To insure they had the complete approval of the top Roman governor, and to give the "kangaroo court" the semblance of legality, Jesus was secured in His bonds again, and led away to the residence of Pilate, the Governor. At about this time, a servant came to some of the priests, and mentioned that a man was desperately wanting to see them on "a most urgent matter" concerning Jesus. It was Judas. He said urgently, "I have sinned—I betrayed an innocent man!" He thrust toward them the bag with 30 pieces of silver in it, and begged them to take it back. The chief priests said, "Whose business is that? That's your problem!" With that, Judas simply cast down the bag in the sanctuary, and left. The chief priests gathered up the silver, and terribly careful to make sure they complied with Deuteronomy 23:18 said, "It isn't lawful to put this into the treasury, since it is the price of blood" and so decided after a hurried caucus to buy a potter's field to bury strangers in. Even this fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 18:2; 19:2; 32:6.15 with Zechariah 11:13). From that time on the field they bought with that money became known as the "Field of Blood." John's account is particularly important at this point because he said that they led Jesus from Caiaphas into Pilate's palace while it was early "and they themselves entered not into the palace that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover"! (This passage absolutely proves that the Jews were going to eat the Passover later on in the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nisan or the early evening of the fifteenth as was their custom. Consequently, the supper Jesus had eaten with His disciples at the beginning of the fourteenth, called the Lord's supper by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians the 11th chapter, was about 20 hours earlier than the Jewish Passover!) Pilate wanted to know what the man was accused of, and the delegation said, "Obviously, if this man were not an evildoer we wouldn't be here with him! But we found him perverting our nation, forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar [all lies!] and even claiming that he himself is a king!" Pilate said, "Fine. Do what you want. Take him yourselves and judge him according to your own law." But the religious leaders answered, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death!" They knew they had to have the Roman governor's full permission before they could get away with their hasty "kangaroo court" and put Jesus to death! Pilate relented and asked to see Jesus Himself. He knew the crafty dealings of these religious types. But he also knew their power over the people. So Pilate's curiosity was now really aroused. Who could possibly have elicited such feelings of jealousy and rivalry from these religious leaders? In due time, Jesus was brought in, the blood-spattered garments and open cuts on His face, the spittle in His hair and His beard, testifying to the terrible treatment He had received. Pilate asked Him, "So you are the one they are calling the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "You are the one who is telling me! Are you saying this of yourself, or did others merely bring this story to you?" Pilate responded, "What am I, some Jew? It's your own people and the chief priests who have delivered you to me. Just what is it you have done?" Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this society. If my kingdom were of this time, then my servants would fight, I will assure you, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this time!" "So you're a king?" Pilate asked. Jesus said, "You claim I am a king. To this end have I been born, and for this purpose I came into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. "Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice!" Sighing, remembering his Roman education, and the teachings of some of the great philosophers, Pilate asked the age-old question still being repeated plaintively today, "So what is truth?" Turning from Jesus, Pilate told the Jewish leaders, "I can't find any crime whatsoever in this man!" The chief priests and Sadducees fell all over one other clamoring about the great crimes and sins Jesus was alleged to have committed. Jesus, standing there, heard it all. Pilate turned to Him and said, "Won't you answer any of their accusations? Listen to how many things they are accusing you of !" But Jesus stolidly refused to open His mouth in answer to the hideous tales they were telling, including everything from theft to adultery, robbery, a threatened destruction of the temple, insurrection, rebellion, refusal to pay taxes and every other crime and sin that they could imagine. The more urgently they accused Him, the more Pilate marveled that Jesus would stand there quietly taking it, and never saying a word. Hearing all these railing accusations, Pilate finally realized that the man was a Galilean and thought he could find a way to get out from under the calamitous insistence of the Jewish leaders in this riotous mess. Obviously, the man belonged under Herod's jurisdiction, and Pilate, knowing Herod would be in Jerusalem for the feast, told them to take Him away to see Herod. Herod was actually happy when he heard he would have an opportunity to interview Jesus, because he had heard about Him for a long time. Herod earnestly wanted to see Jesus privately, and had even hoped that maybe some miracle could be performed for him. When Jesus was brought before Herod, it was much like the scenes at Annas' house, the house of Caiaphas, and the court of Pilate. The chief priests and the scribes took turns vehemently accusing Him, with Herod sitting on his throne, the soldiers standing about, and all listening attentively. Jesus repeatedly refused to answer. Question after question was hurled at Him; carefully worded, laboriously explained, doubly and trebly repeated accusations of the filthiest nature. Herod thought he had found a way at last to build some bridges between himself and Pilate, with whom he had been having the coolest of relations. If he could appear to be totally cooperative even with one of his own subjects in asking for Pilate's help, perhaps he could heal some of the wounds. Seizing upon a ridiculous idea, knowing Pilate would appreciate his little joke, Herod decided to make a mock "king" out of Jesus. He quickly gave some orders to his soldiers, who, searching through Herod's wardrobe, found a purple king's robe, together with all the other trappings of the royal attire, and hurriedly dressed Jesus, cackling and laughing in glee as they arranged the gorgeous apparel on him (see Luke 23:6-11). When Herod was satisfied he had fully developed the charade and Jesus looked suitably attired to tickle Pilate's funny bone, he had the men take Jesus back to Pilate's residence. It had been a custom for a long time for the governor of the province to grant a pardon for one leading prisoner as a sign of clemency at the time of the feast. A very famous prisoner named Barabbas, a leader of a large group who had tried to overthrow the Roman government, was in jail. During the insurrections they had caused in this and that town, some had lost their lives, and Barabbas was up for murder. The early morning hours were waning by the time Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people. Finding Jesus had been delivered back to him from Herod again, Pilate said, "Look, you've brought back to me this man as if he were someone who is perverting and subverting the people. Now look, I have examined him before you, listening to everyone of the accusations you've brought, but I can find no fault in this man, and no corroboration for those things you accuse him of. "Even Herod, when I sent him over there could find