The Night of the Oil Press

The night of the oil press
Men came with one Judas
With swords and with meanness
To arrest our Lord Jesus

He having just won
The sins of all man
Warned His task was not done
For evil was at hand

Judas stepped forward
With a kiss as the sign
The collusion untoward
Was conspired by design

The wounds of a friend
At the height of deceit
Did the crime more lend
And demise more greet

The temple police force
Soon fell back to the sod
When Jesus discoursed
"I Am", for He was God

Then Jesus was bound
With a rope round his neck
The scapegoat was found
As He was without speck

The hour of darkness
Was filled with hypocrisy
And now this harshness
Culminated the conspiracy

He’d caused an upheaval
To the Sanhedrin prestige
And warned them of evil
As in the night was this siege

In the House of Prayer
Jesus had taught daily
But, they'd not arrest Him there
For the renting and wailing

All that Jesus had spoken
Within the temple and without
Had been out in the open
And left little doubt

With Roman concern
And want for money tables
Sanhedrin's plots soon burned
For witnesses with fables

As their craft deepened
His sedition was called
And, as they darkened
A fair trial was forestalled

While in judicial court
They ignored Mosaic law
In the name of retort
They smote Jesus’ jaw

He opened not His mouth
In defense or hatred
Nor in anger did He shout
Though slaps turned His skin red

From Pilate to Herod
Then to Pilate again
Jesus was queried
But, naught was against

He was found without fault
Yet, Pilate washed his hands
And replaced Him with the false
At the crowd's loud demands

His stripes of the scourge
Dried in the purple cloak
And they crowned Him with thorns
As they spit and they spoke

Then bearing His cross to be
To the place of the skull
Our Lord was nailed to the tree
Between thieves He would school

His place was made sure
And a sign told it all
The King of the Jews endured
And above all He stood tall

And below malefactors railed
While His heart melted like wax
His strength was curtailed
From pain that did wrack

His raiment was parted
And lots cast for His coat
And more laughter started
When Christ was parched in His throat

They watched Him hung and torn
And they shot out the lip
Mocking Him to scorn
With vinegar to sip

He thought but to forgive
And prayed for them too
And that’s how we should live
In all that we do

Love one another
He taught till the end
He thought but of others
Till in spirit He did ascend

Stretched out like a bird
In the darkening sky
His last words were heard
As to God He did cry

Then His spirit did soar
Back to His home above
Until three days more
To further work of love

And thus was fulfilled
What lie in Holy writ
Our Lord’s life was spilled
And the ancients wrote of it

May we reflect deeply and often
On the life of the Son
Towards Him, may we soften
For all that He has won

Scriptural, Historical,
and Legal Evidence
of the Events Surrounding
the Crucifixion of Christ

Andrew C. Skinner
BYU Education Week:
August 18, 2008
Click on the title to listen to this mp3

Psalm 22
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Psalm 69
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Isaiah 53
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Proverbs 27 of Judas' kiss
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Deuteronomy 21 ...of Pilate washing his hands
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8 Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

Lev. 16: 8, 10, 26
8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
• • •
10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.