An Infamously Good Day: The day Jesus died

As you wake up on Good Friday, you might reflect on what has already happened on this day nearly two thousand years ago, and what will take place in the coming hours.

While you were sleeping, Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was then taken before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin in the early hours after midnight. Caiaphas, hearing Jesus claim to be the Son of God, condemns him for blasphemy.

Before you even woke up this morning, He was already before Pilate for a show trial. The city is filled to the brim for Passover. The crowds were already hailing Jesus as the Messiah only days before. They need him executed, quickly, before word spreads. Things move rapidly from here.

Jesus was interrogated, condemned despite the proclamation by Pilate of his innocence, beaten, scourged, taken to Golgotha, and crucified as early as 9AM, and no later than 11AM. By the time you began eating your lunch today, Jesus would already have been nailed to the cross.

At around noon, the sky goes dark for about three hours, and following that Jesus dies, an earthquake occurs, and the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple is torn in two.

By about 4PM, the Roman soldiers are breaking the legs of the crucified to make sure they die before sundown, which would occur at about 7PM. They find Jesus already dead.

Joseph of Arimathea takes Jesus’ body down. Nicodemus brings myrrh and they hastily wrap His lifeless body in linens with the spices and place it in a tomb owned by Joseph that was close by. There is not time for a proper burial; darkness is approaching and thus the Sabbath is coming. The spices and proper wrappings will have to wait until Sunday when Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome and Joanna will return to the tomb to give Jesus’ body its proper treatment.

After Joseph and Nicodemus leave the tomb, Roman guards roll a stone in front of it and are stationed at its entrance to prevent His body from being stolen.

Jesus was arrested while you slept, tried while you awoke, nailed to the cross before you had lunch, dead before you had dinner, and placed in a tomb before you went to sleep.

For you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, Cross, and death between Your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; peace and rest to the dead; to Your holy Church unity and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.