Chapter Forty-one:
Jesus is Crucified on Golgotha - part one
So the members of the Sanhedrin and the Jewish mob took Jesus, and He went out having to carry His own cross, to the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew "Golgotha" (meaning - place of a skull). Jesus was so weakened by now with all the beatings and the scourging He had endured, that it became impossible for Him to carry His cross. So they compelled a passer-by, one name Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry Jesus' cross. There had by now a large crowd gathered behind Jesus and along the sides of the road. Many women were crying and lamenting in sorrow for Him. It is perhaps more than interesting, that we see here and will again up to the time of Jesus' resurrection, while the men were at the point of giving up (going back home and back to their secular jobs) many women were quietly in their hearts holding on to their faithfulness to Jesus. Christ could see and hear many of the women crying for Him as He was being led to His death on the cross. He turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck to new born children!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do this action when the wood is green, when things are relatively good, what will happen when it is dry, when they will really have something to complain about." They were doing evil against a man that did nothing but good for people, and taught wonderful truths of the word of God. The Roman Government allowed the Jews freedom to travel, freedom to practice their religion, times were quite "green" in many ways. If they were doing this kind of evil in the time of green, Jesus was saying, then what on earth would they do when it was dry? Christ was once more telling them that the time was coming, in the next generation of the children many of them would have, and their children of those children, that people would have wished they never would have brought children into the world. It would all come to a head in 70 A.D. when the armies of Rome would sweep into Jerusalem, destroy much of the city and the all of the Temple except a part of the outer Temple retaining wall (which is still standing in Jerusalem today, called the Wailing Wall), and some other parts, kill tens of thousands of Jews. It would be a bitter and terrible time that would lay ahead for the people of Judea. JESUS ON GOLGOTHA and CRUCIFIXION Jesus, with two other criminals, who were to also be crucified and put to death for their crimes, and the large crowd, arrived at the place of the skull, or Golgotha in the Hebrew tongue. We need to stop here and learn a few things about "crucifixion." There are a number of false ideas people have about the death of Jesus and about crucifixion itself, as generally practiced by the Romans. And they did practice it a great deal in putting criminals and their enemies to death. I will quote from "Manners and Customs of the Bible" by James M. Freeman. This is from the old original edition, not the new one that most are familiar with today. "Crucifixion was NOT a Jewish punishment, though among the Jews culprits were sometimes tied to a stake by their hands AFTER death. See Deut. 21: 22. It was an ancient mode of capital punishment.....It was used by the Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Scythians, Greeks, Romans, and ancient Germans. It was a shameful and degrading punishment, and among the Romans was the fate of robbers, assassins, and rebels. It was especially the punishment of criminal slaves. There were several kinds of crosses used. One consisted of two beams of wood laid across each other in the form of an X. Another had two beams of unequal length, the shorter placed on top of the longer, like the letter T. In a third variety, a small portion of the longer piece appeared above the transverse beam; and on this the inscription was placed (the shape as our popular Christian cross that appears in churches etc. - my added comment). This was doubtless the form of cross on which our Lord was crucified. From the center of the perpendicular beam there projected a wooden plug or horn, on which the body of the condemned rested. The bottom of the cross was sharpened, that it might be more easily driven into theground...It was not generally more than ten feet high, so that when erected, a part of it being in the earth, the feet of the sufferer were not far from the ground. The condemned man was first stripped of his clothing, which seems to have been the perquisite of the executioners. He was then fastened to the cross, which had been previously fixed in the earth - though sometimes he was first fixed to the cross - which was then lifted and thrust into the ground. He sat on the middle bar or horn, already mentioned, and his limbs were stretched out and tied to the bars of the cross. Large iron spikes were then driven through the hands and feet. Sometimes the feet were nailed separately, and at other times they were crossed and a long spike was driven through them both. In this situation the poor sufferer was left to linger until death slowly came to his relief. This usually required two or three days, though some lingered a longer time before their sufferings ended. The pain was severe, though not so intense as has sometimes been represented. On this subject Dr. Stroud says, 'The bodily suffering attending this punishment were doubtless great; but either through ignorance or design, have been much exaggerated. The insertion of the cross into its hole or socket, when the criminal was previously attached to it, did not necessarily produce the violent concussion which has been supposed; and; as the body rested on a bar, it did not bear with its whole weight on the perforated extremities. At all events there have been many examples of persons enduring these sufferings with the utmost fortitude, and almost without a complaint, until relieved from them by death. A fact of importance to be known, but which has not been sufficiently regarded, is that crucifixion was a very lingering punishment, and proved fatal, not so much by loss of blood - since the wounds in the hands and feet did not lacerate any large vessel, and were nearly closed by the nails which produced them - as by the slow proses of nervous irritation and exhaustion ' (The Physical Cause of the Death of Christ, p.55). After death the body was left to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey. The Romans, however, made an exception in favor of all Jews who were crucified; this was on account of their law, as contained in Deut. 21: 22, 23. They were permitted to bury the crucified Jews on the day of crucifixion. This usually made it necessary to hasten their death, which was done by kindling a fire under them, or by letting hungry beats attack them, or by breaking their bones with an iron mallet." End of quote from "Manners and Customs of the Bible" old edition. I think it would be good to re-read the quote above, slowly, and let it all sink in. There are things mentioned that most Christians do not understand and have not been taught about Roman crucifixion. Especially to note is that it was NOT usually a quick death. It was not DESIGNED to be a quick death, in fact the opposite was true. It was designed to be a slow humiliating death. And we need to note that there was a peg on which the body of the victim rested, so the weight was not on the hands, and the victim was not having to pull himself up to breath. When this is understood we can see why the victim often lived for two or three days or in some cases even longer, before death came to them. True, in the case of Jews their death was hastened, often by breaking their bones, so they could die on the same day they were crucified, in keeping with their law, as given by God through Moses, Deut. 21: 22, 23. We shall see, as we come to it, that they did come to break the legs of Jesus, but found He was already dead, and the reason for this, His already being dead, I will give as I cover that part of the crucifixion. It is another bit of truth that most do not realize because in most translations of the Gospels, a verse has been missed out that was in the original Greek manuscripts. Golgotha was near the city of Jerusalem. The now they had Jesus up on the cross, with the other two criminals, one on His right had and one on His left hand, also up on crosses. Pilate wrote an inscription and placed it above Jesus' head. The inscription was in three languages, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. Just about anyone could them read it, the Greek language was especially the most common language of all who were within the Roman Empire. The inscription read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.' " Pilate with a cold and straight face answered them, "What I have written I have written. It will not be changed." Remember now this is a member of the Godhead here, suffering and dying on the cross. Giving his life, willing to die, not existing for 3 days and 3 nights, so your sins and my sins could be blotted out of the book of life. So rendering any man or woman eternal life if they repented and accepted Jesus as personal Savior. When you stop to meditate on it all deeply, is is mind-blowing as to the love of the Godhead towards human beings.
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