The high drama continues - Jesus on one side, the leaders on the other, and Pilate in the middle. Pilate has made up his mind, and is moments away from announcing his decision.
"And it was about noon."
John is not just glancing at the clock. This was (in John's account) the day when, in preparation for the Passover meal that evening, the people brought their lambs to the Temple to be ritually killed by the priests.
And the killing of the lambs began at noon.
At the time of the Exodus, just before the 10th plague, the Jewish people killed a Passover lamb and sprinkled its blood on the doorposts of their homes. The angel of death would then pass over those doors.
Jesus is the new Passover lamb.
He will die this day, as the Passover lambs are being killed. And he will "pass over" from death to new life, so that you can join with him and pass over from death to life. Death will no longer kill you. As the Jewish people passed through the waters of the Red Sea to freedom, you pass through the waters of baptism, no longer a slave to death.
Ever think about death? Think about it now ... yours or someone else's ... and think about how Jesus made it a passing-over to life.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw