The Crucifixion
Mark 15:25-39
Picture of Jesus being crucified. The Romans practiced crucifixion as a means of putting fear in the populace. If one saw a crucifixion, you would want to be sure that you never do what it takes to end up on a cross. It was a frightening, terrible and excruciatingly painful death. Seneca said that if you knew it was a likelihood that you were to be arrested and crucified then better that you commit suicide. Sicero said it was one of the most vile and disgusting ways to put someone to death. Crucifixion was something that was horrible to watch but also a mar on the human race. But, it was a very effective deterrent to crime. The Romans specifically chose the place of crucifixion along the busiest thoroughfare in and out of the city of Jerusalem so as many people as possible could witness could witness how horrible it really was.
As we learned last week, victims were flogged first where the skin was literally ripped from their backs and blood loss was common. The goal was to put them in so much pain and agony and weaken them to such an extent that their crucifixion would not last long. Yet someone could linger on the cross for more than two days. After the flogging, they were forced to carry their own cross, that is the horizontal beam of the cross while the vertical beam was let in place secured in the ground. It could weigh up to 100 pounds. Picture of Golgotha They walked approximately 1/3 of a mile to the place of the crucifixion, Golgotha which means the place of the skull. It was called this perhaps because it looked like a skull or more likely because there were so many skulls from hose who had been crucified. Typically when someone was crucified, the body was left as a reminder for the Jews of what could happen if they committed crimes. But it was also left there until the birds had eaten the flesh. The bones were then probably just pushed to the side unless there was someone there to claim them. In other locales, the Roman just placed the remaining bodies on a trash heap and the families could not take them. That is not the case in Jerusalem.
How were they hung on the cross? This form of punishment was practiced for more than 800 years and it was done in a number of ways. They were affixed to the cross with nails through their hands and feet but they were not killed by this. Nails were not always used. Sometimes ropes were used or whatever was convenient for the executioners. Sometimes they were tied or nailed to a tree. Picture of heel bone In 1968, a bone box or ossuary was found for a man named Jehohanan. Inside they found a heel bone with a nail through it. Now this is the only example of this to let us know how this happened. What you see to the right of heel bone and the nail is a piece of wood. It is thought that the wood was placed up against the side of the ankle and the nail was then driven through it and then into the cross. The wood was designed to hold the leg in place against the cross to shore it up. This clearly shows that the foot would have been nailed through the side into the cross. Drawing of crucifixion The most recent evidence shows that the crucifixion would have looked something like this next image with the legs driven into the side of the cross and the hands tied or nailed into the cross bar. This is thought how Jehohanan died because we see no evidence in his hands. Jehohanan had undergarments on but this is not how the Romans crucified people as they stripped them naked to increase the humiliation of the experience.
We don’t know how people actually died on the cross though we know it was not from the nails. There have been theories set out by doctors, scientists and archaeologists. The problem is that you cannot run any current day studies on crucifixion. But here are some of the ideas. Some believe you die by asphyxiation that as you were suspended, it was possible to breathe in but you couldn’t exhale without raising yourself up. If that is the case, the longer you hung on the cross, the harder it was to pull yourself up to exhale. And so your breathing became more and more shallow until you finally suffocated. Another is that there is an increase of fluids around the heart and congestive heart failure occurred. Some have said there is a loss of bodily fluids through the nail holes and sweat and so death by dehydration occurred. We’re not exactly sure but what we do know it was an effective way to kill someone and that was what happened to Jesus. Jesus though he was innocent was crucified and hung there for 6 hours until he died.
We think the crosses were no more than 6-9 feet tall. The families and passers by would have been no more than 10 feet from those being crucified so that Jesus mother could look nto his eyes and he into hers. Often when we see Jesus on the cross it is way up high and usually placed on a hill but instead it was low to the ground and close to those coming to Jerusalem. Jospehus and others describe this as the worst of deaths and often to speed up the death, the Romans would break the legs of those being crucified. It might have done so through blood loss or a shock to the system. We know that Johannan’s legs were crushed just as the Bible describes the Romans would have done to Jesus had he not already expired.
There are two spots which vie for the place of crucifixion. Remember Golgotha means place of the skull. First is the Garden Tomb. Map of Gordon’s Tomb This place is called Gordon’s Calvary or The Garden Tomb. Charles Gordon discovered this place in 1882. It is the least likely of the two. Picture of Garden Tomb But when you go there, you think this must be the place. Picture of Place of the Skull If you look carefully, you will see the makings of a skull in the rock above the tomb with the eye sockets. Picture of Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Second sight is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built in the 4th century. It is the place where Christians have gone as long as we know to remember the burial and resurrection of Jesus. Picture of Stone of Unction This is the stone of unction where it is said that Jesus’ body was laid when Jesus was crucified. Picture of Altar of crucifixion You have to go up to a rock outcropping and there is a hole in the rock which is said to be place of the cross. You approach the altar and place your hand on it and are able to pray there. It is a very powerful experience if you pause to reflect on the story of the crucifixion.
