So, here we are, at midnight, the Temple Guards - approx 25 men (I'm guessing at this number), 100 Roman Troops with their Commander, the members of the Sanhedrin and Judas Iscariot - who had to be at the front, to get to Christ and 'finger' Him. Because scripture does tell us that He was nothing to look at - just plain ordinary. If He were to walk amongst us now, we wouldn't even give Him a second glance.
We can assume that the Temple Guards had been present when Jesus turned out the money lenders, etc from the Temple and also when He performed some miracles at the Temple - they after having witnessed the power of Christ were probably afraid, and by law they were only armed with wooden staves - possession of weapons in Roman Protectorates was probably a flogging offence, if not the death penalty. Whereas, the Roman troops were armed with spears and swords.
To try and put this into perspective, could you imagine 25 local police, armed with batons, accompanied by a Company of armed soldiers (approx 120 men), the local church council plus the stoolie going into your local park at midnight to arrest one man - it shows just how determined the Sanhedrin was.
At the time of the arrest, we know His last miracle was performed (before the resurrection), when Peter drew a knife and cut off one of the Temple Guards ears, He put it back on, and also when Christ was asked if He was the Jesus, on His reply of 'I AM' the ground shook - like a mini earthquake, at that point the multitude were probably quite shaken.
So here we have Christ, who has been up since the early hours, arrested at midnight, marched off to face trial by the Sanhedrin, dragged from there and marched to the other side of town to the Roman Governor, Pilate (Mat 27) for another mock trial, then again marched across town for yet another trial, this time with Herod (Luke 23), then back again to Pilate (Mark 25) - who can find no evidence of crimes warranting capital punishment - who orders Him to be flogged, at this point the crown of thorns is placed on His head. Then came the Coup De Grace - a handy solution to the Sanhedrin's problem is found - the Romans allow the populace to chose whom to free and who to execute - a choice Jesus or Barabus - we know the outcome to this one!
All this, tantamount in our eyes, to someone like Billy Graham being arrested, marched around town to 3 mock trials and then executed, all on Christmas Eve.
Now, Christ has been on the go for at least 24 hours non stop, has been allowed neither food or water, is subjected to mock trials and degradation, marched around town 3 times and receives beatings and a flogging, is then marched to pick up the cross beam of His execution tree, and then forced to carry it through a hostile crowd to His place of execution. Unfortunately, in His weakened state, he stumbles and falls and is prodded by a guard, and an onlooker forced to carry the cross beam for Him.
At the execution ground itself, the Scriptures are fulfilled (Ps 22). This is where the artists of old have got everything wrong, the Romans had torture and execution down to a fine art, and by using local customs and law to their advantage - Jesus was stripped naked (see Gen 20:26 Lev 18:6-18 KJV about the laws of nakedness [nudity]). He is then nailed to the cross (more than likely with rusty nails) through the palms of his hands and his feet, we can only speculate if His feet were nailed separately or on top of the other. At this point we have the world wide and age old questions of debate, where some say He was nailed through His wrists, being that if He was nailed through His palms, His own weight would have pulled them free. This I doubt very much, as I said the Romans had this sort of thing down to a fine art, He was bound to the cross by His shoulders, wrists and knees. He was nailed through the palms of His hands, as those amongst you who are into DIY know to our cost, if anything penetrates your palm, the pain is excruciating, the same goes for those of you (me included) who have managed to spike our feet with a garden fork, it aint half painful. The main object of the crucifixion, was not only to kill the victim, but to subject them to terrible pain, a slow death and humiliation (by being stark naked in the case of the Jews).
Our medically minded (and trained) friends will tell us, that to assist the blood flow, if we are motionless, we should wriggle our toes and fingers - as all ex-servicemen amongst you know from long periods on parade, standing like statues, to avoid fainting, we wriggle our toes in our boots - but if you feet have got nails through them - the pain will stop you from doing it. In the case of crucifixion, death is caused by blood not flowing to and from the extremities, which then die off - ideal conditions for gas gangrene to form - which would kill anyway.
Remember, these Roman soldiers had probably been in many a campaign and therefore death was no stranger to them, so they could tell when someone was dead. When bodies are taken down from the cross, if there is any life left in them, their bones are broken to speed death up. But scripture tells us the His bones were not broken - therefore He was dead.
The cross we know, must have been in the shape of a 'T' not and 'X', because of the inscription "King of the Jews" nailed above His head.
We know that the Jewish Sabbath is on a Saturday, so therefore those events were, starting from midnight Thursday, the arrest, trial and crucifixion on Friday (day 1), Saturday was the Sabbath (day 2) and on the Sunday morning (day 3) He Gloriously arose from the dead as the final blood sacrifice for our sins, and to become the mediator between us and God.