“And he bearing his

cross went forth into a

place called the place of
a skull, which is called in
the Hebrew Golgotha:
Where they crucified
him, and two other with
him, on either side one,
and Jesus in the midst.”
(John 19:17-18).

Several people or groups

of people attended Jesus'
crucifixion.
What attitude did they
have toward Jesus?
What decisions did they
make?
Did witnessing the
crucifixion change their
life at all?
 Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus was beset with criticism, ridicule, and
vilification of the worst kind. His every act was misinterpreted by His detractors,
who wanted to instill doubt and unbelief in His believers. All this was the work of
the religious leaders of the day, who hid their criminal hatred for Jesus under a
cloak of superficial holiness.
Jesus dedicated His whole life to sowing love in the hearts of His hearers, in the
hope that the seed of faith and hope would germinate. The battle between good
and evil raged throughout His life and revolved dramatically around His person. He
was slandered and criticized by His enemies, who eagerly awaited the moment
when they could catch Him and take His life. They finally achieved their goal and
took him prisoner before Annas and Caiaphas, who represented the religious
authority of their time, to be tried by them.
The whole truth was on Jesus' side. The arguments that were raised against Him
were totally superfluous and lying. He knew that if He spoke He could clearly
demonstrate the falsity of the accusations against Him, but he was also aware that
His accusers were determined not to accept the truth; On the other hand, it was
evident that they wanted to poison the populace against Him.
The attitude that Christ displayed at that time had been foretold by the prophet
REJECTION Isaiah centuries earlier when he said: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet
he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
S AND before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isaiah, 53:7).
 The final verdict of the Jewish court found Him guilty. But he declared, "And
again, I say unto you, Ye shall henceforth see the Son of Man seated at the right
hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64).
The rejection of the leaders brought about the national ruin of the people whom
he came to save: their sin overtook them.
For believers, Jesus' declaration to His enemies gives us confidence for the
present and for the future. Accepting His loving invitation means finding a
reason to live. He calls our hearts and invites us to be part of His great family,
which will receive eternal life and a renewed earth where pain, wickedness, and
death will never meet.