no fault in him, and has sent him back to me again. So far as I can tell, he has not done anything that would mean he is guilty of the death penalty. As you know, there is a custom that I should grant clemency to one prisoner at this time of the Passover." Pilate hoped his words were scoring well with the Jewish leaders, for he seriously wanted to see Barabbas killed! The man had been the scourge of the countryside, and Pilate had had to send his legions clattering around in their chariots in fruitless searches here and there, but Barabbas had always eluded him until a fortuitous circumstance involving the bribery of a certain maid Barabbas was known to favor had delivered him into the hands of some of Pilate's more skilled lieutenants. Pilate had no intention of seeing Barabbas get away this time, and was hoping that by making a public example of his death he could have a little peace for the next few months or so. Therefore, he was sincerely hoping that these Jewish leaders, screaming for the death of Jesus, would listen to both the testimony of Herod and of Pilate himself, and would agree that Jesus had done nothing worthy of the death penalty, and conclude that Jesus was the one who should be released. Pilate finished his speech, "Therefore, seeing that he has done nothing worthy of death, would you want me to release unto you this one who claims he is king of the Jews?" Pilate had another very important reason for making this speech, because while he was sitting on the judgment seat during the very time Jesus was being interviewed by Herod, his wife had interrupted him, saying, "Don't have anything to do with that righteous man! I'm telling you I have suffered many things just last night in a vivid dream because of him!" She went on to tell her husband of some of the frightening things she had experienced in a very real vision, and urged him with all of her persuasive powers to see to it that he kept completely uninvolved. But his speech before the religious leaders was to no avail, and they began screaming that Jesus be crucified and Barabbas be the one released! Pilate asked, "Well, if I release Barabbas, then what am I supposed to do with this person you claim is the King of the Jews who is called Jesus the Christ?" The mob screamed the louder, "Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him!" It began to become a chant—surging, ebbing, flowing, growing increasingly louder! They began to stamp their feet in unison, jam the butts of spears on the court floor, some of them jumping up and down with rage as the chant grew ever louder, until it literally rang against the walls and echoed down the corridors of the governor's residence, "Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!" Finally, Pilate gained their attention by gesturing to the soldiers nearby, and when he had quieted the crowds, he said, "Why in the world should I do such a hideous thing as pass on him our Roman form of death sentence? What evil has he done?" Jesus stood there with the blood draining out of the livid scratches and scars on His cheeks, His mock crown of thorns glistening wetly with the blood of His own head where it had been jammed cruelly down over His forehead and had gouged deeply into one eyelid. The gorgeous purple robes, so gleefully and playfully arranged by Herod, were now darkening with the drops of blood dripping out of His hair and from His beard. Pilate said, "Crucify him yourself! I can't find any crime in him whatsoever!" One of the leaders finally gained Pilate's attention while he stood talking to the mob in the courtyard and said, "We have a law; and according to our laws that man ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God—and that is blasphemy!" When Pilate heard these words, that the man had actually "made himself the Son of God," something struck his mind with a resounding jolt. His wife's beseeching eyes and her urgent voice came to him, as did a great deal of his earlier teaching, and his own religious doubts. He turned, went back into the palace again, and coming before Jesus who had been standing there with the drops of His own blood spattering the floor about Him, said, "Where did you come from?" Again, Jesus did not move His lips; did not acknowledge Pilate's presence, and gave no answer. Pilate, irritated, said, "Do you refuse to talk to me? Don't you know that I have the power to either release you, or the power to crucify you?" At this, Jesus said, "You would have no power against me whatever, except it were allowed you from above. Therefore, because of this, those who delivered me unto you are guilty of the greater sin!" That clinched it in Pilate's mind. A man who could speak this way, and act with this incredible dignity in the face of such a hideous death, saying such striking things in utter honesty, must not die. Pilate wanted very badly to release Him. Returning to the men outside, Pilate again encouraged them to allow him to release Jesus. But they screamed the louder, saying, "If you release this man, you're going to be in terrible trouble with the Emperor! Everyone that makes himself a king is after all claiming to speak directly against Caesar!" Pilate was perplexed. What should he do now? The Jews had scored a telling blow with this statement that any insurrectionist was actually looked upon as a direct rebel against Caesar's claim to divine powers himself. Pilate was in fact being blackmailed. He therefore decided to bring Jesus down to the judgment seat at a place on a wide courtyard called The Pavement or in Hebrew Gabbatha. John says, "Now it was the preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour (by Roman reckoning probably 6:00 A.M.), and when Pilate had descended with Jesus to the courtyard where the mob stood, he said, "Behold your king!" They screamed loudly again with the same chant,"Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate shouted over their heads, "What? Am I supposed to crucify your very king?" The high priest screamed, "We have no king but Caesar!" Pilate sighed, realized he was getting nowhere, and that a riot was about to develop. So in the eyes of all, he called for a basin, dipped his hands, held them aloft so they could see the water, and went through the ceremony of hand washing, finally turning to the crowd and saying aloud, "You see it! I am washing my hands of it! I am proclaiming myself completely innocent of the blood of this righteous man. It's your problem, you see to it." Willingly, the leaders screamed, "Fine! Let his blood be on us—and upon our children!" Pilate, worried deeply about keeping his own office if this riotous tumult caused such an upset that it actually got all the way back to Rome, and recognizing he couldn't escape the full legal and even spiritual and moral responsibility for this surrender to the Jewish leaders, nevertheless couldn't seem to find any other way out. He desperately wanted to keep his own office, and had sincerely hoped that he could talk these rabid religionists into letting him release Jesus, and go ahead with his scourging and crucifixion of Barabbas instead, he found himself faced with the doubly obnoxious decision to release Barabbas, whom he knew assuredly would cause him terrible problems in the future, and to go through the brutal process of commanding his Roman soldiers to beat Jesus with a scourge, and lead Him out to be crucified. Legionnaires in a Roman army were a motley collection from nations all over the Roman world; they came from Africa, from Germanic tribes on the continent, from faraway Spain, or even Gaul. Most of them were totally illiterate save a few of their officers, and because of the harsh conditions under which they lived and fought, were wont to be as brutal as any soldiers at any time. It was the soldiers who were finally given the nod at sometime between 6:00 and 9:00 A.M. in the morning on that Wednesday to lead Jesus away within the court (called the Praetorium). The Roman soldiers actually looked forward to venting their wrath and frustrations on this one man who claimed to be King of the Jews. What better way to attack this hated race than by scourging and crucifying their "king"! The soldiers began by stripping Him of His blood-spattered clothing, finding a newer robe made of scarlet, and then, following the idea that Herod's own men had devised, jammed the crown of thorns back down on His head. They gave Him a useless reed for His right hand, and then, one by one came forward to do mock obeisance before Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
