Mikhail Sergeev

Chapter 1

The Story of the Crucifixion

Crucifixion is the central event in the life and passion of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. It was recorded in the spirit of faith by the four evangelists in the gospels they composed around the same century. Those sacred documents were later included in and canonized as part of the New Testament's Christian scriptures.

Biblical scholars believe that the earliest to have been written down was the Gospel of Mark, whose authorship the Christian tradition ascribes to the Apostle Peter's disciple bearing that name. Mark finished it approximately three decades after the Crucifixion and several years before the Jewish Temple's destruction by the Roman army in 70 AD. The Gospel reflects the crisis that was enveloping the nascent community of Jesus' followers at the time of their persecution by Emperor Nero (r. 54 AD – 68 AD). Mark portrays Christ as "universally misunderstood, rejected by his people and condemned by the Romans" as a "hidden Messiah whose true identity is revealed only through his suffering and death."[1]

The Gospel of Mark is centered on the north-south polarity, which is reminiscent of the Biblical account of the ancient Hebrew monarchy. After King Solomon's death around the tenth century BC, the United Monarchy split into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Hebrew Scriptures portray northern Israel as rebellious and unfaithful – an antipode state in contrast to Judah's pious and righteous Kingdom.

In an ironic reversal, Mark begins his narrative in northern Galilee, where, after being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus begins his prophetic mission by proclaiming the glad tidings of God. He gathers his first disciples, preaches to the crowds, heals the sick, and resurrects the dead. During his teaching, Jesus encounters enormous difficulties. Mark portrays almost everyone associated with Jesus, whether his relatives or even closest disciples, as an obstacle to his labor.

When Jesus enters Jerusalem, the city of David and the old capital of Judah, the opposition to him grows exponentially up to the point that one of the apostles betrays him, the highest court of Jewish law, the Sanhedrin, accuses him of blasphemy and, finally, the Prefect of the Roman province of Judea Pontius Pilate sentences him to death. It was before the Sanhedrin that Jesus revealed his true messianic identity in an explicit and direct passage that is found only in Mark: "Again the high priest questioned him: 'Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?' "I am,' Jesus said; 'and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"[2]

After the verdict by Pontius Pilate, Jesus is executed through Crucifixion, a punishment that had been reserved for the worst criminals in the Roman Empire. At the end of his Gospel, Mark gives a brief description of the Crucifixion by focusing on what he believes are the most important details surrounding this tragic event. He begins by stating that it occurred at "nine in the morning…and the inscription giving the charge against [Jesus] read, 'The King of the Jews'." He mentions that the "[t]wo robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left." Mark also writes that the "passers-by [joined by the] chief priests and scribes" mocked Jesus for his apparent inability to save himself, which contradicted his messianic claims according to their views.

Following six hours of agony, Mark continues, "Jesus cried aloud, 'Eloï, Eloï, lema sabachthani?' which is 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" Soon after, "[s]omeone ran…soaked a sponge in sour wine and held it to his lips on the end of a stick…Jesus gave a loud cry and died." Mark ends his account of the Crucifixion by referring to another person who was present at the scene – the Roman "centurion who was standing opposite [to Jesus,] saw how he died [and] said, 'This man must have been a son of God'."[3]

Biblical scholars believe that Mark's Gospel served as a source of information for two other gospels – those of Mathew and Luke. Called the synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke share the same sequence of events and much other material in their respective narratives of the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Matthew's Gospel, which opens the sequence of gospels in the New Testament and represents an expanded edition of Mark, was composed around 85-90 AD by one of Jesus' apostles, a tax collector named Levi. This Gospel responds to the growing tension between the Synagogue and the Church. Focusing on the continuity between the Jewish and Christian religions, Matthew portrays Jesus as the bridge between the Old and New Testament, a deeply rooted teacher in his Jewish heritage, the living manifestation, and fulfillment of the Hebrew prophecy.

Here are some of the illustrations of Matthew's approach to Jesus' life and teachings. He begins his Gospel with a list of genealogies that link Jesus to King David and Abraham. Matthew's genealogical tree confirms the Hebrew tradition, which views Abraham as the seed of prophecy and, more specifically, predicts the future Messiah to be the heir to David's throne.

In the infancy narrative of Jesus, Matthew also includes Herod's murder of Jewish infants. King Herod came to know from the wise men or magi of the birth of the Messiah and was trying to locate him. The magi found the boy and paid homage to him but were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. In the meantime, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him: "Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."[4] When he realized that the wise men had fooled him, infuriated Herod ordered "the massacre of all the boys aged two years or under, in Bethlehem and throughout the whole district, following the time he ascertained from the astrologers."[5] Only after Herod's death did Joseph and his family return from Egypt to their homeland.

