How Jesus Foresaw His Crucifixion
The Historical Background Shows Jesus Knew He Was in Danger
Since Jesus is believed to be fully human as well as fully divine, some scholars question if, purely as a person, he could have foreseen he was to die on a cross.
If, as Christians believe, Jesus experienced and understands all that humans experience, the question of what he knew as a man illustrates his human qualities, especially his courage.
In the Gospels, he tells his followers he was to die in Jerusalem and that they were to "take up their cross" and follow him. Some scholars, such as members of The Jesus Seminar, suggest these warnings were written by the Gospel writers not as verbatim reports, but after his death in the knowledge of what had happened. In other words, some scholars say the Gospel writers put words into Jesus' mouth.
Josephus and Gospels
However, Gospel passages and Josephus Flavius' historical account give evidence that even if Jesus were not divine (or in his fully human rather than divine nature) he would have known he was in great danger, and would have anticipated execution by crucifixion.
In Luke 4:29, his townspeople try to throw him off a cliff. In Luke 13:31, Pharisees warn him to leave Jerusalem because Herod wanted to kill him.
In Mark 3:6, a group of Pharisees and Herodians plot his death. Peter knew this (Mark’s Gospel relates what Peter told him). Jesus must have known also, either, perhaps, from a friendly Pharisee or from Herod’s palace where Joanna, the wife of Chuza one of his stewards, was a disciple of Jesus.
Temple in Jerusalem
How Jesus knew he would be crucified centers around the temple. He would have heard what everyone must have talked about: rebellions in the temple; execution of the perpetrators.
He would have heard of the golden eagle Herod the Great had mounted on the temple wall. He would have heard how it was torn down by rabbinical students. He would have known of the 40 students whom Herod had burned at the stake.
Jesus would have heard how, after Herod's death, Israelites blocked the temple so Herod’s son Archelaus could not enter. He would have heard how Archelaus’ cavalry had slaughtered 3000 people on the temple steps.
While Archelaus was away in Rome, other Israelite rebels blockaded the temple against Sabinus, Caesar's agent in Syria. Jesus would have known that, to make an example of the rebels, Sextus Quinctilius Varus, governor of Syria, had crucified 2,000 of them around the city walls where their crosses would be seen and remembered.
Jesus in the Temple
It was in this atmosphere that Jesus did his own disturbance in the temple, in which he blocked the gates to people carrying anything through (Mk 11:16). This must have caused a commotion and attracted the attention of Roman guards on the walls of the Antonia fortress, which had been built overlooking the temple so guards could keep watch (visitors to Jerusalem can see this in a model in the Holy Land Hotel, as shown below).
The Romans and Jesus and everyone else knew the temple was crucial to Israelite life and religion, to peace or rebellion.
Pilate and Barabbas
It was from the fortress wall that Pontius Pilate ordered the slaughter of insurrectionists who had tried to block him from the temple. Many were cut down by swordsmen, but one -- Barabbas -- was thrown in prison to await his cross.
It is not certain if Jesus’ disturbance happened early in his ministry (John 2: 14-16) or later (Matt 21:12, Mk 11:15; Luke 19:45). If after the Barabbas insurrection, Jesus must have known he was in trouble the moment he started it. If before, he knew that to return to Jerusalem was to return to danger.
Prophets of Justice and Truth
He knew the penalty for blockading the temple was death, and since he had not been attacked by swordsmen at the time, he knew his punishment would be the cross.
His fate was confirmed the moment he was accused before Pilate of threatening to destroy the temple and rebuild it (Mk 14:58).
When he told his disciples he would die in Jerusalem, it was more than an educated guess. When he said they were to "take up their cross", he was saying what many who have come after him have known -- in the current era people such as Mahatma Gandhi, John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Junior, Malalai Kakar (the Afghan policewoman murdered for her fight to protect women from crime): it takes courage to stand speak out for truth and justice; those who do will suffer.
Sources: Complete Works of Josephus Flavius; Catholic Encyclopedia
Read also: St. Francis of Assisi's Icon and St. Francis of Assisi's Cross
Jerusalem's Holy Land Hotel model of the temple
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