Friday 14 Nisan
On the Way to Calvary
About 8:00 A.M.
Matthew 27: 31, Mark 15:20, John 19:16
And kneeling before him, they [the soldiers] mocked him, and they began to salute him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
We are backing up to just after turned Jesus over to be crucified. Jesus had been dressed up mockingly in a scarlet or purple robe and handed a reed as a scepter. A crown of thorns had been placed on his head.
What kind of thorns did they use? It isn’t really known, but
Long or short doesn’t matter. All thorns hurt, I can attest to
Now as the soldiers are about to lead him away, they take away the reed scepter and the robe and dress him in his own clothes. But paintings and films tend to show Jesus wearing the thorn crown on the cross, but my guess is they removed it as well before marching hm to the road.
Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26-32, John 19:16b-17a
Yes, paintings, and especially films, leave strong impressions upon us. We are going to change a lot of familiar images here as we go.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross; the soldiers led him away.
We can start right here with the many representations of Jesus
The entire cross was a very heavy construct and would have been difficult, if not impossible, for one man to lift and drag along, at least a man who had been scourged. The entire cross would have weighed 300 pounds.
It was challenging enough to do what was required of the condemned, which was to carry the crossbeam upon the shoulders. This part of the cross was called the patibulum and it alone weighted between 88 and 110 pounds. The patibulum would be lain across the back at the shoulders behind the neck and probably tied with rope around the outstretched arms. This would be very punishing to the arm and back muscles, not to mention the cutting off of blood circulation and cramping in the arms.
As they were going out, they met a certain man from Cyrene, named Simon ,the father of Alexander and Rufus, passing by on his way in from the country. They seized Simon and they forced him to carry the cross. And put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
I actually found some asserting that Simon is a fiction and Jesus carried his own cross, even though three Gospel writers mention Simon. These critics base their entire theory on John 19:16-17, which in the Revised Standard Version reads:
So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol′gotha.
I had to go through several translations before I found the exact verse they quoted. I like to stick to scripture, but I don’t know why they would be so insistent that three of the Gospel authors are wrong and wonder what do they wish to prove?
The Greek translated as “bearing” is “βαστάζω (bastazo)”. It is basically the verb to lift, and can be translated as bear, carry, to take up, and although it could be taken literally, it is often used figuratively meaning to bear what is burdensome; that is to endure, sustain, receive, and so forth.
I am inclined to accept the descriptions in Matthew, Mark and Luke because the necessity of forced recruitment of someone to aid in this task makes perfect sense given the Roman mind set. It is certainly expected the soldiers would have tied the patibulum on to Jesus, but they also would not want him to collapse and die under its weight. Remember, Jesus had already endured a couple of beatings and then a scourging. The purpose of a scourging was to weaken the prisoner. The Roman’s would have whipped him to the point of collapse or near death, but no further. Their objective wasn’t merely to have him die for if death was the objective they could have simply beat him to death during scourging. The objective was for him to suffer all the agony of the slow death of crucifixion. They would have wanted to preserve him alive until that end.
So, who was this Simon from Cyrene?
Cyrene was an ancient Greek and Roman city, and once a
By the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the city had become the capital of the Roman district of Cyrenaica. It was also the home of a large colony of Hellenistic Jews. Many of these Greek-speaking Jews had returned to Jerusalem in their native Israel and became part of a community called The Synagogue of the Freedmen.
Mark gives the most information about Simon, saying he was “on his way in from the country”, possibly indicating he was traveling to Passover. Mark also tells us he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, who must have become known to Christians in the early church, but who they exactly were we don’t know. It has been suggested that Rufus is the same that Paul calls “chosen in the Lord” in his letter to the Romans. (Romans 16:13):
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.