As each leering soldier shuffled forward with his brawny forearms glistening with sweat, his leering, filthy face grinning in cruel expectancy, he would kneel before Jesus, grasp the rod (it was more like a cattle prod, or a stick than a reed) out of His hand, and strike Him right across the top of the crown of thorns on the top of His head, saying, "Hail! King of the Jews!" Then, each one would hawk up a clot of spit and expectorate it fully into Jesus face! Finally, getting no response, save a wincing now and then, and the tightest shutting of His eyes, the Roman soldiers tired of their play, and took all of His garments away until He was naked. The leader of the group grasped the heavy handle of his scourge, letting the metal chunks grate ever so slightly on the polished floor, and, with a cruel leer at his fellow soldiers, his eyes feverishly glinting with a perverted bloodlust, he flailed at Christ's back with all, his strength. A scourge was the Roman version of the "cat-o'-nine tails," and featured leather thongs with bits of metal wrapped in the ends of each one, fastened to a wooden or a heavy leather handle. Oftentimes, a person who was so scourged died in the whipping, just as many seamen in the navies of the world, both then and in the generations thereafter, have died during a particularly vicious whipping on the gratings. Jesus grunted in terrible pain, his back arching spasmodically, lips torn back from bleeding face and gums. The first blow had cut him deeply, splattering blood and chunks of flesh on those soldiers closest; they stepped back quickly, wiping at their faces and clothing. "Chunk!" "Splat!" 'Smack!" The raining blows continued; opening great gouges in his arms, chest, stomach, back, thighs and legs. The soldier's great chest heaved with his efforts; his companions laughed with perverted, bestial pleasure; Jesus' moans were becoming a dull sob, a bare whimper, until He almost fainted! A splashing bucket of water in the face, and, jerking Him upright again, the hideous beating continued! Jesus was stark naked and terribly vulnerable; and the soldier now and then deliberately flayed the whip at his hips so as to strike out at his manhood. The Roman soldiers, delighting in their animal-like bloodlust, took turns whipping Jesus' body until they quite literally laid open His flesh, exposing the ribs through the wounds, with chunks of lead and metal biting deeply into His body, and splattering the hall and the Romans themselves with His blood. They beat Jesus until He fell, hauled Him to His feet, and beat Him until He fell again. Finally, they had to tie Him upright and continue the vicious beating until Jesus' head slumped down in total exhaustion and He had to be revived once again. "Wait! Wait!" an officer cried out! "TenSHUN!" he screamed. The whip trailed bloodily on the floor. The soldier's face glistening with blood and sweat; his crazed eyes bulging with half-insane, animal-like incomprehension. "You'll kill him, you fool!" the officer screamed! "If he dies here you'll be crucified in place of him, I assure you!" "Let's get on with the crucifixion. You two, pick him up; revive him, and let's get going—a huge crowd is gathering, and we may not be able to get him through it to the gate alive if we don't hurry! I'll want a triple guard, and a runner sent to the gate; we've got to keep this thing from getting out of hand!" With a bitter glance at the still-dazed leader of the group carrying the whip, the officer said, "You stay here! I may have to talk to you later!" With that, another bucket of water was splashed into Jesus' face and they dragged the hideously deformed man to His feet. Quickly throwing His own clothes back on Him, they half-dragged, half-carried Him from the garrison room back to the street. They led Him out, and, holding up the heavy wooden beam He was to bear, slowly lowered it onto His hideously torn back. Then, urging Him on with whips, they began to lead the procession through the crowds. By now, with His face a purpled, livid, blackened and bloody swollen mass, His eyes swollen nearly shut, one eyelid laid horribly back, huge open wounds in His scalp, shreds of skin and flesh openly exposed, Jesus would not survive much longer, the soldiers knew. So they hurried along the street, urging Jesus along when He stumbled and fell, inexorably moving toward the denouement of their bestial drama—crucifixion. He could still speak even though His lips were torn and swollen twice to three times their normal size. As He felt His strength draining from Him, He knew He could not survive much longer. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Jesus, wracked with pain, to keep His mind focused on God and His own mission. But He prayed to God, utilizing all His mental efforts, and God gave Him the strength to continue. When they first placed the heavy beam on Jesus' back, He trudged a few painful steps, and crying out in pain, stumbled and fell under the weight. As the mob wound through the streets, they grabbed a man out of the crowd who happened to be Simon of Cyrene, a well-known older man, the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers laid Jesus' stake on him, so he could trail along after Jesus. This cruel treatment of an elder, and a known person in the Jewish community, was only one more example of the utter contempt in which the Roman soldiers held the Jewish populace. A large crowd began to gather, including dozens of women and men who were weeping and throwing dust in the air, sobbing aloud and letting out gasps of pity and remorse each time Jesus slipped and fell as the bedraggled figure lurched forward along the stony streets toward the gate of Jerusalem. On one occasion, Jesus turned to a group of the women and said, through thickened, swollen, purple and livid lips, "Daughters of Jerusalem—don't cry for me! Cry for yourselves and your children! I'm telling you that the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that were never nursed!' "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us!' [Compare with Hosea 10:8] Because if human beings can do these things in easy times, what will they do when terrible tribulation comes?"
