Not Just Business As Usual Series

Message

John 19:16b-27

Not Business As Usual

Read John 19:16b-27

Modern technology means that we have been on-the-spot witnesses to many atrocities which have occurred in the last few years.

Desert Storm and the Invasion of Iraq

September 11.

The recent terrorist attack in Christchurch

When we witness such events they all bring us to the same question, “How can mankind do this to another member of mankind?”.

The same question can be asked about the events surrounding our text the soldiers crucified Jesus. How can mankind do this to another member of mankind? For us the answer is difficult to see – for the soldiers the answer is simple.

A crucifixion is just business as usual.

Another day.

Another crucifixion.

They do it as part of their duties.

At Golgotha, Jesus is quickly thrown backwards with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression in the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful to allow some flexing and movement. Then the cross is placed upright into a hole – His whole body being jarred.

Once upright 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 moderately flexed. Jesus is now crucified … 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. As Jesus pushes Himself upward to avoid the stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again, there is the searing agony of the nail. Soon arms fatigue and great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain.

From that point there are hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins. A terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the lungs slowly fills with serum and begin to compress the heart. Eventually the one crucified will die from suffocation, or heart failure.

That was crucifixion. A terrible way to treat another member of humanity –

… but business as usual for the Roman soldiers.

So when we read that the soldiers … took His clothes and divided them into four shares … and they decided by lot who will get … the seamless garment … we also need to recognise that this was just business as usual.

Army regulation stated that the property of the person condemned to death could be legitimately taken by those who executed the sentence – these four soldiers had legal authorisations to lay a claim to the clothes and other personal items of the bandit who was crucified.

His jacket.

His sandals.

His belt.

And the seamless garment.

They now belonged to someone else. Four piles of booty, plus a garment that needed to allocated by the throw of a dice. Just picture it – business as usual at the foot of the cross.

Here we have a number of soldiers leaning over some dice – watching for their number.

Here we have a pile of clothing – a perk for being willing to put people to death. They gamble for a treasure.

The owner looks on … those are his clothes … but dead men don’t need clothes.

Casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Heads ducked. Eyes downward. Cross forgotten. The symbolism is striking isn’t it.

They are at the foot of the cross – but the cross is not empty. They are gambling over a pile of clothes – while the owner hangs by three nails just a metre above their heads. He is bleeding and gasping and dying.

How in the world can this happen? How can individuals be so cold as to have this eternal drama being played out over their heads? How can they be so blasé, complacent and hard-hearted as to carrying on in a business-as-usual fashion while the eternal Son of God bleeds, chokes, and dies?

The symbolism is striking isn’t it.

But so is the realisation that – if we are not careful – the crucifixion can just become business as usual.

I can read that text where it says that the soldiers, having beaten Him, took Him out to a place known as Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. They nailed His hands to the cross-member, dropped it down on top of the upright, nailed His feet to the base of it and there they murdered Jesus Christ.