It Had Been An Exhausting Night Of Prayer, But Y'shua Stood Strong, Obedient Unto Death.

It was around 1 am and, so far, it had been an exhausting night of prayer, but Y'shua stood strong from the encouragement and strengthening, he got from his attending angels. Y'shua began admonishing his disciples for sleeping and not praying with him, when their attention turned to the sound of the Temple Guard and some Gentile Mercenaries rushing to confront them. The disciples were astonished by the simple uncaring customary kiss upon the cheeks of Y'shua, by which Judah signaled to the guard, as to which one was to be arrested.

“Judah, with a kiss you betray the Son of Man?”

Immediately, Simon Peter picked up his sword and cut off the ear of one of the Temple Guard. With outstretched arms and stepping between his disciples and the Guardsmen, Y'shua said, "Stop this, now! This is not part of My Father's Plan". Y'shua, after picking up the severed ear, reached over and healed the wounded guard. Y'shua turned to the arresting contingent.

“Have you come out with swords and clubs, as you would against a common criminal? Every day I was with you in the Temple, yet you did not lay a finger on Me. But this hour has been appointed as yours, along with the power of darkness.”

Giving himself freely over to the Guard, he was taken to the house of the former High Priest, Annas, and then to the current High Priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin Court. For over five hours, Y'shua was illegally interrogated and verbally and physically abused, ending with Caiaphas enquiring of Y'shua,

“I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

Jesus said to him,

“You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his robes and said,

“He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”

During this moment, many of the Sanhedrin remembered the Law stating,

"The High Priest shall not let the hair of their heads hang loose, and not tear his clothes, lest he die, and wrath come upon all the congregation."

They silently gasped at Caiaphas' severe violation of the Law prohibiting the deliberate tearing of the High Priest clothes, but didn't say anything to derail putting this Y'shua to death, remembering that Caiaphas once said,

"Don't you realize that it is better for us that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

After the decision to petition the Romans to put Y'shua to death, they sent him to his first of two meetings with the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, Pontias Pilate.

After finding that Y'shua committed no crime worthy of death, Pilate attempted to wash his hands of the situation and sent Y'shua to King Herod. However, Y'shua refused to answer any of Herod's questions, so he sent him back to Pilate, who proclaimed Y'shua's innocence. It was at this time that Pilate said,

"It is customary to release a criminal during your feast. Should I release this Y'shua?

The crowd's response was quick and decisive.

"Crucify Him!!!! We don't want Y'shua!"

followed by

"We want Barabbas! "

But yet, at the urging of the crowd, Pilate handed him over to be whipped to the limit of the Law, which is 39 lashes and be crucified. During this beating, the Roman soldiers formed a crown of thorns and pressed it deeply into the flesh of Y'shua's head and mock him, saying,

"Hail King Y'shua!"

Afterwards, at about 11am, Y'shua, severely beaten and surely very weak from the loss of blood, was forced to carry the cross member of his crucifixion stake, to the site called Golgotha, outside the gates of Jerusalem. Somewhere, along the way, the Roman soldiers force a foreigner, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross for Y'shua, the rest of the way.

As noon approached, nails were driven through the hands and feet of Y'shua, to hold him to the crucifixion stake. Then the crossed crucifixion stake was erected between two criminals and there they stayed, for the next three hours. What started out as a crucifixion, in the scorching sun, ended up with darkness, by the end.

During this time, Y'shua uttered,

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Y'shua was signifying, that even though it appeared to the Messianic Believers as premeditated murder, it was indeed Man-Slaughter, allowing the Jews relief of the righteous retaliation of the act of Murder.

Then one of the criminals who was hanged beside him blasphemed Him, saying,

"If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."

But the other criminal, answered and rebuked him, saying,

"Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong."

Then he said to Jesus,

"Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."

And Y'shua said to him,

"Be assured, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Sometime around 3pm, Yahweh, acknowledged that the sin offering was sufficient and separated his fullness out and away and placed the sins of mankind upon Y'shua. Feeling very anguished from his Father's withdraw and the weight of mankind's sins upon him, Y'shua began to look all around and then upwards to Heaven. He then cried out,

"God? .... God? ..... Why have you left me?"

Being left with only his humanity, in rapid succession, he said,

"I thirst"

"It is finished."

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

... and Y'shua died upon the Altar of God, as the ultimate sin sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked for the body of Y'shua. He quickly purchased a one piece linen and with the help of the disciples, he wrap his body and buried Y'shua, within his own grave.

All this was done, before six o'clock, the beginning of Passover, when the children of Israel were looking for and sweeping up leftover leaven and hiding it away, in a cloth, for the short time, until the Feast of First Fruits, the next Sunday after Passover, when they would remove the cloth, from its hiding place, where their father had replaced it with a gift.

Additional Interesting Points

1. It is interesting to note that according to the Law, it was the acting High Priest, Caiaphas, that should have been put to death, when he illegally tore his priestly garments. In contrast, it was Y'shua who was put to death. His Priestly garment was not torn. John records this, regarding the soldiers who crucified Y'shua,

“...they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

The allusion to the Psalm is certainly intended to indicate that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic promise but interestingly, this detail also confirms he Messiah’s perfection with regard to this aspect of the priestly holiness code.

Again, in contrast, Caiaphas violated the requirements of his office by rejecting the Law as well as in rejecting the claims of the Messiah Himself and his arrogant passing of judgment on behalf of God and standing in evaluation over the very Messiah to which his office was to appoint.

2. Also, please note Y'shua means "Yahweh's Salvation", while Barabbas means "The Son of The Father." So, in reality, at the end of the trials, they weren't saying, "We don't want Y'shua!" followed by "We want Barabbas! " Instead, they were actually saying

"We don't want Yahweh's salvation!"

and

"We want the Son of the Father!"

Were they rejecting Yahweh's plan of Salvation and proclaiming that they wanted the son of their own father, Satan?

3. Most scholars believe that Simon of Cyrene was chosen to help with the cross carrying, strictly because he wore the clothes of a non-Jew, signifying that he was a gentile. It this prophesying that the gentiles must join the Messiah and carry the cross in their daily walk?

... and that's what you'll find, When You Search For The Truth.