Christ’s Sacrifice Begins at Gethsemane

Omniscient (all knowing), and therefore fully apprised of a much more comprehensive history of Herod’s Temple and its conditions than that known by mankind as well as understanding much more concerning the various conditions surrounding His atonement [see Luke 18:31-34], and yet keeping most all of these details to Himself, Christ continued walking with His disciples.  Their journey had commenced upon leaving the upper room where they had just completed their celebration of the Passover and had finished singing a hymn or two together according to the Passover custom.  After walking through part of Jerusalem City and out through its eastern gate, their roadway descended further into the Kedron Valley.

     Then, crossing the bridge earlier spoken of at the blood reddened stream Kedron, this close-knit group of faithful men walked a narrow roadway leading up a rise and branching into the foothills of Olivet.  Continuing on the hillside pathway close to sunset, Herod’s Temple would come into view.  The higher trail elevation possibly allowed them to see partially over the outer temple wall to view temple gates as well as the east city gate and other gates of the city.  They may have overlooked the Temple’s outermost east gate, called the Gate of the Pure and Just —apparently used mostly by wealthy showy self-righteous worshipers — and further inside, the golden Nicanor Gate along with some of the temple court areas within the sunset lit temple rooftops and terrace walls. 

      Upon reaching a secluded part of the beautiful olive vineyard called the Garden of Gethsemane, they probably sat for a few minutes to rest as a glowing scarlet horizon dimmed to invite nightfall.  Soon after, Jesus looked earnestly upon His disciples and implored them to pray with Him.

     However, while His apostles prayed, periodically they were overcome with sleep, possibly due to the abundant celebration meal.  Undoubtedly their hearts were also extremely heavy from hearing His puzzling words that He should soon leave them.  Awakening them, He asked them to keep watch for Him, but with only brief results as a deep sleep would soon overcome them. [Mark 14:32-42]  Only days later would they meet Jesus again in Galilee after His resurrection, a future reunion He had just promised during their short journey from the upper room [Mark 14:28] — the same future encounter that He would also inform Mary Magdalene and other faithful women about on the very day of His resurrection. [Mark 16:6-8; Matthew 28: 9-10]

     Withdrawing a little distance from the rest of the disciples and accompanied by Peter, James, and John, the Lord now began to be “exceeding sorrowful unto death.” [Mark 14:34].  Then, in His painful initial atoning condition, being much overcome with sorrow, He withdrew further, “about a stone’s cast” away, by Himself to pray.  The Son of God was beginning to experience an unimaginable atoning suffering that only a sinless God can endure.  

     Gethsemane means “oil press,” referring to the stone press used to crush the orchard’s olives, allowing olive oil to flow out through small holes at the base of the press.  The pure first press of oil is called extra virgin oil.  It was used for religious ordinances, for lamplight, and for cooking. [Remarkably, as a cooking oil, it has no harmful cholesterol, no fat, nor any distracting flavor!]  At length, two more oil pressings extract lesser quality oils.  In biblical times, the purest olive oil, some possibly refined at that unpretentious olive grove at Gethsemane, represented the Spirit, and was used by God’s servants to anoint kings and priests by authority from God. [1 Samuel 16:6-13]  Can we conclude that Gethsemane was also highly symbolic of Christ’s sacred mission?— a place where, in extra virgin refinement, the Holy Spirit of a God was also pressed and crushed exceedingly? 

      As Christ’s physical and spiritual endurance waned under His atoning burden, He fell face-down onto the ground in painful torment, praying even more fervently. Undoubtedly, this sacrifice was much more intense than even He, a God, ever expected.  Already suffering deep agony beyond human imagination, Jesus began to sweat great drops of blood. [Luke 22:43-44] 

      The painful grief of the atonement intensified, gripping His soul as if in the vicious sodden jaws of hell itself.  God, His Father, sent the necessary support — a powerful angel to reassure, comfort, and strengthen Him.

As such excruciating trauma [the word “excruciate” actually means “outcome of the cross”] continued to press upon a sinless God, this was an experience of intense spiritual agony beyond any known comparison.  “Father, if thou be willing,” He prayed, “let this cup pass from Me.”  But then, always true to His uncompromising ideals, Jesus continued His plea by praying, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” [see Luke 22:39-53; Mark 14:32-36; John 18:1-12; Matthew 26:36-50] 

      On several occasions the Master clearly taught that “. . . with God, nothing shall be impossible.” [Luke 1:37,18:27; Mark 10:27; Matthew 19:26]  “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross,” faithless onlookers would soon cry out.  Chief Priests who would condemn Him to death would soon stand near the cross raising their voices mockingly, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. . . . He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God.”  Even one of the malefactors crucified beside Him would chide Him for not calling down godly powers and easing their terrible suffering — if in reality He truly was the Messiah. [Matthew 27:41-44]  

     Could the Christ have changed His mind about this atonement and deserted His sweat of blood in Gethsemane, or miraculously come down from the cruel cross?  He was a God and was endowed with “all power. . . both in heaven and on earth.” [Matthew 28:18; D&C– 93:16-17]  He held the keys of hell and death [Revelation 1:18] and of the resurrection [Ezekiel 37:12-14].  Supervised by our Father, He created our earth and many others! [Hebrews 1:1-2]  It may seem obvious that our Savior also had the power to alter anything.  Could He alter this, the blackest and most painful of all experiences on this earth, to one more physically and spiritually suitable? 

     Although Christ had power to lay down His life and take it up again as He once clearly stated [John 10:17-18], He did not have the power to change or alter His atonement.  On the surface, this statement may seem wrong, or seem to be words in a category that Jesus once referred to as a “hard saying”— doctrine that does not seem to fit suitably within the framework of His clearer teachings.  Such hard sayings cause some hearers less seasoned in Christ’s word to back away in bewilderment and disbelief. [John 6:47-69]  However, the following paragraphs should help to clarify this statement. 