In many film versions since the ‘sixties, Simon is represented as a Black Man. This is possible. He might have been an African convert, but this may not have been the case at all. It might simply have become tradition in various films showing the crucifixion because Sidney Pointer was cast as Simon of Cyrene in “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965). Since there was a Jewish colony in Cyrene and many jews scattered about the Roman world, he may have been just another olive-complected face in the crowd. He was most likely recruited to the task because he was handy and looked strong.
Anyway, on the subject of films, in many Jesus is shown stumbling under the crossbeam, if not erroneously under the whole cross, and falling a few times. The soldiers prod him to his feet each time, until they finally snatch Simon the Spectator out of the crowd.
Of course, Scripture never says if Jesus fell or not. His falling is simply a tradition and most familiar to those who have walked The Stations of the Cross. In this ritual of contrition Jesus falls three times, at Stations 3, 7 and 9. There are other things also added into the ritual without any Scriptural support.
At Station 4 he meets his mother. It is quite possible that Mary may have been in the crowd along the route and he might have spotted her as he went, but scenes depicting his mother rushing to him are simply there for dramatic effect.
Station 8 is he meets the women of Jerusalem. We do know that scripture says a large crowd followed him along the route to Calvary, including a number of wailing women.
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘fall on us!’and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
These refer back to Jesus’ prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem and to the last days before his second coming and The Judgment.
Luke 21:23 — Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.
Revelation 6:15-17 — Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”
Ezekiel 20:47-48 —Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.”
Back to the Stations of the Cross and it’s embellishments:
Station 6 names a specific woman, Veronica, who breaks from the crowd to wipe Jesus’ face. Again, no Scripture mentions a woman wiping his face or anyone named Veronica. In the 11th Century a book called The Acts of Pilate, which claimed to be derived from other apocryphal writings known as The Gospel of Nicodemus, said the women with the blood-flow of 12 years who touched Jesus hem was named Veronica. (Mark 5:24-34) The Acts of Pilate alleges Jesus gave her a cloth bearing his image, which she later used to cure the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Actually, Jesus only told this anonymous woman that her faith had made her well.
And somehow, this “Veronica” ended up living along the Via Dolorosa and at some point ran to Jesus to wash away the blood and perspiration on his face with the Sudarium (sweat-cloth), better known as “The Veil of Veronica. This was an invented story, yet still became celebrated as the 6th Station of the cross in many churches, including Anglian, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Western orthodox.
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
In non-canonical writing, many New Testament figures acquired names that were never given in Scripture. Besides Veronica, were these two criminals, who became known as Dimas and Gestas.(I suppose Dimas is the one who didn’t get it and Gestas is the one who made the gesture of faith.) Even The Roman soldier who later thrust a spear in Jesus’ side became known as Longinus.
Place of the Skull
About 9:00 A.M
Matthew 27:33-34, Mark 15:22-23, Luke 23:33a, John 19: 17b-34
They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”).
Again, films give the idea it was a long march from where Jesus was condemned to where he was crucified. You might also assume some distance since he left the Temple Mount area just before 8:00 A.M. and was then crucified at 9:00, an hour later. But we have to realize there was more to this than just a short walk.
The distance to the alleged site of Golgotha is approximately 650 yards or just over a third of a mile. Anyone, like me, who is a regular hiker knows a third of a mile is nothing. For an average, healthy adult it is about a five minute stroll, even on an upgrade.. It would take a little longer for someone who had been beaten up a couple of times, scourged bloody and then had around a 100 pounds strapped on their back, and even if they got some help carrying that crossbeam most of the way, they will still be a bit slow of pace, and the guy with the crossbeam isn’t exactly going to be skipping down the road, either.
There was also some preparation before they began walking and then other operations once they arrived. There were still nails to be hammered.
Golgotha was north of the Temple and like so much in ancient history, the exact location is debated. When we say it was 650 yards, that is based on the distance from where Jesus left the Praetorium, where Pilate turned him over to the soldiers, to what is claimed to be the crucifixion site. It is doubtful that this is the true site, though.
