RE: A multitude
A multitude of hirelings, temple servants, and temple soldiers (guards). Jesus was a stranger in town, and had no friends in Jerusalem to host the last supper. No one testified in his defense (not even a lawyer) before the Sanhedrin. Even Peter denied him thrice. Jesus was truly despised and rejected of men. Simon of Cyrene, a stranger, had to be impressed to help Jesus drag the cross, and his friends and even his women stay away (except John has Mary the Mother close by) stood away from him and let him die alone. The chief priests and teachers of the law and even the thieves on their crosses mocked him. I think Jesus was destroyed by the authorities, priests, rabbis, Roman officials and soldiers under a form of law. No one stood up for him, or comforted his dying hours. Many of those who believe that Jesus was the Messiah or even God, view the crucifixion as blasphemous. I do not know that Jesus was anything other than a deluded street preacher, opposed by the authorities and abandoned by his friends, and the scene horrifies me as much as if he were God himself. |
