Outlines of Ecclesiastical History. B. H. Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ principal charges which the Jews brought against Jesus were: (1) violation of the Sabbath; he had healed a man on the Sabbath day, and had commanded him to take up his bed and walk:^[49] (2) blasphemy; he had said God was his Father, "making himself equal with God" (see note 2, end of section):^[50] (3) It was said that he was king of the Jews; and, on one occasion, the people hearing of his coming to Jerusalem took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting Hosannah: blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.^[51] For this he was said to be an enemy to Caesar's government and a seditious person.

      4. Treason of Judas.—For some time the efforts of the chief priests to arrest Jesus were baffled. They feared to proceed openly against him lest the people should stand in his favor and overthrow them. At last, however, Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, met with some of the chief rulers and promised to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. This offer they gladly accepted and agreed to pay him thirty pieces of silver for his treachery.

      5. Institution of the Sacrament.—The time chosen by Judas for the betrayal of his Master was the night of the passover feast. Jesus with the twelve ate the feast in an upper room in Jerusalem. It was on this occasion that he instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's supper. He took bread and gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. He also took wine, gave thanks, saying as he gave it to them: This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.^[52]

      6. After the supper was over, having sung a hymn, Jesus with the twelve, excepting Judas Iscariot, went out to the garden of Gethsemane [Geth-sem-e-na] where Jesus prayed in great agony of spirit so that he sweat great drops of blood. He prayed that the bitter cup of suffering now about to be held to his lips might be removed from him. Thrice he so prayed, but closed each petition to his Father with—"not my will, but thine, will be done."

      7. The Betrayal.—Meantime, Judas Iscariot having stolen out in the midst of the feast, went to the chief priests and directed a multitude with a company of Roman soldiers to the garden, and running to Jesus cried, "Hail, Master!" and kissed him. That was the sign agreed upon by the traitor and those who came to make the arrest, that they might know which one to take. And when they had secured him, they took him first to the house of Annas [An-nas], who, after questioning him, sent him bound to Caiaphas [Kai-ya-fas], the high priest, where he was arraigned before the Sanhedrim [San-he-drim].

      8. The Trial.—The court before which Jesus was arraigned was not one before which his case was to be investigated, they had come together with the fixed determination to adjudge him guilty; hence they sought for witnesses who would testify something against him that would furnish a pretext for putting him to death. Many false witnesses testified against him; but their testimony was unsatisfactory and failed of its purpose. At last the high priest, evidently losing patience at the silence of the prisoner—for he made no defense against the charges of the false witnesses—adjured him by the living God to say if he were the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus acknowledged that he was, and told them that hereafter they should see him at the right hand of Power, coming in the clouds of heaven. At this the high priest rent his clothes, saying, "he hath spoken blasphemy," and claimed that they had no need of further witnesses, since they themselves had heard his "blasphemy" (see note 3, end of section). The council at once decided him worthy of death.

      9. Christ Before Pilate and Herod.—The Romans had taken from the Sanhedrim of the Jews the power of executing those whom it adjudged guilty of death, unless the sentence was confirmed by the Roman governor; hence after sentence of death was passed upon Jesus by the Sanhedrim they took him to Pilate's judgment hall to have that sentence confirmed.

      10. Learning incidentally that Jesus was a Galilean, and belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sent him to Herod who, at the time, was in Jerusalem. Before Herod Jesus was silent; neither the contempt of the murderer of his forerunner, nor the mockery of the common soldiers could provoke him into breaking his dignified silence. So in ridicule of his claims to kingship—although, as Jesus himself said, his kingdom was not of this world^[53]—Herod clothed him in gorgeous apparel and sent him back to Pilate.

      11. Satisfied that there was nothing in Messiah's conduct worthy of death, Pilate sought to let him go; but the Jews insisted upon his execution. It was the custom among the Jews to have released to them a prisoner at the feast of the Passover, and on that ground Pilate sought to release Jesus; but the Jews would not listen to it, and preferred that the robber, Barabbas, a murderer, should be released. They told Pilate that whosoever made himself a king was an enemy to Caesar; and if he let Jesus go he was not Caesar's friend. By such arguments on the part of the chief priests, and the persistent cry of the people to crucify him, Pilate was over-awed, and at last confirmed the sentence of death. (See note 4, end of section.)

       12. The Crucifixion.—From the hall of judgment Jesus was led into the common hall, where the soldiers stripped him of his own raiment, and put upon him a scarlet robe in mockery of his claims to kingship. They also platted a crown of thorns and placed it on his brow, and for a scepter gave him a reed in his right hand. They bowed the knee before him, and mockingly cried: "Hail, king of the Jews!" They spit upon him, beat him with their hands and with the reed they had given him for a scepter.

      13. From the common hall he was led away under a guard of soldiers to a place called Golgotha [Gol-go-tha], which, as well as its Latin equivalent—Calvaria-Calvary^[54]—means, the place of a skull. Here Jesus was stripped, and nailed to the cross, which was erected between two other crosses, on each of which was a thief. Above the his head in Latin, Greek and Hebrew was fixed the superscription written by Pilate—"This is the King of the Jews." As he hung there between the two thieves, the soldiers mocked him as did also the chief scribes and the Pharisees, saying: He saved others, let him save himself; if he is Christ, the chosen of God; let him come down from the cross and we will believe him; he trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. In the midst of his great suffering, in which his mental agony was greater than his physical pain; the Son of God cried, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

      14. At the sixth hour—mid-day—there was a darkness that spread over the whole land, and continued until the ninth hour (see note 5, end of section). About the ninth hour Jesus said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," then he bowed his head and expired. At the same moment the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, an earthquake shook the solid earth and rent the rocks, all the elements of nature seemed agitated as if anxious to bear witness that a God had died!

      15. The Convulsions of Nature on the Western Hemisphere.—On the western hemisphere during the crucifixion of our Lord, the elements of nature were more disturbed than on the eastern hemisphere. During the time that Jesus was upon the cross, great and terrible tempests accompanied with terrific lightning raged throughout the land. Earthquakes shattered cities into confused piles of ruins; level plains were broken up and left in confused mountainous heaps; solid rocks were rent in twain; many cities were swept out of existence by fierce whirl-winds; others were sunk into the depths of the sea, others covered with mountain chains thrown up by the convulsions of the trembling earth; and others still were burned with fire. For the space of about three hours this awful disturbance of the elements continued, during which the whole face of the land both in North and South America was greatly changed, and most of the inhabitants destroyed. After the storm and tempest and the quakings of the earth had ceased, there followed intense darkness which lasted for three days, the time that Jesus was lying in the tomb.^[55]

      16. The Burial.—Towards evening of the day of the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathaea [Ar-ra-ma-thee-ya], a rich man and a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate, and begged that the body of the Lord be given him that he СКАЧАТЬ