"And they crucified him" is how the gospel writers put it. But, it is hard to imagine such paucity of words used to describe the death of Jesus. I have grown up with movies, television, and newspaper accounts describing state sponsored executions where every detail of the death of people is examined and scrutinized. I am old enough to remember condemned prisoners being hung with a hangman's noose, electrocuted in the electric chair, gassed in gas chambers, shot by firing squads, and injected with lethal drugs.
My first exposure to state sponsored executions came as a 10 year old boy from reading "Tale of Two Cities" as the use of the guillotine was described in revolutionary France in 1789. These methods of execution resulted in rather swift deaths, but the description of people dying, prior to the actual death itself, was usually very lengthy.
In the time of the Roman occupation of Israel, some 2,000 years ago, the act of crucifixion was relatively common as a means of execution of criminals by the Roman government. Jesus of Nazareth was not the first person, nor would he be the last, to be crucified by the Roman government in Israel. The process of crucifixion was lengthy, being one or more days in duration. Yet, the description of the death of Jesus in all of the four Gospel accounts is reduced to only 4 or 5 words which can be summarized as "and they crucified him." (cf. Matthew 27:35 (KJV) - And they crucified him; Mark 15:24-25 (KJV) - And when they had crucified him; Luke 23:33 (KJV) - there they crucified him; John 19:18 (KJV) - Where they crucified him).
Crucifixion was the execution of a criminal by nailing or binding to a cross. It was a common form of capital punishment from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, among the Persians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Romans. The Romans used crucifixion for slaves and criminals but never for their own citizens. Roman law provided that the criminal be scourged before being put to death. The accused also had to carry either the entire cross or, more commonly, the crossbeam from the place of scourging to the place of execution. The practice was abolished in the year 337 in the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great.
"And they crucified him" - four short words to describe the end of 33 years of an extraordinary life. Had Jesus not erupted from the burial cave three days later, those four short words could have been written on his grave marker as an epitaph and the world could have kept on spinning on its axis as though nothing extraordinary had occurred in the lives of mankind.
It is a bit strange. Scripture records that the Roman government "put" him on the cross, i.e., the Roman soldiers under the direction of the centurion in charge actually hung Jesus on the cross, probably driving spikes through both wrists and feet as was common. Then scripture states that Joseph, an Israelite from Arimathea, gathered up his courage and went to the Roman governor, Pilate, to ask for the body for burial. Joseph, a man of Israel, actually took the body down from the cross. So, we know who put Jesus on the cross and we know who took him down from the cross. The only thing we are not told is what kept him on that cross from mid-morning until he died later that afternoon.
I would say that you and I kept him on that cross. Only his love for you, only his passion for the world of people he loved, kept him on the cross. It is probably best stated in the familiar passage of John's Gospel at 3:16 (KJV)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
That verse is also short and to the point, just like "and they crucified him." Just 25 words long, it doesn't say anything directly about what kept Jesus on the cross. But, if you read between the lines and between the words, it becomes obvious that the Glue of God held Jesus on that cross. His great undying love for all of us.
My first exposure to state sponsored executions came as a 10 year old boy from reading "Tale of Two Cities" as the use of the guillotine was described in revolutionary France in 1789. These methods of execution resulted in rather swift deaths, but the description of people dying, prior to the actual death itself, was usually very lengthy.
In the time of the Roman occupation of Israel, some 2,000 years ago, the act of crucifixion was relatively common as a means of execution of criminals by the Roman government. Jesus of Nazareth was not the first person, nor would he be the last, to be crucified by the Roman government in Israel. The process of crucifixion was lengthy, being one or more days in duration. Yet, the description of the death of Jesus in all of the four Gospel accounts is reduced to only 4 or 5 words which can be summarized as "and they crucified him." (cf. Matthew 27:35 (KJV) - And they crucified him; Mark 15:24-25 (KJV) - And when they had crucified him; Luke 23:33 (KJV) - there they crucified him; John 19:18 (KJV) - Where they crucified him).
Crucifixion was the execution of a criminal by nailing or binding to a cross. It was a common form of capital punishment from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, among the Persians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Romans. The Romans used crucifixion for slaves and criminals but never for their own citizens. Roman law provided that the criminal be scourged before being put to death. The accused also had to carry either the entire cross or, more commonly, the crossbeam from the place of scourging to the place of execution. The practice was abolished in the year 337 in the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great.
"And they crucified him" - four short words to describe the end of 33 years of an extraordinary life. Had Jesus not erupted from the burial cave three days later, those four short words could have been written on his grave marker as an epitaph and the world could have kept on spinning on its axis as though nothing extraordinary had occurred in the lives of mankind.
It is a bit strange. Scripture records that the Roman government "put" him on the cross, i.e., the Roman soldiers under the direction of the centurion in charge actually hung Jesus on the cross, probably driving spikes through both wrists and feet as was common. Then scripture states that Joseph, an Israelite from Arimathea, gathered up his courage and went to the Roman governor, Pilate, to ask for the body for burial. Joseph, a man of Israel, actually took the body down from the cross. So, we know who put Jesus on the cross and we know who took him down from the cross. The only thing we are not told is what kept him on that cross from mid-morning until he died later that afternoon.
I would say that you and I kept him on that cross. Only his love for you, only his passion for the world of people he loved, kept him on the cross. It is probably best stated in the familiar passage of John's Gospel at 3:16 (KJV)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
That verse is also short and to the point, just like "and they crucified him." Just 25 words long, it doesn't say anything directly about what kept Jesus on the cross. But, if you read between the lines and between the words, it becomes obvious that the Glue of God held Jesus on that cross. His great undying love for all of us.
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