The grisly procession continued out of the gate, turned slightly to its left and passing through a stony area where the herdsmen gathered their flocks for sale, descended along a pathway into a pleasant garden area bounded by a group of trees against the bluff of a large limestone outcropping. Turning to the left, they started climbing this rocky hill, until they achieved the grassy slope atop it, and thus could look back at the city of Jerusalem only about two or three city blocks away from this height. The hollowed out caves in the face of the limestone outcropping had given rise to its name, the place of the skull," which was the meaning of its Hebrew name, Golgotha. There the hole was dug for the stake, and Jesus' body was nailed to it, His arms wrenched over His head and driven firmly to the timber with a single spike through them, while His feet were fastened to the wood with a large spike driven between the bones of His toes. Then He was hoisted in the air as the stake was jammed into the ground. A scream of sheer agony spasmodically burst forth from Jesus as the soldiers labored with shovels to insure that the stake was propped upright. A carefully inscribed inscription had been arranged and had been tacked on the top of the stake. The inscription said, "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Interestingly enough, Pilate himself composed the title plainly stating that Jesus was the King of the Jews! (John 19:19). Why? Was he being sarcastic? Was it a joke? An oversight? A mistake? Or just perhaps could he have begun to think that it might be true! Seeing the inscription the priests and their officers were outraged. And panicked. A delegation was quickly dispatched to Pilate's residence once more. Upon being admitted, they said, "The inscription is wrong! You should have put, ‘This man says he is king of the Jews'; or 'claimed to be King'; or even included the word 'impostor,' or 'pretender,' or 'criminal,' or 'fool,' or something. But you have said, ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'! "It is as though the sign is actually stating that Jesus is in fact the king of the Jews. This is disastrous. What will the people think? There are citizens here from all over the Roman Empire. We're all terribly embarrassed." Pilate sighed wearily. It had been a long, hard night. First, these frenzied religious fanatics had roused him out of a sound sleep. Next, he had been involved in a political maneuver with Herod. Then, he had narrowly averted a riot in Jerusalem. Then he had been terribly bothered by his wife's dream. Pilate's mind was plaguing him to death at the manner in which this person, Jesus, had allowed Himself to be manhandled, and at the strange answer He had given Pilate about being a "king" of some yet future, unknown kingdom. "I have written what I have written," he said, eyes red-rimmed, heaving a weary breath, "and I'm not about to change it! The inscription stays!" Muttering oaths to themselves under their breath while simperingly bowing, stepping backward, and, finding their way out to the street again, the-tight-lipped group started back to Golgotha to report the bad news. The inscription stayed as it was—well, he was still dying, wasn't he? But the thought lingered: the inscription categorically stated that Jesus of Nazareth was the king of the Jews. It kept everybody on edge. One of the soldiers had stripped Jesus' clothing from Him and another one of them reached up and tore the last of His garments off. Later, the Roman soldiers who had been sent to finish the whole sordid mess sat at the foot of the three stakes after they had finished hoisting each in place (including two criminals who were being crucified with Jesus) and began to gamble for His clothing (which was expensive). Even this fulfilled a scripture (see Psalms 22:18) which said His garments would be parted among them, and "upon his vesture they would cast lots." John explains that Jesus' coat was "without seam, woven from the top throughout" and that the soldiers agreed that because of this it would be a shame to cut it into pieces. By then it was about noon, but what was happening to the light? It seemed to be growing strangely dark! Large crowds now had been informed of the proceedings, and they came by in the hundreds, reading the inscription, making their comments, wagging their heads, screaming epithets at Him, with each one trying to outdo the other with his bitterly clever invectives. One such person screamed, "Ha! Hey, you up there who claimed you could destroy our temple and then build it again in three days! If you are the Son of God, why don't you come down from that stake?" The Scribes, elders and leaders of the people were standing around, so they could make comments to different ones who came by; their favorite chiding remark, repeated to many, was, "Sure! He claimed to have saved others, but he can't seem to save himself, can he? "If he is the Christ, the King of Israel, then let's see him come down from that cross so everyone can believe on him!" Finally, one of the dying criminals could stand it no longer, and turned to Jesus and said, "What is all this they are saying? You claim you are the Christ. If you are, for pity's sake, save us and yourself !" The other thief said, "Shut your mouth! Even while you're dying, don't you have any fear of God, seeing you're in the same condemnation—and you and I are only paying for our own crimes which we deserve, but this man has done nothing!" Turning his head painfully he said to Jesus, "Remember me, please, when you come into your kingdom!" Jesus said, "Truthfully, I am going to tell you right now—you will be with me in paradise!" It was indeed growing very dark now, and more torches and lanterns had been lit. Mary, Jesus' mother, her sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene had managed to come forward in the crowd, weeping, looking with terrible anxiety and shock at the emaciated, disfigured, swollen, puffy, purple and livid figure, naked on the stake. Mary thought her heart would break. She didn't think she could stand it, but, unable to tear her eyes away, and yet seemingly unable to look, she stood aghast at this hideous spectacle who had been her firstborn, announced by angels, protected of God, and used to perform great miracles which she herself had seen, beginning in the household, from Cana of Galilee to the last moments of His teaching, just yesterday, here in Jerusalem. Jesus opened His swollen eyes, and, blinking, saw His mother and John standing at the foot of His stake. Rousing Himself sufficiently that He could say in painful tones what He had in mind, knowing that their homes and properties would be seized by the leaders, that His brothers would be hunted and possibly even killed if they did not escape, that His disciples would disintegrate and flee back to their own businesses and into the security of anonymity, He said, "Woman, behold your son." indicating John, He said, "Behold your mother!" John got the message, as did Mary. John never left Mary from that moment on, and when they finally left the site of Jesus' death, John continued to stay right at Mary's side, taking her into his own home, and taking her with him on a trip which was to occur within a few months. (Could Mary have later gone with John to the Isle of Patmos?) Gradually, everybody began to mutter in hushed and excited tones that something extraordinarily strange was happening! "It's growing very dark, isn't it?" one or two began to exclaim. Others began to chime in about how dark it seemed to be getting, that the sun seemed to be growing dimmer, until finally it actually appeared as if a great eclipse or some terrible blackness was occurring. But this was unlike any eclipse they had ever heard of or seen before; it grew darker and darker until it was as black as midnight. It remained that way from noon until 3:00 P.m. that afternoon! Torches in the streets were lit, and people were groping about because now it was completely dark! During this time, Jesus was praying as hard as He could in His mind, calling out to His Father in heaven as He felt His life ebbing and seeping away from His body. From time to time, He saw visions of angels, knowing that powerful angels were all around Him, in the air over Him, at the foot of His stake, and there beside Him. But suddenly, the angels were gone! He felt a terrible cold blackness beginning to descend over His own mind and body. It was almost as if someone had put an impenetrable veil between Him and His heavenly Father. Jesus was startled! This had never happened before. He was totally alone! Something horrible had