     Amidst the tremendous pain of bearing the redeemed world’s sins, grief, pains, and sorrows, Christ, the greatest of all of the children of God sent to this earth, would sweat great beads of atoning blood.  They would seep into the soil at Gethsemane and into the ground near the cross on Calvary.  He pled with our Father that if within all of the eternal laws of the heavens there was any possible righteous means of escaping the awful horror of this travail, let it now be manifest.  I believe Jesus knew that there was no alternative justice that could be enacted.  During those darkest hours when His Father’s comforting spirit, of necessity, had briefly “forsaken” Him [Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34] — having left Him alone in order to fulfill the condescension of atonement — I believe this pleading was merely the momentary grasping at a final straw for relief.  The key word “nevertheless” in Christ’s prayer to His Father tells us how short-lived our beloved Savior’s request was.  Moreover, the fact that Jesus requested from His Father a way of escape clearly indicates that He had no righteous ability in and of Himself to cancel this atonement.  Yet, inasmuch as Jesus is an actual God Himself, fully omnipotent and omniscient in His godly powers, how can this be?  

     In the holy perfection of His righteousness long before our earth was created, Jesus had already spoken and committed to become the Lamb that was to be slain.  An offer made by One full of light and truth and by virtue of the eternal laws of agency — this kind of sure and absolute commitment — as contrary as it may seem to some who read this — cannot be later changed by agency.  After certain special choices of agency have been freely decided, those specific choices have been exhausted; they are used up and no longer exist.  It follows that the future events of truth resulting from that choice are obviously also unalterable due to fixed eternal law. [see D&C– 88:36-39; Revelation 13:8-9] 

     Christ, an Almighty God of unchanging truth, had expended His glorious godly agency offering Himself to atone by crucifixion before the foundations of our world were laid. He thereby accepted and stated this as future truth, which, when known to man, is also called prophesy in relation to this epic event, and that truth, one encompassing nothing less than offering Himself in full atonement, could not be later altered even in the least degree, inasmuch as truth, is a knowledge of things as they have been, as they now are, and as they will be — thus encompassing the past, present, and future [D&C– 93:24].

     Consequently, from earth’s very beginning, prophets could prophesy by the Holy Ghost specific things about Christ and His atoning sacrifice—such prophesy being future truth (things “as they are to come”)—even the very details surrounding His death!  These spiritually prearranged truths would unalterably come to pass according to the spiritual wisdom and fixed foreknowledge of the Father and the Son concerning our earth.
 

“… verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same.  That which breaketh a law and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment.  Therefore, they must remain filthy still.  All kingdoms have a law given; and there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom, and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom. And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions. All beings who abide not in those conditions are not justified.”                               D&C– 88:34-39
 

       Suppose this eternal commitment was not the case, and that Jesus’ agency relative to the atonement and the crucifixion had remained fully intact — that Jesus, due to the yet un-experienced eternal intensity of the pain, or for some other profound reason, suddenly opted out of completing His commitment for atonement; for as our Lord Himself said, “. . . the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [Matthew 26:41]  Then, all of the prophets from the time the world began who prophesied of Christ, His crucifixion, and His taking upon Himself the sins of the faithful, and of the specific details surrounding this sacrificial event (all of this is prophesied in scripture!) would suddenly have become false prophets, and all of their inspired prophesies of Christ’s atonement would be blasphemous lies!  Jesus, God our Father, and even the Holy Ghost who inspires all prophesies — our very Deity — would all have become liars! [Matthew 26:52-54; John 18:11] 

     For this to occur, of course is preposterous.  It is grievous even to consider inasmuch as our Deity are Gods only of truth and cannot lie, and are unchangeable from eternity to eternity. [Titus 1:1-2; D&C– 76:2-4]  Therefore, even if it were possible for this to occur, then our Gods, by suddenly becoming evil liars would cease to be holy Gods; our vast and seemingly endless part of the universe held together by Their formerly almighty power and perfect justice would then become unjust, unholy, and therefore unorganized.  Of necessity, then all known existence would suddenly collapse (to exist, apparently all matter must be organized to some degree in its atomic structure), and the true light within us — our very spirit beings — would be extinguished like the flame of a blown out candle.  Our very selves — organized matter — could no longer exist!  Therefore, everything we know to exist which is upheld in the universe through the perfect interconnected harmony of truth would, of necessity, disappear! [D&C– 88:7-14] 

     Specific revealed prophesies, even if they pertain to detailed events thousands of years into the future — and the scriptures are replete with them — are always linked to fixed unchanging truth which is in perfect harmony with all of the former agency freely exhausted both to create and to preserve them.














 

                                                              Jesus Is Betrayed and Tried

Whether Judas Iscariot learned from Jesus and the other apostles as they associated together concerning the Savior’s plans for them to assemble in the peaceful Garden of Gethsemane after their Passover celebration, or whether Judas left the Passover supper early to wait in the shadows, and then departed to follow them in order to discover where they were going to spend the remainder of that evening, matters little.  The fact is, Judas Iscariot, having previously proven by his choices of agency to be one who would conspire against the Lord on earth, had already willingly covenanted with the Chief Priests to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver [a value today of, perhaps, about $2,000.00 in U.S. money] as prophesied anciently by the prophet Zechariah. [John 6:70-71; Matthew 26:15-16; Zechariah 11:12-13] 

     After the Almighty Son of God had recovered sufficiently from the unimaginably painful sweat of blood and intense sorrow already put upon Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, He went to His sleeping apostles and awakened them saying:

“Arise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray Me.”  And while He yet spake, lo, Judas [Iscariot], one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.  Now he that betrayed Him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He: hold Him fast.  And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master, and kissed Him.  And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?”                                            Matthew 26:46-50

​

     Then, by manifesting spiritual power in further witness of His divinity, the Prince of Peace caused the huge assembly of the Chief Priests, scribes, captains of the Temple Guard, and Elders— His entrappers carrying lanterns and armed with swords and staves — to suddenly fall backward onto the ground as He stepped toward them to offer Himself captive, saying, “I am He.”