This story is unique to Matthew, and it parallels the Old Testament tale of the Passover when the Lord would spear the firstborn of the Israelites by passing over their houses marked with the blood of the slaughtered lambs and killing only the Egyptian children. It was the last of the ten plagues that signaled the biblical Exodus – the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and their consolidation as a nation under Moses's leadership. In Matthew's New Testament "remake" of the story, Joseph and his family are saved in Egypt from Herod's murders and come back home so that Jesus the Messiah, as a new Moses, could liberate his followers from the slavery of their sins.

The Sermon on the Mount occupies the central place in the Gospel of Matthew. Here as elsewhere, Matthew portrays Jesus as working against the background of his Jewish tradition: "Do not suppose that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to complete."[6] In the Sermon, Jesus internalizes and deepens the Ten Commandments by using his famous formula: "You have heard that our forefathers were told…But what I tell you is this…"[7] By the end of his ministry, he sends his twelve apostles to spread the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God and directs them specifically to their fellow Jews: "Do not take the road to gentile lands, and do not enter any Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."[8]

Matthew's account of Jesus' Crucifixion, which follows closely that of Mark, introduces some additional features that emphasize the messianic nature of Christ's mission. The narrative begins with a rather mundane observation that the soldiers who "had crucified [Jesus] shared out his clothes by casting lots and then sat down there to keep watch."[9] However, it concludes with a series of supernatural events that serve as proof of Jesus' messiahship. At the moment of Jesus' death, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom," as Matthew writes, "The earth shook, rocks split, and graves opened; many of God's saints were raised from sleep, and coming out of their graves after his resurrection entered the Holy City, where many saw them."[10]

According to Biblical scholars, the Gospel of Luke is the third synoptic Gospel, and, like the Gospel of Matthew, it also draws much of its material from Mark. The Christian tradition states that this Gospel was composed around the late 80s AD by the Apostle Paul's companion, Luke "the beloved," who also authored the Book of Acts, which chronicles the birth and evolution of the early Church. A unique vision that distinguishes Luke from other evangelists is his emphasis on the universal character of Jesus' mission, which encompassed both the righteous and the sinners, Jews and Gentiles.

Various parables in the Gospel present a fitting illustration of Luke's emphasis on forgiveness and compassion and his portrayal of Jesus as tender and merciful. In the Prodigal Son's story, we read about the father who lost his son to a life of debauchery in distant lands. When the son spent all his inheritance money, he decided to come home, repent, and beg his father for forgiveness. To the eldest son's disappointment, the father not only forgives his prodigal child without expressing any anger or even disappointment, not only withholds any punishment for him but immediately prepares a feast to celebrate his return. And to the bitter objections of his elder brother, the father responds: "My boy…you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. How could we fail to celebrate this happy day? Your brother here was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found."[11]

Several chapters later, Jesus tells another parable about those pseudo-righteous people who follow the letter of the law to the detriment of its spirit. It is the tale of two men praying in the Temple. One of them, the Pharisee, is full of pride and is thanking the Lord for guiding him to abide by the law and not behave like the sinners all around. The second one, a tax collector, is so ashamed of his transgressions that he can barely look up to heaven and only begs his Lord for forgiveness. "It was this man, I tell you," Jesus proclaims, "and not the other, who went acquitted of his sins. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."[12]

In the same light, Luke depicts the Crucifixion when he portrays Christ as forgiving his tormentors – "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing." – and promising salvation to one of the thieves who was crucified by his side:

One of the criminals hanging there taunted him: 'Are not you the Messiah? Save yourself and us.' But the other rebuked him: 'Have you no fear of God? You are under the same sentence as he is. In our case, it is plain justice; we are paying the price for our misdeeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.' And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come to your throne.' Jesus answered, 'Truly I tell you: today you will be with me in Paradise.'[13]

The fourth Gospel that portrays the Crucifixion of Jesus is very different from the previous three. As the Christian tradition asserted, it was composed by the apostle John, son of Zebedee and brother of James, near the end of the first century in Ephesus, now in modern Turkey. In his Gospel, John provides a unique perspective on Christ as a supernatural being – the incarnation of God's Word and the embodiment of divine wisdom.

The Gospel of John differs in the timeline and sequence of events from the synoptic gospels. It lacks the story of virginal birth or Jesus' baptism or temptations. The Gospel is also silent about exorcisms performed by Jesus or his reinterpretation of the Law of Moses. There is no tradition of the Second Coming here either.