The name Golgotha came from Aramaic and means “The
One site today claiming to be the actual place where the crucifixion took place in Jerusalem is next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was identified as Golgotha in the 4th Century A.D. by Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Not necessarily a unbiased observer. However this is up an incline and on top of a rock. The rock cliff has an appearance of a skull. Excavations indicate that there was once a garden located at this cliff, making it possibly where the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea might have been located, but it was probably not the site of the crucifixion.
Romans did not selected such hills that required something of an effort to reach and a bit out of the way
. They preferred crucifixion sites to be along major roads so passerby could view the gory deaths up close. Most likely Jesus was crucified below the hill right along side the Via Dolorosa. A Place of the Skull was commonly used to describe a small, rounded knoll, so it would not have required a cliff with the likeness to a skull on it’s face to qualify.
There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall (myrrh); but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. He did not take it.
Why was myrrh offered and refused?
Myrrh, one of the gifts of the Magi given Jesus at his birth, is a resin taken from a number of trees. Another name used for it was gull.When a tree suffers a wound through the bark it bleeds a resin, which people harvest as a gum and it is used for various purposes, such as incense, a perfume or in medicine. When myrrh is mixed with wine it can be ingested and used as an analgesic; that is, a pain killer.
Perhaps someone here was being sympathetic or it may be the soldiers wished to administer something to keep Jesus calm when they began the actual crucifixion. But when Jesus tasted the myrrh, he turned it down. He chose not to have his senses dulled in any way, but to expressly experience the full brunt of the pain and suffering ahead.
The Crucifixion
Matthew 27:35-56, Mark 15:24-41, Luke 23:33b-49, John 19: 18-37
And they crucified him. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him, the third hour. Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
The four Gospel writers did no go into detail about what this entailed when they say Jesus and the two rebels were crucified. They will go to some lengths on what happened after these first moments of crucifixion, but not much of anything on how the Roman soldiers performed the act at the beginning.
Imagine you have been among those following the procession to the Place of the Skull, what would you see?
Well, it probably would not have been unique to you if you lived in the Jerusalem area. Rome committed many, many crucifixions in this area before and after Jesus. (And by the way, the Romans were the only ones who practiced this form of torture.) Because of the number performed here about, the crucifixion site was probably not new. Probably it had been used over and over and the poles were most likely already in place, unless there was a convenient grove of small trees handy. Often the Romans would use trees rather than pieces of lumber as the base poles, the stipes, of the crosses.
In al the passages we have thus far quoted the word cross has been used. However, in Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, Luke writes Jesus was hung on a tree.
In 1 Peter 2:24, it says: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Galatians 3:13 says: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”.
Paul is referencing Deuteronomy 21:23 here. (Note, being cursed by hanging on a tree can also be applied to Judas.)
“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
And people have pointed to these verses where some say cross and some say tree and claimed a contradiction in Scripture. Was Jesus crucified on a cross or hanged in a tree?
A rather silly point for a cross resembles a tree, but it is possible both are correct since we know that Romans did often use available small trees for the stipes (sty peez), where the wooden crossbar when fastened formed a cross.
At any rate, coming to the site we most likely would find the stipes already in place. They would not generally be very tall, either. The Romans preferred the crosses be just above the ground, no more than the height of a man. They wanted passerby to be eye level with the wounds and the suffering of the victim. This was a show and a warning. Jesus would not be high above the crowd staring down at the top of their heads; he would be just slightly elevated above them and able to peer into their eyes.
At his point, Jesus would have been laid upon his back either with his shoulders still on the petibulum or testing against the
Thus, the nails were driven through the cluster of bones that form the wrist.
The body, now attached to the crossbeam by the wrists, was hauled up into place and attached to the stipes, whether pole or tree, and now a cross. The feet were now nailed to the base, not through both feet as commonly shown. Each foot was nailed separately, through the heel bone, to the pole, one foot on one side and one on the other.
