this is the ancient city of Jerusalem and Jesus has just arrived here for his last meal with his disciples In less than 24 hours Jesus will be killed by many of the same people who were just praising him as their king over here by the temple only days ago Why let's start with one of Jesus closest followers Judas This might shock you but the Bible says that Satan himself entered Judas as he left this upper room for the house of the high priest not far from where Jesus was staying Judas knew that Jesus was finishing
his last supper with his disciples and was now making his way to a garden called Gethsemane just outside the walls of Jerusalem where he often went to pray late into the night In fact this olive garden is still here today And some of these olive trees are as old as the time of Christ The disciples didn't know this yet but their prayer was about to be cut short because Judas and the Jewish guards were coming But while they were on their way to arrest Jesus it's here that something kind of strange happens As Jesus was
praying the Bible says he started to sweat drops of blood Medical professionals call this hematidrosis a rare condition where actual blood can ooze from the eyes nose and forehead from a person undergoing severe stress Jesus knew the extreme pain he was about to go through but still managed to say these shocking words "Father not my will but your will be done." Finally Judas and the soldiers arrived to arrest Jesus But Peter in defense of Jesus cut off the ear of one of the soldiers But shockingly Jesus healed the man and let them take him as
prisoner This caused all of the disciples to abandon him Why did they do that when moments ago they were ready to defend Jesus to the death it'll make more sense in a moment but first you got to see what happens to Jesus next The soldiers took him to the house of the former high priest Annis for the first of six trials Jesus will go through Each one more extreme than the last The house of Annis most likely would have been in this area here a part of Jerusalem called the upper city because this was where
all the rich guys lived These Jewish priests were like kings among the Jewish people But they didn't have all the power which is why they'll need a little help from someone else if they want to get Jesus killed Annis asked Jesus where his disciples were and what he was teaching the people Little did the priest know that two of Jesus' closest disciples Peter and John had followed Jesus and were in the crowd hiding themselves Jesus told the high priest that he wasn't going to repeat his teachings because over the last few days Jesus had gone
in and out of the temple teaching in this area here a part of the temple called the women's court because it was a place where both men and women could hear his teachings When Jesus said this one of the guards struck Jesus across the face But this is only the first of many beatings that Jesus will go through because he's about to say something that's going to make almost everyone turn on him It was getting close to midnight So they took Jesus to the high priest who was the leader of all the Jews Some archaeologists
believe they have uncovered the original house of the high priest at the time of Jesus If they're right it would have been located here This was where the high priest Caiaphas lived and he had been planning this night for some time now In fact days ago Caiaphas said these shocking words about Jesus It is good that one man should die for the people Why did he say this it has to do with the fact that Jesus talked about himself as if he was a king Again this will make more sense in just a moment But
what Jesus said next actually made the high priest so angry he tore his own clothes But before Jesus says that something happens in the courtyard that's worth mentioning While Peter was trying to hear what was happening with Jesus' trial three different people recognized Peter as being one of Jesus disciples But Peter denied having any affiliation with him And at that moment the sound of a rooster crowed and Peter could see Jesus staring directly into his eyes as he made his way back from his first major beating from the Jewish soldiers Jesus had predicted Peter would
deny him which is why Peter ran out of the courtyard and wept bitterly The sun was beginning to rise as Jesus went in to be tried by the Jews for a third time Meanwhile Judas was making his way over to the temple Satan must have left his body because he was starting to feel super guilty for betraying Jesus He went to the priest threw down the money they had bribed him with to betray Jesus and told them "I have betrayed innocent blood." But he didn't stop there He probably exited through these gates here and made
the long walk over to a valley called Henome And well you know the story But what most people don't know is that the valley of Henome also called Gehenna is the same place hell was named after The Bible also calls the place of eternal torment Gehenna too Because it was in this valley that the Canaanites would sacrifice their own children to their gods Absolutely evil As the sun was now beginning to rise Jesus was making one of the most shocking claims to ever come out of his mouth When the chief priests asked him if he
