Tag: Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Jesus’ Last Week: Friday, April 3, A.D. 33

AS THE SUN COMES up on the morning of April 3, A.D. 33[fn1], three men sit chained to the wall in a palace jail arguing, comparing, and contemplating. Each man is eligible for pardon under the tradition of the Paschal Pardon. Can you imagine the tension and gut-wrenching fear of waiting on Pilate’s death row? Three Roman jailers come to the cell and grab Barabbas. Realizing neither one of them is being pardoned, the remaining prisoners say, “Him?! He’s a seditious murderer. Why him?” A guard answers, “He was chosen by the crowd over a man named Jesus of Nazareth.” As the two men lean against the cold, damp prison wall, Jesus is beginning His walk to the execution site outside the city of Jerusalem. He is paraded down the Via Dolorosa (Latin for “Sorrowful Way” or “Way of Suffering”) toward Golgatha.

Jesus is burdened by the heavy wooden crossbar of the cross (called a patibulum) across His shoulders; He keeps stumbling and straining under the weight. His body is covered in blood, and there are open wounds on His arms, legs, back, and stomach from being flogged. The soldiers had beaten Jesus earlier that morning with a flagrum or flagellum which consisted of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. Extreme blood loss occurred from this beating, causing Jesus to become very weak. During the flogging, His skin was ripped open, exposing a bloody mass of muscle and bone.1 Next, someone fashions a crown of thorny branches and presses it hard into His scalp. Soldiers continue beating Jesus, including on his face and head. The blows to his head drive the thorns deep into the scalp, causing severe bleeding.

People in the crowd shout slurs and curses at Him, many throwing stones and spitting. The Roman soldiers keep whipping Jesus and commanding Him, Keep going, hurry up, move it along! Considering how long these men have been at the task, no doubt the novelty is beginning to wear off and fatigue is setting in. Suddenly, Jesus stumbles and crashes to the ground, the cross crushing Him. The guards kick Jesus and whip Him, yelling at Him, Get up! A man named Simon (of Cyrene) screams at the guards to stop beating Jesus. “Can’t you see He cannot go on?!” The soldiers compel Simon to carry the cross the rest of the way (Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26).

The soldiers take Jesus to a hill called Golgatha high above the City. Christian tradition also refers to this as Calvary. It has erroneously been concluded that because the Romans were in charge, Golgatha was a Roman execution site. It is the chief priests who lead Jesus out of the city and to the hilltop. It was against Jewish law to put anyone to death inside the city, so it is likely the temple leaders choose the site. Many scholars believe this is also where Abraham was tested when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1-19). Realizing that he was acting out a prophecy (that “God Himself will provide a Lamb”), Abraham called the place “Jehovah Jireh”, which means “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen,” or “Our God provides.”

The Romans invented a name for the horrific pain of being executed by crucifixion: excrutiating, from Latin ex “out of” and cruciate “cross,” or “from the cross.”

The procedure of crucifixion may be summarized as follows:

The patibulum was put on the ground and the victim laid upon it. Nails, about 7 inches long and with a diameter of 1 cm ( roughly 3/8 of an inch) were driven in the wrists. The points would go into the wrist at the median nerve, causing shocks of pain to radiate through the arms. Studies have shown that the nails were probably driven through the small bones of the wrist since nails in the palms of the hand would not support the weight of a body. In ancient terminology, the wrist was considered to be part of the hand. The feet were then nailed to the stipes. To allow for this, the knees had to be bent and rotated laterally, being left in a very uncomfortable position.2

When the cross was erected upright, a tremendous strain was put on the wrists, arms, and shoulders, resulting in dislocation of the shoulder and elbow joints. The arms, being held up and outward, held the rib cage in a fixed-end inspiratory position which made it extremely difficult to exhale, and impossible to take a full breath. Jesus was only able to take very shallow breaths. As time passed, His muscles, from the loss of blood, the loss of oxygen, and the fixed position of the body, started to cramp up, causing spasmodic contractions.3

The slow process of suffering and resulting death during a crucifixion may be summarized as follows:

