It is not certain where was the true Mount Calvary, the place of Christ"s cross. For a long time it was believed to be a little hill on the west of the city; and over that hill was built in the after years a great church, called "The Church of the Holy Sepulchre," because inside that church they show not only the place where people thought that the cross stood, but also the tomb or sepulchre in which Jesus was buried.
To this church thousands of people go every year, thinking that they can see the very places where the Saviour died and was buried.
But most of those who have studied carefully all that can be known about the city of Jerusalem and the hills around it, have believed that the true Calvary was not where the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands, but at some other place. Many think that it was a rounded, gra.s.s-covered little hill just outside the city on the north. The side of this hill looking toward the city is very steep, and in it are two great caves. As one stands on the city wall and looks at this rounded hill, with the two holes in it, he thinks of a skull--which is a man"s head without the skin and the flesh, and with two eye-holes. This hill may have been called "the skull-place," because it looks so much like a skull. On this skull-like hill it may be that Jesus was crucified.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, sometimes claimed to be built upon the site of Calvary]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Turning to the women weeping over him, Jesus said: "Women of Jerusalem, weep not for me but weep for yourselves and your children!"]
Jesus walked through the streets of the city loaded down with the heavy beam of his cross on his shoulders. The soldiers were dragging him on, and some were driving him forward with blows, when suddenly, worn out with suffering, and fainting from loss of blood and want of food, he sank down upon the ground, unable to carry his load any further. Just then a man coming from the country into Jerusalem, met the soldiers and the crowd with Jesus. This man was named Simon. He was not Simon Peter, the disciple of Jesus, but another Simon, who had come from a city far away in Africa, called Cyrene. The soldiers seized this man, and made him help Jesus in carrying the cross, until they came to Calvary.
Following the soldiers who had been commanded to crucify Jesus, was a crowd of Jewish priests and scribes, the teachers of the law, and a mult.i.tude of the lowest of the people, all shouting aloud their rejoicing that Jesus was to be put to death, just as if he had been the wickedest man in all the land. But among these were a few friends of Jesus, and some of the women who had known him and loved him, and were now weeping over the wrongs done to him.
Jesus turned and spoke to these women:
"Women of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children! For the time is coming when they shall say, "Happy are those who have no children to suffer and to die." In those days they shall call out to the mountains, "Fall on us," and to the hills, "Hide us." If this is what they do now in the beginning, what will they do then in the end?"
Even in those terrible moments Jesus was not thinking of himself and his own sufferings, but the sorrows that would soon come upon others.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT JERUSALEM]
There is a story told of Jesus on the way to Calvary, which is not found in any of the gospels, and may not be true. It is said that a good woman, named Veronica, was standing by the street when Jesus went by.
Seeing his face covered with sweat, and dust, and blood, she went to him and wiped his face with a napkin. When she looked at her napkin, she found that on it had been printed the portrait of Jesus; and she kept it ever afterward as her greatest treasure.
They led Jesus out of the gate in the city wall, and up the side of the hill Calvary, wherever that hill was. There they laid the cross upon the ground and stretched Jesus out upon it. They drove nails through his hands and feet to fasten his body to the cross. Then they lifted it up with Jesus upon it, and dropped the lower end of it into a hole so that it would stand upright.
With Jesus they had brought two other men, who had been robbers, and sentenced to die by the cross. These two men they crucified with Jesus, one on his right hand and the other on his left, and Jesus between them, as if he had been the most wicked man of the three.
Jesus knew that the Roman soldiers who fastened him to the cross were not his enemies, as the Jews were, but were only obeying the orders that had been given them by their officers. He prayed to G.o.d for them.
"Father," said Jesus, "forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!"
It was nine o"clock on Friday morning when Jesus was placed upon the cross; and he hung there living for six awful hours, until three o"clock in the afternoon.
[Ill.u.s.tration: When Jesus saw his mother, and beside her the disciple whom he loved, he spoke from the cross to her: "Woman, there is your son." Then he said to John: "Son, there is your mother."]
