“The Whip, Hammer & Cross”
WHIP - Mark 15:15 – “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”
Isaiah 53:5 – “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
HAMMER – Acts 2:23 – “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Acts 17:31 – “For (God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
CROSS – John 19:17-18 – “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic I called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”
Isaiah 59:2 – “(But) your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
The WHIP, the HAMMER, and the CROSS. Three well-known instruments of torture. All important elements of a crucifixion. Jesus was killed by the use of these items. They were the professional tools of death. In the skillful hands of a Roman executioner they slowly, painfully drained the life from the victim. You didn’t just die. No, that would have been too merciful. The WHIP, HAMMER & CROSS made sure that you died in slow-motion agony. The outcome was always certain to be death but the emphasis was on the maximum amount of pain and suffering. In fact, if the victim did not suffer greatly before they died, the process was not considered truly successful.
The more you read up and study about Roman crucifixions, the more appreciation you gain for Jesus. He suffered so much more than most of us ever realize. What they did to him with those three deadly instruments was so awful, so gruesome that it would have been too much for most of us to watch without having to turn away. I can’t imagine having children anywhere near such an event. It was such a bloody affair that if you stood too close in the crowd there’s a very good chance that some of his blood would have splashed or squirted or been slung onto you. Disgusting, hideous, inhuman, and utterly shameful. These are some of the descriptions that come to mind. Jesus did this willingly for you and me.
The WHIP, the HAMMER, and the CROSS. Today, these three well-known instruments of torture have come to symbolize the grace, mercy, and love of God. Jesus took what we had coming to us.
PAIN. JUDGEMENT. SEPARATION.
The WHIP – part I. Flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution. The instrument was a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths from which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. The victim was stripped naked, strapped to a wooden post/poll, and flogged on his back, buttocks and legs by two Roman soldiers. The iron balls, sheep bones and leather thongs would cut deep into the skin and subcutaneous tissue, tearing the underlying skeletal muscle and producing quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. This is what they did to my Jesus that awful day in Jerusalem. Meanwhile…
…several centuries later a young Buddhist living in South Korea lay in a shack, covered by a dirty, torn blanket, waiting to die. From childhood he had prayed to Buddha, but now Buddha offered him no help. The doctor showed David X-rays of his lungs, half-destroyed by tuberculosis, and told him he had less than a month to live. His father reassured him by saying, “There is no life or death, no joy and no sorrow – only in Buddha is there reality. Forget about life and death and have peace.” But for young David there was no peace, only PAIN. But something was happening back at that whipping post in Jerusalem for David – and for you and me. Long before David felt the first effects of tuberculosis in his body, Jesus was writing out a PRESCRIPTION for his PAIN. He didn’t know it yet, but David was about to meet the Great Physician. Help was on the way. His PAIN, Our pain. The WHIP, the wounds, the wonder of a God-man who took every sickness into his body.
The HAMMER – part I. After carrying the (75-125 lbs.) crossbar of the cross from the flogging post to the site of the crucifixion outside the city walls, Jesus’ bloody body and wounded back were thrown onto the ground where dirt mixed in with the blood, further contaminating his wounds. His arms were outstretched on the crossbar while his wrists were nailed with square, 7-inch long spikes, severing or crushing the large sensorimotor median nerve. This spike induced excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both his arms and causing his hands to produce an involuntary claw-like grasp. His feet were spiked between a joint causing injury to the medial and lateral plantar nerves, also causing fiery pain. Meanwhile, as hammer met nail and the sound of metal against metal rang out on the hill…
…the Judge of the Universe, the only one worthy to sit upon the Great White Throne entered heaven’s courtroom preparing to take his rightful place. “Earth and sky fled from his presence” as the call was given, “All rise!” Those in attendance immediately stood to their feet in complete silence as God himself, the Holy and Righteous One, took his seat behind the huge desk. In the middle of the desk, the Book was open. On trial today, among thousands of others, was a young man who was once one of the most dangerous gang leaders in New York City. His gang terrorized the streets of Brooklyn with robberies, rumbles and killings. This man’s life was consumed by drugs, sex and violence. A court-ordered psychiatrist once said he was, “headed to prison, the electric chair and hell.”
This case would be easy. The Prosecuting Attorney was none other than Satan himself. The evidence against the man was overwhelming. Satan read a lengthy list of offenses, always careful to supply factual proof in support of each one of his accusations. The Judge quietly looked through His records. He slowly reached for his gavel as the HAMMER came down again and again on the Defense Attorney’s hands and feet. Cold spikes of uncaring steel ripped through flesh and bone as easily as Satan’s JUDGEMENT shredded all hope for this guilty sinner. As the HAMMER struck the nail one final time, the verdict was in for Nicky, the gang leader from New York City and for several others still awaiting trial. Surely hell would claim another soul, or would it?
