They Led Him Away To Crucify Him

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Matthew 27:27-35

Think about the first tree – the one which was forbidden, and on which hung the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve just couldn’t resist.

But it is a transplanted tree that is most important – the crude cross of Calvary that was hewn from a sturdy tree. There our Savior hung between heaven and earth to bear every sin of every generation on his shoulders. It stands above all trees as a symbol of love, sacrifice, and salvation,

At Calvary, God’s only Son suffered a horrible death on a cross. That’s the tree of life for us.

The cross of Christ reveals man’s sin at its worst

and God’s love at its best.

Our Daily Bread – April 4, 2015