All four nails were prepared before hand with a washer, a square piece of wood that would be on the outer part of the hands and feet. The washer made removable extra difficult for any one brazen enough to try a rescue.
Before being nailed to anything, Jesus would have been stripped naked. This may have engendered pain, too.
The scourging left his flesh with fairly gapping cuts from the shoulders to below the buttocks, and also along his sides. I use to have a dog, a large yellow lab, and one Saturday morning I took him out for a walk, but the index finger of my left hand caught on the latch of the screen door. Tucker was an energetic dog and was trying to run ahead, but I could not loose my hand as he pulled one way and the door another. Finally I was able to haul back this 70 pound churning beast of energy and raise my hand off the door handle. Blood was dripping to the ground as I wrestled him back into the house. I looked down at my hand and wondered, “What is that white thing?” It was my bone. The cut encircled my flesh allowing my finger above the second knuckle to be pulled and compressed above the first knuckle. I could see between a quarter and a half inch of my finger bone.
I pushed the flesh back down over the exposed bone and went looking for a suitable bandage. We had none, so I drove to a nearby Acme and purchased some gauze and adhesive tape. At home I wrapped the gauze about my wound and taped it in place. You see, I had promised to take my kids to Longwood Gardens to see some giant insect statues being displayed. I wasn’t going to let the kids down.
The next morning I wanted to change my dressing only to discover the gauze was stuck inside the wound. I had to rip it out and believe me, this hurt.
These soldiers were most likely none to gently ripping off Jesus’ clothes and if the material was healing inside all those cuts, too bad.
There are very few renderings of a naked Christ. One such is
When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots to see what each would get. They took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did.
The prophesy foretold and fulfilled here about the division of his clothing comes from Psalm 22, Verses 16-18. This also is a prophesy about how he would be crucified, “they have pierced my hands and feet.”
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet[b]—
17
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
The psalm describes the torture of being crucified and is a Messianic prophesy. There is no doubt about this and that Jesus recognized it as such since he quotes it’s opening line from on the cross:
The first half of Psalm 22, basically verses 1 through 21, very graphically tells what the victim of crucifixion is suffering. Then the last half (verses 22- 31) switches to the prediction of the future as an outcome of the first part.
Seven Last Words
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
We sometimes think we have people we can never forgive, but as Christians we must. If Jesus could do this, so can we. Remember also, Jesus remark does not just apply to the Jews that accused him, the authorities that condemned him or the soldiers that did him physical harm. These words are directed to us all who have sinned and made his sacrifice necessary for our sake.
And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. Above his head they placed the written charge against him. The written notice of the charge against him read: This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the jews.
Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
It was customary in many instances for the charges of a criminal to be posted for the public to read, so Pilate followed suit, but he gave a twist to the Jews who had brought the charges by called Jesus, The King of the Jews.
The three languages used were the most common in that region at that time, so most people passing by could read it.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
It does become a tangle to straighten out all the Marys in the Gospels. There may be nine of them. Here we have three mentioned together in a little group near Jesus as he hangs on the cross, Mary, his mother and Mary Magdalene, one of his faithful followers and supporters. These two we are familiar with, but Mary, the wife of Clopas not so much. It also says this Mary was the sister of Jesus’ mother. This same Mary is also generally identified as the mother of James, the son on Alphaeus. Now before we jump to a conclusion that this Mary was a bigamist married to two men, it is believed that Alphaeus and Clopas are the same man. Clopas is also called Cleophas, just to muddy the waters further.
Since it seems unlikely that Mary, the mother of Christ, would also have a sister named Mary, I tend to agree with those who believe Mary, the wife of Clopas was her sister-in-law and that Clopas was a brother of Joseph. Dealing with ancient history is never easy.