Christ expects us to receive Him as the Savior and Lord

of our lives to give us that peace that only He can bring
and that our suffering souls so desperately need. To
receive Jesus as our Savior is to have it all; to reject Him
is to be left adrift and finally lose everything. Christ
expects different treatment from us than He received
from the religious leaders of His day. We have to make
REJECTION the most transcendental decision we can make.
Meanwhile, Jesus remains expectant.
S AND
Some people did not join in the taunts of the mob
because their sympathies were with Jesus; for they
had felt His great sympathy and admirable power.
They knew Him as their Savior because He had given
them health of body and soul.
However, most of the crowd around the cross mocked
and despised Jesus: "And they that passed by railed
on him, shaking their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
Save thyself, and come down from the cross." (Mark
15:29-30). MOCKERY
Some of those who days before had shouted
hosannas as Jesus passed by, now mocked the Savior
AND
by letting themselves be carried away by the satanic CONTEMPT
spirit that dominated the mob.
During the long hours of agony, Jesus endured the
reviling, ridicule, mockery, and curses of the crowd.
After Jesus' arrest, following Judas' infamous betrayal, the Savior had to appear before various Jewish authorities, and was
eventually handed over to Roman soldiers to execute the death sentence.
In his book entitled The Roman Soldier, the writer H. E. L. Mellersh describes the military of imperial Rome in these words:
"The job of a soldier is to kill, but in the case of the Roman soldier, it was often to kill in a vile and despicable way." This
obviously explains the horrific and cruel handling of Jesus at the hands of His executioners.
It was the Roman soldiers who mercilessly whipped Him, girded His temples with a crown of sharp thorns,
and mocked Him by scorned Him and ridiculed His claims to Divine kingship. Then, on the painful road to
Calvary, they rejoiced in scourging Him again and again until He fell repeatedly under the weight of the cross.
And when they came to the place of crucifixion, without mercy, they pierced His hands and feet with thick
nails. All this was done with ostensible and cruel indifference, to the point that while Jesus was dying on the
cross, they cast lots by disputing His clothes (Matthew 27:35).
As we read and think about the cruelty of the Roman soldiers CRUELTY AND
to Jesus, we experience an inevitable sense of intense
repudiation of such abusive and inhumane treatment. But we INDIFFERENCE
must not forget that, because of our sins, we too are guilty of
Jesus' crucifixion. Like the Roman soldiers, we have all
crucified Him. This being so, we must all humbly and lovingly
seek the forgiveness of the Divine Savior, accepting Him as
such, in order to enjoy the peace and ineffable joy of eternal
and free salvation.
 Stop for a moment and look towards Calvary... if you look into the distance, you
will see the physical darkness that surrounds you (Matt. 27:45), but if you get
closer you will see the spiritual darkness that envelops all who have allowed
themselves to be controlled by hatred. There are the religious leaders blinded
by their own traditions; the ungrateful crowd that wants the death of the one
who has done them so much good; the centurion and the sadistic Roman
soldiers, representatives of the powerful empire that dominates Israel.
But get a little closer... Look at the foot of
the cross. Everything is different there!
There is no darkness there. Why? you ask.
There is love there, and true love casts out
the darkness of fear (1 John 4:18). There, at
the foot of the cross, are the pious women
who, although confused and plunged into
deep sorrow, have followed Jesus to
Calvary. From the physical point of view
they cannot do anything for Him; yet they
are lavishing on Him what He most needs in
LOVE AND His hour of infinite agony; They are
COMPASSION showering Him with love.
And who are these women (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56; John 19:25)? Salome, who ahead of her time claimed her "rights"
and made a bold request to Jesus (Matt. 20:20-21). Mary Magdalene, the great forgiven sinner, who out of gratitude
anointed Jesus with an expensive perfume (Jn. 12:3). Mary, the wife of Clopas, who like many women of her time – and of
any era – is little recognized. All that is known about her is that she is there facing danger.
And of course, there is also the one who a little more than thirty years
earlier received ridicule and scorn for carrying in her womb the
“Miracle of miracles": the Baby whose father was of heavenly origin.
The sweet and good Mary, who, although she did not fully understand
the mission of her Son, dedicated the best of her life to Him. There
she is with her bleeding heart and her arms outstretched. The same
arms that lulled her Little One and delivered Him from danger, now try
to touch and ease the sufferings of her mocked Son.
Although many of the frightened disciples abandoned their Master,
these women have decided to be with Him until the end. They are not
afraid of what may happen to them. The love forged between them
and Jesus pierces the portals of fear.
Do you possess the love that radiated Calvary? If the women of the
past possessed it, you can have it too. Open your heart and let the
loving Jesus fill it with love, then everyone will know that you not only LOVE AND
looked up to Calvary, but that, like Mary and the other women, you
gave your love to the Savior there, at the foot of the cross. COMPASSIO
 At Calvary, more than one person had the opportunity to change their
mind about Jesus and exercise new faith in Him in the course of just a few
hours. The Roman Centurion was one of these.
The Centurion beheld Jesus and what he saw made him believe in Him as
the Savior of the world. It was his newfound faith that prompted him to
FAITH AND say, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matt. 27:54).
SALVATION The centurion was the officer in charge of carrying out the order of
crucifixion and of preventing and controlling any disturbance in the crowd
of spectators. Perhaps he watched Jesus carrying the heavy cross on the
Via Dolorosa and saw his own soldiers hammer the nails that pierced the
Lord's hands and feet. Perhaps he felt sadness for what he saw and for the
mercy and truth expressed in the face of the Divine Suffering. The fact is
that he was impressed with the bearing and words of the dying Savior. He
noted His humility, His willingness to forgive His enemies, His patience, and
His cry for victory proclaimed just before He died, "it is finished" (John
19:30). His faith grew as a result of contemplating the Son of God, and his
words were evidence that Jesus' redemptive work would not be in vain.
Christ's atoning death provides the basis for the salvation of mankind (Col.
