Tuesday
Tuesday
The Crucifixion
They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha…. And they crucified him.
Mark 15:22, 24
Cicero in one of his speeches described crucifixion as “a most cruel and disgusting punishment.” He added later that the very word cross should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but also from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears. It is neither surprising nor accidental, therefore, that the evangelists are very restrained in what they write. All they say is that “here they crucified him,” without giving any descriptive details.
Nevertheless, we know from other sources that the prisoner was laid on his back; that his hands, wrists, or arms were nailed to the patibulum (crossbeam); and that the cross was then hoisted to an upright position and dropped into a hole dug for it.
Pilate then had a “title” in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek fixed above Jesus’s head, which read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The Jewish leaders tried to persuade Pilate to change the wording to the effect that Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews, but Pilate refused.
Gradually the crowd of sightseers thinned out. The soldiers gambled for Jesus’s clothes, and the women watched, weeping. Some priests and lawyers also stayed, mocking him: “He saved others … but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him” (Matt. 27:42–43). Part of what they were saying was literally true. He could have exercised his divine power and come down from the cross, but what he could not do was save himself and them at the same time. In order to save them he must remain on the cross and die.
So “the cross” soon came to refer not so much to a form of execution as to the gospel of salvation. The apostle Paul could write, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).
For further reading: 1 Corinthians 1:17–25