Who Was on the Cross
In 1950, Japanese Film Director Akira Kurosawa produced a movie that through the years has appeared on any number of lists of great movies. Maybe you are familiar with it, the name of the movie is Rashomon, and the premise of the movie has been used in movies, novels and television shows in the sixty years since it first opened.
The movie opens with a woodcutter and a priest sitting under a city gate waiting for a rainstorm to pass by. When another man joins them, the priest and woodcutter tell the newcomer a disturbing story.
It seems that three days earlier the woodcutter had come across the body of a murdered samurai, the priest adds that he had seen the samurai and his wife the same day the murder happened. The priest and woodcutter were later called to testify in court where they met the bandit who had been captured and charged with the murder of the samurai and the rape of his wife.
The rest of the movie tells and retells the story from four different perspectives. The court hears the testimony of the bandit, the samurai’s wife, the samurai’s ghost and finally the woodcutter who had not only discovered the body but had witnessed the crimes.
Each of the stories are mutually contradictory and even the final version is motivated by ego and the concept of saving or losing face. Was the samurai killed by the bandit? Or was he killed by his wife? Or did he kill himself in order to save face? Each version contradicts the others and yet each of the witnesses feels that their version is the truth. Sound familiar?
One theory is that the movie was, with its differing and conflicting views of truth, simply an allegory of the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II. Or maybe it was just a movie. In case you are looking for something to watch it has been included in the list “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” I checked the list, I only have 994 left to watch.
And maybe you are sitting there confused wondering: what in the world does a Japanese movie from 1950 have to do with Good Friday? I’m glad you asked.
You see if we were able to interview those who were present at the crucifixion of Christ and ask them the question “Who is the man on the cross?” we would discover that the Rashomon effect, as it’s often called predates the movie by almost 2000 years.
So The Religious Leader’s Perspective was simply that they had done what had to be done for the benefit of the majority. They would say that the one who had been crucified was where he needed to be. In their eyes, Jesus was rocking the boat, or upsetting the apple cart. Call it what you will but who did Jesus think he was to be teaching the things he taught?
For a thousand years the religious leaders of Israel saw themselves as the gatekeepers to God. They interpreted the scriptures, they interceded for people, they enforced the rules, they called the shots. And along came this young upstart from Galilee with all his talk of loving God and loving others.
First there was John, preaching repentance and baptism, people were flocking to him in droves, but he was constantly telling people he wasn’t the Messiah, so he really didn’t pose much of a threat to the establishment. And if there was a threat there, well Herod dealt with that when he had John beheaded.
But Jesus, Jesus was a different story, he called himself the Son of God, he offered people forgiveness for their sins and he challenged the authority of the religious establishment.
And now there was talk about his being proclaimed King by his followers who saw him as their Messiah, and the religious leaders didn’t think that would be seen as a positive development by the Romans.
So, it was the religious leaders who arranged for the arrest of Jesus, and it was the religious leaders who falsely charged Jesus with heresy and treason and it was the religious leaders that demanded that Pilate crucify Jesus.
When the religious leaders looked at the man on the cross they might say they saw a heretic and blasphemer. But the reality was that Jesus was killed because he annoyed the religious establishment and when they looked at the cross they saw a solution to their problem hanging there.
But the religious leaders didn’t have the authority to have Jesus crucified, that power belonged to the empire and the face of the empire in Israel was Pontius Pilate. Which is why we read in John 18:29-31 So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?” “We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!” they retorted. “Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied.
And I’m sure that if you asked for Pilate’s Perspective on Jesus he was have said “Who?” For Pilate it was just another day at the office, he was just doing what had to be done, and he really didn’t care who the man was on the cross. Oh, he may have asked, but he really didn’t care.
When Jesus was first brought to Pilate, it seemed fairly evident that the charges were trumped up especially the charge of treason. Seriously, this was the man who taught people to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”, that didn’t sound very treasonous.
It seemed that Jesus might have been innocent of the charges against him and Pilate was looking for an out, but he didn’t look that hard. First he sent Jesus to Herod, just passing the buck, and when that didn’t work we pick up the story in Matthew 27:24-26 Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!” So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
So in the end, Pilate just washed his hands of the whole affair and walked away, after all he had enough problems in Palestine without further alienating the religious establishment.
As little as Pilate had invested in what happened to Jesus Judas Iscariot had his entire future invested in the Carpenter. If we could see what happened that day from Judas’ Perspective we would see a day that was a supreme disappointment.
