Journey to the Open Tomb: They Crucified Him

From the house of Caiaphas, Jesus was led away to Pontius Pilate. Pilate was the Roman Governor and he actually was headquartered in Caesarea Maritime, down by the Mediterranean. He just “happened” to be in Jerusalem. Pilate sent Him across town to Herod. Herod sent Him back to Pilate. 

Pilate found no good reason to crucify Him. He had been warned by his wife to have nothing to do with this “just man.” He gave the rabid religious leaders a choice between a known criminal and Jesus. They chose to have Barabbas set free. He said “I find no fault in Him.” The crowd cried “Crucify Him!”  Pilate turned Jesus over to His soldiers to be scourged and crucified. 

Each of the four gospels give the account of the crucifixion. Beaten. Mocked. Stripped. Disfigured. Wounded. He suffered in our place. They led Him up a winding street we know as the “Via Delarosa” called the “way of suffering.” It is narrow and makes many turns very much like a maze. Today it is crowded with pilgrims and shops full of merchandise. It moves steadily upward toward the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That church is enormous and most scholars believe it sits on the location where Jesus was crucified and buried. 

There is another place. On or about 1882, British General Charles Gordon noticed a place along the road outside the city wall. A major thoroughfare ran past it. It looked to be a face in the bluff. There were two eye sockets, the bridge of a nose and the slash of a mouth. Not far away is a well preserved tomb dating from the period. Could this be the place?

Today the bluff has become more disfigured as the limestone has deteriorated. A Jerusalem bus station sets where three crosses may once have stood. The garden and the tomb are beautifully preserved and welcome to visitors. 

Jesus was crucified at 9am and died at 3pm. He forgave His crucifiers. He saved a dying thief. He provided for His mother. He cried out to His Father. He finished what He came to do. 

The sky grew dark at noon and remained so for 3 hours. Even the sun couldn’t bear to look on Him. 

Lifted up was He to die. 

It is finished was His cry. 

Now in heaven exalted high. 

Hallelujah! What a Savior!