The World Upside Down - Day 2

The night was cool and fragrant breezes blew through the early blooming trees in the garden.

Jesus has entered the garden where he agonizes over his coming death - the cup he must drink.

Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

Then the night burst into a maelstrom of confusion, noise and angry voices. Jesus is betrayed by Judas.

All the disciples flee for their lives.

Over the next several hours, Jesus is falsely accused by the Sanhedrin. Men who supposedly represent God, bring lie after lie and even strike the Son of God. In the middle of the night, Pilate is roused from his evening's rest and is forced to confront Jesus. He makes a strange bargain with the crowd who is also up in the middle of the night - Barrabas is released and Jesus is condemned. Only days after he was hailed as the Messiah, Jesus is scorned.

With the smell of sweat, leather and blood in his nostrils, Jesus is beaten and whipped by Roman soldiers. A crown of thorns is thrust upon his brow. Behold, the King of the Jews.

The smell of hewn wood rests upon him as he carries the heavy cross of his glory through crowds who are up early in the morning. Shouts and cries of the crowd press upon his ears and almost drown out the desperate beating of his heart and the gasping of his breath. All of his human body aches beyond comprehension.

At Golgotha (Place of the Skull), Jesus is stripped naked and laid upon the cross. His death is meant to be both shameful and painful.

He stares past the sweating faces of the Roman soldiers to the sky above. Nails are driven into his feet and hands. Rough hands rudely raise the cross and drop it into a hole dug deep into the ground. Jesus' weight and the jarring of the dropping cross bring the full pain of the nails to his hands and feet. He shares his death with two common criminals.

Over the next several hours Jesus hangs from the cross while the crowd jeers at him. The only faces of comfort are those of several women, including his mother who watches with the apostle John. Jesus releases his mother into John's care.

At the sixth hour darkness came over the land.

Finally, at the ninth hour, Jesus gives up his spirit with the words, "It is finished." Some how, all the sin of the world, including my sin, has been taken away by the Lamb.

What began 33 years earlier in a manger in Bethlehem comes to its ordained conclusion at a hill of shame and death in Jerusalem. What began at the creation of the earth comes to a conclusion at the cross and a new creation begins. The new Covenant is near.

But for now, the light is gone. Darkness has come.