Now I am of the mind that Joseph had passed away before Jesus began his public ministry, leaving Mary, his mother, a widow. In the Jewish family, if the father was missing, then the oldest son would take responsibility for his mother. As Jesus is about to die, he turns this responsibility over to his trusted Apostle John. I do not know why Jesus’ other siblings did not step in up to this role, but I don’t question it. James, Jesus’ brother writer of the book of James and a early church leader, would be one of the first martyred. Jesus, as God, would have known this, so maybe John was chosen because he would basically outlive the rest of the guys and always be there for Mary. I don’t know?
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
Why did the soldiers do this? The word translated wine vinegar here, and it other places as sour wine, could probably best be translated as cheap wine, which means it wasn’t another cruel trick. but why would they do it. We’ll see it offered to him later as well. I believe this was part of the routine to keep the victim alive longer. Will come back to this.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
This is the third of Jesus’ last seven words and one of great hope. Even at the last moment a person can find salvation if he or she turns to Christ. It isn’t going to matter how many sins you have done for how long, you can be forgiven.
This should be great encouragement for we Christians, both as when we give the Gospel to others, because even if they reject us, the Word may yet come to them and snatch them from condemnation. It is also an encouragement for us to keep praying for friends and loved ones who don’t know Christ, for until there is no more breath in them, there still remains the hope.
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let this Messiah come down now from the cross, that we may see and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
At noon, from noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
This is the first line of Psalm 22, but what in the world does it mean? Could God have deserted Jesus? Is that possible? I am going to give you my thoughts, take them as you will.
There is a fairly popular belief that at this moment all the sins of the world, past present and future, landed on Jesus and that God was too Holy to even look upon sin, especially in such mass. The idea seems to come mostly from misinterpreting Habakkuk 1:13. Habakkuk is referring to God when he says:
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,
But there is more to Habakkuk than that verse, you have to look at the whole passage in context.
Besides Jesus is God. Can God forsake God?
Remember Psalm 22 is a Messianic prophesy not just of the suffering messiah being crucified, but of the future that comes after. Psalms in that day were referred to by their first line, because they were not yet numbered. There was no Psalm 22, there was the psalm, “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?”
I believe Jesus is telling us not to dwell on his death, but on his life to come.
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Why would that be?
One theory is that people simply misunderstood what he said. Perhaps, someone hanging on a cross for three hours might not speak with total clarity.
There are those who think the crowd talked about Elijah mockingly. The Jews expected Elijah to come back before the Messiah, so they may have answered like Damian asks Moses in the film “The Ten Commandments”, “Moses, where is your God now?” Perhaps they are kind of saying, “Jesus, where is your Elijah now?”
However, what they heard had to be familiar too the Jews and I am not sure they would have misunderstood what he said. I am not so certain they were mocking either. They had been mocking before he said this, but at noon a strange darkness covered the land and lasted until 3:00 P.M. We don’t see any more mocking mentioned at this point. It may be the darkness had shook them up and they began to have some doubts and actually looked to see if Elijah would appear. Look at how they say, “Leave him alone, let’s see if Elijah comes down,” after Jesus has his drink.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
These are Jesus last words number 5 and look what happens.
A jar of wine vinegar was there. Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
The hyssop plant is mentioned in certain passage of Old Testament Scripture, usually related to cleansing. For example, Psalm 51:7 says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” It was also included in the sacrifice of the red heifer, which was done for purification, sacrificed on the Mount of Olives. (See Numbers 19)
Most significant, though, the hyssop relates to the original Passover, where the Hebrews were told to dip a branch of hyssop in the blood of the slain Passover lamb and then touch the hyssop with the blood to the lintel and the doorposts of their homes. This protected the families from the destroyer who came in the night to strike down the Egyptians. As the slain blood of the lambs was salvation to the Hebrews, so is the slain blood of Christ our salvation.
When Jesus said he was thirsty there is no doubt he was. He would have been exhausted and dehydrated and his body would cry out for liquid. Again, someone dipped a sponge n a jar of cheap or sour wine and lifted it to Jesus lips, and The Lord drank some of it.Immediately after this he uttered the sixth of his last words, “It is finished.”