Jesus on the Cross
CHAPTER 96
IT WAS the custom of the Romans when they put to death any man upon the cross, to place on the cross above his head a writing, telling what the man"s crime was. Pilate commanded that the writing above the head of Jesus should be
THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
It was written in the language of three different peoples; in Hebrew, the tongue spoken by the Jews; in Latin, the language of the Romans; and in Greek, the language spoken by all in that part of the world who were not Jews. These words told a great truth, that Jesus was a king, and they told it to all the earth, although very few people believed it then. Now, all over the world are millions upon millions of people who serve Jesus as Lord and King.
When the priests and rulers of the Jews read this writing upon the cross they were greatly displeased, for they did not like to have Jesus called a king. The priests went to Pilate in his palace and said to him:
"Will you not change the writing upon the cross of that man? Let it not be, "The King of the Jews." Please change it to, "He said, "I am King of the Jews."""
But Pilate answered them, "What I have written, I have written." He meant that whatever he had placed upon the cross must stand there unchanged.
It was also the custom of the Romans when a man was crucified to give his clothes to the soldiers who fixed him on the cross. Four soldiers were in charge of the cross. These men divided the clothes of Jesus among them, each taking one garment. But one garment was left over, the shirt of Jesus. This was all woven in one piece, not sewed together; so the soldiers said:
"Let us not tear it, but cast lots to settle whose it shall be."
They threw upon the ground little square pieces of ivory having spots upon them. These squares were called dice. Each soldier threw one ivory piece; and they counted the spots on the side that was uppermost. The soldier whose piece showed the highest number took the shirt of Jesus as his own. One of the disciples of Jesus was standing near, and saw the soldiers dividing the clothes of Jesus, and he thought of the words in the twenty-second psalm, as a prophecy or foretelling of what should happen to Christ. These were the words of the psalm, written many hundred years before:
"They shared my garments among them, And over my clothing they cast lots."
The soldiers having done their work, sat down around the cross to watch it. A great crowd of the priests and scribes and people stood around the cross, looking at Jesus hanging there. Some of them spoke spitefully to Jesus, shaking their heads at him, saying such words as these:
"Ah! you would destroy the Temple and build it again in three days, would you? Then come down from the cross and save yourself if you can!"
And some of the priests and scribes called out, "He saved others; but he can not save himself! If he is, as he said, "Christ, the King of Israel," let him now come down from the cross in our sight. Then we will believe on him."
"He trusts in G.o.d," said others; "now let G.o.d help him, if he chooses; for he said, "I am the Son of G.o.d.""
One of the two robbers who were hanging on the crosses beside Jesus called out to him, joining in the abuse:
"Are you not the Christ, the King of Israel? If you are, why don"t you save yourself and save us with you?"
But the crucified man on the other side of Jesus rebuked him:
"Have you no fear of a just G.o.d?" he said. "You are suffering the same sentence as this man. And you and I are suffering only what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."
Then this man from his cross said to Jesus, "Jesus, do not forget me when you come into your kingdom."
And Jesus answered him, "I tell you truly, this very day you shall be with me in the heavenly land."
At this time, near the cross of Jesus, was standing John, his disciple, the one disciple that Jesus loved, and with him was Mary, the mother of Jesus, also her sister and two other women named Mary--Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother, and beside her the disciple whom he loved, he spoke from the cross to her:
"Woman, there is your son."
Then he said to John:
"Son, there is your mother."
And from that time Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived with the disciple John, as though he was her own son.
It was now noon, and Jesus had been upon the cross three long, terrible hours; the sun beating with its rays upon his head. Just at noon a sudden darkness came over the sky and the earth, and the darkness did not pa.s.s away until three o"clock. This darkness alarmed the people, and those who had been speaking to Jesus words of contempt, now stood still, full of fear.
At about three o"clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice these words:
"My G.o.d! My G.o.d! Why hast thou forsaken me?"