they partially did not feel pain. Together with the Lord, execution on the cross awaited two more - criminals.
On the cross
The very last and most difficult hours of the Savior's earthly life began from the moment of the crucifixion. Death on the cross in general throughout the ancient world was considered slavish, shameful and, at the same time, the most cruel and painful. The man nailed to the cross was dying slowly from several reasons at once. He felt a terrible thirst, lost consciousness and came to himself again, suffered from pain, but most importantly, he was gradually suffocating. He was suffocating, as the weight of his own body, in particular his chest, gradually squeezed his lungs and heart, which needed oxygen. Even in a normal state, a person feels bad from a lack of oxygen and quickly gets tired, what then can we say about hanging for several hours on the cross.
At six o'clock in the afternoon (in our opinion, about noon), the Lord was nailed to the cross, which He brought to Calvary on His shoulders. According to the tradition of the Church, it was a six-pointed cross, where the vertical line is crossed by two transverse ones, one of them - the lower one - is oblique.
The upper (and longest) crossbar was the immediate part of the cross, it was to it that the hands of the Savior were nailed. The lower slanting bar was a leg support. The crucifixes nailed both feet of the Lord to her.
Christ on the cross. Francisco de Zurbaran, 1627
The hands and feet of Christ were nailed to the tree with iron nails, thereby fulfilling the prophecy predicted by the king-psalmist David: “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 21: 17). Together with the Lord, two robbers were crucified, and in this also another prophecy came true: “And he was numbered among the evildoers” (Isa. 53, 12).
The Savior's divine love for people was manifested at the very beginning of His torment on the cross, because when He was crucified, He had already forgiven the crucifixes: “Father! Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”(Luke 23, 34).
On the Lord's cross, by order of Pilate, they nailed a plaque with the inscription in three languages - Hebrew, Latin and Greek - "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Many of the Sanhedrin did not like her, as she proclaimed Christ King, but Pilate did not allow the text to be changed, insisting: "What I wrote, I wrote."
While the Lord was dying on the cross, the Roman soldiers cast lots for His clothing. They tore the upper dress into four parts - one for each, and the lower one - a tunic - which was one, they decided to play. In this act, one of the Old Testament prophecies of King David about Christ also came true: “They divide my garments among themselves and cast lots for my clothes” (Psalm 21, 19).
People who passed by and saw everything that happened, cursed and laughed at the Lord: “He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the elect of God”(Luke 23:35). However, the Lord did the opposite - at that moment He did not save Himself, but all of humanity. Together with the people, the soldiers also laughed at Him, and even one of the crucified robbers. And only the second criminal, who still retained the remnants of reason and conscience, said to his accomplice: “We were justly condemned, because we received what was worthy according to our deeds, but He did nothing wrong” (Luke 23. 40-41). He asked the Savior to remember himself in the Kingdom of Heaven, to which the Lord replied: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23, 43).
In addition to the Roman soldiers, the people closest to Christ remained under the cross - His Most Pure Mother, Her sister, two Mary - Cleopova and Magdalene, as well as His beloved disciple John (The name of the sister of the Mother of God is unknown; Maria Cleopova, according to legend, is the daughter of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed; Mary Magdalene is the repentant harlot whom Christ forgave; the disciple John is the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian.). Seeing His Mother and John, the Lord commanded them to protect each other after He leaves this world: “Woman! behold, your son … behold, your mother! (John 19: 26-27). Later, they fulfilled His command, John took the Mother of God to live in his home, where he looked after Her.
Last moments
All this time, that is, from the sixth to the ninth hour (in our opinion, from noon to three o'clock in the afternoon), a sign of sorrow was manifested - the sun darkened, and darkness fell across the whole earth. Many famous historians and philosophers of that time became witnesses of this. So, for example, the philosopher Dionysius the Areopagite, who was then still a pagan, while in Egypt, said about the coming darkness: "Either the Creator suffers, or the world is destroyed."
At about nine o'clock the Savior “came to himself” and loudly exclaimed: “Eli, Eli! Lama sawahfani? That is: My God, My God! why did you forsake me? (Matthew 27:46). According to the Church Fathers' interpretation, this cry expressed the human nature of Christ, which is inherent in despair. At the same time, with these words, the Lord once again reminded people of His God-manhood, because He turned to His Heavenly Father.
Anticipating the last moments of His suffering, and who had not taken vinegar before, the Savior said: "I am thirsty." One of the soldiers soaked a sponge in a drink and held it on a spear to the lips of Christ. Having drunk the cup of bitterness to the bottom in the literal and figurative sense, the Lord uttered the last words on the cross: “It is finished … Father! Into Thy hands I commit My spirit. " Yes, the atonement for human sins was accomplished and God Himself did it. The Roman centurion who saw this said: "Truly this man was a righteous man."
To be sure of the death of the Crucified One of the soldiers pierced His rib, from which blood and water flowed out - according to one of the interpretations, symbols of the future sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism.
At the moment when Christ gave up the spirit, the sky darkened, the veil in the temple of Jerusalem was torn in two, the stones split, many tombs were opened and the revived righteous came out of them. Thus, the path of the Savior's suffering ended.
In the evening after the execution, at the request of one of the secret disciples of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea, His body was given to those close to him. After the necessary ritual of anointing with incense, the body of the Savior was wrapped in a shroud and placed in a coffin carved into the rock … The time for the triumph of life was approaching.
MILOV Sergey