was the son of God Jesus responded with these incredible words and sealed his own fate I am And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven Wait hold up I've seen this somewhere else Here in the book of Daniel which was written 500 years before Jesus it also says here that one like the son of man will come with the clouds of heaven This is why the high priest tore his clothes Jesus was quoting a passage that directly referred to someone who
they believed was God himself At this point nothing more was needed to be said Jesus was guilty But like I said earlier the Jewish leaders couldn't execute Jesus themselves It was actually illegal for them to do so because at the time they were under the rule of the Roman Empire Now the next location Jesus was taken to has actually been highly debated for years now For centuries this was the location most people believed Jesus was taken to the Antonia Fortress because this was a location where many of the Roman soldiers were stationed But in more
recent years most archaeologists now believe that this is the actual location Jesus was taken to Herod the Great's Palace History tells us that this was the most beautiful building in all of Jerusalem at the time second only to the Jewish temple which towered above everything Here is what these locations look like today The temple is now gone and a Muslim mosque now stands in its place and the palace has been replaced by parking lots This palace was built by the same Herod who tried to get Jesus killed when he was just a baby But since
he had passed away by this point Israel was now being ruled by multiple governors including one of his sons Herod Antipus who was staying here at the time More on him later But the man staying in this palace was a Roman governor by the name of Pontius Pilate Pilate was responsible for ruling all of Judea which is why he got to stay in this luxurious palace This is where they took Jesus I still have to show you where exactly this trial took place and where in Jerusalem Jesus was crucified because the exact location is highly
debated Just like there's a lot of debate and controversy surrounding modern-day Israel and Jerusalem today I think it's amazing that this 4,000-year-old city still brings out so much passion and emotion from just about everyone in the world But this also makes it difficult to decipher the bias from the hundreds of news stories that are written about Jerusalem every week This is why my partners over at Ground News are my number one go-to for all of my news Actually I pretty much only use Ground News now because they pull news from all over the world and
reveal the sourc's bias credibility and even who's financially profiting off of each news source Check out this story here about a big anti-semitism conference that took place in Jerusalem just a few weeks ago Ground News analyzed 80 news sources reporting on this and found that the majority were left-leaning sources who framed the conference as Israel cozying up to far-right European leaders But the right-leaning sources emphasized the importance of these leaders unifying against anti-semitism With Ground News I'm even able to see how credible each source is reporting on this story Ground News really puts the power
back in your hands to be able to critically think about these issues by cutting through all of the bias They're one of the only websites that I trust to get my news from because I hate not knowing if a news source is legit or not If this sounds interesting to you they're offering my viewers half off the same unlimited access Vantage plan that I use Just go to ground.new news/eartoheer or scan my QR code to subscribe for only $5 a month and start seeing the bigger picture with ground news today Okay great So they took
Jesus to this palace gate here to be judged by Pontius Pilate inside his palace right not exactly The Bible says that the Jews would not enter the palace because they didn't want to be defiled on Passover This is probably because it would have had all kinds of statues to Roman gods all throughout the palace So then where did they take Jesus there wasn't much room for them to conduct a trial outside of this gate because of all these buildings here This was a problem for archaeologists until they discovered this This might just look like a
bunch of rocks to me and you but to an archaeologist this was a gold mine Here they uncovered the foundations of multiple staircases and most importantly this a platform specifically designed for judging criminals All of this was discovered in this area here The rulers of the palace would have come out of this gate here and sat down on this judgment seat to well judge people So based on the evidence it's likely they would have taken Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem in front of this gate where a small crowd of Jews would have begun to
gather And Pilate would have come out of his palace here to begin questioning Jesus before the people This was Jesus fourth trial at this point and the Jews wanted the Romans to inflict the most torturous death a criminal could possibly receive As the trial began Pilate was also confused as to why they wanted Jesus dead Why was all of this happening why was everyone so angry pilate took Jesus into the walls of his palace and began to question him Is it true you are the king of the Jews but Jesus told Pilate something he probably
