The King on a Cross

On Easter Friday - our Lord is hung up on the cross. It was just the night before that the Lord celebrated Passover and instituted the Lord's Supper with His disciples. Before sunset, Our Lord would have given up His Life. As the scripture below shows, although Man mockingly puts the sign "King of the Jews", little did many of them realise the sign was true.

The crucifixion of the Messiah came to pass, but all of it has been prophesied centuries before. It wasn't just a group claiming a man was wrongly accused and made him Messiah. His coming, his life, his suffering had all been prophesied, even down to the smallest details such as the splitting of his garments and the casting of lots for his clothes by the Roman soldiers.

As we remember our Lord Jesus this Easter Friday, let us think of who he is and why he came.

John 19  
17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,
18 where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.
19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

      JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
 20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
21 Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.”’”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece.
24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says:

      “ They divided My garments among them,
      And for My clothing they cast lots.”[d]
(Psalm 22:18)

   Therefore the soldiers did these things.