| After much ridicule,
Jesus'
own garments were put upon Him and the soldiers took Him out to be crucified.
Is was customary for the condemned criminal to carry the cross-bar, but after a while Jesus was too exhausted physically, because of the whipping, to continue to bear the bar across His shoulders. The soldiers stopped a man called Simon, from Africa, and ordered Him to carry the cross-bar. The local people and Festival visitors were now awakened and trailed along behind, stricken with grief. Who would believe that God would choose to save the world from destruction and damnation through a humble and obedient servant who was rejected by all those around Him. Everyone thought that he was to bear the weight of His own sin never thinking that His burden was theirs and for others. The Messiah was to bear the sins of mankind, to make all acceptable to God, to be made righteous before him, to save them, for all else led to spiritual death. As Jesus went throughout the streets to the crucifixion site outside the City, He thought of them, not of Himself, of their repentance and the doom coming upon the City and its inhabitants. These events were the fulfilled prophecies of Psalm 35:19, Isaiah 50:6, 52:15, 53:2-8. The destruction of Jerusalem was in 70 A.D. less than 40 years later.
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