THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE REDEEMER [John 19:15-30] – Good Friday
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar”. Then he handed Him over to them to be crucified.
So, they took Jesus, and carrying the cross Himself He went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews”. Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’, but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took His tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be”, in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled [that says]: “They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots”. This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of jesus were His mother and mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple there whom He loved, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son”. Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother”. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst”. There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to His mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, He said, “It is finished”. And bowing His head, He handed over the spirit. [John 9:15-30]
Prayer: Lord Jesus, through this bitter passion and through the outpouring of Your precious blood, I ask You to pierce my heart so that my tears of penance and love may be my bread day and night. Amen.