After Jesus died on the Cross, His companions – the disciples and close family – still had several hours of agony before they could receive the body. They witnessed soldiers breaking the legs of the two criminals next to Jesus to prevent them remaining alive on the cross during the Passover Sabbath. But finding Jesus already dead, one soldier simply thrust a spear into His side.
This was the beginning of a legend concerning the spear of the legionnaire Longinus. That spear is said to have been found by the Crusaders just outside Antioch in June 1098, and helped lead them into victorious battles. The soldier himself is remembered in the Chapel of St. Longinus situated along the gallery formed by seven 11th century arches, known as the Arches of the Virgin.
XIII Jesus is taken down from the Cross.
The Stone of the Unction, the thirteenth, Station of the Cross is the first thing one meets upon entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
It is situated at the foot of Calvary and although the Gospels describe Mary watching events from nearby, tradition depicts her receiving the body of Jesus into her arms as it was slowly lowered from the Cross by Joseph of Arimethaea – a disciple and member of the Jewish counsel.
It was onto this Unction, or Anointing Stone that the body of Christ was laid to be prepared for burial.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side. John 19:33-34
*And Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, … besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. …And there came also Nicodemus … and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices. John 19:38-40
This page is part of the book The Holy Land of Jesus
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