wasn't expecting to hear My kingdom is not of this world With that Pilate took Jesus out to the Jews and declared him innocent But this infuriated the people because they had already condemned him to death earlier They just needed Pilate to get his soldiers to kill Jesus It was only minutes into this trial when Pilate realized that Jesus was from the Galilee region which was under Herod Antipus rule And like I said earlier he happened to be in town So they took Jesus to Herod's vacation home And oddly enough Herod was excited to meet Jesus
Herod wanted to see one of Jesus' tricks one of his so-called miracles But Jesus didn't say a word By now he had been punched slapped and spat on by the Jewish soldiers So naturally Herod's soldiers wanted to get in on the fun too So they put blackeyed bruised Jesus in a royal robe to mock him for claiming to be a king of any kind This made Herod laugh as he declared Jesus innocent and sent him back to Pilate To many of the Roman soldiers Jesus was just another filthy Jew they could have some fun torturing
But it was about to get much worse By the time they returned Jesus to Pilate the crowds had grown significantly The sun was shining and the people of Jerusalem were coming from all over to see Jesus on trial This was a big deal because only a few days ago they were paving the streets with palm branches as Jesus entered the city This is what the Jewish people would do when a king was returning home from a successful battle In their minds Jesus was coming to defeat the Romans and restore glory back to Israel They believe
this because only days ago Jesus had miraculously raised a man named Lazarus from the dead But now they saw their triumphant king in chains beaten and spat on So they lost all faith and in an instant turned on Jesus But this still doesn't explain why they came and demanded that Jesus be killed They could have just stayed in their house that day But instead the crowd got bigger and bigger as they shouted "Crucify him!" So Pilate tried to meet the crowd halfway and gave Jesus to his soldiers to be scourged I'm going to explain exactly
what scourging is in a minute but first I want to show you where it happened The location of Jesus scourging would have most likely been in this courtyard here because this is where Pilate housed his soldiers If you remember this is the same location where a parking lot is today But recently archaeologists have actually excavated flooring dated to the time of the Romans It's possible Jesus blood could have been spilled on this exact floor Now the Bible mentions Jesus being scourged very briefly which is why most people don't realize just how horrible this punishment really
was The soldiers would have taken a type of whip called a flagrum like this one here It would have had parts of glass and sharp pieces of bone tied into the whip itself so that it could rip into the victim's body and tear out entire chunks of flesh exposing nerves and even sensitive organs Many people didn't even survive this torture This is what they did to Jesus And the Roman soldiers were soaking up every bit of it They were having so much fun torturing my king that they even made him a crown of thorns which
they pierced into his head to mock him Now as the blood from the crown ran down his face they took Jesus back to stand trial before Pilate the Jewish leaders and the crowd But this Jesus didn't look anything like the Jesus who they had just seen go into the palace He was unrecognizable But the crowd still wasn't happy and shouted "Crucify him!" So Pilate offered the crowd an alternative It was a tradition at the time to release one prisoner to the people on Passover So Pilate gave the people an option I can either release Jesus
to you or this other criminal also named Jesus Wait I thought the name of the other criminal was Barabbus Well that's only half true Barabbus was actually not his full name In the original Greek manuscripts his full name was Jesus Barabus It was likely changed later by those who thought that this somehow dishonored the name of Christ But in reality Pilate was actually saying to the people "Which Jesus do you want jesus Barabus or Jesus Christ?" But the people chose an evil criminal Jesus over the divine holy Jesus In fact the crowd shouted one of
the most depressing statements ever to be uttered Let the blood of Jesus be on us and on our children So Pilate finally gave up trying to save Jesus from the crowd and delivered him to be crucified This location here and this location here are both debated as being the location Jesus was crucified at I'm going to show you where I personally believe Jesus was crucified But first can we just acknowledge that it still doesn't make sense why the crowd wanted Jesus dead i get why the chief priests wanted him gone They were jealous An argument
has been made that the people were afraid of the Romans who they believed would try to crush anyone who claimed to be king But as you just saw the Roman rulers were not intimidated by Jesus and both declared him innocent So again I ask why did they want Jesus dead jesus was now only hours away from breathing his final breath But where exactly did the crucifixion happen the first and most popular location people believe Jesus crucifixion took place is here a small hill just outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem But another popular site for Jesus
