A term which comes from Latin meaning “suffering.” It is used in some translations (such as the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version) in Acts 1:3 to refer to the sufferings of Jesus. Throughout history, Christians have referred to Jesus’s sufferings as his Passion.
What Happened During Jesus's Passion?
Each of the four Gospels has what is called a Passion narrative. This is the section recording the sufferings of Jesus on the night of his arrest and the following day leading up to his death.
Mark includes it in chapters 14–15.
Luke includes it in chapters 22–23.
John includes it in chapters 18–19.
Jesus's Arrest and Trials
Luke gives the most detailed account of the physical pain Jesus experienced while at prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41–44). John 18:12 tells us that Jesus was then bound and led to the high priest’s house, where he was first questioned by Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the current holder of that office. This questioning is recorded in John 18:19–24.
Annas sent Jesus on to Caiaphas for further examination (John 18:24). At this stage, the soldiers guarding Jesus indulged in some foul play. They beat him and asked him as his eyes were covered, to prophesy who had hit him (Luke 22:63–65). At daybreak, the Jewish Council (called the Sanhedrin) gathered and tried to prove Jesus was guilty. But they could not obtain strong enough evidence against him.
Finally, the high priest asked him a question that led him to make himself look guilty in their eyes. This goes against what is normally described in Jewish law (Mark 14:55–64). By asking a direct question concerning Jesus’s role as messiah, they compelled him to commit what they considered to be blasphemy. Blasphemy is typically understood as speaking falsely about God. They had closed their minds to the possibility that Jesus could be the Messiah.
Jesus's Physical Suffering and Death
Matthew 26:67–68 and Mark 14:65 suggest that it was at this point that Jesus was abused by his guards and possibly some members of the council. He was then taken under arrest to Pilate’s residence in Jerusalem. Pilate lived in the Praetorium or the garrison headquarters. Pilate appears to have conducted a preliminary examination of Jesus. He found that his hometown was in Galilee. He sent Jesus to Herod as being under Herod’s authority. Jesus refused to answer any of Herod’s questions, so Herod sent Jesus back to the governor after mocking Jesus (Luke 23:1–12).
Pilate then appears to have wanted to enlist the crowd’s sympathy for Jesus and so had him whipped, after which he was dressed in a purple robe. This is possibly the one given to him by Herod ( Luke 23:11) and a crown of thorns. The whipping could have been the regular prelude to crucifixion. It may have been an attempt to suggest that he had punished Jesus enough (23:16). Jesus was whipped with a flagellum while his hands were tied to a pillar (Mark 15:15). A flagellum was a leather whip whose thongs were weighted with jagged pieces of bone and lead.
Even after this, Jesus faced more attacks by the soldiers (Matthew 27:27–31; Mark 15:16–20; John 19:3) and then had to stand by while Pilate tried weakly to negotiate with the mob, who by now had been stirred up by his opponents to clamor for Jesus’s death (John 19:1–16; cf. Matthew 27:11–26; Mark 15:1–15; Luke 23:18–25). It did not work, Pilate sent Jesus to the execution squad.
It is not surprising that after all this ill-treatment, Jesus appears to have been unable to carry the cross to Calvary. He was either supposed to carry the crossbeam only or the entire cross including both beams of wood. Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry it for him. This is explained in Mark 15:21 and the other Gospel accounts.
Once he reached Calvary, the soldiers quickly nailed him to the cross. Traditionally, this was done by driving a nail through each hand and a longer nail through both feet together. The cross was then set upright into a socket in the ground. In some cases, the crossbeam carried was connected to the post already standing upright in the ground. Jesus was left to hang there until he died from loss of blood after the whipping or from a ruptured heart caused by the strain on the muscles of the diaphragm. Sometimes the whippings were deadly.
The Mental and Spiritual Suffering of Jesus
Apart from the physical side of the Passion, we must not forget that Jesus also experienced mental agony.
His friends betrayed him.
His followers abandoned him.
There was the further suffering of knowing that all he went through was undeserved. He was completely innocent of all the charges brought against him.
The Jewish people prided themselves on the quality of their religion. The Romans prided themselves on the standards of their law. In a way that seems opposite to what you might expect, it was the misunderstanding of Jewish religion and the misuse of Roman law that enabled Jesus's enemies to kill him.
Most of all, Jesus suffered spiritually knowing that God was going to make “Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21).“ This meant he would be separated from God. At a time when many people dying for their faith have felt God's presence strongly, Jesus instead cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34 and parallel passages).
Why Is Jesus's Passion Important to Christians?
The New Testament shows us what the first Christians believed was “good news.” This news changed the ancient world. The good news was that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). This was the basic message of several New Testament writers. For example:
Peter (see Acts 2:22–36; 3:12–21; 10:36–43; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18)
Paul (see Acts 13:26–39)
John (see 1 John 1:7; 2:2; 4:10; Revelation 1:5; 5:9)
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 2:9, 17; 9:28; 10:12)
The fact that Jesus was sinless qualified him to take the sins of the whole world upon himself. He did what no human being has ever been able, or will ever be able, to do. He took the consequences of, and punishment for, human sin.