happened! Something completely unexpected. This wasn't part of their plan! Something had gone wrong! Jesus, in constant prayers had gained the spiritual strength and courage to stand the hideous beatings, the torment and torture. He had even been able to withstand the wrenching, shattering pain when the nails had been driven through His hands and feet and the stake jammed into the ground. Jesus had always been able to find methods of renewing His determination by His continual prayers to God the Father, and the feeling of God's Holy Spirit being renewed within Him was God's sure answer. But now suddenly, at the very time when He most needed comfort and sustenance, it was gone! Jesus looked out into space, as it were, and seemed to see the retreating back of God! Jesus was cut off. Alone. He couldn't believe it! It seemed that even His Father had now forsaken Him. He cried aloud, wanting desperately to see a strong angel standing by; remembering the time when at His very last moment of life in the wilderness with Satan to torment Him, He bad been picked up by strong angelic hands and given nourishment and succor. But now, nothing. God the Father had placed the sins of all humanity on the body and being of Jesus. Feeling the continual draining of His strength, and sensing the horror of His solitude, Jesus cried out in shock, pain and surprise, "My GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!" Because He said it in Aramaic, using the word Eli ("my God"), some of those nearby misheard and thought He was calling for the prophet Elijah. Only a few moments had passed after Jesus, in great mental shock, cried out those terrible words—"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me!" —when, with His head bowed, He seemed to feel a moist, bitter softness pressed against His torn, terribly swollen lips and, stirring slightly, opened His dry, aching mouth and allowed a small trickle of the bilious mixture of vinegar and a strong soap-like cleansing agent made from a bitter plant called hyssop to pass His teeth. No sooner had this been done than the sponge was pulled away from His mouth and the soldier who had affixed it to the staff of his spear, reversed his spear, and, with a derisive laugh, thrust it into Jesus' side! Screaming out in pain, Jesus' head hit the back of the stake with a solid whack, His body arched, His limbs straining against the large spikes pinning His members to the upright pale, and, muscles spasming and trembling, said, "Father, I commend my spirit into your hands!" With this final soft utterance, the straining muscles relaxed, the bubbling stream of stomach fluids and blood running in a full rivulet down His hip, along His leg and dripping in a steady stream from His feet, gradually ebbed to a slow dribble, and His head lolled forward. His body became pale, shockingly waxen beneath the livid blues and red of His dust-encrusted wounds, and looked even more grotesque in the flickering torchlight. The blood dripped from His matted hair, from His nose, from His chin, and from the great gaping wounds up and down His body where the dull, yellowish color of blood and lymph could be seen here and there. Isaiah's prophecies that He would "sprinkle all nations" with His own blood, thus providing one sacrifice for all sins, and that He would be so disfigured that He would no longer resemble a human being, had come to pass. So had the prophecies that not a bone of His body would be broken, and the graphic fulfillment of David's twenty-second psalm, in which, as Jesus had read and studied so many times as a young growing man and later had sung in hymns through His ministry, the very thoughts which went through His mind on the stake had been set to writing centuries before. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me! Why are you so far from helping me, and the words of my roaring. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer, ... I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. "All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they sack out their lower lip, they shake their head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, so let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. "But you were the God that took me safely out of the womb; protected me and gave me hope when I was a baby, on my mother's breast....You were my God from my mother's belly. "Be not far from me; for trouble is all around me, and there is no one to help. "Many bulls [cherubim] have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan beset me around, and gape at me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. "I feel my strength pouring out like water, and all my bones are being pulled out of joint: my heart is like soft wax, it is melted in the midst of my innermost parts; "My strength is drying up like a potsherd, and my tongue is stuck to my jaws; and you have brought me, into the dust of death. "Dogs have compassed me; the assembly of sinners have surrounded me; they have pierced my hands and my feet. "Look! I can actually count my bones, my own bones seem to stare at me! "They are parting my garments among them, and gambling over my clothing. "Be not far from me, O Eternal, O my strength, hurry to help me." This striking psalm of David, seemingly echoing the deepest and innermost thoughts of Jesus' own last moments on the stake, concludes with, "From one end of the world to the other they will finally remember and turn to God; all the people of all nations will worship before you! "Because the kingdom is the Eternal's and he is the ruler among nations. It makes no difference whether they are healthy, successful and wealthy, every human being who goes back to the dust from which he came will finally bow before God, and no one can preserve his own life. "They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto generations not yet born, that God has done this."
Immediately afterward comes one of the most beautiful and most well-known of all the psalms and one that perhaps Jesus Himself could well have repeated just before He perished! "The Eternal is my shepherd, I will never lack anything. "He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the restful waters; He restores my soul, He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. "Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me. "You are preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life—and I will dwell in the house of the Eternal forever!" The moment Jesus died, a great earthquake rocked the land from one end to another; a deep subterranean noise rumbled like a thousand Niagaras, bricks and mortar began falling, people were knocked to the ground or swayed on their feet as they reached out for trees or walls to prevent them from toppling over. Though not so great a quake as to lay waste the city, there was significant damage to any number of buildings. The shattering event was extremely frightening, especially on the heels of the mysterious blackness that had crept over the land beginning about noon and caused thousands upon thousands to drop to their knees, believing it was "the Day of the Lord" as Joel had prophesied! "The end of the world, the end of the world!" some screamed and sobbed! John, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and Joseph and Salome were standing a distance away from the stake when the earthquake struck. They had actually seen the soldier thrust his spear into Jesus' side, and had watched Him die. Going back several minutes and shifting the scene to the center of Jerusalem, people could see the flickering torches which had been lit about noon to provide light in the temple court, where the thousands were going about the ritual of the slaughtering of the Paschal lambs. Though they had to work by the light of the hissing