We worship a God of order. For every crime there is a punishment. For every sin a condemnation.
There is a cosmic scale which is held in balance. We call this balance justice.
For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. Newton’s third law
Today is Palm Sunday. Roughly 2000 years ago Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly.
Tomorrow He will enter and clear the temple. And curse the fig tree.
Tuesday he will spend teaching of His glorious return and the last parables he would teach in mortal life, taught to a group containing only 11 of His apostles. Here the millstone begins to turn.
Wednesday is absent from scripture; we simply do not know what he was doing but given who He is and what he knew was coming it is likely he spent it in prayer and private teaching to His apostles.
Thursday He will morn over Jerusalem. And teach for the final time in the temple. Passover begins at sundown. He will share this last holy meal with His apostles, 12 in number present.
“On the 10th day of this month everyman shall take a lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male. You shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight” Exodus 12: 3, 6
At twilight he goes into the garden of gethsemane.
“If he brings a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring a lamb without blemish and lay His hand on the head of the sin offering” Leviticus 4:32-33
Jesus takes upon himself the sins of the world this night. Binding us to Him. You, me, all people that were, all people that are and all people that ever will be. Excoriating pain as to cause blood at every pore.
Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, to suffer both body and spirit. D&C 19:18
The Scale is primed.
It is midnight, 12 am, Friday morning. The balanced scales are on the precipice of tipping.
One of the 12 approaches, and with a kiss strikes a blow that begins an unbalancing in the cosmic scale.
Injustice.
Betrayal of a trusted friend. A sin so horrific that Dante placed it in the 9th circle of hell
reserved for the vilest of sinner and Lucifer himself.
“That Soul up there who has the greatest pain. The master said. That is judas Iscariot” Inferno canto 34
1 am Jesus is brought before Annas the former High priest who interrogates and assaults him adding more to the unbalanced scale. An act violating Jewish law. Carrying out a punishment without trial and showing distain for Jesus.
“Do not despise any person, for there is no person that has not His hour” Pirkei Avot 4:2 the Talmudic text for how to treat the accused before they go on trial, held as law in the first century.
3 am the Sanhedrin convey an illegal council in the house of the Caiaphas. There, under the cover of darkness and in a home instead of the in the Chamber of Hewn Stones where the Sanhedrin by law were to conduct official inquiries according to Talmud. They tried him.
During this sham of a trial, no defense for the accused is allowed, onslaughts of inscrutable people are called as witnesses. They, so morally bankrupt as to take bribes to give testimony lie so prolifically so that not a pair of them can be found with matching accusations.
With each false testimony the scale becomes furth unbalanced.
Spit upon, slapped, mocked, blindfolded, and assaulted; Jesus is then questioned by Caiaphas, who as high priest stands in for the Lord in the Jewish religion. After questioning Jesus, Caiaphas becomes so enraged that he tears the holy ephod, the high priestly clothing that torah specifically dictates to be made in a way so that it is never torn.
In all of this more and more injustices are heaped upon the Scale and it begins to have a noticeable lean.
5 am the so-called council has determined to kill Jesus and makes preparations to bring him to Pilate’s residence.
But there is one in the court yard watching who is not as the others are.
As a rooster crows for the first time and a phrase can be heard.
Woman I don’t know Him.
As the rooster Crows a second time, a frustrated line rolls from the mouth of one who claimed to be a friend: Man, I am not with Him.
Before the third crow of the rooster, Jesus is marched out to the into the court yard. The rock of our salvation makes eye contact with the rock of His new church and it crumbles before him. Having just utter the last: I do not know the man.
The third call of the rooster is followed by bitter weeping, another betrayal settles its weight on the crooked scale.
6 am Jesus arrives at Pilate’s residence to be tried before a tyrannical government occupying the throne that should be His for a crime he has not committed.
8 am Pilate in cowardly effort to rid himself of responsibility send Jesus to Herod, who killed John the Baptist the cousin of Jesus. The client king who was little more than a roman puppet is excited to see Jesus.
When Herod cannot make sport of Jesus, he sends him back to Pilate for final rule and judgment.