Instead, the Gospel opens up with a unique doctrine that portrays Christ as preexistent in heaven before his incarnation on earth: "In the beginning, the Word already was. The Word was in God's presence, and what God was, the Word was."[14] John describes Christ as "God's only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart" and who was his Father's co-worker in the creation of the world: "He was with God at the beginning, and through him, all things came to be; without him, no created thing came into being."[15] Later in the Gospel, John reinforces his depiction of Jesus as a unique mediator between God and humanity. He states that Jesus existed before Abraham [16] and that he is the only way to salvation: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me."[17]

Focusing more on theological significance rather than historical accuracy, John's account of the Crucifixion similarly stresses the fulfillment of scriptural prophesies and renders Jesus' death not as a humiliating defeat but as a heavenly glorification. John also provided some personal details that are unique to his record of the tragic events. He attests that at the Crucifixion scene was present Jesus' "mother [who] was standing with her sister, Mary wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala." John himself was there as well: "Seeing his mother, with the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, Jesus said to her, 'Mother, there is your son'; and to the disciple, 'There is your mother'; and from that moment the disciple took her into his home."[18]

Our discussion of the Crucifixion of Jesus, as portrayed in the Gospels, would not be complete without a reference to the event that led to his death, namely, Jesus' condemnation by the highest court of Jewish law, the Sanhedrin, and his sentencing to death by crucifixion by Pontius Pilate. Who was really to blame for killing Jesus – the Jewish or Roman authorities?

The issue of accountability, which is legitimate in any legal trial, acquires particular importance in the case of Jesus. After all, in his followers' eyes, he was not only the promised Messiah and the founder of a world religion but also the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. In this religious and cultural context, the tragic death of Jesus Christ amounted to the crime of deicide – a unique incident in human history as far as Christians were concerned.

The Gospels describe the events leading to the conviction of Jesus as an unfolding and complex drama of the delicate balance of power between the Jewish and Roman authorities. Even before he arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus was under suspicion by the Jewish leaders who regarded the spreading of his teachings and fame as threatening their legitimacy. As John reports in his Gospel, "The chief priests and the Pharisees convened a meeting of the Council." They expressed concern that if Jesus continues to perform miracles, "the whole populace will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and sweep away our temple and our nation."

Then the high priest of that year, Caiaphas, suggested a radical solution to the problem. He said that it is more in the interest of the leadership that "one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should be destroyed." As the high priest, he prophesied that "Jesus would die for the nation and not for the nation alone but to gather together the scattered children of God. So, from that day on, they plotted his death."[19]

After his arrival in Jerusalem and Judas's betrayal, Jesus was summoned to the Sanhedrin, where he had a hearing before the Jewish religious leaders. Tradition attests that the "chief priests…tried to find evidence against Jesus that would warrant a death sentence but failed to find any." Many spoke against him, but "their statements did not tally," while Jesus held his peace and did not reply to the accusers. In the hearing's decisive episode, the high priest asked Jesus whether he was indeed the "Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Matthew and Luke report that Jesus avoided a direct response by answering that they said it. However, in the earliest Gospel of Mark, as was previously mentioned, we read that Jesus replied straightforwardly and unequivocally: "I am…and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven." After that testimony, the fate of the defendant was sealed. Jesus was accused of blasphemy, and the "decision was unanimous: that he was guilty and should be put to death."[20]

As a court of religious law, the Sanhedrin did not have the authority to carry their verdict. That was the prerogative of secular powers, in this case, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. The accusation was that Jesus refused to pay tribute to Caesar and proclaimed himself the king of the Jews. Pilate talked to Jesus and found nothing wrong with this man from Galilee. He sent him then to the provincial ruler Herod whose jurisdiction covered that area.

Of the four gospels, only Luke tells us about the meeting of Jesus and Herod. He writes: "When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased: he had heard about him and had long been wanting to see him in the hope of witnessing some miracle performed by him." Herod questioned Jesus and pressured by the Jewish priests, "treated him with contempt and ridicule and sent him back to Pilate dressed in a gorgeous robe."[21]

Then Pilate made his last attempt to avoid the decision by planning to set Jesus free during the celebration of a Jewish holiday. It was customary that at the feast, Pilate presented the Jewish crowd with two prisoners – Jesus and another one by the name Barabbas. He asked the multitude whom they would like to release, hoping that they would choose Jesus. The chief priests, however, persuaded the crowd to pick Barabbas. In his Gospel, Matthew describes this dramatic moment as follows:

Pilate said to them, "Then what should I do with Jesus, who is called the Messiah?" All of them said, "Let him be crucified!" Then he asked, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!" So, when Pilate saw that he could do nothing but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." Then the people as a whole answered, "His blood be on us, and on our children!"[22]

Only then did Pilate make the final determination to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus.

What are we to make of this story? Let us remember that the issue of responsibility for the death of Christ played a crucial, often tragic, role in the problematic relationship between Judaism and Christianity. The Christian religion was conceived amid its mother-faith, and Jesus, his apostles, and other early disciples were all Jewish. By the end of the first Christian century, the two religions parted their own separate ways. Most Jews did not accept Jesus as the promised Mashiach but instead thought of him as a false prophet who led his people astray. Meanwhile, Christianity continued to grow due to the tremendous influx of pagans – Greeks and Romans – into their religious community. For those pagans, Jesus was indeed the Son of God, the promised Messiah who fulfilled ancient Hebrew prophesies about humankind's salvation.

