THE LIFE OF CHRIST
PART 94
In our
last lesson, Jesus was brought before Pilate, then sent to Herod, and the back
Pilate. Pilate tried to get the Jews to free Jesus, but they choose Barabbas
instead. Jesus had to suffer through scourging and being humiliated in front of
everyone. In this lesson, we will begin examine how Jesus made His way to the
cross to be crucified.
John 19:17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the
Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, 18 where
they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in
the center.
John focuses on what Jesus did during this time, but the
other accounts give us more information of what happened as Jesus made His was
to Golgotha. Jesus started out carrying His cross, but as some point
during His journey He could no longer bear it. So, a man named Simon was forced
to carry the cross for Him by the Roman soldiers (Mk. 15:21; Lk.
23:26). While we do not know for sure, it is believed that Jesus was not
carrying the entire cross, but the cross bar. It is estimated that the crossbar
weighed around 75 lbs and was put across the shoulders of the victim with their
arms stretched out and their hands tied. Next, Luke records:
Luke 23:27 And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who
also mourned and lamented Him. 28 But Jesus, turning
to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep
for yourselves and for your children. 29 "For
indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the
barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!' 30 "Then
they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the
hills, "Cover us!" ' 31 "For if they
do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"
A great number of people were following Jesus as He made
His way outside the city. The women that followed were beating their chest in
grief and wailing for Jesus. Even though He was not strong enough to carry His
cross, He managed to speak to these women and tell them not weep for Him.
Instead, He wants them to weep for themselves and their children and even
states that those who are barren and have no children will be blessed. The
reason He is saying this is because Jerusalem would be destroyed and
many Jews would lose their lives as He predicted in Matthew 24.
Of course His prediction came true because starting
around A.D. 66, the Romans began to attack the Jews, and in A.D. 70, they
surrounded the city of Jerusalem for about five months. According to
Josephus, starvation became so bad in the city that a woman killed and ate her
own baby (The War of the Jews 6.3.4).
Verse 31 is a proverbial saying, and I believe Mr.
Coffman explains it best:
This proverbial expression has been variously
interpreted; but it would appear that Farrar's explanation is correct: "If
they act thus to me, the Innocent and the Holy, what shall be the fate of
these, the guilty and the false?" There is here a dramatic prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem, in which women especially would be deprived and
suffer tribulations.
The green tree represents the innocent and holy Saviour
in the spirituality and vigor of his life; the dry tree represents the morally
dead and sapless people, typified by the fig tree, blasted by his word, four days
earlier.
Thus, by this prophecy, as Jesus left the city for the
last time, he prophesied its doom no less than he did upon entering it (Luke
19:41f). Not even the prospect of immediate death took the Saviour's mind
away from the awful penalties that would fall upon Jerusalem for his
rejection. The fires of suffering consuming Jesus (the green tree) would be
nothing to compare with the fires of destruction that would burn up the dead
tree (Jerusalem, judicially and morally dead) (Coffman’s commentary on Luke
23).
Jesus is taken to Golgotha, which is called the
place of the Skull. No one knows with certainty where this place of execution
took place, but many favor a hill located outside city that looks like a skull.
Before He was crucified, He was offered sour
wine mingled with gall (Mt. 27:34). Gall is “a bitter substance made from
wormwood, a plant yielding a bitter-tasting dark-green oil that is alcoholic in
its effect” (Friberg Lexicon). Mark’s account says it was mingled
with myrrh (Mk. 15:23), which was “a transparent, brown, brittle, odorous
substance, with bitter taste” (Fausset’s Bible dictionary). Some believe that both of these accounts are talking about the
same substance while others believe both gall and myrrh were mixed with the
sour wine. One thing we know for sure is this drink was designed to help sedate
a person so he would have some relief from the pain, but when Jesus tasted it,
He refused to drink it. He would endure all the pain of His crucifixion with a
clear mind.
