The Crucifixion of Christ

We are continuing our meditation on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. When Jesus and the Roman soldiers and two convicted thieves reached Calvary, the place of execution, Simon of Cyrene threw down the crossbeam. Simon was the man the Roman soldiers forced to help Jesus carry His cross. Matthew tells us that they offered Jesus wine mixed with gall. Mark wrote that the bitter substance also had myrrh, but when Jesus tasted it, He refused it and spat it out (Mark 15:23). This substance mixed into the wine was both nauseous and narcotic, i.e., a sedative to enable the soldiers to hold His arms down for Him to be nailed more easily. He wanted nothing that would dull His senses at that crucial time. When Christ refused the mild narcotic, they pierced His hands and feet. Jesus would "taste death" for every man (Hebrews 2:9). He would not fight those trying to nail His hands and feet; He willingly laid His hands down. This wine vinegar mixed with gall was prophesied by King David nearly 1000 years previously in the Jewish Scriptures:

 

¹⁹You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. ²⁰Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. ²¹They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst (Psalm 69:19-21).

 

Under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, King David also wrote another psalm speaking of the crucifixion. Psalm 22 speaks clearly of what the Messiah would endure, words which Jesus spoke on the cross:

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?...  ⁶But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. ⁷All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ⁸"He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."… ¹²Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.¹³Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me. ¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. ¹⁶Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. ¹⁷I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. ¹⁸They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing (Psalm 22:1, 6-8, 12-18). 

When speaking to Jewish people about this prophecy in the Scriptures, they find it hard to believe that it is written in the Jewish Tanakh, what we call the Old Testament. The Apostle John wrote that Thomas would not believe unless he saw the nail prints in Christ's hands (John 20:25). This testimony tells us that Christ was not lashed there as some had been. The spikes were driven through His wrists into the cross beam. The whole weight of His body was painfully hanging from his wrists. If the palms had received spikes, the flesh would have torn with the weight of his body. The cross was then lifted and dropped into a socket in the ground causing many of His bones to go out of joint, just as Psalm 22:14 had prophesied. More than likely, a single nail was driven through both feet, through the Achilles' tendons. From that point, every breath was difficult. A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime was nailed to the cross above the head.

To prolong the torture and pain, the Romans put a little piece of wood under the feet, called a Sedile, so that the crucified person could put some weight on the wood and draw another breath. To add to the agony, His back had been flayed and had many open wounds, so every time He pushed down on the Sedile to draw another breath, He experienced terrible pain from His back as he moved against the cross. From every side of the cross that one looked, blood was dripping from His hands, feet, head, and back. His face was barely recognizable due to the beatings about the face and head. Isaiah had prophesied, “Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14 Emphasis mine). Here’s how the New Living Translation translates it: "Many were amazed when they saw him beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person" (Isaiah 52:14 NLT). 

Oh Lord, forgive us for doing this to you, but thankyou that you willingly allowed it to happen that you might pay the sentence of death on behalf of all that trust you. Keith