CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. SCRIPTURES MUST BE FULFILLED.

    When the risen Lord had finished a meal with those who walked the Emmaus Road,

‘He said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets and the psalms concerning Me.’  (Luke 24:44)  Our Saviour ignited the truth of the Old testament prophecies concerning Himself into the lives of His followers, who said, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He opened unto us the Scriptures. ‘ We do not know how long the study continued, but It was Christ-centred, and unveiled His sacrificial death and resurrection. 

    Earlier in that same chapter, the Lord rebuked this special couple, saying ‘ ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.  He continued, ‘Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?

‘And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ ( v 25-27)   God’s children shoulkd be excited to possess the Old Testament in our mother tongue, and surprised that The Redeemer’s death and resurrection were clearly foretold.  Let’s press on in our search for the treasures of our beloved Lord. 

    Concerning His humanity, Our Lord Jesus is ‘the seed of the woman’, as described in Genesis 3:15, with ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and You shall bruise His heel.’ Immediately after Adam and Eve’s sin burst into the world, this amazing statement pointed to the battle that was ultimately fought at Calvary.  Paul confirmed this truth when he wrote, ‘

    But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made unto the law.’ ( Galatians 4:4 )  Jesus was born of Mary so that He could be our sin-bearer. The hymn states, ‘In my place condemned He stood.’ Thousands of years passed after foretelling this enmity, which culminated in the crucifixion.

    The crucified One was ‘the Heir to the throne of David.  As well as being Son of God, He came from a royal earthly line.  Isaiah wrote,’ Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom’ ( 9:6) Pilate enquired whether the Saviour was the ‘King of the Jews.’ And our Lord affirmed that that was so.  Our Lord did not reply to some of the trifling questions during the string of false trials. Governor Pilate obstinately refused to change the title he put on the cross, ‘This is Jesus the King of the Jews.’  Hundreds of years slipped by before this prophecy came to pass.

    The only perfect Man was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’, as Isaiah foretold 670 years before our Saviour’s birth, ‘We hid our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not. ( 53:6) John wrote in chapter 1:11 ‘ He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.’ Surely a most tragic truth.  His own Nazareth fellowship threw Him out, intending to throw Him over Mount Precipitation, after rejecting His teaching.  The Gadarene pig herdsmen demanded that He leave their shores, after healing the demoniac and restoring him to his family.  The religious leaders rejected and reviled Him, although their Scriptures clearly showed the character of Christ . 

    Our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was an amazing fulfilment of the prophet’s word.  God attended to such minute detail to comfort the Saviour  and His followers.’  He wrote,’ Rejoice, g reatly, O daughter of  Zion; shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold your King comes to you; He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. ( Zechariah 9:9 )

    ‘They took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, ‘ Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in the Name of the Lord..’  And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written’.  ( Matthew 21:1-11)  Every minute part came true.

    The Old Testament tells of a traitor in the camp. ‘Yes, My own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did eat of My bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’

( Zechariah 11: .13 )  What treachery after three and a half years in the company  of God’s Son, that one of the twelve should betray Him. Mark’s gospel, 14:10 wrote ‘ And Judas Iscariot , one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, to betray Him to them’.

The prophet showed that Judas was a special friend of our Lord, who appointed him treasurer, trusting material resources to him, and sharing the common loaf of fellowship at the Last supper.  Every item of His sufferings had been marvellously foretold.

    The prophet Zechariah in chapter 11:12 stated how the high priests haggled over the exact amount with Judas, namely the price of a common slave.  Matthew told us how Judas ‘said to them, what will you give me, and I will deliver Him to you?’   And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.’ ( 26;15 )  Incredible that holy scripture should name the bargaining price of the Son of God who by His blood paid the ransom-price from our sin and slavery.  Unto us, who believe,  He is precious. 

    Judas’ money was returned to the chief priests for  the purchase of a potter’s field.  Even this was foretold by the prophet.  ‘ The Lord said to me, ‘Cast it to the potter; a goodly price I was prised at of them.  And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.’ ( Zechariah 11:13)  The chief priests could not use ‘Blood money’ in the treasury, so they decided to buy the potter’s field, where they could bury strangers.’ Is this the field where bodies of the crucified and criminal men were  thrown?  God had planned a different resting place for His beloved Son after His suffering and death – the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Later at heaven’s tbrone.

    The Spirit of God had taught David in Psalm 27:12 to ’ Deliver Me not over to the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against Me, and such as breathe out cruelty.’  False witnesses had spoken against King David, who  had also experienced the cruelty of Saul.  Yet these were only shadows of the deep suffering endured by the Lord’s dear Son 1000 years later.  Matthew stated, ‘ Though many false witnesses came, yet they found none.  At last two false witnesses came, saying, ‘This fellow said, ‘ I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.’ ( Matthew 26:60, 61 )

    The dignified Son of God was silent when He was accused. Isaiah first spoke of this in that marvellous 53 rd chapter, ‘ He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.; He was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth’.  The statement is repeated in the gospels of the silence of God’s dear One.

    This was an unusual prophecy, yet it came to pass perfectly when our Lord stood before the high priest. ( Matt 26:62, 63 ) ‘The high priest arose, and said to them, Do you not answer? What is it that these witness against you?’ Of course, this priest knew the Scriptures, and should have recognised that God’s word had been realised in his presence.   Let us marvel at the supernatural agreement between Old and New Testaments.  They bolster our faith in the Word.

These couplets are from Thompson Chain Reference Bible.