04072023 – Good Friday
The High Holidays in Jerusalem. Everything is AT THE READY.
All too soon the words will ring out, “NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM” and the festivities will come to an end. Shalom.
It happens so quickly, it is hard to take it all in…the TEMPLE, the WORSHIP, the SACRIFICES, the SHOPS, the WARES, the PEOPLE, meeting old acquaintances…and friends, alike!
With the morning light…
In the Temple the priests STOKE the altar fire and prepare for the morning sacrifice: A SINGLE LAMB.
There are more that will FOLLOW…
The incense must be burned. The sacred candles must be lighted.
In readiness for the Passover, THIRTY THOUSAND LAMBS will be sold and slaughtered in the Temple on a SINGLE AFTERNOON.
It is A PROCESS.
A process that HAS BEEN perfected.
Crowd after crowd of fathers will bring their families LAMB to shift after shift of priests. The lines will be long.
Prayerfully tempers will not flair and all will be peaceful. People must be patient and wait their turn.
The priests in the Temple, in their thousands, are ROBED for their Passover work. A priest will hold back the lamb’s NECK while the father WIELDS the knife.
ROWS OF PRIESTS relay the blood to the altar and sprinkle it AGAINST the steps…and then, come back again.
It has always been done this way, as far back as anyone can remember.
The FEAST must be KOSHER. It must be ACCEPTABLE before God. It ALWAYS must be acceptable before God. Blessed be he.
The city TEEMS with pilgrims. The city of Jerusalem CANNOT HOLD all the pilgrims that ANNUALLY come for the feast.
The city limits are EXPANDED to include all of the pilgrims…they must be WITHIN the city of Jerusalem. It is the LAW. Provisions must be made.
These are the HIGH HOLY DAYS. Excitement FILLS the air. And the HEARTS! The atmosphere is electric, before electricity.
The PILGRIMS will be shoulder to shoulder in the streets. MEANWHILE:
Elsewhere in the city, WITNESSES were HEARD, a VERDICT had to be reached. The HEARING before ANNAS and CAIAPHAS was brief. Short. Curt.
The Jewish priests accompanied the ACCUSED to PILATE. THERE the proceedings were elaborately STAGED. There were TWO SETTINGS: one indoors, one out of doors. CONTAMINATION and RITUAL PURITY is a real concern.
This trial is a NIGHTMARE, as they usually are. A kangaroo court proceedings. INTERROGATION is not successful.
The local authorities have made their plans…hoping to prevail.
Pilate offered them a SPECIAL RELEASE, a deal if you will. He offered the priests SCOURGING and MOCKERY to appease them. It appeased no one.
Three times the procurator declared: “I FIND NO GROUND FOR A CHARGE AGAINST THIS MAN.”
His words fell on deaf ears.
Their VOICES were heard. The Procurator exhausted his OPTIONS. He relents.
The words, “SEE TO IT YOURSELVES.” Echo into the night…and find their way into the new day’s light.
It is to be just another crucifixion outside the city walls. Golgotha is the city dump. It is the home of refuge and waste. It lies just beyond the city gates…
Storm clouds gathered all morning as the skies darkened and it looked as if much-needed rain could fall at any time.
You can almost imagine shopkeepers covering their wares or closing the flaps on their tents…bringing goods inside.
When dust storms arise in the area they are blinding…and you must cover your head and your eyes…
At Golgotha…
A “crucifixion guard” stood at the ready. A “centurion” headed the guard. He would have been delegated to make sure that everything was carried out properly and without any complications.
The centurion would have been a career soldier who had worked his way up through the ranks by virtue of courage and intelligence.
It was expected that he be cold and efficient. His first task was to carry out the orders of his superior officers.
Four legionnaires would have been present. (There would also have been a change of guard, located nearby.)
A mother, an aunt, and a friend stood nearby watching, observing, feeling totally helpless and at a loss.
People scoffed, people derided, people mocked, it is what they did.
As was the custom, the guard would divide among themselves the meager possessions, the belongings of the condemned.
They were their’s for the taking. Who would stop them?
The whole process had but one intent.
To stop any such foolishness in the future. Complete humiliation and degradation. Stamp them out, and scatter their friends. Let their corpses be a testimony to others in the future.
Sometimes these crucifixions went on for two or three days. Sometimes they barely made it a few hours.
It was all based on the scourging and the beatings that preceded the crucifixion.
And elsewhere, around the city, within the city gates, and beyond buying and selling went on as expected…rain or shine.
For some, this would have been their first trip, their first pilgrimage to the Holy City and all of its splendor.
Oh, the stories they would tell when they returned home to their villages.
And when it was all over…the words NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM would ring out once again!
Shalom.