1:20), but faith is the condition for this salvation. We cannot have salvation
without the Savior. We cannot obtain the gift of life without the Giver of
that gift. Eternal life is not a gift from Jesus to us, but Jesus Himself is the
gift.
 COMFORT
AND
FIDELITY
Of all the disciples, John was the only apostle who stood at the foot of
the cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus, had turned away from the cross
because she could not bear the sufferings of her Son. But she could not
remain far from Him. So, when John saw that the end was near, he took
Mary and accompanied her again to the foot of the cross to be with her
Son at those critical moments.
At the moment of death, Christ remembered His mother. Looking at her
sorrowful face and then at John, He said, "Woman, behold your son,"
and then to John, "Behold your mother."
"John well understood the words of Jesus, and the sacred trust which
was committed to him. He immediately removed the mother of Christ
from the fearful scene of Calvary. From that hour he cared for her as
would a dutiful son, taking her to his own home. " DG 56.5
In this way, John was a comfort to Mary, and, at the same time, he
received a great blessing, because he could continue to show his fidelity
to the Master by taking care of her.
The way to the cross represented for many of those who participated in those disastrous events a crossroads between life
and death. Here we have to meditate on the crossroads that was offered to the two criminals when they accompanied the
Son of God in His same torture. These men had lived on the margins of society. For whatever reasons, both were executed for
their crimes and were the only ones who deserved the punishment received by the three crucified that day on the Mount of
the Skull. The executioners purposely placed the innocent Son of God between the two criminals to suggest that, of the
three, Jesus was the greatest Criminal. But God was to use this blatant humiliation to place two souls, at the last moment of
their lives, at the crossroads between eternal life and eternal death.
It is worth noting what happened shortly before the first evildoer spoke. The punishment of crucifixion was extremely
cruel and painful.
They laid the prisoner on the cross in such a way that
ETERNAL the arms were extended on both sides and then the
nail passed through the wrist. Then the feet were
DEATH AND nailed to the cross. We can imagine the screams of
ETERNAL LIFE pain and the insults of the executed when the nails
entered their bodies; and then, when the cross was
raised and abruptly settled in the hole. Jesus had to
endure not only the excruciating pain of all that torture
in His own body, but the curses and shrieks of two
souls for whom He was about to die. The sensitive
heart of the Son of God felt deeply the suffering of
these two sons of His.
In Jesus' eyes, these two men were highly redeemable. He was about to die for
the two of them and for the whole world. Because Christ's sacrifice was for ALL ETERNAL
sinners. But the decision to accept that sacrifice was in the hands of each of them.
And soon that crossroads, the moment of decision, was approaching for these
DEATH AND
thieves. ETERNAL LIFE
On the one hand, the sweet words of Jesus' forgiveness resound in the ears of the
two evildoers; on the other, the carnival of the jesters is heard. What would you
expect in this difficult time?
First the voice of the first evildoer is heard: "Are you not the Christ? So save
yourself, and save us" (Luke 23: 39). This man reveals that he had at least heard of
this Jesus who called Himself the Son of God, the Christ and Messiah. We don't
know how much he knew about Jesus, but no one could have lived in Palestine
without at least having heard of Him. The fact is that this man, at the crossroads,
chose to think first of his own comfort and his own pain than of honoring the Son
of God. He did not want to take the blame for what he had done, nor to confess
his crime. He preferred to blame his misfortune on an innocent person.
He was not condemned by his life badly lived, but by his inability and his
unwillingness to acknowledge his sin before the clemency of Christ. Was it pride?
Or was it the bad habit confirmed through a lifetime of blaming others for their
own poorly made decisions? We do not know which of these obstacles prevented
this man from accepting the offer of salvation. What we do know is that He did
not choose to humble himself to confess his sin, not even at the time of his death.
 ETERNAL The second thief let the Holy Spirit convince him of Christ's innocence,
beauty, and nobility. Moved by his remorse, he turns to Jesus, filled
DEATH AND with a new vision of himself: " Lord, remember me when thou comest
ETERNAL LIFE into thy kingdom" (Luke 23:42). Even that, this man knew—that Christ
Jesus had a kingdom that was not earthly and that He would come to
rescue those who believe in Him.
The penitent thief received from Jesus some words that served as
immense encouragement in his terrible physical pain: "Verily I say unto
thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23: 43). What did
this promise consist of? The same thief had recognized moments
earlier that salvation would come with the coming kingdom of Christ
Jesus: "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." This man
longed for that glorious moment when the innocent dying man, whom
he now looked at with pleading eyes, would return in glory surrounded
by His angels as King of kings and Lord of lords. His faith, strengthened
by his confession and by the Holy Spirit who now overwhelmed him,
grasped that moment as if it were a reality, and that realization filled
him with an inexpressible hope in this last trance of his life.
You too have to make a decision either for life or for death in the face
of what Jesus has done on your behalf. Choose life.
ACCEPTANCE,
TRUST, Everyone who attended the crucifixion made short- or
SURRENDER, medium-term decisions.
OBEDIENCE One thief decided to accept Jesus and the other rejected
Him. The centurion believed in Jesus. The leaders of the
… people hardened their attitude toward Jesus and His
disciples more and more, persecuting the church until divine
patience was exhausted in the martyrdom of Stephen.

And you? What decision do you make before the cross?

"Before the cross the sinner sees his unlikeness of

character to Christ. He sees the terrible consequences of
transgression; he hates the sin that he has practiced, and
he lays hold upon Jesus by living faith. He has judged his
position of uncleanness in the light of the presence of God
and the heavenly intelligences. He has measured it by the
standard of the cross. He has weighed it in the balances of
the sanctuary. The purity of Christ has revealed to him his
own impurity in its odious colors. He turns from the
defiling sin; he looks to Jesus, and lives. " TSB 108.3