Wednesday, December 29
Thoughts on the crucifixion of Jesus
Scripture: Zechariah 13-14, Proverbs 30, John 19
Observation
The story of Jesus’ crucifixion is filled with pathos.
“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” (v. 1) This simple statement describes a horrible beating—39 strokes with a whip called “a cat of nine tails,” consisting of nine leather thongs, each tip embedded with metal. This instrument of torture could strip the skin and flesh off a man’s back. Many didn’t survive. This brutal beating was followed by mocking and torture before they crucified Him.
When Pilate heard that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God, he was afraid and asked Jesus where He was from. When Jesus refused to answer, Pilate said, “Don’t you know I have the power to set you free or crucify you?” Jesus answered that the only power Pilate had was what God allowed. Who was really in charge here? Jesus wasn’t a martyr but a sacrifice; no one took His life; He gave His life willingly for us.
When Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” the Jewish leaders declared, “We have no king but Caesar.” What irony! They were willing to claim allegiance to their hated Roman oppressors in order to have Jesus executed. He was that much of a threat to them. Jesus remains a threat to the institutions of power in our world…and in our individual lives. He continues to challenge us to live for God and others rather than self—upsetting the kingdom of self that we live in.
“There they crucified Him…” (v. 18). Those four words describe a tortured death of unimaginable pain. Cicero called it “the cruelest and most hideous punishment possible.” A medical doctor provides a physical description.
“The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is them lifted into place.
The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain-the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of the feet.
As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins: a crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
It is now almost over—the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level—the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues—the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air.
He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues…Finally he can allow his body to die.
All this the Bible records with the simple words, “And they crucified him.” (Mark 15:24) What wondrous love is this?”
(Adapted from C. Truman Davis, M.D. in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Mark)
Pilate prepared a sign to be hung on Jesus’ cross, written in three languages (Aramaic—the language of Palestine; Latin—the language of Rome; Greek—the lingua franca of the empire). Scottish minister George MacLeod wrote:
“I simply argue that the cross should be raised at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town’s garbage heap; at a crossroad, so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek…at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died. And that is what He died for. And that is what He died about. That is where church-men ought to be and what church-men ought to be about.”
Application
“What wondrous love is this?”
Reading this story should cause us to stop and worship and wonder that God was willing to go to such great lengths to reach us…and then motivate us to join Him on His mission to redeem the world.
Prayer: I stand in awe of You, Lord, and what You’ve done for us. Fill me with Your Spirit and send me to do Your work in the world.