torches, flickering candles and glittering lanterns, the priests were determined to follow their prescribed rituals. The high priest, having been awake most of the night before planning Jesus' death and with Jesus' own testimony still ringing in his ears, had been terribly upset all morning. He couldn't keep his tormented mind and twisted emotions off that horrendously misleading and terribly embarrassing sign over the crucified Jesus which was still informing multiple thousands that Jesus of Nazareth was the King of the Jews! But the high priest finally went through the prescribed washings and changed into his purest linen vestments with shaking hands, all the while looking over his shoulder at the black, lowering skies, and frantically trying to maintain some semblance of calm for the sake of all the people, who were nervously chattering, milling about, glancing around in apprehension, looking upward, or even praying quietly from time to time. After all the required pronouncements and blessings had been completed, and amidst the leading families who had been admitted to the temple court with their lambs, the high priest approached the very first of the Paschal lambs to be slaughtered, held by two of his assistants a distance from the altar. Waiting in two lines were a group of priests with gold and silver bowls ready. The blood would be collected from the animals' throats, and passed hand over hand along the line of priests to be splashed at the base of the altar. The gleaming white marble columns led toward the entry to the Holy Place where the shewbread and the altar with its lamp of seven brazen pipes stood. Beyond it, the veil—which was opened only once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur )—was securely fastened. Behind the veil had once stood the ark of the Covenant; dully gleaming with its gold overlay, its two cherubim with wings outstretched almost touching over the mercy seat, with the sacred and prized jar of manna, along with the two tables of stone which Moses had put there so many centuries ago at Horeb. But this had been lost before the Exile, and the Holy of Holies now stood empty. The formalities all finished, the high priest beckoned to all the people; and as a hush fell over the crowd, he raised the ceremonial knife high above his head. It was then about three o'clock in the afternoon and the land had been engulfed in terrible darkness for almost three full hours. The knife descended on the exposed throat of the lamb, and with a swift sure cut, the high priest slit the animal's throat. Just as the knife had accomplished its mission, a sudden dull, huge rumbling began to erupt from the bowels of the earth. The buildings and court of the temple began to slightly sway, some few people lost their balance as others clung to each other or grasped at a pillar or wall for support. The priest had to steady himself as he finished the sacrificing of the lamb. Screams, shrieks, cries and exclamations of dismay swept through the crowd and all over the city. Then an extraordinary sound was heard—as a large tearing noise from inside the Holy Place! A servant, dispatched by the high priest, quickly ran to the entry, and face pale, came back to report, as the rumbling subsided and the first groups were catching the blood of the slaughtered animal in their ceremonial vessels, that "the veil that covered the Holy of Holies has been completely ripped from top to bottom!" The high priest desperately tried to still the nagging voices of conscience plaguing his now tortured mind, and with the most urgent beckoning toward his assistant and the other priest, he indicated that the ceremony, already begun, should swiftly continue! Nothing could prevent the precise timing of this centuries-old celebration of the Passover, the killing of the first ceremonial lamb, and then the swift butchering of the hundreds and thousands of additional lambs as each clan or large household came into the temple court to sacrifice its own lambs with the same ceremonies: the slitting of the throat, the passing of the blood, its dashing against the altar, the hanging of the lambs on pegs round about the walls or over strong men's shoulders while the viscera was dumped in a growing pile, the hides quickly stripped while the animal was still warm, and the fat thrown on a blazing pyre in offering. What an incredible scene! But the most incredible part of all was the ultimate spiritual significance that multiple millions of human beings would forever after understand was contained in those stupendous events. For little did the high priest realize that just as his ceremonial knife descended upon the exposed throat of the lamb, flashing with dull radiance in the flickering torchlight, so had a Roman soldier on a hill just outside Jerusalem quickly reversed the staff of his spear, shaken off the wet sponge with its bitter contents, and with a vicious laugh, thrust his spear into Christ's side! Did Jesus of Nazareth die on the stake at the precise instant the sacrificial lamb died in the temple? Was Jesus Christ brutally slain at the exact moment of time when the very same high priest who had just plotted His death ritualistically slaughtered the unblemished lamb? Paul wrote that "Christ our Passover, is sacrificed for us" (1Corinthians 5:7). The Gospel accounts state that Jesus Christ died at the ninth hour, which was three o'clock in the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nisan. The Jewish historian Josephus, who was born a few years after Jesus' death and lived throughout the last years of the temple in Jerusalem reports that the Passover lambs were sacrificed from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. on the afternoon of the same fourteenth of Nisan! "Accordingly, on the occasion of the feast called Passover, at which they sacrifice from the ninth to the eleventh hour [3:00 to 5:00 P.M.), and a little fraternity, as it were, gather round each sacrifice, of not fewer than ten persons" (War 6.9.3).
The indication from Josephus's description seems to be that all the Passover lambs from all the people were sacrificed within that two-hour time period. If this was indeed the case, the first unblemished lamb that had to be ceremonially sacrificed by the high priest had to have been scheduled for the beginning of the period, or precisely at 3:00 P.M. on the afternoon of Nisan 14th! Independent confirmation of the approximate time of the Passover sacrifice comes from the Book of Jubilees (written in the second century B.C.) which gives a time between about 2:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M.; and from early rabbinic literature (edited in the second century A.D.) which gives a time of sometime after 2:30 P.M. If this temporal "coincidence" between the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is striking, its spiritual implications are absolutely overwhelming. The unblemished lamb that was required to be sacrificed every year by the high priest represented the recognition by Israel that death was the only way to absolve sin. This practice of sacrificing animals had been continuing from time immemorial. Yet it was really "not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin" (Hebrews 10:4). So God was now making a way to remove sin. God was raising the stakes of the sacrifice—infinitely! Rather than offering the physical life of a lamb for the physical transgression of Israel, God the Father was now going to offer the life of His Son for the spiritual transgressions of all mankind (see Hebrews 9 and 10)! The sacrifice of the lamb enabled human beings to live their physical lives forgiven from sin; the sacrifice of Jesus Christ would now enable human beings to attain a spiritual life—the promise of eternal inheritance—forgiven from sin (see Hebrews 