We’ve made it to the culmination of Jesus’s ministry; His death on the cross, bearing all of our sins, so that we will have eternal life with Him in heaven. At the height of his ministry and miracles, many Jews came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Jewish leaders feared Jesus because of his growing followers. With the help of Judas Iscariot, Roman soldiers arrested Jesus and He was put on trial for claiming to be the king of the Jews. According to Roman law, the punishment for rebellion against the emperor was death by crucifixion.

The Roman governor Pontius Pilate was reluctant regarding the punishment for Jesus. Pilate could find no wrong in Jesus, yet he wanted to give the people what they wanted and that was the death of Jesus. Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd to symbolize that he was not taking responsibility for the bloodshed of Jesus and then handed Jesus over to be beaten and lashed. Jesus had a crown of thorns thrust on his head and made to carry his cross along the pathway to the hill where he would be crucified. The location of Jesus’s crucifixion is known as Calvary, translated from “a place of skull.”