My Death: Part 2.
		Early the next morning, a crowd followed as I was taken before the Roman governor, Pilate. "We found this fellow corrupting our Jewish nation," they yelled to the governor when we got close. Pilate questioned me quietly, then raised his hands to hush the crowd. "This man has done nothing to deserve the penalty of death. I'll have him beaten and then released." The people were outraged. "That man must be killed," they yelled. A chant moved through the mob: "Crucify him...crucify him!" Pilate felt obligated to satisfy the people's wish and had me brutally whipped. He then gave his 'keepers of justice' the go-ahead to have me crucified immediately. Some Roman soldiers braided a mock crown of thorns and pushed it roughly down on my head. They put a purple robe on me and said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They beat me, laughing after each blow. I was then led down the city's main road and forced to carry a heavy wooden cross on my back. I was told to stop when we reached Calvary, also known as Golgotha. In that same area, my Father had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, years before. Some soldiers nailed my hands and feet to a huge cross, and I fought to remain conscious despite the pain. When they had finished, I looked towards the sky and said, "Forgive them, Father...they don't know what they're doing." Soldiers cheered and jostled each other for my clothes. Some of them sat near my hanging body and gambled for my robe, which fulfilled the prophetic words once spoken by David. Two criminals had also been crucified, and hung limply to either side of me. The crowd watched me suffer for three long hours. The city rulers mocked me, saying, "If he saved so many others, he should be able to save himself, too. If he is who he says he is, why does he die helplessly in front of our very eyes?" At that moment, a darkness crept over the land and stayed for another three hours, and the prophet's words were fulfilled yet again: "The Lord will place the sins of us all on him." I cried out as this burden fell on me. "My God, my God...why have You forsaken me?" But I knew that everything had happened as it was supposed to, and completed the predicted scriptures with the words, "I thirst." The soldiers laughed and offered me vinegar, repeating, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself! Turning this vinegar into water should be a cinch for someone as powerful as you." I tasted the vinegar, then called out, "It's finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." I bowed my head and released the grip on my inner spirit, and the pain was instantly replaced by overwhelming content. As I died, the sun darkened and the earth was shaken violently by a quake; the thick veil of the city Temple ripped down the middle. The Roman captain in charge stood staring up at me as everyone else panicked and ran away. "Truly this man was the Son of God," the captain said softly. "What have we done?" The soldiers returned when the quake subsided and broke the legs of the two men hanging beside me. When the soldiers saw I was already dead, they pierced my side with a spear instead, and the blood poured down on the ground below me. Again, the scriptures had been accurate: "None of his bones will be broken; they shall look at him whom they pierced."
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