Christ Crucified

Okay this is the big one the payment for our sins. This passage covers getting Jesus and the cross to Golgotha (which if you are interested was the name of a dinosaur in the 2000ad comic) and then getting Him up on the cross - you will get to read about his death in the next passage.
points of interest:

All four refer to the mocking of Jesus, by the crowd ,elders and even His fellow prisoners, who challenged Him to take himself down whilst quoting him saying he would destroy and rebuild the temple in three days - none of them (including the disciples realised that He was referring to His own physical body when He said temple.

All four refer to the sign that 'incorrectly' said here is the King of the Jews.

All but John refer to Simon helping Jesus to carry the cross to Golgotha, usually multiple references imply importance - but I am unsure why Simon and the fact that he was from Cyrene was important. Mark makes reference to Simon's sons Alexander & Rufus which probably means that they were at the time of it's writing well know disciples of Christ, or at least known to the audience for whom Mark was writing.

All but John refer to the wine He is offered, which was drugged - I am assuming that it was meant to dull the pain - but what do I know, what I do know is that Jesus refused it. To me that says that He knew he had to take our punishments for us, and that if He was going to do it he was going to do it right and make sure that we knew, that He knew exactly what he was doing (without excuses of being incapacitated)

All four refer to the gambling that took place for His tunic, and make reference to Psalms where it was predicted.

Luke is the only one who lets one of the other executed men off the hook, when he acknowledges Christ as the King of the Jews.

Luke23:43 43And Jesus replied, "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise." hmm now that's a statement of contention - what exactly do 'today' and 'paradise' mean - if he descends to the dead to rise again on the third day? My personal explanation (which can probably be shot full of holes if you try) is that as God exists outside of time (He created the universe, and before there was matter you couldn't have time - as time is a measure of matter changing) He could effectively rise from the dead in three days, and still be in Paradise with the thief today. After all He's with all of us all the time isn't He!!?

Finally in case you didn't know the disciple whom Jesus loved referred to in John, is John himself.