The Glory of His Death

The Love of Christ · AD 30

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Everything Jesus did was motivated by love, but the pinnacle of His love was His death, around three o'clock on Friday, April 7, AD 30. In this unit we behold Him scourged and mocked, crucified at Golgotha between two thieves, and slowly crushed under the wrath of His Father — forsaken, shamed, tortured, and dying with words of forgiveness on His lips. At the cross we see the glory of God's love poured out for us.

Read: Matthew 27:27–56; Luke 23:26–49; John 19:1–37

Scourged and Mocked

To placate the crowd, Pilate handed Christ over to be scourged. The soldiers stripped Him and tied His hands above His head to a post, stretching the skin of His back, and flogged Him with the cat-o'-nine-tails — leather cords set with lead balls, glass, bone, and jagged metal, designed to tear a man nearly to death. It was by His stripes that His people would be healed, so He endured them on our behalf.

The whole cohort then mocked the Captain of the Lord's army. They dressed Him in a purple robe, pressed a crown of thorns onto His head, and put a reed in His hand for a scepter. Kneeling in jest, they hailed Him, “King of the Jews!” — then struck Him, spat on Him, and pulled out His beard, until His appearance was marred beyond human semblance.

Pilate led the broken, bleeding Man out to the crowd, hoping the sight would satisfy them. “Behold the man!” he cried. Though He appeared conquered, Christ stood unyielding to sin, without bitterness toward those who hated Him — the perfect image of God's love for sinners on display. Yet the mob only chanted the louder, “Crucify him!”

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

John 19:5

Crucified at Golgotha

Too weak to carry His cross, Christ was helped by Simon of Cyrene, whom the soldiers seized from the crowd and forced to bear the crossbeam to the place of the skull, Golgotha. Offered wine mixed with myrrh to dull His pain, Christ tasted it but refused; He had already determined to drink the cup of God's wrath and to endure the sting of death on His own.

There they nailed His hands and feet and lifted Him up between two thieves, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: He was numbered with the transgressors. As He was raised, the sun went dark over Jerusalem for three hours. Yet His first words from the cross were not curses but forgiveness, prayed for the very men who crucified Him.

While He prayed for His enemies, the soldiers divided His clothes and cast lots for His seamless tunic — fulfilling the words David had written a thousand years before: “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Every detail of His agony had been foretold, and every detail was borne in love.

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Luke 23:34

Mocked, Yet Loving to the End

For three hours Christ was utterly humiliated. Travelers wagged their heads and taunted Him; the chief priests, scribes, and elders scoffed, “He saved others; let him save himself”; the soldiers mocked Him; and even the two criminals reviled Him. There was none to defend His honor and none to comfort Him — He hung friendless, the animosity of the world assailing Him.

Yet in the coils of that abuse He kept loving. One of the thieves was awakened, rebuked his companion, and turned to Christ in faith: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Without deriding the man who had just derided Him, the Lord granted him grace and a royal inheritance in a single sentence.

Christ cared, too, for His friends. Seeing His mother and the disciple John standing near, He committed her into John's care — “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold, your mother!” To the very end, in His most intense anguish, the Son of Man was concerned for the well-being of others.

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:43

The Death of the Son of God

The bitterness of the cup was not chiefly the mocking or the physical torture, but the displeasure and rejection of His Father. God transferred our iniquity to Him and crushed Him in our place. As darkness covered the land, the Father turned His back on His Son, and Christ cried out in the depths of dereliction the opening words of Psalm 22.

There the cup of God's wrath was drained to the last drop. Then Christ said, “I thirst,” and when He had received the sour wine He cried out with His final breath, “It is finished!” — and gave up His spirit. Full atonement had been made; the holy wrath of God was appeased. For those united to Him by faith, there remains now no condemnation.

At His death the sky went black, an earthquake split the rocks and graves, and the temple veil that separated God from man was torn in two from top to bottom. Standing before the cross, the Roman centurion who had helped nail Him there was turned from mocking to worship — the first sinner saved after Christ's death, and a Gentile, confessing His true identity.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John 19:30

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Mark 15:39

For Reflection

Down, down, down the Lord traveled, descending lower and lower until it was impossible to go any further — below the dignity of humanity, into the shame and disgrace of the cross. God could have given us the world and it would have cost Him nothing; but our redemption cost Him the one thing that cost Him everything: the suffering and death of His Son. This is how much He loves us.