Jesus was not alone that day because two unnamed thieves
called evildoers by Luke (Lk. 23:32) were being crucified as well. These
two thieves deserved the punishment they received, but Jesus was innocent.
Isaiah prophesied that He would be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa.
53:12). At 9 A.M., they crucified Him (Mk. 15:25).
The Romans were experts at crucifixion, and they executed
in different ways using different crosses. According to Nelson’s Bible
Dictionary there were four different types of crosses used:
(Nelson’s
New Illustrated Bible Dictionary p. 315)
It is believed that Jesus was crucified with either the
Latin cross or St. Anthony’s cross. Since Matthew’s account says that
a written accusation was placed above Jesus’ head (Mt. 27:37), this
suggests the Latin cross was used because there had to be enough space for this
sign to be attached that was written in three different languages (Jn. 19:20).
Sometimes they would also have a crude seat about halfway down the cross, which
was not designed for comfort, but to prolong the agony of the victim. Depending
on the severity of the scourging the victim would live anywhere from three
hours to three or four days. Notice what Mr. Hester says about this:
When the Romans conquered Palestine they
continued the use of this form of punishment, but only in the case of slaves
and the most vicious criminals. Thus crucifixion carried with it a
stigma. It was a part of the humiliation of Jesus that he should be
made to suffer this particular form of death. It identified him with
the lowest class of criminals. Crucifixion was an unspeakably horrible means of
death. Cicero in condemning it said, `"Let it never come
near the body of a Roman citizen; nay, not even near his thoughts, or eyes, or
ears." Victims of crucifixion were suspended on a cross placed
well above the ground.... It consisted of two rough beams or logs
nailed together near the top of the upright beam which was placed in the
ground. The victim was usually stripped of all clothing, these
garments falling to the lot of the executioners. The upright was
placed securely in the earth standing some ten feet above the ground. The
horizontal beam was placed on the ground, the victim was laid down with arms
extended on this crossbar to which they were fastened with cords and afterward
by nails driven through the palms. The bar was then raised to its
appointed place near the top of the upright where it was securely
fastened. The body of the victim was left suspended by the arms. The
feet were then fastened to the upright by the use of long spikes driven through
the balls of the feet. Thus suspended the victim was left to hang in
physical agony until death mercifully released him from suffering ... Since no
vital organs were affected the poor victim lingered in the throes of the most
excruciating pain. Death came slowly; the victim often lived as long
as two or three full days. Throbbing with pain, burned with fever
and tortured by thirst, these unfortunate men often prayed for the relief which
only death could furnish (H. I. Hester, The Heart of the New Testament p.
214-215 – The Annual Denton Lectures – Studies in John Electronic Version).
The first thing they would do to Jesus was throw Him down
on His back and stretch His arms out on the cross beam. While this was
happening dirt would be getting into open wounds on His back making his back
hurt even more. Based on a crucified body dating around the first century that
was found in an ossuary near Jerusalem, the nails that were used were about 5
to 7 inches long, and they were tapered iron spikes with a square shaft about
3/8 of an inch across (On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ – William
D. Edwards, MD).
They would drive these tapered spikes through hands
of Jesus. While we do not know if they ran the spike through His palm or His wrist,
both were considered part of the hand. Based on the evidence we have today, the
spike was probably driven through the wrist because the ligaments are strong
enough to hold the weight of a person, but a spike through the palm would
almost always tear through the hand.
A spike driven through the wrist would cause even more
intense pain to the victim. According to a physician:
Furthermore, the driven nail would crush or server the
rather large sensorimotor median nerve. The stimulated nerve would produce
excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms. Although the severed median
nerve would result in paralysis of a portion of the hand, ischemic contractures
and impalement of various ligaments by the iron spike might produce a claw like
grasp (On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ – William D. Edwards, MD).
