The Crucifixion of Christ
Today we celebrate the crucifixion of Christ. We’ll take time out of our meditations on the life and faith of Abraham, to speak about what Jesus did for us at Passover, when He paid the deliverance fee with His blood.
When they reached Calvary, Simon from Cyrene, the one forced to help, threw down the crossbeam. Matthew tells us that they offered Jesus wine mixed with gall. Mark wrote that the bitter substance also had myrrh, but when He 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 He refused the mild narcotic, they pierced His hands and feet. He 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 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).
King David foresaw this drama prophetically approximately 1000 years previously when he wrote Psalm 22. Some believe that Christ spoke the whole psalm while on the cross. We know that Jesus recited part of it. Psalm 22 speaks so clearly of the Son of David, starting with words that 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 I have spoken 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 Gentiles 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 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. It was a costly thing for God to buy your redemption. Thank God for Jesus!
Taken from the series on the Gospel of Luke, found in the All Studies box on the Home Page. Click on study 63, The Crucifixion of Christ (Luke 23:26-49). Keith Thomas
Comments
Post a Comment