On Holy and Great Friday, we remember the holy, saving, and terrible sufferings of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, which He voluntarily endured for us. Spitting, beatings, slaps, vilification, ridicule, purple cloth, cane, sponge, vinegar, nails, spear, and after all this, the Cross and death — all this took place on Friday. After Jesus, who had been sold by a friend and disciple for thirty pieces of silver, was taken, He was first taken to the high priest Anna, who sent Him to Caiaphas, where the Lord was spat on, slapped, and humiliated and ridiculed, hearing: "Prophesy to us, Christ, who struck You?" (Mt. 26:68). False witnesses also came there, distorting His words: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). And when He called Himself the Son of God, the bishop tore his clothes as a sign that He could not tolerate blasphemy.
When morning came, Jesus was taken to Pilate and the Jews did not enter the praetorium, says the evangelist John, so that they would not be defiled, but that they could eat the Passover (John 18:28). Either by Easter here he means the entire (seven-day) holiday, or this time it was at the proper time (on Friday evening), but Christ celebrated the legitimate Easter one day earlier, because on Friday he wanted to be slaughtered at the same time as the Paschal lamb.
Pilate went out to them and asked them what they were accusing Jesus of, and since he found nothing worthy of accusation, he sent Him to Herod, and the latter to Pilate again. The Jews sought to kill Jesus. Pilate said to them, "Take him and crucify him, and judge him according to your law" (cf. John 18:31,19:6). They answered him, "We are not allowed to put anyone to death" (John 18:31), prompting Pilate to crucify Him. Pilate asked Christ if He was the King of the Jews. He recognized Himself as a King, but Eternal, saying, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). Pilate, wanting to free Him, first said that he did not find any plausible guilt in Him, and then suggested, according to custom, that they release one prisoner for the sake of the feast, but they chose Barabbas over Christ (see John 18:38-40).
Then Pilate, betraying Jesus to them, first ordered Him to be beaten, then brought him out to them in custody, dressed in purple, crowned with a crown of thorns, with a cane in his right hand, ridiculed by the soldiers who said: Hail, King of the Jews! (see John 19:1-5; Matthew 27:29; Mk.15:16-19). However, having violated them in such a way as to satisfy their anger, Pilate said again: I have found nothing worthy of death in Him (Luke 23:22). But they answered: He must die because He has made himself the Son of God (John 19:7). When they said this, Jesus was silent, and the people shouted to Pilate, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" (Luke 23:21). For the Jews wanted to defame Him through a shameful death (such as they gave to robbers) in order to destroy the good memory of Him. Pilate, as if shaming them, says, "Will I crucify your king?" They answered: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). Since they have achieved nothing by accusing them of blasphemy, they put Pilate in fear of Caesar in order to at least fulfill their insane plan in this way, for which they say: everyone who makes himself king is an opponent of Caesar (John 19:12). Meanwhile, Pilate's wife, terrified by dreams, sent him a message saying, "Do not do anything to that Righteous man, for today in a dream I suffered much for him (Matthew 27:19); and Pilate washed his hands and denied his guilt in (shedding) his blood (see Matthew 27:24).. The Jews cried out, "His blood is on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). If you let him go, you are not Caesar's friend (John 19:12).
Then Pilate, being afraid, released Barabbas to them, and delivered Jesus to crucifixion (cf. Mt.27:26), although he secretly knew that He was innocent. When Judas saw this, he threw the pieces of silver (in the temple), went out, went and strangled himself (see Matthew 27:3-5), hung himself from a tree, and then, greatly swollen, burst. The soldiers mocked Jesus and beat Him on the head with a cane (Matthew 27:27-30), laid a cross on Him; then, seizing Simon of Cyrene, they forced Him to carry His cross (cf. Matthew 27:32; Luke 23:26; John 19:17).
About the third hour, they came to the Place of the Skull and crucified Jesus there, with two robbers on either side of Him, so that He too might be counted among the evildoers (cf. Mark 15:27-28; Isaiah 53:12). The soldiers divided His clothes because of their poverty, casting lots for a one-piece tunic, causing Him all kinds of insults — not only this, but also mocking Him as He hung on the cross, saying: eh! destroying the temple and building it up in three days! Save Yourself. And yet: He saved others, but He can't save Himself. And again, if He is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe in Him (Mark 15:29-31; Matthew 27:40,42).