     Jesus next rebuked Peter for brandishing a sword in fearless defense of Him after Peter smote and cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, Malchus, who had then stepped boldly forward to take Jesus.  After stooping down and retrieving the bloody ear, and then miraculously restoring it back onto Malchus’ head in the sight of many of that accusing assembly of Chief Priests and officers, the Master announced, ”Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?  When I was daily with you in the Temple, ye stretched forth no hands against Me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” [Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-49]  When evil darkens the mind and hardens the heart against the truth of God, then, miracles and even angelic visits are usually insufficient to persuade a return to righteousness. [John 12:35-43; Exodus 8:16-32; B of M– 1 Nephi 3:28-31 & Helaman 15:17]

“Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?  They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus saith unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, stood with them.  As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground.  Then asked He them again, Whom seek ye?  And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He; if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way: That the saying might be fulfilled which He spake [John 17:12], Of them which Thou gavest Me have I lost none.”

                                 John 18:4-9   [see also John 16:32; Mark 14:27]

      It was now nightfall, yet with the countryside being made visible by the full moon of Passover, Jesus’ disciples scattered to safety, unknowingly fulfilling this prophesy of their preservation. Then the Holy One allowed them to bind His wrists.  With a rope also tied around His neck in the manner of leading a lamb, they led Him from beautiful peaceful Gethsemane, down the hillside and into the ravine [see Lamb symbolism, Psalms 23:4]. 

      Compelled by His captors, Jesus was taken back across the flowing Kedron where the party ascended up from the ravine to the Temple, probably entering through the Temple’s northern gate where the assembly crossed the Temple’s outer courtyard and passed through the Tadi (Lamb’s) Gate, the gate through which the lambs of the Passover were always led and handed over to the temple priests for sacrifice.  It appears that this course was taken as a humiliating route that would compare Him with the sacrificial lambs that were slaughtered. 

     As their final insult, Jesus was probably then further led through the innermost Sacrifice Gate, a gate opening to inner courts leading to the sacrificial alter and to the temple passageways that conveyed them to their final destination — the nearby Sanhedrin High Court.  However, by taking this sacrificial path, His accusers unwittingly and literally fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy of Jesus, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” 

     When a sheep is first brought to shearing it struggles to get free, but as soon as the shearing of its wool begins, it is apparently so frightened it suddenly “freezes.”  It will not move nor make any sound]

“Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted…. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”               Isaiah 53:4; see also Isaiah 53:6

     Let us pause momentarily to again consider some vital facts.  Throughout biblical history, our Lord, Jesus Christ, was frequently likened to a lamb.  Meek and mild in manner, He followed the Heavenly Voice of His Keeper and Protector whose rod and staff were a constant comfort to Him.

     Today most Christians still subscribe to a version of Christ’s birth into this world that has evolved and been popularized over many centuries by the Christian world.  This portrayal asserts that having failed to obtain lodging at the overflowing inn at Bethlehem — a small village with likely only one small public boarding facility — Mary and Joseph spent the night in a wood boarded stable behind the Inn where a wooden manger became a crib for baby Jesus.  However, careful research provides us a more revealing portrait of this hallowed event. 

     In Jesus’ day, Bethlehem, a “little town” situated between two adjoining hills was so inconsiderable that it was merely a small village abode of farmers and shepherds in relation to Jerusalem, which was located only five miles north.  David, the great grandson of Ruth and Boaz, was the biblical shepherd boy later chosen by God and anointed by the prophet Samuel to become David the King.  David had grown up in Bethlehem.  Therefore this village was later referred to as the City of David, thus giving it more prominence in those earlier days.  Its outer shepherd hills commanded views of Bethlehem and of the ancient and well traveled main road which passed nearby leading north from Jerusalem to Hebron.

     Small as it was, Bethlehem, known in earlier times as Ephrath [Hebrew, meaning “fruitful place”], became linked with even more abundant biblical history.  While Jacob was traveling this main road from Bethel toward Bethlehem he was obliged to camp due to his beloved wife Rachel’s ordeal of childbirth.  Soon after, however, while giving birth to their son Benjamin, Rachel unexpectedly died there.  Further alongside this roadway near Bethlehem, Rachel was buried.  Distraught Jacob soon erected a special monument at her grave site in the customary form of a costly pillar, a place that would later become the famous landmark called Rachel’s Tomb. 

     The touching story of wise Naomi, the mother-in-law to faithful loving widowed Ruth, may be readily brought to mind as Bethlehem was Naomi’s former home where the two women returned from Moab together to dwell during the harvest season.  This was when the Moabite, Ruth, won the favor of kind Boaz after gleaning corn and barley in his fields — land which today can still be sighted from some nearby hills of Bethlehem.  Moreover, just south of Bethlehem near the road to Hebron, three gigantic cisterns known as Solomon's Pools may still be seen today.  They are the remaining principal water storage containers of an aqueduct system built during Roman times to supply much desired water south to Herod’s nearby hilltop Herodian Palace, and north to the wealthy upper city of Jerusalem where another of his lavish palaces was located.

     In Jesus’ day, beyond the cluster of Bethlehem’s common concrete plastered rock dwellings extended bountiful rolling pastureland interspersed with weather-worn limestone rock cliffs.  Over the centuries, eroding water carved out many large caves within these escarpments.  Abundant grazing meadowland in proximity with these caves made Bethlehem an ideal place to raise sheep.  At night and in cold stormy weather, shepherds would drive their flocks into these caverns to shelter them and to protect them from predators.  A single sheepherder or a couple of well trained sheep dogs could easily watch over and safeguard an entire small flock when confined inside a sheep cave, still referred to today as a “stable.” 

     At the cave entrance, a campfire was usually kindled in cold weather.  In many stables were large stones which had been hollowed out into stone feeding and watering troughs called “mangers.”  Used in winter for sheep, but sometimes for cattle, these rock mangers could be emptied of fodder or water and pushed into the campfire flames to heat them.  Later, when moved further back into the cave, the massive mangers could provide welcome warmth throughout the night.  During the spring lambing season, newborn lambs in need of special care were wrapped in long pieces of cloth called “swaddling cloths” and then laid in a warm manger where they could be cared for. 

