The Political Execution Of The Nazarine

As the gentle savior hung from this tree of shame, his agony would have been intensified. Every damaged nerve and strained muscle in his body would have been aching. Every movement of his body even raising his head to speak would precipitate a new wave of uncontrollable pain. After hours of excruciating torture, the precious body of the Savior could endure no more and life left his dehydrated disfigured body. His earthly existence of suffering, rejection and humiliation came to an end. The actual cause of his death would have been cardiac and respiratory arrest due to hypovolemic and traumatic shock secondary to hours of torture. The suffering messiah died, the crucified God- man was executed as a political criminal on a hillside that he created by the people He came to save.

Each time that these horrible details of the passion are proclaimed, I can not help but ask myself : Why did the divine Jesus suffer? Since Jesus alone stood without guilt before God and man, death and suffering had no claim upon him. Why than did the all-powerful divine messiah permit mere creatures to judge, torture and execute him?

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We must never forget that Jesus did not have to die. Being fully human he had a free will and could have accepted the options to avoid execution being fully divine he had the power to avoid death if he so wished. The Savior was not masochistic he had no psychotic death wish. The scriptures reveal that avoiding this dreadful execution was very appealing to Jesus. In fact he prayed that he could be spared this torture. So why than was the eternal Son of God willing to endure the shame and agony of crucifixion?

We must not think that Jesus underwent his torment to appease or satisfy the wrath of His Father, after all our God is not some bloodthirsty monster who seeks revenge, human sacrifice or vengeance. The Father did not want the blood of His Christ, he wanted the Nazarene to live the type of life we humans were created to live, namely an existence of love, service and obedience to the Creator And this is precisely what Jesus did; he spent every moment of his earthly existence in perfect conformity with the will of the Father And because he live a life of total obedience in a world inhabited by sinful self centered men he was opposed, oppressed and eventually murdered by the very people he came to save.

Because his passion and death was motivated by pure obedience and unselfish love, the sacred blood that flowed through his veins had the power to liberate us from the bondage and oppressive consequences of sin Because of the cruel execution of this young Jew some 2000 years ago, our human condition has been permanently altered; sin, death and Satan no longer have any claim upon us. Because of his obedience even unto death, we have the hope of enjoying an eternal life of friendship and happiness with the Living God. And this my brothers and sisters IS THE SALVATION that is offered to you this afternoon Because of his sacrificial death on the cross, on the other side of our very last breath, we have the possibility of spending an eternity of happiness where all our hopes and expectations will be fulfilled.