In their appraisal of Jesus' mission, both Jews and Christians relied on the same collection of prophetic books in the Bible. However, they drew the opposite conclusions. According to scholars, classical Biblical prophecy started in the 8th century BC with Amos's prophetic message, who notably proclaimed – "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."[23] These were the words that Martin Luther famously quoted in his influential "I Had a Dream" speech in 1963. The era of classical Biblical prophecy lasted through the 4th century BC, and it gave the world many great visionaries, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

The message that those prophets conveyed to Israel was simple and straightforward, and they delivered it in times of great turmoil for the Jewish nation. The United Monarchy that King David had built in the 10th century BC soon gave way to Israel and Judah's divided kingdoms. Both kingdoms surrendered to the same fate. In 722 BC, Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire. Later, in the 7th century, the Babylonian army had conquered the Kingdom of Judah. In 587/6 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple – the center of Jewish religious life in Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. Having lost their religious liberty and political independence, the Jews suffered through the first exile and its hardships, which lasted for less than a hundred years.

Fortunately for them, the Babylonian Empire was soon eclipsed by the Persians, who were more tolerant of the conquered people's religious traditions and worship. Persian King Cyrus II (r. 550 – 530 BC), also known as Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, in his Edict of Restoration, allowed the Judahites – former citizens of the Kingdom of Judah – to return to their homeland, rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, and restore their religious community life and customs. It took several waves of diaspora Jews to come back from Babylonian captivity and resettle in the land of their forefathers. Still, by the end of the 4th century BC, the repatriation was by and large complete.

In those tumultuous centuries, the Hebrew prophets delivered their message of condemnation, warning, and consolation to the Jewish nation. They criticized religious and political elites for abandoning the moral principles of their faith. They predicted the long and painful ordeal and suffering awaiting the Jewish people. They also consoled their compatriots that although their trials and tribulations will be severe, they will purify their souls, and the people will survive them.

Biblical prophets warned pagan nations that they should not stand proud of their victories because their imperial power is nothing more than a powerful instrument for the Almighty to punish his chosen people. They predicted that those victories would be temporary, and those nations would eventually perish in the fires of history. They also foresaw the future coming of the world savior, the Jewish Mashiach, who would restore the Jewish state's political independence and establish universal peace and brotherhood on the planet.

The Jews have interpreted those predictions literally and in an upfront manner. And since, in the times of Jesus, the expectations for both political independence and universal peace seemed completely unrealistic, they rejected him as their Messiah. Christians took the same prophecies symbolically – as metaphors describing spiritual rather than historical realities. According to Christian interpretations, Jesus did form a New Israel – a spiritual community of believers in him, and he did bring peace to the hearts and souls of those who followed him.

The opposition between Judaism and Christianity that kept growing in the 1st century of the Christian era reflected those differences. Still, the divergence between the two faiths was more significant and painful than a simple disagreement over scriptural exegesis. From a Christian perspective, which the Gospels confirm, not only did the Jews reject Jesus as their Biblical Messiah, but they were also guilty of his death by Crucifixion. When the Jewish crowd decided to free another man, a criminal Barabbas, over Jesus, this moment had a unique dramatic tone and significance. "His blood be on us, and our children!" – they shouted, suggesting a generational curse that could be transmitted from parents to their children for their alleged guilt in the sentencing and Crucifixion of Jesus.[24]

Such understanding of the tragedy of Jesus' death became prevalent in the early Christian community that blamed the Jews for their savior's cruel and untimely demise. The charge turned out to be even more severe after the 4th century when Christian leaders at the ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 AD settled on the Trinity doctrine.

[1] Stephen L. Harris, Understanding the Bible, 4th ed., (1st ed. 1980), Mountain View, CA – London – Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997, p. 317.

[2] Mark 16:61-62. All scriptural quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Oxford Study Bible. Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha, ed. M. Jack Suggs, Katharine Doob Sakenfeld and James R. Mueller, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

[3] Mark 15:25-39.

[4] Matthew 2:13.

[5] Matthew 2:16.

[6] Matthew 5:17.

[7] Matthew 5:21-22.

[8] Matthew 10: 5-6.

[9] Matthew 27:35-36.

[10] Matthew 27:51-53.

[11] Luke 15:31-32.

[12] Luke 18:14.

[13] Luke 23:34, 39-43.

[14] John 1:1.

[15] John, 1:18, 2-3.

[16] John 8: 58.

[17] John 14:6.

[18] John 19:25-27.

[19] John 11:48-53.

[20] Mark 14:55-64.

[21] Luke 23:8-11.

[22] Matthew 27:22-25.

[23] NRSV, Amos 5:24.

[24] Matthew 27:25.