It appears likely that the mechanism of death in crucifixion was suffocation. The chain of events that ultimately led to suffocation are as follows: With the body weight supported by the sedulum, the arms were pulled upward. This caused the intercostal and pectoral muscles to be stretched. The movement of these muscles was opposed by the weight of the body. With the muscles of respiration thus stretched, the respiratory bellows became relatively fixed. As dyspnea developed and pain in the wrists and arms increased, Jesus was forced to raise His body off the sedulum, thereby transferring the weight of His body to the feet. Respirations became easier, but with the weight of the body being exerted on the feet, pain in the feet and legs mounted. When the pain became unbearable Jesus again slumped down on the sedulum with the weight of His body pulling on the wrists and again stretching the intercostal muscles. He had to alternate between lifting his body off the sedulum to breathe and slumping down on the sedulum to relieve pain in the feet. Eventually, He became exhausted and was nearing unconsciousness. In this position, with the respiratory muscles essentially paralyzed, He suffocated and died.4

Just before He died, Jesus looked down at the Roman soldiers and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He overhears comments from the two thieves being executed on His left and right. The man on the right begins to mock Jesus, insisting, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us! (Luke 23:39). The man on the left recognizes who Jesus is, and says, We are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (23:41-42). Jesus replies, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (23:43).

Jesus cries out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). It is at this moment that the sins of all mankind are placed on Jesus and His is forced to endure the wrath of God in our place. Because God is unable to remain with Jesus once all his sin was put on Him, God has to pull away. I believe this is why Jesus does not cry “Father, why have You forsaken me,” but, “My God.” Jesus is now merely man as He hangs on the cross. He cries out with a loud voice and yields up his spirit. Immediately the curtain in the temple dividing the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shakes, and rocks split apart. One of the centurions keeping watch over Jesus until He dies feels the earthquake and sees the darkening of the sky. He is filled with awe and says, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:50-54). By saying, “Into Your hands, I commend my spirit,” Jesus is willingly giving up His life for us.

References
1 W.D. Edwards, W.J. Gabel, and F.E. Hosmer, “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ.” JAMA. 255 (11), pp. 1455-1463, 1986.
2 C.T. Davis, “The Crucifixion of Jesus: The Passion of Christ from a Medical Point of View”. Ariz Med 22:183-187, 1965.
3 A. Metherall, “Christ’s Physical Suffering” (Tape) Firefighters for Christ, Westminister, CA.
4 N.P. DePasquale, and G.E. Burch, “Death by Crucifixion”, Am Heart J 66(3):. 434-435, 1963.

[fn1] Calculating ancient dates gets complicated for a number of reasons: Jewish months all started at the new moon; they had two “new years” per year; they added in leap months as needed; days started at sunset, not sunrise; ancient people often used imprecise designations for years, and not everyone was using the same calendar system in the first century. Jesus celebrated a Passover dinner on Thursday night before his crucifixion, placing his crucifixion the next day, on Friday, Nisan 15. The most likely date of the crucifixion is Nisan 15 (= April 3), AD 33.

Good Friday

FROM THE MOMENT JESUS was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane until His final breath upon the cross on Calvary, He was subjected to a brutality that words cannot possibly describe. His entire life and ministry on earth was about putting the will of the Father above all else; putting the lives of others ahead of His own. His death and resurrection are the foundation on which God established the plan for redemption that was ordained before the foundation of the world. It is the means by which the partition between God and man was torn down. Jesus’ death paid the debt for sin; additionally, when Jesus died He restored man’s relationship with the Father. Jesus, as the Second Adam, repaired the damage done by the First Adam.

Jesus was fully God and fully man—the Word incarnate, inconceivably united personally to flesh and endowed with a rational soul. His human body felt pain, sorrow, fatigue, hunger: all attributes associated with being human. Origen wrote, “Therefore, with this soul acting as a mediator between God and flesh—for it was not possible for the nature of God to be mingled with flesh without a mediator—there was born the God-man [deus-homo], that ‘substance’ being the connecting link which could assume a body without denying its own nature…” (1) (emphasis added). Thomas Torrance wrote, “It is to be noted that the defence [sic] of the complete reality and integrity of the historical humanity of Christ by Nicene theologians was offered mainly on soteriological grounds,” the Doctrine of Soteriology being about salvation.

The Beginning of the End

It was approximately 10PM when Jesus and the disciples left the location of the Last Supper and headed to Gethsemane in the Kidron Valley north-east of Jerusalem. Judas had left earlier to set his betrayal of Jesus in motion. It took Jesus and the eleven others nearly an hour to walk to the garden. Jesus went deeper into the garden and prayed fervently for about three hours. In a typical posture of complete humility and submission, Jesus fell on His face before God. By the third hour, His body was under so much stress that he began to sweat blood. Physicians refer to this condition as hematidrosis, a causing of the blood to mingle with sweat during periods of extreme stress. Capillaries surrounding the sweat glands become so constricted that they rupture. Jesus told the disciples earlier, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matt. 26:38).

