Reading 4: Mark 15, 16 – 32 The Crucifixion of Jesus
How the crucifixion applies to us.
Gospels account.
You may find it strange to find that the New Testament does not really provide us with many of the details of Christs crucifixion. In fact, there is remarkable brevity, and restraint on the authors of all four gospels when it comes to the crucifixion, because all that is said in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is that "they crucified him." And so, we wonder why is there so little is recorded?
Well, there are at least two reasons,
1 the crucifixion was so frequent, that it was felt unnecessary.
2. but the second reason, that I find more relevant, is the fact that crucifixion was so utterly repugnant, and so inexpressibly shameful, that they deemed it inappropriate to describe in detail, as that would please his opponents.
History, forms, and biblical timeline of Jesus' crucifixion
Crucifixion was not only one of the most disgraceful and painful forms of deaths, but it was also one of the most dreaded forms of execution in the ancient world, involving the binding the victim's hands and feet, and nailing them to a cross of wood as we know, but this was after the victims were tortured, beaten and flogged, and archaeological studies have found that they may also have been racked, burned or even mutilated before they were crucified … and that’s not to mention any abuse towards the victim’s family.
The crowd condemned him.
And yet worse than the pain of the cross, was the shame of the cross, because Jesus had to suffer the humiliation of the crowd, the rejection from the crowd, and the call for him to be crucified from the crowd. … The same crowd which was possibly his own people who followed him for a while, but who were now turned against him, by the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin themselves, who were now finally sanctioned by the Roman Empire, through Pontius Pilate. Yes, all had decided that he must die, including Satan who devised developed the whole unjust scheme.
He suffered on the cross.
Jesus was condemned to death, a crown of thorns was placed on his head; he was stripped of his clothes and led to Golgotha, being mocked and ridiculed the whole way.
Stakes were driven through his wrists and ankles, and he was fastening to the cross, with the inscription above his head which read, "The King of the Jews"; a cross between two other crosses of two convicted criminals, one who later repented, and saved his eternal soul.
And Jesus hung on this cross for about six hours, and during that time, soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothing while people passed by, shouting insults and scoffing, asking him in a mocking manner to use his so-called powers to climb down from the cross and save himself, that is, if he “was the son of God”. Yes, it must have hurt him deeply, but from the cross, Jesus did speak to his supporters, to his mother Mary and the disciple John, but what was really going on in his mind?
Cunning plan
Well, we do know part of what he was thinking from all gospel accounts, and from the New Testament too, because we know that Jesus had a plan, and we also know it was God who gave him that plan as documented in the Old Testament; the most cunning of all plans every devised, and it was summed up when Jesus said earlier in John 12:24, “most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”.
You see, Jesus has completed his mission here on this earth as far as his father was concerned, he could do no more. So to save the human race for all time, for ever more, (and not just for a minority of Jews back then in Palestine), Jesus knew he had to die, (in a horrible manner that was undisputable), so that he could be allowed, to be raised from the grave.
To the crowd, to the Jewish leaders, to the Roman empire, and even to Satan himself, the death of Jesus was an end to a problem, (a problem of blasphemy and a threat of insurrection to the Roman Empire), but to Jesus, and to God, it was the beginning of a whole new era, in fact, it was a new beginning, the beginning of a new way of life.
Jesus therefore knew, he had to die, and that he knew that he would achieve far more by dying now, (at this particular time), than had he stayed alive. … And by dying, his death provides the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins all mankind … (and for ever more) … with the cross being the defining symbols of Christianity.
And this applies directly to us to0, because there are times where we strife and pray and work to achieve a certain goal, and for some reason no progress is made, we work at it for weeks and it is just not happening, that is the time we too must hand the problem over to the lord and walk away, asking him to dealt with it, and we let him do so. We donot give him a hand, we do not dig it up to see how it is going, we die to the situation, we hand it to the lord and walk away, leaving it in his capable hands. It now his problem, not our and it that is the way it works, the same as the crucifiction, into your hand I leave … and walk away.
His last word, to hand over to death
From the cross, the last words Jesus spoke, was to his father in heaven, “In the
ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabach-thani which means, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" At that moment, darkness covered the land.
Jesus could do no more.