     And so it was that Mary “being great with child” and Joseph, her husband, having found no room to rent at the small Bethlehem inn, were compassionately offered by the innkeepers a certain cave in the nearby hills for shelter and comfort.  Realizing that childbirth was imminent, Joseph may have successfully located a mid-wife to accompany them on the trail leading to their unusual make-shift hotel.  Although winter had passed, likely the nights and early mornings were quite chilly in these springtime cave stables.  One can imagine that Joseph soon had a warm fire glowing near the stable entrance and had placed one or more of the rock mangers in its flames while he heated or cooked food, or, perhaps, prepared warm drinks. 

     Not long after the birth of Jesus, these hillsides would suddenly become brightened with the spectacular glory of hosts of heavenly angels singing anthems of praise — a miraculous event witnessed by shepherds throughout Bethlehem’s hills.  Some amazed shepherds would leave their flocks in the care of their sheep dogs in order to search for one particular cave over which a very bright star high in the heavens also bore witness of the divine birth of a godly Prince — a King of Heaven and Earth — the unblemished firstborn Lamb of God, who, as the angels

announced, would be found wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger!  After this glorious night, Mary and Joseph were probably soon invited to stay at a kind shepherd’s family home in Bethlehem. 

      Many weeks later, righteous wise men being devoted to a faithful study of the scriptures and seeking to understand the prophetic relationship this written word had with astronomical signs in the heavens, became convinced of the birth of the divine Savior of the World.  Anxiously they departed from their home countries in caravans traveling far from the east seeking the place where a prophesied heavenly “star” marked the place of Christ’s birth.  Eventually their faithful quest led them to Joseph’s own new place of Bethlehem residence. [see Matthew 2:10-15]  There these magi kings offered precious gifts to the Son of God, kneeling humbly before Him in joyous devotion and worship. 

     [The prophesied “star” sign, according to some of the most recent and noteworthy research, was probably the bright comet seen throughout most of the ancient world.  It was reported to have originated on or about April 6, in the year designated today as being 5 B.C. and was conspicuously visible to the naked eye for 70 days.  As the telescope had not yet been invented, comets were believed to be moving stars.  However, stars are fixed, that is they ordinarily never move through the heavens as this star sign was said to have done.  This date has been recently calculated by astrological computers that can project star charts for any given year and day in history, thus showing different times for some events than those times recorded by some of the world’s evolving and inadvertently corrupted or inaccurate ancient calendars.] 

     Thus came to pass some of the marvelous prophesied events surrounding Jesus’ celebrated entry into the world.  Let us now return to our vicarious walk with the Lord, Jesus Christ, decades after His birth.

     Jesus openly asserted His power and kingship as the Son of God, yet, now was passive enough to allow the judgment of His own crucifixion to take place as foreordained and prophesied. [Matthew 1:21, 20:17-19; John 10:17-18; B of M- 1 Nephi 11:13-21,10:4-8 & 2 Nephi 2:5-10 & Mosiah 3:7-17]

     Caiaphas, the Herod Temple Chief High Priest, and Annas, a former Temple High Priest who was Caiaphas’ father-in-law and who still exerted much influence among the conforming Jews, were both Sadducees, a Jewish religious aristocracy who did not believe in immortality or resurrection.  These men were rightly considered heretics by the Hebrews.  They had lately met with the Chief Priests and scribes, who, together with them, conspired to murder Jesus. [Matthew 26:3-5, 57-66, 20:18]  These leaders feared that Christ’s fame and doctrine would eventually defrock them of their pious authority.  For they knew well of His miracles — even acknowledging this among themselves — yet, they willingly turned against the plain truth and despised Him. [John  12:42-43]

     Although those filling the prestigious office of Chief High Priest of the Temple were now selected and appointed by Roman authority, apparently, for the sake of some of the righteous in Israel, God still respected this high office sufficiently to cause the Chief High Priest Caiaphas to prophesy that one man must die not only for the Jewish nation, but also for all of the children of God! [John 11:47-53, John 18:14]  Clearly, this High Priest was not righteous however, and was unworthy to receive additional revelation that might otherwise have greatly benefited Israel.  It appears, except in this one cited instance (which may have sealed Caiaphas’ spiritual condemnation due to his heartless failure to acknowledge that this revelation referred to Jesus as the true Savior of Mankind) that much of the word of God and  other prophesy was instead given through John the Baptist [see Luke 3:2].  That is until John was beheaded by request of the evil seductive dancing maiden Salomi, daughter of the wicked woman Herodias.  John had immediately incurred Herodias’ wrath when he fearlessly and openly condemned King Herod Antipas’ adulterous relationship with her [Matthew 14:3-11].

     Presently, The Nazarene Carpenter was led to a large chamber within the Temple’s inner adjacent courts known as the Chamber of Hewn Stone or Caiaphas’ Palace [later, this high court assembled in a lavish, arched, high ceiling chamber forming the east end of the Royal Porch].  It is then probable that proud Annas confronted Jesus to ridicule Him before His arraignment. [John 18:13, 24] 

     Christ was next brought to the rash and quickly convened nighttime Jewish Supreme Court summoned by Caiaphas.  This was an elite religious body called the Sanhedrin where as many as seventy-one priests and officials might await usual cases as they gathered in semi-circular seating.  However, being the Passover eve holiday, it is likely that significantly fewer, and perhaps only evil and indoctrinated members of the Sanhedrin court sympathetic with their villainous cause against Jesus were summoned to appear at this late nightmarish trial. 

     One of the Lord’s disciples acquainted with Caiaphas (probably young John, from whose gospel epistle we have an eyewitness biblical account of the trial) was allowed to enter the chamber entry hall.  Cautious Peter waited outside the door.  Presently, the disciple went to the door, spoke to her that kept the door, and brought Peter inside, for it was cold.  In earshot of the proceedings, these two disciples warmed themselves by a fire of coals which had been kindled by the temple officers.  