execution is on a hill over here There are many who believe that this is the location of the crucifixion because the name of the hill Jesus was crucified on is called Golgatha which means place of the skull And take a look at what this hill looks like today Do you see it it kind of looks like a skull However the archaeological evidence for this other site as being the location of Jesus crucifixion is pretty strong For the last 2,000 years people have believed this is the site Jesus was crucified at Even Roman emperors who lived
just a few years after the time of Christ believed this was the place Jesus died Today you can see a church that's been built here called the Church of the Holy Supplr We still need to talk about the route Jesus took to get here because once again it's highly debated No surprise there But I've actually been to this incredible church myself and I can tell you that it is an experience that cannot be explained with words 4 million people every year travel to this location to stand in the very place where our Lord and Savior
was crucified I believe every Christian should have the opportunity to come stand in this place for themsel which is why we've partnered with an amazing tour agency to make this experience available to you As of today you can sign up to go to Israel with me and the ear to hear team Not only will you get to walk in the exact locations we've discussed in this video you'll also get to ride a boat on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus walked on water see the valley where David fought Goliath and so much more with me
as your tour guide I promise you it's going to be the trip of a lifetime but spaces are limited which is why you should sign up today before all the spots are taken Okay so what path did Jesus walk in order to get to Golgtha well the most popular route people believe Jesus took is this one right here But this route was based on the belief that Jesus trial happened inside the Antonia Fortress which as we saw earlier is unlikely This would also make it unlikely that Jesus traveled across the entire city here to then
carry the cross to Golgtha My guess is he went around the outside of Jerusalem to the place he was killed And at 9:00 in the morning Jesus was nailed to a wooden cross But he didn't die immediately and neither did the two criminals who were crucified on both sides of him This execution was designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain to its victims for the maximum amount of time Not only did they nail Jesus wrists to the cross they also nailed his feet with one giant nail to a block of wood at the bottom
of the cross Because of the way Jesus was hanging he would have had to use his nailed feet to push his entire body up the cross just to take a single breath scraping his scourged back in the process And he did this for hours as the crowds the religious leaders and the soldiers mocked him and gambled for the clothes they had taken off his naked body It was the ultimate humiliation But a few hours before Jesus died something really strange happened In the middle of the day darkness covered the land When this happened Jesus while
he was gasping for air let out these incredible words "Eli Eli lama Shabbakdani," which means "My God my God why have you abandoned me?" Some might think Jesus was getting worried that God had left him But Jesus was actually quoting a prophecy from the book of Psalms chapter 22 about how God would send a savior to the world who would suffer all kinds of horrible things This man would be beaten He would be ridiculed People would gamble for his clothes and his hands and feet would be pierced through again Why had they done this to
Jesus the answer is that the people were expecting a great king who would defeat the Romans who ruled them so harshly But Jesus had let himself be taken to a Roman trial He let himself be tortured and now nailed to a block of wood They lost faith in God and believed he had abandoned them So in bitterness and anger they cried out against the one they had put so much faith in But the truth is this is the wrong question to ask Instead of asking why did the people kill Jesus the real question we should
be asking is why did Jesus let himself get killed and the answer is found in his final words right before he breathed his last It is finished [Applause] This was why Jesus came It wasn't the religious leaders or the Romans or even the nails that held Jesus to that cross Jesus suffered willingly for all the wrong things you and I have ever done God hadn't abandoned the people and he hasn't abandoned you He rose from the dead 3 days later appeared to the people and is speaking to you right now through this video God loved
you so much that he sent Jesus to be crucified on the cross That if you would only put your trust in him he will wipe away your sins and give you everlasting life so that you too don't ever have to fear death again Wherever you are pray with me now God I am a sinner but I believe your son Jesus died on the cross for my sins and three days later rose from the dead Wipe away my sins and make me a new person so that I can spend eternity with you in Jesus' name Amen