For three years Judas had invested his life in Jesus’ ministry. He had become one of the twelve and eventually became the keeper of the purse, the treasurer of the group.
But Judas saw Jesus as the messiah, the one who would overthrow the Romans and re-establish Israel to her rightful spot.
When Judas had watched the crowd embrace Jesus the week previous and shout his praises as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, Judas knew that he had backed the right horse, so to speak. But then Jesus started talking about how his kingdom wasn’t of this earth and Judas knew that he was going to have to force Jesus’ hand.
There have been all kinds of theories about why Judas was willing to betray his friend for 30 pieces of silver, but we will never know, this side of eternity, all that went through Juda’s mind, but I don’t think Judas actually intended the day to end with Jesus hanging on the cross.
Judas envisioned Jesus calling on his Father and thousands of Angels sweeping down from heaven to set things straight, and that didn’t happen.
And when Judas saw what happening to his friend and teacher we pick up the story in Matthew 27:3-4 When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”
And while Judas may have been filled with remorse over what had happened to Jesus, the most tears shed on Good Friday were shed by Mary the Mother of Jesus.
From Mary’s Perspective the man on the cross was the child that she had once carried.
She was hardly more than a girl when the angel told her that she would carry God’s son. From the day that Gabriel had interrupted her life with the news of her pregnancy she knew that her son was special. She had told the angel that there was no way she could be pregnant, that she had “never been with a man”. That was the phrase she used, she was a virgin and she knew it, but the angel told her that her son’s father would be God himself.
And immediately she was pregnant. And she watched her son grow up and she had always wondered where God’s plan would lead God’s Son. But this wasn’t what she imagined.
At each point in the drama, like Judas, Mary kept waiting for God to interrupt what was happening and he didn’t.
God didn’t interrupt the arrest, God didn’t interrupt the farce of a trial and God didn’t interrupt when they beat her son and pushed the crown of thorns unto his head.
And then when Pilate ordered Jesus to be beat with a whip Mary had to hide her face but she could still hear as the lash stripped the skin from the back of her first born.
And now we read in John 19:25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. This wasn’t where she wanted to be, but how could she be anywhere else? She was his mother, he was her son.
And when her son called out to his father, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Mary asked the same question. How, how, how could any father, let alone a Heavenly Father allow them to do that to His Son.
And now heartbroken she wept at the foot of the cross as she watched her son die the death of a common criminal.
And if that was “it” then Jesus had lived and died in vain.
But there is someone we haven’t heard from. Jesus wasn’t crucified alone, he was one of three. We are told in Luke 23:32-33 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
There was nobody closer to Jesus that day than the two criminals he was crucified with.
And it was only from the other cross that we can see Jesus from Dismas’ Perspective
The scriptures don’t give the criminal a name but tradition does, and that is Dismas.
And to Dismas the man hanging on the cross next to him wasn’t a heretic, he wasn’t a criminal, he wasn’t a deluded prophet, no he was much more than that.
As Jesus hung dying on the cross, with Peter cowering, Judas confessing, and his mother crying those on the ground and even one of the thieves mocked the one who had claimed to be God’s son.
If we pick up the story in Luke 23:35-39 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” A sign was fastened to the cross above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”
Just week before a crowd gathered to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, they called him king and honoured him by laying their coats on the ground for him as a carpet. They called Jesus a King that day, worshipped him as their Messiah. But that was then and this was now.
There is nothing other than poetic licence to make us think that the same crowd that sang his praises a short week before was the same crowd that mocked Jesus as he hung on the cross.
But at his greatest point of need, there was no one there for Jesus. In Jesus mind even God, his father had forsaken him. Until one voice cried out in his defence and it wasn’t one we would expect to hear.
Luke 23:40-42 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
From Dismas’ perspective, Jesus was his only hope. Jesus was his salvation, and in that is the scandal of Grace. That this man who lived and now was going to die a criminal understood that there was nothing he could do to make himself right with God, except ask to be made right with God.
And listen to Jesus’ response. Luke 23:43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Dismas may have lived the life of a criminal but he died a Christ Follower.
But ultimately it doesn’t matter how Jesus was seen by those surrounding the cross. What ultimately needs to be answered is how Jesus will be seen by you.
As the stone rolls shut across the tomb of Jesus, the question has to be asked by each of us, “Who do I say Jesus is?”