The CROSS – part I. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion, beyond excruciating pain, was marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation, that would produce muscle cramps or tetanic contractions. The act of breathing would require the body to be lifted up by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders. Each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and eventually led to asphyxia (or suffocation.) Survival could last three or four hours…or days. Meanwhile, as Jesus hung naked on the cross gasping for air, he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
And that cry echoed from the top of Golgotha out over the city of Jerusalem where it kept on going until it finally reached a vast canyon so deep and so wide that it could not be crossed. This canyon was not a physical expanse, but rather it was a spiritual distance created between man the creation, and God the creator. It had been carved out thousands of years ago when the first man, Adam sinned. With each succeeding generation that followed the gap that sin had opened became wider and wider until it had formed this canyon that effectively SEPARATED man from God for all time and eternity. Occasionally, through great faith, a man or woman was somehow lifted across to safety into the eternal presence of the King, but this was rare and no permanent bridge had ever been constructed.
You and I and anyone else who has lived could only stare out across that great separation in utter hopelessness for our sins, in part, created the distance between God and us. Today, as the cross was lifted up, the Son of God felt that great separation as His own Father turned his back on him. The CROSS went up. God turned away. We were all so far from the other side. We were facing eternal SEPARATION and in the canyon below death awaited all those who tried to cross to the other side one their own. But the shadow of the cross was wide and as the sun began to set it was making its way across the vast expanse of the great divide. Could it be that God was building a bridge?
WHIP. HAMMER. CROSS.
PAIN. JUDGEMENT. SEPARATION.
PRESCRIPTION. GAVEL. BRIDGE.
The WHIP – part II. Muscles strained. Strong-armed soldiers cursed, taking turns tearing Jesus’ body into hamburger. Sweat mixed with blood ran from the gaping wounds upon his back. The flogging was slow and methodical. The “grunt” of the soldier. The quick “swish” of the whip through the air. The “slap” of leather on bare skin. The agonizing groan of the victim. “Grunt.” “Swish.” “Slap.” “Groan.” “Grunt. Swish.” Slap.” “Groan.” Over and over it went in a kind of sad, deadly beat. Someone was assigned to count the blows. Jewish law stated that no one could receive more than 39 stripes. The PAIN was intense. In fact, this was to be the worse flogging any man would ever receive. The soldiers didn’t know it. Those standing around watching didn’t know it. Certainly young David in South Korea dying of tuberculosis didn’t know it – at least not yet.
But as iron and bone cut through the skin and muscle of Jesus’ back, sickness and disease began to spread through his body. The WHIP cracked and cancer attacked. It cracked again. Diabetes and Muscular Dystrophy moved through his system. It cracked a third time as Malaria, Heart and Lung Disease, AIDS, Kidney Failure, Leprosy and a whole host of sicknesses and diseases attached themselves to the man strapped naked and bleeding against the whipping post. What Jesus’ executioners could not see was Satan pouring the PAIN onto this man like no man has ever known. And what Satan could not see because he was so busy pouring on the PAIN, was that with each lash of the WHIP, God was writing out the PRESCRIPTION.
At some point during the flogging, the WHIP cracked and Satan selected a vial full of tuberculosis to pour into one of Jesus’ wounds. When he did, David in South Korea literally jumped. He was about to experience a miracle.
The HAMMER – part II. Nicky stood in heaven’s courtroom facing the Great Judge on the White Throne. He was guilty and he knew it. There was no hiding from the one whose eyes now penetrated into the very depths of his soul. Nicky was a sinner and “the wages of sin is death.” He stood there, trembling before the throne awaiting a guilty verdict and the impending JUDGEMENT that would surely follow. On Golgotha, the HAMMER had just driven the last nail deep into Jesus’ feet, attaching them firmly to the cross. Back in heaven, God slowly laid down his GAVEL and stood to his feet. Taking off his judicial robe, the judge came around in front of the bench, and became Nicky’s Defense Attorney.
“Yes” the Attorney told the court, “Nicky did in fact commit the sins with which he has been charged. He was a drug addict, a thief, and a murderer. He was filled with lust and hatred and he was in fact, headed straight for hell. For these things and more he deserved the punishment of death. However, let the court know that one evening after a David Wilkerson Crusade, Nicky Cruz, leader of the notorious Mau Mau gang, accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.” At this point, Satan tried to object again and again, but he was always silenced as the Defense Attorney lifted his hand, displaying a huge scar in the middle of his palm.
“I was wounded for his transgressions, I was bruised for his iniquities…Nicky’s sin and guilt, my Father laid it all on me. I took the nails for him. I present to you as “Exhibit A” my hands and feet. “Exhibit B” is this scar on my side. “Exhibit C” is the Empty Tomb…I could go on but I think this will be enough because I AM “Exhibit D” – my name is Jesus Christ. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and Nicky Cruz has called upon my name for the forgiveness of his sins. Therefore, Your Honor, I declare that his sins, though they were scarlet, today they are as white as snow.”