9:12-15). God states that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Consequently, it would take a death to pay the penalty for the sins of each and every human being. But God planned to offer in our place Jesus Christ, whose life, as Creator of the universe, was worth more than the combined lives of all mankind from all time put together. Christ would only have to die once (Hebrews 9:26; 10:10-12), and through that death every man would have the chance to be justified before God and live forever. Now what about Caiaphas, the high priest that year? It was his responsibility to sacrifice the unblemished lamb as an offering for all Israel. And he was also the very, same person who plotted, organized and expedited the crucifixion of Jesus. What powerful spiritual concepts are contained in Caiaphas's dual role that fateful year. The high priest symbolized all Israel when he ritualistically slaughtered the lamb as a sin offering to God. And this very same high priest just as surely symbolized all mankind when he accused and condemned Christ! Then, bringing the overwhelming spiritual plan of God to its climactic point of spiritual impact, this same high priest slits the throat of the sacrificial lamb just as the Roman soldier spears the side of the sacrificed Christ! Previously, Caiaphas had reasoned that it was "expedient that one man should die for the people" (John 18:14). What he had said was absolutely true—but in a way, and for a reason, incredibly beyond his limited and parochial understanding. Caiaphas thought that Jesus was causing so much commotion among the people that the Roman authorities might use such crowd fervor as an excuse for a major attack on the population, even a pogrom. Therefore, to save the entire Jewish population from such possible atrocities, Jesus would have to die as a sacrifice. Ironically, the high priest was right. More right than anyone could have ever even imagined. For it was now God's time to fulfill His plan formulated before the foundation of the world (Hebrews 9:26; Revelation 13:8). It was indeed absolutely essential that Jesus of Nazareth, Christ and Creator, would have to die as a sacrifice so that all humanity could have the opportunity to live forever! Another spiritually startling revelation was that direct contact with God the Father was now for the first time available to all human beings. This was symbolized by the dramatic rip in the veil, which had previously concealed the Holy of Holies, at the precise instant of Jesus' death. The spiritual significance of this tear in the sacred tapestry is enormous. The Holy of Holies represented God's Throne, and the access to it, under the Old Covenant, was restricted to one human being (the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement). Other than this one occurrence, access to the Holy of Holies or, in its spiritual meaning, access to the throne of God, was completely concealed from mankind (Hebrews 9:7-8). But the death of Christ ripped the veil apart—the Holy of Holies was literally revealed and direct access to God was now literally possible in personal prayer through the mediation of Jesus Christ. The servants in the innermost sanctuary of the temple had felt a rumbling beneath their feet and had tried to grab hold of anything to keep themselves from toppling over. Brazen pots and pans were clattering about the floor, and dust was everywhere in the air when suddenly the veil which hid the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place in the temple had been split from the top to the bottom! Thousands were thrown violently to the ground. Many were injured, some died. Nearby, those in the villages saw one of the most frightening spectacles in all of history, when stone tombs were jostled loose from the ground and virtually heaved upright, with their stone lids sliding loose in the enormous earthquake. (After Jesus' resurrection terrified citizens went screaming to tell their friends that some of these people had actually risen out of those tombs and had been seen walking! (Matthew 27:52, 53.) Even the three stakes on the hill were swaying gently back and forth as the gradual rumbling of the great earthquake subsided in the land, still dark as if it were midnight. Some Roman soldiers who were standing at the foot of the stake nervously jerked off their helmets, dropped to their knees on the dusty and bloody ground, and looking about them with fear, said, "Truly, this must have been the Son of God!" Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the Less and of Joses and Salome, along with a number of other women who had been faithful servants of the disciples and Jesus were nearby when the earthquake struck, as were the mother of the sons of Zebedee and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Gradually, as the dust began to settle, the shaking of the mortar, stones and bricks came to a stop, and as the rumble of the earthquake disappeared, it seemed to grow lighter. Bewildered people began picking themselves up where they had fallen; mobs of perplexed people came out from under trees where they had clung for stability to keep from being thrown to the ground, and everyone looked with fear at the cracks in some of the buildings as they went about the business of inspecting the amount of damage that had occurred. It seemed that most of the large buildings and homes had survived. Thankfully, the temple was completely intact, though the veil separating the Holy of Holies had been split. This caused some consternation. How could it be, some of the priests thought to themselves, that the temple was not damaged at all and yet that heavy veil was cleanly torn in two almost as if it were a deliberate act? Still, there was much to be done because it was the preparation for the Passover day. (John says that Sabbath was a high day—John 10:31.) The Jews therefore asked that the ghastly business be finished as quickly as possible, and that if the men weren't dead yet, the Roman soldiers should break their legs to hasten the process. Pilate gave permission, and the soldiers came. They lifted up their heavy spear handles and smashed them into the shin bones of the first criminal, who screamed in pain. Now unable to keep heaving himself upward for desperately needed air, he kept gasping with painful exclamations until his gasps became weaker and weaker, and in the hideous agony of his inability to heave himself further upright on his shattered legbones, he finally died. The soldier broke both criminals' legs, but when they, came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they did not break His legs in order that additional scriptures could be fulfilled, "For these things came to pass that the scripture might be fulfilled." (Compare with Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalms 34:20; Zechariah 12:10; Deuteronomy 21:22-23;—"a bone of him shall not be broken.") As the land grew lighter and the sun seemed to gradually emerge from behind the dark veil which had been holding the land in its vise-like grip of blackness for over three hours, Joseph of Arimathaea, having seen Jesus' death throes, heard His cry from a distance, hurried down the hill, and half running, entered the city to proceed as quickly as he could to Pilate's governor's residence. Upon being admitted, he was finally ushered into Pilate's presence. Pilate looked nervous and apprehensive. Repeatedly during the last three hours he had been going out on to his balcony above the courtyard of The Pavement where the terrible scene of the near riot had occurred some hours earlier, and he had finally been forced to turn around and ceremonially wash his hands of the whole incident. Still, the nagging doubts that had been assailing his mind like repeated hammer blows of a nine-pound maul would not