     Soon afterwards, the High Priest in charge, Caiaphas, summoned Jesus.  The High Priest’s voice echoed hollow against the hewn stone walls of the huge room.  He asked Jesus what He taught, and was answered by the Son of God that he should inquire of His disciples as He had done nothing in secret, but always taught openly in the synagogues and in the Temple.  Christ may have said this to make it obvious that he was not being permitted the usual legal representation of witnesses.  Yet, for this indirect response, a court officer smote Jesus with the palm of his hand.  Pre-assigned false witnesses were summoned to accuse Him, but their testimonies had to be heard independently, one at a time, and in the end their lying words did not agree.  Even this seedy group of Sanhedrin could not get around the outcome of this unexpected perjures event.  Jesus said nothing in response to their false accusations.

     Finally, the infuriated High Priest Caiaphas asked, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”  Jesus replied, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the clouds of heaven.” [JST- Matthew 1:36],   Caiaphas, seething with anger, rent his clothes and said, “What need have we of further witnesses?  Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?”  And although neither Caiaphas nor the Sanhedrin had legal authority [John 18:31], in their beguiling wrath they illegally condemned Jesus guilty of death.   

     Jesus had already known that faithful Peter would fearlessly slash off a man’s ear in His defense, and that Peter was also determined to boldly follow Him to His first trial.  Therefore, earlier that evening, as they walked to Gethsemane in conversation, Jesus told (commanded) Peter, “. . . this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.” [Mark 14:30-31; Matthew 26:34]  Unless Peter adamantly denied knowing Jesus (in one sense, no man truly knew the profound intellect of Jesus), I believe Peter would have willingly suffered death along with the Savior at that time. [Matthew 26:35]  However, by obeying this directive which Peter, upon first thought may have considered to be only a prophetic prediction (I believe that soon after Peter realized it was both a prediction and a commandment and therefore  obeyed the Lord), Peter’s life was preserved, and the earlier quoted prophesy assuring preservation of the lives of Christ’s faithful disciples at that time continued to remain valid.

     Those of the Sanhedrin and the others spoken of earlier who held Jesus captive for the next few hours, probably further animated by the evil spirits that hated Jesus [see insert text on this page], again spoke blasphemous words and spit upon Him, taunting Him and slapping Him with the palms of their hands.  Because He would not cower away, but, as prophesy discloses, boldly held His head up with “His face as a flint,” they beat and kicked Him all the more and pulled hair from His scalp and beard.  After blindfolding the Man of Light, they then smote Him on the face, saying, “Prophesy, who is it that smote Thee?”

“...thou art My God… be not far from Me… Many bulls have compassed Me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round.  They gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”  [David’s psalms of prophesy concerning Jesus’ crucifixion— Psalms 22:10-13]   [Peter, who walked and talked with Christ, also described Satan as] “a roaring lion, who walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”                1 Peter 5:8 

Bashan was a fertile area to the east of the Jordan River, where the cattle raised were huge in size.  Baal worshipers were found there who also worshipped the demon spirits that often entered into these cattle.  On the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, these Satanic spirits apparently rejoiced and may have celebrated causing these animals to gape and bellow fiercely, much like lions. Or, the Satanic spirits that entered into many that taunted and tortured Jesus may have been likened to the ferocious possessed bulls of Bashan]

     The Holy One was probably now placed in a basket and lowered into a cold wet dungeon without any door or window where he spent the remainder of that night hungry and shivering. 

As soon as daybreak permitted, dissipated Jesus, his body, head, and face bruised and swollen, was lifted out of the dark prison pit, led away, and delivered to the nearby Roman procurator Pontius Pilot (Roman military governor of greater Judea) for final judgment. 

      Meanwhile, Judas Iscariot discovered that the Savior had been condemned to death and had been led away to civil trial.  Realizing that Jesus had not been delivered from the beatings and humiliation of Caiaphas’ mocking court, he became filled with regret.  No doubt Judas reflected upon the conversation that had taken place after he led the condemning band to the Son of God that previous night in his act of villainy when Jesus had greeted him, saying, “Friend, wherefore art Thou come?”  And Judas had then called out, “Master, Master,” and drew near to execute the treacherous sign of the kiss.  But Jesus, knowing all that would then transpire, replied, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?”  Yes, in his mania, Judas had delivered the Lord by night to those who sought His life. 

     Perhaps Judas thought he could repent of his wickedness.  He took the thirty pieces of silver and went directly to the Chief Priests and Elders at the Temple and offered the bag of money back to them saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed Innocent Blood.”  But they, being evil and heartless men, replied, ”What is that to us?”  So, Judas, finding that his repentance was too late and of no avail, in sore torment for his actions threw the bag of money down, spilling the coins upon the stone floor, left the Temple, and went out and hung himself.    

     Pilot found the death charges brought by the Sanhedrin against Jesus of perverting the nation and calling Himself a king (the most condemning charges that the Sanhedrin could now

summon) to be groundless.  Discovering Jesus to be Galilean [Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, but raised in Nazareth of Galilee] and under jurisdiction of the greater authority of Herod Antipas, Pilot sent Him to Antipas’ palace at the nearby Antonia Fortress for trial. 

      Herod was glad to see Jesus for he hoped to see a miracle performed.  Having already accepted some of John’s prophetic words as divine, and then later hearing of Christ’s mighty miraculous works of healing, Herod, along with some others, wondered if Jesus was actually a resurrected John the Baptist, the prophet of great spiritual works who he, Herod, with some regret, had been tricked into beheading by the evil woman Herodias!  For Herod, as ruthless and heartless as he was at times, was sorry about having to put John to death. [Matthew 14:1-9]  But as the Chief Priests now vehemently accused Him, Jesus calmly stood before the powerful ruler in silence.  Disappointed, Herod, with his men of war, arrayed Him with a “purple robe,” mocked and toyed with Him in jest by bowing to Him as a king, and sent Him back to Pilot. [Luke 23:7-11] 

     Then Pilot told the Savior’s captors that neither he nor Herod could find any lawful fault in Jesus relative to those things that the Sanhedrin accused Him of.  Likewise aware of some of the countless miracles attributed to Jesus — no doubt including the very recent, undeniable, and famed restoration of life to the once dead Lazarus — it appears that Pilot gradually became fearful of this “prophet” called Jesus.  Pilot soon concluded that Jesus was not “. . . worthy of death . . . I will therefore chastise Him and release Him.” [Luke 23:16]  For it was customary to free one of the condemned prisoners as an act of compassion at the time of Passover.  However, the Chief Priests and their assembly incited the Jewish gathering that they should instead release Barabas, a murderer who had recently led an insurrection against Herod.  