As Jesus knelt in the damp dirt and cried out to the Father, He understood the gravity of what was about to happen. He willingly laid down His life to pay the wages of sin for all who would believe in Him; but He had to face the pain and horror of crucifixion while in the body of a man. He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39). There has been much discussion about the “cup” to which Jesus refers. It certainly includes the excruciating pain and suffering He knew was coming. But there is more to this cup than physical suffering. Psalm 75:8 says, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs” (emphasis added).

Shortly after 2AM, Jesus got up from the ground and went to His disciples, saying, “Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer at hand” (Matt 26:46). While He was yet speaking to the disciples, Judas arrived with Roman soldiers. To signify which of the men was whom they came to arrest, Judas walked up to Jesus and kissed Him on the cheek. Jesus was arrested and placed in shackles. The soldiers took Him first to the house of Annas (a former high priest) then to the home of the high priest Caiaphas. It was now 5AM. The trial before Pilate, procurator of Judea, began at about 6AM. Pilate found no fault in Jesus and, realizing He was from Galilee, sent Jesus to appear before Herod. King Herod thought Jesus was perhaps crazy but saw no guilt in Him. Again, Jesus appeared before Pilate, around 7AM. Pilate tried to avoid sending Jesus to His death. Hoping to appease the religious leaders, Pilate had Jesus scourged.

Beaten and flogged nearly half to death, Jesus was taken before Pilate again. Pilate desperately wanted to be let out of the responsibility of condemning Jesus to death, and again refused to render a verdict or impose sentence. He tried a compromise; it was customary during the time of the Passover Feast to allow the crowd to ask for one prisoner to be spared. The plan backfired. The crowd insisted that Pilate pardon Barabbas and condemn Jesus in his place, crying out “Give us Barabbas!” and “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate washed his washed his hands of the matter and condemned Jesus to die by crucifixion. It was 7AM.

Jesus is Crucified

The Roman soldiers stripped Jesus, dressed him in a toga, and fashioned a “crown of thorns” which they pounded onto His head. They gave Him a large stick as a “scepter” and bowed mockingly, crying out “King of the Jews.” The men spat on Jesus, hitting and kicking Him. Jesus was led out of the city, up a long and winding street, and to Golgotha at the southern summit of the Mount of Olives. Jesus kept stumbling and falling, with the cross often crashing down on His battered body. A Roman centurion forced Simon of Cyrene to help Christ carry the cross. Arriving at the location of the crucifixion, the soldiers laid Jesus on the cross and nailed Him there, raising the cross and slamming it into a large hole to hold it upright. Jesus’ body was drenched in His own blood, and His hair was matted. Two thieves were raised up on crosses with Him, one on His left and one on His right. The area around the crucifixion was frenzied and horrific. The crowd and the two thieves mocked Christ, demanding He prove Himself to be the Son of God by coming down from the cross.

From 12PM to 3PM the whole earth became dark as night. At approximately 2PM Jesus groaned from His very gut, crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani!” This remark fulfilled the prophecy found in Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” Concerning this verse, Derek Kidner writes, “Our Lord’s cry of dereliction (quoting this verse in his native Aramaic) told, it would seem, of an objective reality, namely the punitive separation he accepted in our place, ‘having become a curse for us’ (Gal. 3:13) (2). Kidner stresses that it is not a lapse of faith, nor a broken relationship, but a cry of disorientation as God’s familiar protective presence is withdrawn… and the enemy closes in. The Father had to withdraw His protection from Christ on the cross as He did with Job during Satan’s trial. Stephen Lennox say looking at Psalm 22 from the perspective of the OT believer, the cross will come to mean even more (3). I cannot imagine crying for help in the midst of such serious a difficulty as the bitter distress of being abandoned by God? This is essentially, and strikingly, divine silence.

But oh, what a victory. Tomorrow we will glory in the sweet victory of Christ’s resurrection!

References
(1) Origen, “On the Two Natures of Christ,” in The Christian Theology Reader, 5th ed. (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2017), Ibid., 238.
(2) Derek Kidner, Kidner Classic Commentaries: Psalm 1-72 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsityPress, 2008, 1973), 123.
(3) Stephen J. Lennox, Psalms: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Indianaopolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1999), 77.