CALVARY 2025

 

CALVARY 2025

After the Last supper Jesus led his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he asked them to sit close by while he prayed. He took Peter, James, and John with him and told them about how much his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death. He asked them to stay close and to share his prayer watch with him. A little farther on he fell to the ground in his agony, sweating drops of blood, and he prayed ‘Father, if it is possible for you, take this cup of suffering from Me. Yet not my will, but Your will be done.’ He returned to find the three disciples sleeping. “Simon, are you asleep?” He asked. “Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so you won’t fall into temptation - your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak. He went away and prayed to his Father again, and again He returned and found them sleeping, and they had no words for him. The third time this happened he said, ‘Are you still sleeping? Enough—the hour has come, so get up and let us go. My betrayer is here. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

 

Judas then arrived with a large crowd sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people and armed with swords and clubs. Judas had arranged to identify Jesus to the guards by embracing Jesus as the man to arrest and Jesus was then betrayed by a kiss from Judas as Jesus had predicted. Then men stepped forward to arrest Jesus, and Peter drew out his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. But Jesus picked up the severed ear and placed it back on the guard’s ear and he was miraculously healed. Nonetheless Jesus was arrested and dragged away, and this dramatic turn of events was all too frightening for the disciples and they all scattered and ran – just as Jesus had predicted.

Jesus had also predicted that Peter would deny him three times. and it was not long before Peter’s time of trial came to pass where was accused by a woman outside of the courtyard where Jesus was being tried by the priests for blasphemy. The woman said to Peter that he had been with Jesus and Peter denied the accusation three times with curses and swearing and then he heard the dreaded crowing of a rooster. And Peter then knew that what Jesus had predicted he would do in denying his beloved Lord had been fulfilled, and he wept bitterly.

 

Jesus was then tried and found guilty of blasphemy by the Jewish leaders and then taken to Pontius Pilate to be executed. Pontius Pilate could find no wrong as far as Rome was concerned about Jesus being accused of blasphemy, but the Jewish leaders said that he was also stirring the people against Rome by saying he was the new King of the Jews. And they charged Pilate as being accountable for punishing that by crucifying Jesus as a criminal. Pilate caved in to the crowd because he feared a riot, but deep in his heart, he believed Jesus was innocent, and also that he was their King.

Pilate told a Centurion to arrange for a squad of guards to escort Jesus to Calvary. The already large crowd continued to grow as Jesus staggered and buckled under the weight of the beam but he continued to drag it behind him. It was the custom to write a description of the crime committed on a clay plate and fix it to the top of the cross. Pontius Pilate had written an inscription that read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS”

An angry voice called out above the crowd “Who wrote that inscription? – it’s wrong”, and one of the temple priests had protested that It should have said that ‘He said he was king of the Jews’. However, Pilate had made it very clear to them earlier that he had written that inscription and it had to stay as it was.

 

When the trek to Calvary was completed, it would take six full hours on Calvary for Jesus to die. Two criminals were already hanging on crosses either side of the hole where Jesus’ pole was to be fixed, but these two men were tied to their crosses, not nailed. Jesus was finally hoisted up and then the pole was crudely dumped into the hole prepared for it, evoking stifled cries of shock and dismay from the crowd. But overriding these noises was the swelling chant of taunts and slogans coming from the crowd. Then the priests and the leaders of the Jews joined in telling Jesus to come on down from that cross and prove himself as the Son of God.

As Jesus hung there the criminals beside him were weakening, groaning in their pain, when one of them turned to Jesus. He now wanted to have his last few words of bravado heard in this dark prison of life and death he had made for himself. “they’re telling you to get yourself down, but how about us? That would be a real miracle, even I would believe you.” He was delighted with the impression this made on the crowd, as they clapped and cheered him. But the man on the other side shouted at him angrily.”

“Are you mad? Don't you even fear God? Don't you know who this is? We deserve to be here, but he doesn’t. He has never done a wrong thing.” He then turned to Jesus and said

“Lord, will you remember me when you are in your mighty kingdom?” Jesus turned his head and looked at him with love, saying “Today you are coming home with me to Paradise.” Jesus looked down at his mother standing next to John and he spoke to her through parched lips.“Mother let him be your son.” His head then turned towards John.  “Son let her be your mother.” John stood with her as she watched her son's life draining from him. High noon surrendered to a deep darkness which remained for three full hours. Darkness took over that day in those last hours, and put a stop to some things. Shouts of bravado that just moments ago would have roused bold echoes now hung hollow in the still air, and those mockers that had stood close to the action at the foot of the cross now slid back into the crowd.

