They Crucified Him

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They Crucified Him

Mk. 15:15-25

The horror of the cross is handled with reverence in the pages of inspiration. It stands at the heart and center of our faith. Paul uses it as the focus of his preaching, I Cor. 2:2 “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified . . .” Paul saw it as the pivotal element of the proper relationship to God. In challenging the disposition of certain believers in Corinth whom were extremely devoted to him, he asked: “Was Paul crucified for you . . .” I Cor. 1:13. He knew that the preaching of a crucified Messiah would be a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. I Cor. 1:23.

But it is to the rugged cross that we find salvation, I Cor. 1:18. Indeed, we are reconciled in the body by the cross, Eph. 2:16. We find peace only through the blood of His cross, Col.1:20. When Pilate concluded the mistrial of Jesus, he the book says, released Barabbas unto them (the Jews) and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Mt. 27:33-50, Mk. 15:22-39, Lk. 23:33-46, Jn. 19:16-30.

Those condemned to the cross first underwent the hideous torture of the scourge. Pilate inflicted this upon Jesus. He was seized by the soldiers and having been stripped either naked or to the waist was bound in a stooping posture; His hands being tied behind His back, or to a post or a block of wood.

The Jews had a law that no person should be given more than 40 stripes save one when flogged, but the Romans had no such law, and history tells us that they often scourged their victims so savagely, so viciously until they bleed to death. Our Lord was beaten; beaten at the pleasure of those soldiers, beaten with knots of twisted leather or rope, armed at the ends with barbs of metal and pointed bones.

In many cases not only was the back of the person scourged cut open in all directions, but even the face, the eyes and the breast were ripped open. Under the fury of the countless stripes, the victims often sank, where amid their helpless wails, convulsive leaps and distortions; they crumpled into a senseless heap, very often dieing right on the spot. Those that survived were taken away; an unrecognizable mass of bleeding flesh; to find deliverance in death from the inflammation, the fever, shock, sickness and shame.

Besides scourging Jesus until His back was a bloody mass of pulp, the bible says the Roman soldiers plucked out the whiskers of His beard by the roots and spit into His face, Isa. 50:6. The historian Eusebius tells us in describing a Roman scourging that all sensitive souls around were horrified to see the victim torn to such a degree; veins, inner muscles, sinews and even their very bowels were exposed.

And my friends, it was after such that they laid the cross on the back of the one who somehow lived through such an ordeal. There was never a moment in all history like this one when the cross lay its awkward might on the shoulders of this man Christ Jesus. No animate thing, no man or angel had possessed the body of Jesus.

Let me tell you what the cross did; men had sought to stone Him, but He hidden Himself. Men attempted to crown Him king, but He avoided them. The devil tempted Him in the wilderness, but He victoriously overcame the evil one.

With divine independence the savior of men walked on earth; on the night of His betrayal and arrest: twelve legions of angels were straining to come to His aid, yet, He was apprehended in the garden of Kidron by a motley band of soldiers. The High Priest despised Him! The scribes and Pharisees envied Him! Herod trembled in His silent presence! Pilate’s wife tossed and turned and suffered many things during her sleep because of Him! Pilate himself hesitated to condemn Him and sought loophole after loophole to do so! The multitude howled for His blood! The lashing scourge had just bitten His flesh! The crown of thorns cut deeply into His brow and now the very cross He was to bear to Calvary began to make its mark on His body.

All else had been an elongated prelude to this moment. For this cruel journey He had been born. At the end of this wearisome trek the reverse would take place, instead of the cross being on Him, He would be nailed to the cross; there to suffer the awful penalty of sin. My friends, from the time the cross was placed on Him until the time He gave up the spirit, He suffered such as no mortal tongue could describe.

What a tragic yet fruitful role this cross was to play. In the cross we see man’s unpredictable perverseness. Its weight was made heavy with the iniquities of a world laden with sin! Its harsh roughness was the crust of the corruption of the hardness of man’s heart! Its sweating slippery surface was the clammy coldness of man’s sin stained flesh! Its burden was made unbearable by the tonnage of a world gone mad with the impression that they had become God!

