Disgrace Of A Hanging

On March 18, 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Judge Isaac C. Parker to hold the bench of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas. On May 4th, at the age of 36, Isaac arrived in Fort Smith, AR and held his first court on the 10th. He held that position for 21 years. He soon was remembered as “the Hanging Judge”. On that date, May 10th, Judge Isaac C. Parker convicted 8 men to death. Six were hanged on gallows on September 3, 1875. One was killed trying to escape; the last one had his sentence commuted to life in prison due to his age.

These were the first of many men sentenced to hanging. This became the standard guilty sentence of capital punishment surrounding Judge Parker’s court.

Isaac believed in letting no guilty man go unpunished. He bragged about this motto, ‘Do equal and exact punishment.’ In his tenure, he sentenced 160 men to death.

When we ponder the act of hanging a person, we feel disgust and weakness in our stomach. It does not create a pretty sight. Those who know of a person being hung hold a differing perspective of the family and person hung. It is regarded as a great disgrace to the family and to their society. This may be the reason capital punishment is not held much today. Society feels it is too severe a punishment.

There is no other disgraceful form of death than to be sentenced to death by hanging on a pole, by a tree or any other device to suspend a person between heaven and earth.

Our Lord died in that manner. Jesus knew the type of shameful form of death he must endure; hanging.

John 12:32-33. 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.

This form of death–hanging–was to be remembered and known by many from that day forward.

Like Jesus’ form of death, many men and few women in the history of our country were hanged by rope upon a pole, tree or any form of hanging gallows. They have been remembered by family and society around where their death occurred. They are not well remembered because of the form of death by which they died. These families had to endure the shame placed upon them by society. Often it was more than they could bear.

Let us examine Jesus form of death and compare it to Gal. 2:20 where the Apostle Paul says, 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

What does Paul mean to be crucified with Christ? We call the hanging of Jesus on a cruel cross of Calvary a crucifixion. Does Paul mean he, too, was crucified physically, being hung upon a tree but lived through it?

Answer: YES! However, not literally.

Let’s clarify! Romans 6:3-6. 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

‘…our old man is crucified with him’ implies we, like Apostle Paul said, have been crucified with Christ. We agreed to be counted as a villain, killed in a most disgraceful manner, like Jesus was. Jesus took the shame of the cross, therefore, we willingly, also take on the shame of the cross.

If it was shameful to be hung to death, and Jesus was shamefully hanged to death, and our old man is crucified (hanged) with him, (vs. 6) we have been a participant to a shameful form of death of the old spirit, the sinful old man. We, by faith, accept the shame and do not sound it as foolishness as the world does. 1 Cor. 1:18. 18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. It was by that shameful death that we were saved by the power of God through the cross.

We do not despise the cross; it is the power of our salvation. By faith we accept this teaching. The world sees it as foolishness. Therefore, to them it is their judge which will sentence them to eternal hell.