 

The gigantic spirit of Jesus absorbed the full impact of Satan as all hell's hateful fury hit him, and as every vile thing ever done by countless millions of crippled hearts down through the ages and for the ages to come assailed his being. Thunder cracked and the earth began to shake. The great spirit of Jesus swallowed every vile accusation that Satan hurled at him, and he took them all into himself and locked them safely within his vault of perfect love. He was completely innocent of any one wrong deed. He rallied his strength once more, but another missile of horror careened into him more powerfully and more deadly than anything before. He was living out the prophetic fulfilment of the first verse of Psalm 22 spoken by David. ‘My God My God why have you forsaken me?

’The source of this horrific thought was not Father God. Darkness had assailed the human heart of Jesus, the Son of Man, of the lineage of David, and in an instant, he knew the answer to his question. He had not been forsaken by his Father, but in his humanity, he had experienced forsakenness for a moment, so that no living soul from this time on would ever have to feel forsaken by God again because of their human weakness.

God did not forsake Jesus, and he did not forsake Adam and Eve and he does not

Forsake us. people forsake other people but God does not forsake us. Jesus was always aligned with God's will and throughout his entire life he could identify exactly with what we go through but he never deviated from God's will. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all points just as we are, so he was tempted to feel forsaken here just like we would be, as that is a human feeling.

Instead of departing from his Father, Jesus, on the cross begins quoting Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He turns to the Word—to truth itself. Jesus, who inspired the psalm through David, knows the full story it tells.

Though it begins with a cry of abandonment, the psalm moves from hopelessness to hope, and finally to praise and gratitude. There’s a shift amidst the pain and chaos of mocking and the dividing of garments where Jesus proclaims the turning point and what began in sorrow ends in victory. Jesus declares in the psalm “I will praise you in the great congregation; I will sing your praises among my people.”

This shows that Jesus never departed from his Father in spirit. That connection strengthened his soul. He faced every temptation and triumphed—not by escaping pain, but by holding fast to truth. His journey shows us how to move from feelings of abandonment to faith, from despair to healing. We are not alone. We walk the path of restoration with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not separated, but deeply united.

 

Jesus had something more to say but his throat felt parched so a soldier put a sponge up on a pole to Jesus, who could now say loudly and clearly what had to be said in his last moments “Father into your hands I now offer my Spirit.”

Then in one last gasp he shouted loudly for all about him to hear. “It is finished!”

Then he died. And he and we were placed securely in The Father's loving hands.

At the moment of his death the cosmos convulsed. An earthquake tore a searing gash into the mountainside and people were toppled off their feet. Rocks split apart and the graves and tombs on a nearby hill cracked open. People ran in fear from the place, but they did not know where to go. At that moment there were priests in the temple about to sacrifice the Passover lamb, and when their knife pierced the sacrificial animal the true Lamb of God offered himself on Calvary as the final sacrifice for all sin. The priests were thrown off their feet by the earthquake. The temple shook as huge stones fell from the parapets and the great veil in the temple proper which separated the place of God’s presence in the holy place from the rest of the temple, was lightning torn, top to bottom.

 

When that veil was torn it signified that Christ as both man and God had not only done away with the separation of mankind from God in the temple, but he had done away with the separation of mankind from God in all the earth. He had gone ahead for all of us to live in his abiding presence. We can now have faith to come confidently into this holy place in our own hearts because of his mercy upon our imperfect humanity and we can receive the power of his life within us to do what is right and pleasing to God.

The veil that was torn when Jesus died on the cross on that awesome day was a declaration of the certain hope of our salvation and loving forgiveness and has become the anchor for our souls.

 

The moment Jesus died the cosmic law of sin and death was being overturned to make way for a new cosmic law to come into effect - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that new cosmic law did not exist in Eden with Adam and Eve. It would occur only after Jesus rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit to give us the risen life of Jesus within, and a new heart like his own. Our hearts can now be fulfilled with a new desire that freely chooses to fulfill the desires of God’s heart. Thank you, Jesus, for overturning the law of sin and death, and for giving to us the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. May we enter through that torn veil and live that life with your heart towards the Father. Amen

Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@icloud.com