Is it any wonder then that the cross-alone could do what all the terrible brutality of the soldiers had been powerless to do? The scourge did rip Him apart, the thorns had pierced His brow with searing agony, His face had been bond and beaten with unmerciful savagery. But none of these things broke Him down and sent Him crashing to the ground like a mighty oak, as did this unsupportable weight of the cross.

The scheming Pharisees, the sly henchmen of the High Priest; the lily livered, jelly backed, mamby-pamby Pilate were all puny stage hands compared to the act of ages being culminated by God the Father.

The cross was the collective will of a world in lunacy filled with the poison of sin. It alone could represent the entire essence of a stricken humanity. It alone could break Him, who had chosen to endure such contradiction of sinners against Himself.

The cross has become the most prevalent symbol of Christianity. Scared art has focused upon it for two millennia. It stands out as a horrible reminder of the evil in humankind; for how could any civilized group of people force a fellow human being to die in such a calculatedly savage way? It was truly an horrific form of execution. In our own language the word excruciating was derived from the word crucifixion as a way to describe the most horrible pain imaginable. Today, we try to refine the jagged wooden cross into a beautiful gold leaf ornament. Folk tend not to dwell long on the grim details; similar to the gospel writers themselves, who, guided by the Holy Spirit, only briefly dwell on this horrible scene. But this alchemy of ours is not strong enough to hide or mask its horrors.

We live in a time when cruelty is deplored. Our courts may sentence people to prison, but once there the prisoners are provided with books, T.V., recreation, counseling, worship, job training, medical care and even conjugal visitation. The penal system is by no means an easy place in which to live, nor is it meant to be - - but we no longer cut off the hands of thieves, burn out the tongues of liars or castrate or decapitate the rapist. We live in a relatively enlightened era and our enlightenment is due in part to one man; Jesus Christ who taught a higher rule, a better rule, the golden rule. But for that same Jesus the cross was wood not gold. His dying was gruesome and a disgrace.

Allow me to summarize the process of dying by crucifixion as follows:

The unnatural position and violent tension of the body will cause a painful sensation from the least movement. The nails being driven through parts of the hands and feet (which are full of nerves and tendons; and yet at a distance from the heart) will create the most exquisite anguish. The exposure of so many open wounds and lacerations brings inflammation, which tends to become gangrene and every movement exacerbates the suffering. In the distended parts of the body more blood flows through the arteries than can be carried back into the veins, hence too much blood finds its way from the aorta into the head and stomach and the blood vessels of the head become pressed and swollen. This general obstruction of circulation causes an intense excitement, exertion and anxiety more intolerable than death, which may not ensue for days.

Victims of crucifixion very often hung there in withering agony day after day while the birds pecked the flesh from their dying bodies. Don’t allow the renaissance painters to deceive you nor cloud the true nature of that horrific scene. Those that were crucified were made a public spectacle of; they were shamed and humiliated in order to frighten and intimidate all the onlookers as an example of what could be inflicted upon them. They were stripped naked and crucified and whereas the two thieves were tied to their crosses Jesus was nailed to His. He hung there in shame and disgrace, naked and torn. There is an inexpressible misery of gradually lingering anguish followed by raging thirst and ultimate death. The cross was designed not just to end life but to destroy life!

There was a sharp prick like spike that was situated on the cross that prevented Jesus from finding any relief in resting on the cross. The misery was intensified as He sought to raise up on his blood soaked feet to gather into His straining lungs the required oxygen that was necessary to sustain life. When He could endure the pain and strain upon His feet no longer He would sink back down upon the cruelty of that spike, and find the horror and agony and searing pain inflicted upon his hands and wrists.

You see, the victim could find semi relief by raising up upon the small perch that was at the base of the feet on the cross. At which time he would gulp in air. Death on the cross was a process of exposure and asphyxiation. That is why they broke the legs of the thieves that were crucified with Jesus; but when they came to Him, He was dead already!

But today, the hideousness of that death only highlights the gloriousness of the resurrection. Christ found the cross a terrible burden, so great that it bore Him down and crushed Him. But it drew out His strength to preserve it and to impart to those who are yet without strength.

Today we can join with the hymnologist who wrote: “At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled a way. It was there by faith, I received my sight and now I’m happy all the day.”