     Jesus, still dressed in the “kingly robe,” probably a makeshift Roman officer’s red or purple cape, was now forced to hold a reed as a scepter while Pilot’s soldiers bowed before Him jeering and laughing.  He trembled under the painful needles of a thorny “crown” that they fabricated to press with insulting cruelty into His brow.  The soldiers beat upon the wreath forcing many long thorns to break off after piercing into the tender flesh of his head and into the soft bones of his skull.  Spurred on by unseen evil spirits delighting in this torture, sadistic soldiers badgered Jesus— again pushing, kicking, pulling out the hair of His beard, and slapping and spitting upon Him.  After suffering intense brutality at length and perhaps much other devilish torture we know nothing about, any other mortal man might have already succumbed to their brutal battering and fallen unconscious onto the cold stone floor.

     Hoping to win sympathy from the assembly, Pilot now had Jesus led forth wearing the kingly robe and the crown of thorns.  His bruised and blood dripping face was clearly visible to the on-looking crowd.  Then Pilot announced, “Behold the Man!  I find no fault in him.”  But the Jewish assembly answered him saying, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” 

     Upon hearing this divine claim, Pilot became “more afraid” [John 19:8] and so they went out a third time to the judgment hall where Pilot again intently questioned Jesus, asking, “Whence art Thou?”  But Christ gave him no answer.  Then Pilot said to Him, ”Speakest Thou not unto me?  Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?”  But Jesus astonished the powerful ruler by replying, “Thou couldst have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above; therefore he [Caiaphas] that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin.” 

     After hearing this, Pilot wanted all the more to release Him.  He left the judgment hall and again stepped onto his balcony, calling to the people, “What will ye then that I shall I do unto Him whom ye call King of the Jews?”  They immediately cried out, “Crucify Him!”  Bewildered Pilot asked loudly, “Why?  What evil hath He done?”  And they cried out all the more, ”Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”  When troubled Pilot saw their tumult and that he could not persuade them of justice, he called for a basin of water and washed his hands in full view of the frenzied multitude, saying,  “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”  Then answered all the people there assembled saying, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” [Matthew 27:24-25] 

     Inasmuch as Jesus had personally brought to His fellow Jews His gospel of true salvation which even included the doctrine of performing baptisms for their dead ancestry, in their unrepentant wickedness they, in anger, had rejected it all.  Remarkably, they had acknowledged that Christ had performed many miracles, yet, in the very face of undeniable truth, they deliberately and stubbornly opposed Him.  Their forefathers had also murdered many holy prophets!  Therefore, the blood of all the prophets who their forefathers had rejected from Adam, even down to their own generation, justly came upon them! [Luke 11:48-51; Matthew 27:24-25 ] 

     It is important to recognize that this curse came upon a great number of Jews including the Chief Priests who deliberately rejected Christ, but not upon those few who righteously regarded Him or those righteous who were baptized members  of His Church.  How many later generations this curse cast its shadow upon is not biblically mentioned.  However the curse is obviously nullified for those descendants of these wicked Jews who are willing to hear the truth of the gospel, repent, and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their True Messiah. 

     Pilot reluctantly released Barabas to the incensed Jews, and pronounced crucifixion as Christ’s penalty.   

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                                                             Christ’s Terrible Crucifixion

After His sentencing by Pilot, the hands of the Son of God were tied high above His head at a whipping post.  His appearance was already beyond recognition, his head and much of His body bloodied and swollen with bleeding abrasions and black and blue with bruises.  Now, not only was Jesus’ backside, but His entire torso subjected to the flesh ripping lashes caused by the pieces of bone and metal or lead sadistically tied into the long leather whipping strips of the Roman flagrum. 

     This inhumane torture was wickedly devised to strip skin from the body transforming muscle into a bloody mass and to fully expose the underlying bone including even that of the rib cage, and It rendered some victims unconscious before it ended.  We have no record of the number of gouging lashes Jesus’ body took, but Roman lashing experience proved that forty lashes with this exceptionally cruel whip usually resulted in death.  Therefore Roman law held the maximum sentence at thirty-nine.  Pilot found no guilt in Christ.  In fact, Pilot may have finally come to fear Him as truly divine, so the number Pilot sentenced Christ may have been significantly less, but even a few bone exposing lashes were shockingly terrible, leaving the victim to stagger and tremble in acute unrelenting pain.

     Instead of exacting revenge or simply escaping much of the unbelievably excessive abuse of these dreadful days, the Son of God suffered hours of ridicule and vicious bodily assault and torture.  Fire could have enveloped Christ’s enemies ignited by His very thought!  Yet, the Great Creator of this earth allowed Himself to be buffeted with cruelty, spit upon, and mocked.  He had told Peter when He was about to be taken captive at Gethsemane, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?”  One Roman Legion acted as a protective garrison overlooking the Temple and consisted of about six thousand men plus cavalry. “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? . . . the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”  [Matthew 26:53-54; see also John 18:11]

     For sanitation reasons, the Roman place of crucifixion was found barely outside the city of Jerusalem, a limestone quarry once used for Herod the Great’s ambitious building projects.  Although a large quantity of stone blocks had already been cut from it, when the remaining rock was found to be flawed, the stone quarry was abandoned.  During the reign of Herod Antipas the old quarry, having become useless for extracting stone, was converted into a convenient place of crucifixion.  Near its slightly ascending approach (Calvary is not on a hill; it is a traditional misnomer that it ever was) this rocky barren field of torture has a very prominent naturally shaped outcropping of limestone rock harboring weathered sunken holes.  As one approaches Calvary on this main roadway, in one particular place, flawed cavities are suddenly confronted that depict the eerie and unmistakable appearance of a huge weathered human skull.  Therefore, the place of crucifixion soon became referred to as Golgotha (Aramaic), or Calvary (Latin), meaning “the place of the skull.” 