Next, Jesus would have been hoisted up on the cross and
His feet would be nailed to the cross. There are different opinions on how His
feet were nailed. Some believe His feet were nailed to the sides of the cross,
while others believe they were nailed together on the front of the cross with
one nail. There are also two possibilities of how they could have nailed the
two feet together. The legs could have been together with the knees bent to one
side, or the legs could have been in an open position with the legs spread out
with the knees bent.
The only archeological evidence we have of a first
century man being crucified was discovered by Vassilios Tzaferis in 1968. Kyle
Butt writes:
In 1968, Vassilios Tzaferis
found the first indisputable remains of a crucifixion victim. The victim’s
skeleton had been placed in an ossuary that “was typical of those used by Jews
in the Holy Land between the end of the second century B.C. and the fall of
Jerusalem in A.D. 70” (McRay, 1991, p. 204). From an analysis of the skeletal
remains of the victim, osteologists and other medical professionals from the
Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem were able to determine that the victim was
a male between the approximate ages of 24 and 28 who was about 5 feet 6 inches
tall. Based on the inscription of the ossuary, his name seems to have been
“Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol,” although the last word of the description is
still disputed (p. 204). The most significant piece of the victim’s skeleton is
his right heel bone. A large spike- like nail had been hammered through the
right heel. Between the head of the nail and the heel bone, several fragments
of olive wood were found lodged. Randall Price, in his book, The Stones Cry
Out, suggested that the nail apparently hit a knot in the olive stake upon
which this man was crucified, causing the nail and heel to be removed together,
due to the difficulty of removing the nail by itself (1997, p. 309) (Apologetic
Press Archaeology and the New Testament).
There should be no doubt that people were crucified with
nails during the first century. Once He was crucified, He would experience
excruciating pain no matter what position He was in.
Dr. C. Truman Davis notes:
As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists
excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the
brain -- the nails in the writs are putting pressure on the median nerves. As
He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full
weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the
nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the
muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps
comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral
muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be
drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in
order to get even one short 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 the life-giving
oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short
sentences recorded (A Physician Testifies About the Crucifixion - The Review of
the NEWS, April 14, 1976).
If the blood loss from the scourging did not
ultimately kill the victim, he would either die from suffocation, exhaustion or
even heart failure. I also want to point out that Psalm 22 prophecies around 20
different things that happened to Jesus during this time. Now that we know more
about the physical details of our Lord’s death, let’s continue examining our
text.
19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on
the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE
JEWS. 20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for
the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 21 Therefore
the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of
the Jews,' but, 'He said, "I am the King of the Jews." ' " 22 Pilate
answered, "What I have written, I have written."
Pilate had this inscription written as the crime Jesus
was being punished for. When we examine all four Gospels, we discover the title
read, “THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” This is another
instance where we have to look at all four Gospels to get the complete story
because they each tell it from a different perspective. Most likely, Pilate
came up with this title to chide these Jews, but these words were true.
According to verse 20, Golgotha was near the
city, so everyone that passed by could see Jesus and the two thieves. The
Romans did this on purpose so everyone would know that crimes will be punished.
Jesus’ crime was written in three different languages. According to F.F. Bruce:
Hebrew (or Aramaic) was the vernacular of the Palestinian
Jews; Latin was the official language of the Roman army; Greek was the common
medium of culture and conversation in the eastern providences of the Roman
Empire(F.F. Bruce, The Gospel & Epistles of John, p. 368).
The chief priests were not happy with this title, and
they wanted Pilate to change it, but Pilate would not change it.
John 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His
garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now
the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. 24 They
said therefore among themselves, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for
it, whose it shall be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says:
"They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast
lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.
When a person was crucified, his clothes became the soldiers’ property, so they took Jesus
outer and inner garment. The outer garment was divided among them, but His
inner garment was seamless, which indicates that it was an expensive garment.
If they had torn it would lose it value, so they cast lots for it. Unaware to
the soldiers, they were fulfilling prophecy (Ps. 22:18).