We can look back on two psalms here, Psalm 22 and Psalm 69.
The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
When he had said this he bowed his head. Jesus breathed his last. He gave up his spirit.
Once again we see that Jesus was always the one in control. No one could take his life; he had to willingly give it up.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” And those with him who were guarding,Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
When the curtain, that thick curtain, tore apart from top to bottom, it was the end of separation of men from God. There was no more Holy of Holies where only one priest could enter. Our high priest was now Jesus and we could go directly to him for forgiveness of sins. The final blood sacrifice had been completed.
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.
These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
First off, I must apologize for a mistake I made in an earlier lesson. It was when Jesus and the disciples had the last supper. I rather insisted this occurred on Passover. I based that timing on Matthew, Mark and Luke saying this that day before they found the upper room:
And now then came the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, so Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”
Because they had the Lord’s Supper that evening, I assumed Preparation Day had occurred already and the meal was eaten on Passover. The order to go and prepare must have occurred after sundown and the whole arrests, trials and crucifixion did occur on Preparation Day. beyond this mistake in timing, I stand behind everything else I taught.
I bring this up because I was wrong and need to correct it and apologize to you for misleading you in any way. I also want to be clear about it, because next time I am going to argue some timing again and say that the crucifixion did not occur on a Friday. Just keep this statement of John in mind when we get there:
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath.
There, that should see you coming back next week!
But to finish up this week, I want to comment on two things. First is why did the break the men’s legs. To understand the purpose of this you must understand how a crucified person dies. Crucifixion of itself is not fatal. The victim is unlikely to die from hemorrhagic or hypovolemic shock, unless somehow the spinal cord or brain have been injured. There is not going to be massive blood loss. A person could recover from crucifixion if rescued soon enough.
This premise was a bases of a best selling book by Hugh J. Schonfield in 1965. He claimed Jesus schemed to fool the Jews into thinking he was the Messiah. The culmination was his crucifixion. When he was given the sour wine to drink it was to come from a henchmen and would be a drug that would cause the appearance of death. At this point, Joseph of Arimathea would take him off the cross presumably for burial before the sabbath. Jesus would then be taken somewhere to be nursed back to health. Once well, he would appear as resurrected, the Jews would accept him as their Messiah and he would be crown as their king.
Allegedly, what went wrong was this Roman soldier thrust a spear into his side before Joseph could get there and killed Jesus, running the whole scheme.
Frankly, the whole book is ludicrous, but at the time had a great following, especially among college students. Of course, this was the time when “The God is Dead” movement took hold. Actually, in 1966 I published my own theological take on things in a college magazine called “The Communicator”. My piece was called, “God Resurrected!” Although I was attacking the whole “Passover Plot” and “God is Dead” movements, I was doing it to just stir up college students. I was an atheist at that time.
So how do you die if crucified and what has broken legs to do with it.
Crucifixion victims were kept alive as long as possible normally. Some hung on crosses for many days. They weren’t going to starve to death, because a person can live up to 40 days without eating a thing. Ghandi went 21 days of total starvation. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days, but fasting is different from total starvation. You can live a good while without food as long as you get water or liquid that will supply a water base.
Without water, you might make it as much as a week, but that is just a scientific estimate. A few days at best is more probable. You see how jars of sour wine were kept handy to give the victims some liquid against total dehydration. Crucifixion added a few things to your endurance, though, because you were under constant exposure to the elements. Think of being up there naked in the sun day after day with no means of shielding yourself from burning.
Still some victims did manage to hang on for several days, despite insects, especially flies attacking your woulds or birds coming to peck you.
It was another necessity to life that did you in. People on the cross generally died from asphyxiation. This is most likely how I will die. It is the most common way someone with ALS expires. They simply can’t breath anymore because the muscles, such as the diaphragm don’t have the strength to work.