Satan was furious. Jesus returned to the bench, zipped up his judicial robe, took his seat and proclaimed in a loud voice, “Having heard all the evidence in the case of Nicky Cruz the court concludes that his sins, though they are many, have been covered by the Blood of the Lamb.” With that the One who lives Forevermore who was seated upon the Great White Throne, picked up his GAVEL and declared his JUDGEMENT: “Seeing that the price has already been paid in full, I therefore declare Nicky Cruz, “NOT GUILTY!”
As the GAVEL fell Satan cupped his hands over his ears and let out a tormented scream, for across time and space, every time he lost a case like this; he could hear the sound of a HAMMER forcefully striking against a nail. The Prosecuting Attorney left the courtroom in defeat. He had a splitting headache. The Judge just smiled.
The CROSS – part II. On the day God built a BRIDGE to cross the Great Divide, Jesus lifted his head one last time and cried out from the CROSS, “It is finished!” Up until that moment we were SEPARATED from the presence of God. A symbol of that SEPARATION was the huge veil that hung in the temple in Jerusalem separating the inner court from the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s presence symbolically dwelt. No one but the High Priest, and he only once a year, was allowed to go into that room. To the common man, that room was off limits. It represented the Great Divide that stood between sinners like you and me and a Holy God. We just couldn’t get to where he was on our own. Our sin was to great, the distance too far.
Until now. When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” that veil was torn in two from top to bottom, symbolizing the newfound access you and I now have to get to God. The penitent thief cried out, “Lord, when you enter into you Kingdom, remember me!” He could sense his moment of opportunity. The man hanging on that middle CROSS was building a BRIDGE. He could feel, even though he was dying, that the huge gap of SEPARATION between him and a holy God was closing. That thief became the first of many who successfully CROSSED over the valley of the shadow of death to eternal life through Jesus Christ.
WHIP. HAMMER. CROSS.
PAIN. JUDGEMENT. SEPARATION.
PRESCRIPTION. GAVEL. BRIDGE.
HEALING. PARDON. RESTORATION.
The WHIP – part III. Back in South Korea, David had turned his back on Buddhism and asked Jesus Christ to become the Lord of his life, but his lungs were still filled with tuberculosis. Several centuries before, in Jerusalem, Jesus was WHIPPED until his back was covered with open wounds. As Satan poured on the PAIN of every sickness and disease known to man, the Great Physician’s body became a laboratory. That day, He became the cure for David. Now God, pen in hand, wrote out a PRESCRIPTION for this young man who was dying of tuberculosis. Actually, he used Isaiah the prophet to write out the PRESCRIPTION hundreds of years before they tied Jesus to the whipping post. It went like this, “By his stripes, we are healed.”
The day he was healed, David says, “As I prayed, a great peace showered down upon me. Every cell in my body seemed charged with new life. Something began to bubble up inside, and I thought I was going to vomit blood, but I found it was joy.” Though disowned by his family, David continued on completely healed of tuberculosis and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. He began preaching door to door, then in a vacant lot. The congregation he built has grown into the largest church in the world with 700,000 congregants. Rev. David Yongi Cho will tell you first hand that there is HEALING in Jesus name! The WHIP came down. Your PAIN was transferred. The PRESCRIPTION was written. And today, HEALING is available to you and me in Jesus’ name. Whatever you’ve got, Jesus is the cure!
The HAMMER – part III. No one perhaps, but Jesus knew what was happening the day the HAMMER met the nails. The soldiers certainly didn’t know. Nicky Cruz, the gang leader who was saved under the ministry of Rev. David Wilkerson, didn’t know – he wasn’t even born. Satan wishes he had known, but he found out all too late. As the HAMMER of JUDGEMENT fell upon the nails, God laid on Jesus, “the iniquity of us all.” What that means is that for Nicky Cruz, who by the way went on to become one of the most visible evangelists in the church, and for you and for me and for all who call upon the name of the Lord is this. When we stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ one day Jesus will be our Savior, not our Judge.
If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, your sins have already been judged! Jesus has become your Defense Attorney. Your past is forgiven and forgotten. Your sins, though scarlet, are as white as snow. God looks at you and sees Jesus all over you. The GAVEL has sounded, the verdict, “NOT GUILTY!” has been declared. Jesus has PARDONED you! Doesn’t it feel great?!?
“My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought,
my sins not in part, but the whole,
are nailed to the cross and I bear them no more,
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!”
“Hey Satan, listen to the sound of the HAMMER on those nails! I hope your head hurts for all eternity!
The CROSS – part III. The same day that Jesus cried out “It is finished!” God had successfully completed construction of a BRIDGE to CROSS the Great Divide. No longer am I SEPARATED from God. The mighty gulf has been spanned. Through Jesus, I have been RESTORED.
“There’s a BRIDGE to CROSS the great divide,
A way was made to reach the other side.
The mercy of the Father, cost His son His life.
His love is deep, His love is wide.
There’s a CROSS to BRIDGE the great divide.”
I have CROSSED over from death unto life!
WHIP. PAIN. PRESCRIPTION. HEALING.
HAMMER. JUDGEMENT. GAVEL. PARDON.
CROSS. SEPARATION. BRIDGE. RESTORATION.