     A prophetic verse written long before the time of Christ and once quoted by Him reads, “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” [Psalms 118:22; Matthew 21:42; 1 Peter 2:5-8]  Jesus was seen by the world as undesirable and therefore rejected, just as was the flawed limestone of His crucifixion place.  Yet, able to make a perfect edifice from that which the world rejects as flawed, Christ became the Chief Cornerstone to which all the later placed stones of His Church — His faithful apostles, prophets, and saints — owe true homage. [Ephesians 2:19-22]  

     Not far from this execution area, but still outside of Jerusalem City, a somewhat secluded spot of land had been fashioned into a beautiful garden where some costly burial sepulchers were excavated in the adjacent limestone cliffs.  Joseph, of the Jewish town called Arimathaea, a lawyer, and probably a wealthy tin manufacturer with mines across the Mediterranean, perhaps in Italy — a faithful relative of Jesus — had purchased at least one of these fine burial vaults, but he would soon willingly contribute it for Jesus’ burial.

     Escorted by soldiers, the condemned were forced to carry their own crossbeam (horizontal part of the cross) from the flogging posts located within or very near Antonia Fortress to Golgotha, a walking distance of about a half mile.  Jesus was stripped of the “kingly cloak,” but perhaps not of the thorny crown, then possibly doused with a bucket or two of water to remove some of the pus and blood, and dressed back into His own clothes.  Without delay, The Man of Light soon struggled under the weight of a heavy crossbeam.  Stumbling and falling frequently due to His pre-atoning suffering and physically broken condition, and therefore too weak to continue carrying the estimated forty to sixty pound beam, a man of Cyrene (North Africa), likely Jewish or Greek, named Simon, who was traveling through the area, possibly a Passover celebrant, was compelled by the soldiers to bear the beam, walking with Jesus for the remainder of the journey.

     Upon arrival at Golgotha the Holy One’s physical torture, as inconceivable as it may seem, was now only to increase.  Except for several guard buildings and numerous blood-stained

crucifixion posts lining the busy adjacent roadway — some possibly complete with a crossbar and a decomposing crucified body hanging on them — this eerie rock strewn field was treeless and desolate. 

     Four soldiers would soon remove and laughingly tear Jesus’ bloodstained raiment into four pieces, one piece for each soldier to use in their lot casting game.  They would preserve the Savior’s unusually desirable seamless coat in one piece however, for the prime winning lot.  All this was also done according to prophesy. [John 19:23-24; Matthew 27:35; Psalms 22:18] 

     It should be apparent by now that our Savior’s entire life was filled with symbolic types that witnessed of His glory and divinity as the Son of God.  It is beyond the scope of this book to do more than to touch upon a few of these symbolic patterns which permeate Christ’s profound gospel history. [2 Nephi 11:4]  Little reflection is required, however, to associate this torn garment with His four limbs torn by nails; or to compare it with the earth, often referred to in scripture as having four corners, quarters, or parts [Revelation 7:1, 20:8; B of M– 2 Nephi 21:12; D&C- 124: 3, 128] that resulted when, in the days of Peleg, after the arrogant construction of the great Tower of Babel, the earth’s single land mass was torn apart by godly command — a rapidly forced “continental drifting” that formed the many varied land masses, peninsulas, and islands found worldwide today. [Genesis 10:25, 11:1-9]  Christ’s perfectly seamless coat, preserved and cherished even by disconsolate Roman guards, might also be a type to remind us of the seamlessly complete eternal life made possible by His perfect atonement which we also strive to win and cherish.  His coat might be a symbol of the seamless restoration embodied by the resurrection —His perfect power over death — clothing the spirits and reviving the ashen and disintegrating bones of every mortal inhabitant of earth.  It may remind us that even this world will one day resurrect in spectacular celestial glory to become seamless and extraordinarily complete beyond mortal comprehension.  In mundane terms, that transformation shall produce a spectacular sphere made like crystal — like a glistening sea of glass and fire! [D&C– 130:6-9]

     Furthermore, just as a prophesied star signified the place where Christ was born, so did an enigmatic star (unnoted by the less sophisticated astronomers of the ancient Jerusalem era) likewise signify the beginning time of our Savior’s crucifixion!  Moreover, along with the hours of raging weather ensuing immediately upon Christ’s death, evidently an unrecognized lunar eclipse began, contributing to the gloom of this event as its dark shadow grievously encroached until by dusk it cloaked Jerusalem’s rising full moon!  Without doubt, this celestial shadow was a second solemn celestial witness of Jesus’ mortal demise, a token of His body darkened by bruising and death, which, just before sundown, was mournfully sealed within a holy sepulcher.  

     In anticipation of their sordid game, excepting His loincloth kept intact by Jewish moral law, all of Jesus’ remaining raiment was now roughly removed.  He was next pulled onto the ground forcing His raw bloody back into the dirt as His bruised arms were tightly held by soldiers and positioned upon the crossbeam.  Another soldier’s strong hand firmly gripped the thick wooden handle of a heavy hammer while his other fingers positioned a Roman nail [a four sided iron spike] in the center of Christ’s palm.  The relentless slaying torture of piercing Roman nails then seared through one trembling hand and then the other.  Lightning hot pain soon shot with tenfold greater intensity at Christ’s wrists as additional securing nails passed through them, grazing the medial nerves with incomprehensible physical agony, releasing spurts of blood as the iron spikes anchored into the heavy timber.  Loved ones allowed to view the scene under the scrutiny of other posted Roman guards must have turned their faces away in horror, cringing in tearful sorrow at each iron smashing thud of the cruel hammer, perhaps each strike accompanied by Jesus’ involuntary cry. 