let him alone. His wife's feverish warnings and anxious face kept coming back into his mind. Joseph of Arimathaea told him Jesus was dead! Pilate sighed. There had to be some connection between the most incredible phenomenon he had ever witnessed in all of his life—the blackness of the land for three hours and now the great rumbling earthquake. Distraught, brushing a hand across haggard face and into unkempt hair, Pilate peered at Joseph with red-rimmed eyes and said "Yes, yes, you can have the body!" Gesturing for his servant, Pilate hastily wrote out the order and signing the short scroll with a sweaty hand, beckoned to the servant who dribbled the wax upon it and Pilate pressed it with his own ring. Beckoning to a guard, one of Pilate's own private bodyguards, he told the man to deliver the order to the centurion at Golgotha, and see to it that Joseph of Arimathaea was granted permission to bury the body. Quickly, Joseph wound his way through the streets, back out the gate, and trotted along the way toward Golgotha. As he began climbing the low hill, he saw a figure toiling along ahead of him. Suddenly he recognized one of the most respected of the Jewish leaders—Nicodemus. Nicodemus, together with his household servants, was laboring up the hill with several bundles. Joseph commented to him briefly, and Nicodemus said he was carrying about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to use in the embalming procedures. Joseph told him of Pilate's written order he carried, and Nicodemus, nodding, signaled to his servants to join those of Joseph of Arimathaea, and they went about the task together. The Roman soldiers helped them dig around the base of the upright stake, and, lowering it to the ground, Nicodemus and Joseph began to gently detach the body from the stake. It was bitter, frightening, tear-stained work as the men sought to pry the torn feet and hands from the spikes pinning them to the splintered wood without causing further damage. Finally, rolling the body in a large wrapper, slinging it between two of the servants who carried a long stave, the procession started down the slopes, winding its way to the bottom, turning a sharp left until it came to a garden where Joseph had long since purchased a family tomb. The tomb was still being built; the workers had not yet completed the chambers Joseph had wanted for his entire family, but it would have to do. The main feature of the tomb was that no other human being had ever been buried there; it was brand new, not even finished, and therefore totally clean. Further, Joseph had asked for a specific design which featured a deep trough running along the face of a sheer wall in front of the aperture, and a huge, round stone which was fixed in place at the upper level. When the chocks were taken out and the stone slowly set in motion, it would roll gradually along the narrowing trough until it would come to rest against a stone abutment and, by the force of its own weight, would wedge itself into the gradually narrowing trough so that it would have been impossible for anything short of a small army of men or several teams of mules to have dislodged it. Now that it was growing lighter again, the Party could proceed with the burial rites. John, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Zebedee's wife all joined with Joseph and Nicodemus and their household servants in washing and carefully cleansing the body, no doubt weeping with grief as they meticulously placed patches of skin or sections of flesh back in place, gently pouring or rubbing on the ointments and spices they had brought, until, gradually, with layer after layer of the finest line cloth, they had succeeded in encasing the body so it appeared to be almost completely mummified. There had been no chance for the women, in the sudden precipitousness of the events of the last hours, to have made preparation for such a burial, so they could only assist the servants of Nicodemus in the spreading of the myrrh and aloes they had brought. In a whispered conversation, the women determined to come back as soon as they could with additional spices and ointments, and sprinkle them over the body and about the tomb, for they wanted to ensure that this beloved man, and Mary's own son, had the finest possible burial. Returning to their abode, they spent the last few hours on that Wednesday afternoon grinding up the leaves and the berries, working hard to prepare as much of the spices and ointments as they could. But at sunset on that fourteenth of Nisan, which brought on the fifteenth, they ceased from their work, for that Thursday was an annual Holy Day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the first annual Sabbath of the sacred year (Luke 23:56; Mark 16:1). Pilate had spent a restive night. The next day, hoping that some sanity could return to the land, he requested that a quick damage report be given from all military installations in the area following the devastating earthquake of the afternoon before. But halfway through breakfast, he was interrupted by a servant who told him that a delegation of the chief priests and Pharisees were below wanting an audience. Highly irritated, he wondered, "What could it be now?" as he stopped to pick up his official governor's robe. The simpering voice said, "Sir, we remember that this deceiver, while he was still alive, said, 'After three days I will rise again.' We therefore respectfully request you to give an order that the sepulchre be made absolutely secure for that whole period of time, lest by any chance his disciples might steal away his body, and then claim to the people, 'He is risen from the dead.' Because if that should happen, it would be the last straw, and such a terrible mistake would be worse than all of this mess we have gone through in the last hours." Pilate could immediately see the sense of that; the last thing he wanted on his hands in this hypersensitized region, following such remarkable phenomena and the restlessness of the crowds thronging Jerusalem, was a gigantic emotional uprising resulting from some contrived plot. Therefore, he gave the order and wrote it out to make it official, saying, "I am going to have a guard accompany you, and you go along and make the sepulchre as sure as you possibly can!" The priests went to the sepulchre at the foot of Golgotha with the Roman guard, and watched the sweating bodies toiling (which they knew was the deliberate breaking of this annual Sabbath day—but by this time they were willing to take any risk, and probably discounted it as "an ox in the ditch") to drive great wooden and stone wedges behind the huge round stone blocking the entry to the tomb. They then insisted that a full-time guard of several heavily armed soldiers be retained in the small stone court in front of the stone. After the next day, when it was again Friday, and an ordinary working day, the women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Salome, continued their work throughout that day of the preparation of spices to return to the tomb prior to the fourth day. They rested on the weekly Sabbath as they were commanded: Then, late at night after that Sabbath day, knowing they could go to the work of layering the body with yet another wrapping of grave clothes, bringing additional sweet-scented spices and ointments with them, and that their work would best be done under cover of dark when most were asleep, they started toward the tomb in the hopes they could ask the men there to roll back the stone long enough for them to give the body another complete dressing. It was still quite dark, in the early hours prior to dawn, as the women made their way up the gradual slope toward the top of Golgotha. Little did they know what had been occurring inside the tomb a few hours earlier! | 