The Crucifixion of Jesus #3

The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, carried out by Roman authority outside Jerusalem’s walls at a place called Golgotha, is described in careful and unusually detailed terms by all four canonical Gospels (Matthew 27:32-54; Mark 15:21-39; Luke 23:26-47; John 19:16-37). Christian tradition holds it as the central event of the faith, the moment at which, according to New Testament teaching, Jesus bore the penalty for human sin. The four accounts agree on the essential course of events but differ, sometimes noticeably, in the details each evangelist preserves.

Biblical Account

After being scourged, Jesus was led out carrying his cross until a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, was compelled to carry it the rest of the way (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). At Golgotha, “a place of a skull,” he was crucified between two criminals (Matthew 27:33-38). Soldiers cast lots for his garments, an act Matthew and John both connect to Psalm 22:18 (Matthew 27:35; John 19:23-24). A sign naming the charge against him hung over the cross; the wording differs slightly by Gospel — Mark gives simply “THE KING OF THE JEWS,” while John notes it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and reads “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Mark 15:26; John 19:19-20). From the sixth hour to the ninth, the Synoptic Gospels report darkness over the land, and at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” translated by Matthew and Mark as “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). At his death the temple curtain was torn in two (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45), and John alone records that a soldier, finding Jesus already dead, pierced his side with a spear (John 19:31-37).

Words from the Cross

Tradition gathers seven sayings of Jesus on the cross, but no single Gospel records all of them — each preserves only some, and harmonizing them into one continuous scene is a later devotional habit rather than how any evangelist tells the story. Luke alone preserves three: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34); his promise to one of the criminals beside him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43); and his last words, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). John alone preserves three others: his charge to his mother and “the disciple standing by, whom he loved,” “Woman, behold thy son!” and “Behold thy mother!” (John 19:26-27); “I thirst” (John 19:28); and “It is finished” (John 19:30). The cry drawn from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?,” is the only saying shared by two Gospels, Matthew and Mark, and appears in neither Luke nor John.

Theological Significance

The Gospels likewise differ on the Roman centurion’s response: Matthew and Mark both have him say, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39), while Luke instead records, “Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47) — complementary testimony rather than a discrepancy to be flattened into one quotation.

Christian theology has long read the crucifixion through Isaiah’s Suffering Servant: “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Paul and other New Testament writers present Jesus’ death as an atoning sacrifice reconciling humanity to God, fulfilling and replacing the Temple’s sacrificial system. Commemorated by most Christian traditions on Good Friday, the crucifixion is inseparable from the resurrection that follows, and together the two form the center of the Christian gospel proclamation.