It is similar for a crucified person. The muscles act like someone operating a billows. The diaphragm tightens and moves downward pulling air into the lungs. To get rid of old air and make room for new air, the diaphragm relaxes and moves upward in the chest cavity. During crucifixion it becomes harder and harder to breath because of the weight of the body pulling down on the arms.
To breath, the person mush constantly push their body upward, which is difficult if their arms are splayed out when nailed. They must then push up with their feet. Feet being nailed through the heel bones allows this, since the person can kind of stand then on the spike until their legs become too weak to push.
The cross generally had a protruding piece of wood called a sadile, which would allow the person to partially sit to aid in pushing. Pushing up and down on the cross would further lacerate the back and perhaps cause splinters.
It was an agonizing way to die.
Jesus’ Burial
Matthew 27:57-61, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23: 50-56a, John 19:38-42
Many women were there, They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome, the mother of Zebedee’s sons. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. But all those who knew him, including the women were watching from a distance.
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, a prominent member of the Council who had himself become a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders and who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, He went boldly to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.
Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, Pilate ordered that it be given to him. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.
Why was Pilate surprised that Jesus was already dead.? Probably because most people the Roman’s crucified lived for a day or two after be hung on the cross, some even survived for a week. Six hours was pretty fast by crucifixion standards, so Pilate wanted some proof it was so. It says he learned from the centurion. My guess is that this was the same centurion who plunged a spear into Jesus to assure he was actually dead. It was probably part of his job description to make the final determination on such things.
When the centurion thrust in the spear, both water and blood flowed from Jesus. Th spear most likely pierced a heart ventricle, from which a good deal of blood would flow, even in a dead body. What John described as water was probably hydropericardium fluid from the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart, which the spear also penetrated. The particular type of stresses of body positioning in Crucifixion would have built up the amount of this fluid. If the fluid was loosed, to an non-medical observer, like John, t would appear to be water.
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in [Joseph’s] own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of Joseph, were sitting there opposite the tomb and saw where he was laid.
The Jews did not embalm the bodies of their dead nor mummify like the Egyptians. Anointing he body and wrapping it in strips of cloth was about the extent of their burial preparations. Normally, burial would occur the same day as death. We had more haste here than usual since Jesus died in mid afternoon and the next day was a sabbath, which would begin at 6 P.M. The body needed to be prepared and buried before the Sabbath began.
Since their was so little time to acquire and prepare a tomb, Joseph gives up his own since t is nearby and ready to be used. It was new and situated in a garden. If Joseph had not claimed Jesus body, as a condemned criminal, his body might have been deposited in a kind of mass, unmarked grave. If he had been buried simply as a poor man, he might have been interred in a dug out hole in a standing position and covered. Joseph was a wealth man, so he could afford a nice grave carved out of a cave in the rocks.
The actual location of Jesus grave is unknown, although a couple of sites claim the honor. One is at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the other is The Garden Tomb. Whether one or the other is the site, or neither, is not that important. Wherever it was would have to have certain traits. It would have to be fairly accessible. There would have to be enough room about it to post soldiers.
The large stone rolled in front of the entrance was standard practice, not part of any plan to keep anyone from stealing the body. Remember they had to roll away a stone to let Lazarus out (John 11:1-44).
Matthew 27: 62-66
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
Mark16:1, Luke 23:56b
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
There is some very interesting information given here.
Keep in mind going near a dead body makes a Jew unclean. Also remember doing any business on the Sabbath was forbidden. Here we see the women honoring the Sabbath be not going to anoint the body with the spices and herbs they bought.
We see the Priests and Pharisees going to Pilate to ask Jesus tomb be made secure, but since they went after Christ’s death and burial, they must have did this on a Sabbath.
The women obeyed the Law, but the Priests and Pharisees who prided themselves for being such followers of the law, broke it.
The question here is what Sabbath are we talking about. Ah, next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment