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And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thy-self and us.But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

Introduction

When one thinks of a drama, he gen-erally thinks of something on televi-

sion, at the theater, or perhaps a school play. But in reality a drama can happen at any time or place. a drama portrays a message or involves action.

The greatest drama the world has ever witnessed is the drama that God presented over two thousand years ago just outside the walled city of Jerusalem, The Drama at the Cross.

In order for there to be a drama, there must be at least three ingredients present.

First, there must be the setting.

Second, there must be characters.

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Third, there must be action or a message that the drama portrays.

The Setting Of This DramaThe setting of this drama is just outside the walled city of Jerusalem, on a granite mountain the hebrews call Golgotha, which means “The place of the skull,” because from a distance, the mountain looks like a human skull. one can see the two indentations that resemble the eyes, and another a little lower that is shaped like the mouth. since it looks like a skull, it received its name, Golgotha.

at that time Jerusalem was the crossroad of the world, having two major trade routes that crossed each other. People from all over the world traveled these routes every day with their precious merchandise. on this busy world intersection, God dramatized his love for the whole world in the body of his precious son. The marquee displayed over his cross proclaimed, “JesUs oF NaZareTh The KING oF The JeWs.”

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since this highway was traveled by thousands from every distant land, the announcement was written in three languages.

It was written in Greek, the language of the common man.

It was written in hebrew, the language of the Jews.

and it was written in Latin, the language of the ruling romans.

This drama which has been examined by all generations has one more drastic emphasis to its important message: God changed the method people were using to record time and events.

Because of the birth, life, and death of this man, God changed the calendar; time was divided into a.D. and B.C. The time before the life of Jesus would be called B.C. (before Christ) and the time after his life would be recorded as a.D. (in the year of our Lord). In addition to placing this great

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drama in his eternal Word, as mentioned, God announced the message of who Jesus was to the whole world in Greek, hebrew, and Latin. he placed this drama beside the major trade routes for the entire world to see.

Truly the setting of this, the greatest of all dramas, was well planned and orches-trated by the God of heaven. The greatest event in entire world history took place on this day. on this day of all days, surely God would communicate with the people of all generations and send them the message of his heart.

The Characters In The Drama

There are three sets of characters in this great drama:There is the mob, which had been whipped into a frenzy and was moving as one.

There are two thieves: one on the right side of Jesus’ cross and the other on the left side.

Then there is the main character of this great drama, hanging com-pletely naked on the middle cross, Jesus the eternal son of God. God wanted the world to know who the main character of his great drama

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was, so he had the four gospel writ-ers announce his name and title in all capitalized letters.

matthew announced, “ThIs Is JesUs The KING oF The JeWs” (matthew 27:37).mark announced, “The KING oF The JeWs” (mark 15:26).Dr. Luke announced, “ThIs Is The KING oF The JeWs” (Luke 23:38).John gave not only his name and his title, but also his place of abode when he stated, “JesUs oF NaZareTh The KING oF The JeWs” (John 19:19). his full title, which God wanted the whole world to see, was ThIs Is JesUs oF NaZareTh, The KING oF The JeWs. God wanted everyone to know, so it was written in three languages large enough for people to see.

The Action Portrayed In The Drama

We will only give the concluding action of this drama, which started the

night before. however, some of the events that preceded The Drama of the Cross must be related for one to comprehend the extent of this torturous event.

My Hour Has Comeon several previous occasions the mob attempted to kill or capture Jesus. each time he was elusive and slipped away declaring, “his hour was not yet come.”

In mark 14:41, we see Jesus preparing the apostles for his immediate death with statements like “the hour is come.” In John

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17, he prays what is called the Lord’s Prayer. as soon as he finished praying, Judas, who knew where Jesus would go alone to pray, was there with the mob.

Jesus asked them, “Whom seek ye?” They responded, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

When Jesus answered, “I am he,” the force of his announcement knocked the entire mob back and they fell to the ground (John 18:6). The mob got back up as if noth-ing had happened, however, and after a short conversation, Jesus gave himself up to be their prisoner.

He Became Sport To The Roman Guards The roman soldiers took Jesus into a hold-ing room and began to beat, curse, and be entertained at his expense.

In an attempt to add sport to their vul-gar game, one of the soldiers produced a crown of thorns with sharp one-inch

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briars. With their nightsticks, they drove the sharp thorns down onto Jesus’ head so hard that the briars wedged deep into his skull. With the crown of thorns upon his head, they began to shout, “Hail, King of the Jews!” with mocking and laughter echoing throughout the hall.

They blindfolded Jesus, and then one of them, a brute of a man, struck Jesus in the face, sending him sprawling to the rock floor. With strong, cruel hands they dragged him to his feet, took the blindfold off, and jeered, “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?” (matthew 26:68). all of the guards laughed and jeered until they blindfolded him again. They then took turns knocking Jesus down, until his whole face was cut and swollen.

The old Testament prophet Isaiah stated, “As many were astonished at thee; his vis-age was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah

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52:14). he was so beaten that no doubt, with his eyes swollen and his face so disfigured, you would not have recognized him had he been your own brother.

The Cat Of Nine TailsJosephus, the noted historian, described the whip that was used to beat Jesus as a cruel instrument that had nine tails. each of the nine tails had a piece of metal or some sharp object attached to it. he said when they whipped a man, they would strip the victim of his clothes and two strong men would take turns beating the helpless victim.

The first five lashes tore the outer skin off; the next five tore or rooted out the per-son’s veins. With each beat of the victim’s heart, little streams of blood would shoot out, until the vessels finally clotted. Forty strikes would generally kill a person on the spot. They beat Jesus with thirty-nine lashes.

With the all-night beatings and being

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tortured with the cat of nine tails until his flesh was literally torn off his body, Jesus hardly resembled a human being.

When he got to the top of Golgotha, they laid him down upon the wooden cross and drove a large spike through each of his hands. Then they crossed his feet and fastened him securely to the cross by nailing a spike through both of his feet. The soldiers then lifted the cross with Jesus on it and dropped it into a hole that had been prepared for the cross.

The only way Jesus could breathe was to pull up against the spikes in his hands and push down against the spikes in his feet and gasp for air. When the pain in his hands and feet became so excruciating, he would slump over and gasp for air until he was forced to push with his feet and pull with his hands, so he could get a full breath of air again. most people executed by cruci-fixion died of suffocation.

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Before the drama begins, I’m going to ask you to do one more thing: Use your vivid imagination and travel back with me two thousand years. Take a seat in the huge open-air arena that overlooks Golgotha mountain and visualize the theater in which the drama will take place.

as you take your seat, you notice that the curtain is closed, hiding the characters and action of the drama.

The lights dim, indicating that the drama is about to commence. you catch your breath in anticipation.

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