“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2
9 am Pilate having been warned of His wife to have nothing to do with that man questions him a final time to determine if he is worthy of death. And in possibly the greatest miscarriage of justice deems him innocent, but nevertheless turns him over to the disgruntled crowd to determine His fate.
Free Jesus or the murderer Barabbas?
9:15 am The crowd, stoked by the hate of the pharisees, call for Barabbas to be freed.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces. he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3
What of Jesus, who is innocent? Pilate askes only to hear the horrid response “Crucify HIM”
Pilates hands were nevermore dirty than when he washed them of this act thus laying this injustice also on the scale.
Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4
9:30 am He was taken and whipped by the romans. Pieces of leather studded with rocks and glass with tips flying faster than sound beat upon him and shredded His skin and spiling His blood. Every whip crack searing pain. Every blow burning fire. Every strike and every drop of blood added to the scale. Blood soaked with skin shredded a crown of thorns was crushed into His head, piercing the flesh of His face and scalp.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed Isaiah 53:5
And during this where are His followers? Where were those who claimed to drink the cup with him? Where were those to sought to sit at His right hand and left?
Where were those whom he called friend?
Not there.
Not with him now.
Alone.
The Weight of this loneliness is also on the scale.
“All of us like sheep, having strayed away. We have turned everyone to His own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
10:30 am After an hour of brutal beatings that more often than not kill the accused, he is forced to carry the wood to which he would be nailed.
2000 feet, the via dolorosa, the way of suffering. The longest half mile in the world. Bleeding, exhausted, and in so much pain he was forced to carry the 300lb cross, to His brutal death.
Every step added to the scale.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted and yet he opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7
11 am At the top of Golgotha, He was nailed to the cross.
Inch wide nails slowly hammered through His hands and then His wrist and then His feet.
Each hammer strike, excruciating pain as metal divided flesh, splinted bone, tore tendons, and split blood vessels before being buried deep in the wood.
Each hammer strike caused by our sins.
Each hammer strike adding to the imbalance.
And then slowly lifted up, excruciating pain sets in. Pressure from His body collapsing His lungs and tearing at the nails in His hands and wrists. Only able to breathe by pushing against the nails in His feet.
The heavens grew black. Darkness covered the land for the space of three hours. There was a mighty storm, as though the very God of nature was in agony. And truly he was. For while he was hanging on the cross for another three hours all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred.” McConkie April conference 1985
Harassed by the others crucified, mocked by the romans, ridiculed by the priest, abandoned by His friends, and forsaken by His Father; the cosmic scale more off balance than ever had been or ever would be again.
7 things are all He said.
I thirst.
My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?
Woman, Behold thy son! Behold thy Mother.
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.
It is finished
And so it was.
3pm on a day mankind would one day call good Friday our savior died. For you and for me. For all people who were. For all people who are. And for all people who will ever be.
The scale infinitely unbalanced.
The Best man who ever lived murdered among thieves.
He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12
This was what was started in gethsemane,
This is what preludes the empty tomb that we celebrate next Sunday.
It is here that the best blood that has ever been was spilled for us.
It is here that we find the power to move on to become better to repent.
It was here that He was lifted in answer to the fall.
It is here we find the driving force of salvation.
If the plan of salvation had a power source it is this moment here at the meridian of time.
When we purposefully fall short this is what we cost him. When we choose to not become better this is what we cost him. But when we are lifted up, when we repent, when we strive to be better it is because of what he did for us here that we can.
He suffered to make the scale so unbalanced That he could give help to those who need it. We can turn to him, because of this imbalance and find help where there should be condemnation. Strength where there should be punishment. Hope where there should be despair.
He, this this act, has made it to where we can enter into heaven.
Though our sins nailed him there it was His love for us that held Him there.
He has bought mercy for us with His suffering.
He did not want heaven without us. So He bent the cosmic scale to give us a way to climb up from our fallen state even to heaven.
But never forget that the many mansions there were built with the wood from the cross and are held together by the nails that pierced Him.
Nevertheless, Glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparation unto the children of men. D&C 19:19
And the priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:20
Be of good cheer I have overcome the world John 16:33
Truly this man was the son of God. Matthew 27:54
As Always I’m praying for thee; please pray for me.