And if they were really telling the truth, then it was fitting for them to turn to Him without a doubt, because it was revealed that He was the King not only of Israel, but of the whole world. For why did the sun go out for three hours, and even at noon? — So that everyone would know about (His) suffering. The earth shook and the stones were scattered, so that it would be revealed that He could do this to the Jews; many bodies (of the deceased) were resurrected, as proof of the universal resurrection and for the manifestation of the power of the Sufferer. The veil in the temple was torn (Matthew 27:51), as if the temple was angry (tearing its clothes) because the One who was Glorified in it was suffering, and the previously invisible (Holy of Holies) was revealed to everyone.
So, Christ was crucified at the third hour, as St. Mark says (see Mark 15:25), but from the sixth hour there was darkness until the ninth hour (Matthew 27:45; cf. Mark 15:33). Then Longinus the centurion, seeing the sun (darkened) and other signs, was greatly afraid and said: Truly, He was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54; cf. Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47). One of the robbers cursed Jesus, while the other rebuked him, strongly forbidding him, and confessed Christ to be the Son of God. In rewarding his faith, the Savior promised him to stay with Him in paradise (see Luke 23:39-43).
To top it all off, Pilate wrote an inscription on the cross that read: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (John 19:19). Although (the high priests) did not allow Pilate to write like this, but that He said: (I am the King of the Jews), however Pilate objected: what I have written, I have written (see: John 19:21-22). Then the Savior said, "I am thirsty," and They gave Him hyssop and vinegar. Having said: It is finished! — and bowing his head, (He) gave up the spirit (see John 19:28-30).
When everyone had dispersed, His Mother and His Mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, as well as the Lord's beloved disciple John, stood at the Cross (see John 19:25-26). The distraught Jews, for whom it was not enough to see the body on the cross, asked Pilate, since it was then Friday and the great feast of Easter, (to order) to break the legs of the condemned so that death would occur sooner. And two of them had their shins broken because they were still alive. But when they came to Jesus, as they saw Him already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers, named Longinus, pleasing the mad, raised a spear and pierced Christ's ribs on the right side, and immediately blood and water flowed out (see John 19:31-34).
The first shows that He is a man, and the second is that He is above man. Or blood for the Sacrament of Divine Communion, and water for baptism, for those two sources truly give rise to the Sacraments. And John, who saw this, testified, and his testimony is true (John 19:35), because he was present there and saw everything with his own eyes.
After these amazing events, as evening had already come, Joseph from Arimathea, also a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, dared to enter Pilate, being known to him, and asked for the body of Jesus (cf. Mark 15:42-43; John 19:38); and Pilate allowed the body to be taken (John 19:38). Joseph took him down from the cross and laid him down with all reverence. Nicodemus also came, who had previously come (to Jesus) at night, and brought a certain composition of myrrh and aloe, prepared in sufficient quantity (cf. John 19:39). Wrapping (the body) in swaddling cloths with incense, as Jews usually bury it, they laid it nearby, in Joseph's tomb, hewn out of the rock, where no one had been laid yet (cf. Luke 23:53; John 19:40). (This was arranged so that when Christ would rise again the resurrection could not have been attributed to anyone else (who lay with Him). The evangelist mentioned the mixture of aloe and myrrh because it is very sticky, so that when we hear about the swaddling clothes and headbands left in the tomb (see John 20:6-7), we would not think that the body of Christ was stolen: for how could we, without having enough time, tear them off, stuck to the body so much?
All this happened wonderfully that Friday, and the God-fearing fathers commanded us to commemorate all this with contrition and tenderness of heart. It is also remarkable that the Lord was crucified on the sixth day of the week, on Friday, just as man was created on the sixth day at the beginning. And at the sixth hour of the day he was hanged on the cross, just like Adam, they say, at that hour he stretched out his hands, touched the forbidden tree and died, because it was fitting for him to be recreated again at the same hour in which he fell. And in the garden, just like Adam in paradise. Bitter drinking is in the image of (Adam's) eating. The slaps meant our liberation. Spitting and shameful breeding accompanied by soldiers is an honor for us. The crown of thorns is the removal of our curse. Purple is like leather clothes or our royal decorations. Nails are the final mortification of our sin. The cross is the tree of paradise. The pierced ribs represented Adam's rib, from which Eve (originated), from which the crime originated. The spear removes the fiery sword from me (see Gen. 3:24). The water from the ribs is an image of baptism. Blood and a cane — with them He, as King, signed in red letters (a letter), giving us the ancient fatherland. There is a legend that Adam's head lay where Christ, the Head of all, was crucified and washed with the blood of Christ, which is why this place is called the Frontal.