Before we examine our next verses, which records one of Jesus’ saying from the
cross, I want to summarize the events that take place on the cross up to Jesus’
last saying:
The first thing Jesus says is recorded in:
Luke 23:33 And when they
had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the
criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments
and cast lots.
Now think about this first saying. Jesus was praying for
these people that they might be forgiven for what they were doing. Even though
Jesus had gone through more suffering and pain than most could bear and even
though these Jews had earlier shouted, Crucify Him, Crucify Him! He was willing
to pray for them. In doing this, Jesus was practicing what He preached.
Matthew 5:43 " You have heard that it was said, 'You
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and
persecute you, 45 "that you may be
sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Not only did He practice what He preached at this
difficult moment, Isaiah prophesied that He would make intercession for these
transgressors.
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I
will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with
the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with
the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the
transgressors.
Jesus’ prayer teaches us how much He wants us to be
forgiven of our sins. Some Christians have the attitude that they hope they are
saved, but friends we can know that we are saved and we can learn from this
prayer of Jesus that God desires us to be saved. Notice what John said,
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
If you don’t learn anything else from this lesson today,
I want you to understand that you can have confidence in your salvation, and just
as Jesus had demonstrated on the cross, His desire is that you be saved and
have the forgiveness of your sins. God is not against us, He is for us.
When Jesus prayed for these people’s forgiveness, Do you
think their sins were forgiven at that point without repentance on their part?
Well, this question is answered when we read about the birth the church in Acts
2. The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak to the
people in their own languages and they teach them about Jesus’ death, burial
and resurrection and how many of them had a hand in crucifying their own
Messiah.
Acts 2:36 "Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we
do?" 38 Then Peter said to them,
"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
Notice they were still in their sins because they had not
been forgiven, but they found out what they must do to take care of their sins.
They were told to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
Peter tells us,
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
While it’s God’s desire that we be saved and have our
sins forgiven, our sins are not forgiven until we obey the gospel. God provided
us salvation through Jesus. This is God’s part, but our part is obeying the
gospel and living faithful lives according to God’s Word. So, when those Jews
obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost, Jesus’ prayer was answered because
they were forgiven for putting their Messiah on the cross.
We can also learn from Jesus’ forgiving spirit He had
toward those who had done all these cruel things to Him that we should have a
forgiving spirit toward those who sin against us. If they repent, we must be
strong enough to forgive them so we can be reconciled with them and God. This
is not a topic to take lightly because Jesus clearly states that we must learn
to forgive those who repent.
Matthew 18:21 Then Peter
came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but
up to seventy times seven. 23 "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like
a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 "And when he had begun to settle
accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 "But as he was not able to pay, his
master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he
had, and that payment be made. 26
"The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have
patience with me, and I will pay you all.'
27 "Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion,
released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the
throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'
29 "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him,
saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 30 "And he would not, but went and threw
him into prison till he should pay the debt.
31 "So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were
very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 "Then his master, after he had called
him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you
begged me. 33 'Should you not also have
had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 "And his master was angry, and
delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to
him. 35 "So My heavenly Father also
will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his
trespasses."
I know this is not easy to do sometimes, but I think this
text speaks for itself on the importance of forgiving those who repent. It
should motivate us to learn to be forgiving when we think about what Jesus did
for us even though we were sinners deserving eternal separation from God. Not
only did God allow you to have your past sins forgiven, He also forgives you of
your new sins when you repent and confess them to Him. He not only forgives, He
remembers them no more as:
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more."
While we may never forget something sinful someone did
against us, we must treat the sin as if it were forgotten and not hold it
against a brother or sister once they repent and we forgave them. We have much
more to look at regarding the sayings of Jesus on the cross, but we will have
to end our lesson here. I think we should really think about what Jesus had to
go through for us because when we do, it will help us appreciate what God has
done for us and it will motivate us to keep sin out of our lives.