     To be doubly sure that His body weight did not allow the nails to tear through his hands as the crossbeam was raised, the crucifixion ordeal required that the wrists also be securely nailed to it,  This wrist nailing was known in Roman times as “placing the nail in the sure place.” [Isaiah 22:23]  The blood dripping crossbeam with the Savior thus attached, was then lifted up, perhaps by means of a rope and pulley, and set into notches or an ironwork bracket on an upright solid post which previously had its bottom end securely fixed in the ground. 

     The cross used by the Romans was “T” shaped and called a Tau Cross from the Greek letter “T” [anciently, the last Hebrew alphabet letter, meaning “all is fulfilled”], rather than the crucifix depictions that later become vogue in Christian art and writings.  A wooden piece on the post acted as a small support seat for the crucified to allow less suffocation, but it deceptively prolonged their life and their suffering.

     It was at about the Jewish sixth hour (about noon) that Christ’s crossbeam was lifted up and secured in place, and Jesus’ feet were then painfully nailed onto the vertical post.  Finally, by means of ascending a ladder, a placard worded by Pilot in the three common languages of the day was affixed directly above Christ’s head identifying Him as “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  It is obvious that Roman crucifixion was deliberately a torturously slow and extremely painful method of execution.

     Presently, as if to ascribe unquestioned witness to Christ’s atoning crucifixion, the sky darkened over Palestine and an unexplained eerie darkness spread over the entire earth [Luke 23:44-45; Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; B of M– 3 Nephi  8:5-23]. 

     Later, upon Christ’s death on the cross, throughout the area of Golgotha and Jerusalem, the people were shaken by a sudden earthquake.    

      Let us divert a moment to look at a few important background facts.  Our present calendar days begin at midnight.  However, in those days, Jewish days began at sunset.  Christ was crucified on a Friday at about noon.  The Jewish Sabbath, a Saturday, would begin at sunset on Friday evening.  Being a “High Day," (special holiday) any malefactors crucified on that Friday could not be left on crosses overnight as usual, but their bodies would have to be taken down and disposed of before the Jewish Sabbath commenced at sunset in order that the Sabbath not be defiled by unclean labor, in accordance with Jewish law.  Therefore, Roman soldiers, ordered to respect most Jewish religious laws, were sent on Friday in the late rainy afternoon, after this violent tempest and the terrifying earthquake had subsided, to break the leg bones of all suffering on the crosses, thereby briefly increasing their torture as a compensation for having to soon put them to death by spearing them through the heart and greatly shortening their usual three day time of suffering.  But when they looked upon Jesus, they knew that He had already died, so His leg bones were not broken, fulfilling another prophesy. [Psalms 34:20; John 19:31-37; Numbers 9:12] 

     However, to be absolutely sure of His death, His heart was pierced nonetheless.  The usual death instrument for this purpose was a common Roman Pilum Javelin — a wooden handled Roman battle spear.  Half its length consisted of a thin sharpened iron rod that, if thrown, would often pierce directly through an enemy shield in a deadly manner.  If it did not kill, it would usually disable the present use of the shield, being difficult to quickly withdraw the long spearhead, thus leaving the enemy soldier vulnerable to further fatal attack.  Relative to crucifixion, as crucified bodies hung at least five feet up from the ground, the long spear had to be thrust diagonally upward into the body.  It probably entered Jesus’ side at an angle passing through a lung and into His heart releasing a gush of blood and “water” as the spear was withdrawn — a scenario in full agreement with knowledgeable physicians of today for such a wound inflicted shortly after death.  This spearing event was also prophesied. [John 19:34-37; Zechariah 12:10]

     With brutality and humiliation at their peak, Christ, the Lord, now hung upon the cross, amazingly also taking upon Himself the sins of all the repentant children of God who have or ever will enter this world — pressing with a blackness of untold agony upon Him.  Once again forcing blood to surface from His pores — renewing an intense terror that is humanly incomprehensible and that only a God could even begin to endure without suffering immediate death. [B of  M– Mosiah 3:7]  All of this is emotionally chilling to think upon, and even surfaces tears of sorrow as my trembling hands continue to type this.  One might think that His insensitive persecutors were only a step away from being justly sent into the torments of hell.  Yet, Jesus, filled with wondrous mercy, pled:

             “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”   Luke 23:34

     The prophet Isaiah foretold some of the sufferings of the Savior hundreds of years prior to His wondrous birth in Bethlehem:

“I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:  I hid not My face from shame and spitting.  For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”

                                                                              Isaiah 50:6-7

“For as many were astonied [astonished] at Thee; His visage [physical outlook or appearance] was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”               

                                                                             Isaiah 52:13-14

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     As the unrelenting pain of crucifix torture continued, one malefactor on a cross beside Jesus railed on Him saying, “If Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us.”  But the other sufferer rebuked him replying, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?  And we, indeed, justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this Man hath done nothing amiss.”  Then turning his face toward Jesus, he said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.”  The Savior, knowing the heart of this man [Hebrews 4:13-15; D&C– 6:15-24] replied with words that may have astonished this sufferer who showed obvious belief in Him, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.”  [Luke 23:39-43]

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     For about three hours those on crosses continued to suffer, but Jesus immeasurably more, for His agony broke the bands of mortal death and pressed upon Him the indescribable pains and anguish of all the mortal sins of repentant mankind!  Concluding these hours of Christ’s terrible torture under a gauzy black sky, He cried out in a loud voice, ”My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  Some observers who stood by understood not His words and said, “He calleth [the great prophet] Elias.”

     Then in fulfillment of another scripture, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Straightway, one of the more caring who was officiating at the scene ran and took a sponge of Hyssop, dipped it in vinegar, and passed it up on a long reed to Jesus’ mouth to revive Him somewhat, for He was obviously near death.  Hyssop is a slightly bitter mint-like herb with a white flower that grows in full sun, symbolic of purity and used for purification.  The soldiers may have used Hyssop to cleanse