This is a bit of what happened but what does it mean? What does it mean for us? The last two weeks we’ve been discussing two of the theories of the atonement, the fact that Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins reconciling us to God. The heart of our faith is that God worked through the cross to redeem humankind. But how did this man’s torturous death save us from our sins? The biblical authors give us several ways to think about that. Paul will give us 3 different ways of understanding the atonement. The first week we discussed the substitutionary theory which says that we deserved the punishment of death for our sin and rebellion against God and Jesus stood in our place and died on the cross for our sins, paying the price that God demanded. Jesus paid the price so that we did not have to and thus we could be justified, that is, put in good standing with God and have our relationship to Him restored. The second theory of atonement is the subjective theory of atonement. It says Jesus’ death on the cross was God’s attempt to show His love for you that he would allow his only son to die for you in the hopes of moving and changing your heart. This is so you might see how broken and sin filled we really are. The fact that Jesus had to die at the hands of God’s children even though he was innocent should show how against God we really are. All this is meant to move us so they we might change our hearts and how we live.
The third theory of atonement is the sacrificial theory. Sacrifice has always been a part of the worship of God. When they came to the temple they would offer up sacrifices to the Lord in grain oil or animals. So when you come to God, you come with your hands full to make an offering to him. It was a way of professing your love, faith and commitment and in that offering you were united with God. We feel and experience that when we make our annual commitment to God and when we place our offering each Sunday in worship. That is an act of worship for us, a sacrificial gift to God. There also offerings to God when someone had sinned. These are sin offerings or guilt offerings. When you had violated God’s law, you brought an offering which signified your recognition of that sin and your desire to repent. This was a regular part of worship, to offer guilt sacrifices or sin sacrifices.
Picture of Exodus temple In the Old Testament, once a year the High Priest was asked to make an offering on behalf of all the people. In the wall off temple grounds while the Israelites were still traveling to the Promised Land, there is temple tent and Picture of the Holy of Holies in it is the Holy of Holies which was separated from the rest of the temple by a large curtain. Picture of ark of the covenant In this was an altar and the ark of the covenant. Once a year, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the only one who could enter, and he offered a goat as a sacrifice. He would say, Yahweh, with this goat’s blood I offer this sacrifice as a living thing dying that you might forgive the sins of your people. That day is known as Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, and is still celebrated to this day though without the animal sacrifice. Then the priest would go out in front of all the people and place the sins of the people on a goat and then driven into the wilderness never to be seen again. That became known as the scapegoat. Through this, the people came to understand that their sins had been carried away.
You understand this kind of sacrifice. Husbands, when you blow it with your wives, what do you do? You grovel, tell her your sorry and then atone for your sins. It might be candy, flowers, or even jewelry. The more serious your offense, the more costly the sacrifice. We do this in a lot of other settings too. Atonement is way of saying we want to be right with you.
Picture of Jesus When we look at Jesus, he becomes our High Priest and representative before God and he went to that holy place, the throne room of God and offered a sacrifice for the sins of the world, himself. This High Priest didn’t offer the blood of an innocent animal but offered himself to die for our sins. He said, Father for all of the sin of your children against you, I offer the best I can give. I offer you myself. I will take their pain and punishment and I plea on their behalf that you would forgive their sins and remember them no more. I will offer everything to you. Remember we believe in the triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ad what I know is this, the Father will never forget that sacrifice. So whenever you sin, he sees not only your sins but that of all His children and he remembers the sacrifice of Jesus to pay the price for your sin. He cannot forget that sacrifice and thus he is moved to forgiveness and as Christians, we claim that sacrifice. We accept that gift of grace and ask God to accept that as an offering on our behalf of our sins.
I heard the story of a man who had a friend who had always been there for him, in both good times and bad. Whenever he was in need, his friend was there. He made many a sacrifice for him through the years, some at great personal cost. When that man died, he gave thanks at the funeral for this man and what he had done for him. Years later, when this man’s daughter was having great difficulty in life and health, he remember what her father had done for him and said, I will not let go of this girl. I will care for her as long as she has need because I remember what her father did for me. This is the picture of sacrifice as atonement. Romans 5 says this, In Adam, one man’s disobedience brought destruction into our human race but in Jesus Christ, one man’s righteousness and obedient offer to God brought justification for all of us as human beings. This is the atoning work of Jesus.
Picture of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica In 1937, Pablo Picasso painted a picture in response to Hitler’s invasion of Spain at Guernica. After Hitler’s planes had descended upon the village dropping bombs on innocent people in a place where there was no military armament. The people ran for the fields and Hitler’s plane filled the fields with machine gun fire, murdering more than 1600 people. After hearing this, Picasson painted this painting. When people saw I they said, What does that mean? And he would answer, That’s for you to decide what it means. This is in response to what happened there. You look at it and see what you are meant to see. I think the same is true for the cross. That you are going to look at the cross in different times and under different circumstances and see what you need to see in the cross. What you know is that God was working through the Christ to reconcile the world to Him. In the cross is your forgiveness, in the cross is a demonstration of God’s love meant to move you, in the cross is a demonstration of the power of God, in the cross is an example of how we are called to live as a sacrifice for others. In the cross is our salvation and you spend the rest of your life pondering and reflecting on that but always accept this gift of grace freely given to you. What we know is this: the atonement is at the heart of who we are, what we believe and who we are call to become.
The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.
But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school’s founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well. The next day two-thirds of the school’s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. “There is no Poland without a cross.” There is no life, no grace, no forgiveness, and no call upon our lives to live for something greater than ourselves with the atonement and the cross.
