Good Friday 2023 — ‘And They Led Him Out to Crucify Him’

Christians worldwide observe Good Friday today, the day when Jesus Christ died upon a cross on a hill named Golgotha outside a gate in the wall at Jerusalem in Israel, in what Christians believe was a willing sacrifice to bring peace with God to billions across the centuries.

The Bible gives several complementary accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion. For 2,000 years Christianity has taught that sin separates people from the God who created them, and that believing Jesus died on the cross in the place of sinners and was physically resurrected from the dead on Easter Sunday is central to receiving forgiveness from God, as God forgives the sinner on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice.

From the Gospel according to Mark:

And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided him garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him were crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their headings and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

—Mark 15:16–39 (ESV).

“Christ the sure and steady anchor, while the tempest rages on; when temptation claims the battle, and it seems the night has won. Deeper still then goes the anchor, though I justly stand accused; I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed.

“Christ the sure and steady anchor, through the floods of unbelief; hopeless somehow, O my soul now, lift your eyes to Calvary. This my ballast of assurance, see His love forever proved; I will hold fast to the anchor; it shall never be removed.”

—Matt Boswell, Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor (2015)

Ken Klukowski is a senior legal contributor at Breitbart News.