The tragedy of Calvary: or the minute details of Christ's life from Palm Sunday morning till the resurrection and ascension taken prophecy, history, revelations and ancient writings by Meagher, Jas. L. (James Luke), 1848-1920
Down all the ages, from Moses- day, the hope of the Hebrew nation was the coming of the Messiah: "the Son of man," the Son of God, "the Glorious King," to be born of David's family, come in triumph, raise the Jewish nation to the highest point of worldly wealth and prosperity, make Jerusalem his capital, conquer all the nations, and extend the empire of Israel to the ends of earth. The prophets had denounced them in terrible terms, but they had neglected the prophecies and given their attention to the Torah, the Law of Moses in the first five books of the Old Testament.
Before them they saw a young man in his thirty-fourth year, the supposed son of Joseph and Mary, (Luke iii. 23.) in wet soiled clothes, with a dirty bloody face, an object of disgust, without a friend, who had first followed his father's trade of carpenter in Nazareth, but for the last three and a half years had been preaching new doctrines, gathering disciples around him, who had received no licence or ordination from the synagogue, but had been performing miracles by some secret power and leading the people from the religion of their fathers. Lately men had risen up, each claiming that he was the Messiah, led their followers to death, and this was the most dangerous of them all.
There he stood before them claiming that he was the Son of God and their Messiah. What presumption and impudence, for such a person to proclaim before the great court that he was the Memra, the Divine Word, the Shilo, the hope of Israel. (Jeremias ii. 12; xi. 8, 19; xii. 7.) This was the way they looked at things that fatal night.
Now ensued a scene indescribable. The powers of hell seemed to break loose. (Isaias v. 1-8,18, 27.) With a fury born of demoniac rage they fell on him, struck him, pushed him, spat on him. With shouts and cries they surged around him. Even the members of the court, according to the Greek of St. Mark's Gospel, spat on and struck him. "And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say to him " Prophesy," and the servants struck him with the palms of their hands. (Mark xiv. 65) At every stroke they cried out: "Christ, prophesy who struck you."
The prophet foretold this. " For strangers have risen up against me, and the mighty have sought after my soul, and they have not set God before their eyes. (Psalm liii. 5-8.) " The sons of men, their teeth arc weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. They prepared a snare for my feet, and they bowed down my soul." (Psalm lvi. 4-6, 7.) " Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant, from the workers of iniquity. For they whetted their tongues like a sword, they have bent a bitter thing to shoot in secret the undefiled. They will shoot at him on a sudden, and will not fear, they are resolute in wickedness. They have talked of hiding snares, they have said, Who shall see them ? They have searched after iniquities, they have failed in their search. Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted." (Psalm lxiii. 3-7.)
After the court had pronounced the sentence of death on Jesus, the assembly adjourned and the seventy members rose, and mingled with the crowd. They did not return to their homes, for no one slept in the Holy City during the night of the Passover. To keep the children awake they used to give them nuts and fruits, the Temple watch was doubled, and the people spent the whole Passover nights in gossiping and idling away their time.
Any excitement will bring a crowd in Jerusalem. When they heard that the Rabbi Jesus had been arrested, the rabble, the loafers, and the scum of Judea surrounded the house. Cruelty is a character of the Orientals. They are the most unbending people in the world. Their ideas cannot be changed. They get so excited they seem to lose reason. They got the idea -from all they had heard that this Jesus was an impostor, the enemy of the Temple, a rebel against society, and all their hatred rose against him. During the trial the archers and the Temple guards had hard work to keep them from inflicting tortures on him which would cause his death.
But as soon as the judges left their seats, the fury of the mob broke out against him. They fell on him like wild beasts. The very hate of hell filled them. The fury of a mob is terrible. For one excites another, and they do not reason. The demons who hated Christ with an infernal hate seemed to possess the vast crowds which surged around him. They yelled, shouted, hissed, insulted, spit on and buffeted him in every way. It was hellish fury which broke loose against him. (Jeremias xx. 7-10)
After beating him till tired, and heaping insults on him till they stopped through exhaustion, they twisted a crown of bark and straw and put it on his head, shouting: " Behold the son of David wearing his father's crown." "A greater than Solomon is here." " This is the king, who is preparing a feast for his son." Filled with the fire of the love of the Holy Spirit, Jesus wore the crown of mockery as Israel's greatest Seer had foretold. " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me in the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice, he hath covered me as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." (Isaias lxi. 10.) "And thou shalt make crowns, and thou shalt set them on the head of Jesus the high priest. And thou shalt speak to him, saying : BEHOLD A MAN, ORIENT IS HIS NAME, and under him shall he spring up, and shall build a temple to the Lord and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon a throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne." Behold the Orient, Priest of mankind building his temple, his church, by his Passion and death. (Zach.vi. 11-13)
