Isaiah 53:4-8
4 He took our pain and bore our suffering.
5 He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way: and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? for the transgression of My people He was punished.
Psalm 22:14-18
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within Me.
15 My mouth is dried up and my tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth; you lay Me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround Me, a pack of villains encircles Me; they pierce My hands and My feet.
17 All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over Me.
18 They divide My clothes and cast lots for My garment.
We all know Jesus was crucified…but…few realize the pain and ugliness associated with crucifixion…two thousand years has desensitized us of how gruesome crucifixion was.
Do a search on Google for images of Jesus’ crucifixion…most images of Jesus on the cross are petty mild…some have nails driven through His hands and feet…which hardly caused any bleeding at all.
People have become calloused to the excruciating pain that Jesus endured that Good Friday…it’s just a matter of ‘ho hum’ …the brutality experienced by Jesus that day has become just a matter of ‘yea it happened’.
Crucifixion was invented by the Persians 400 years before Jesus was born and is generally considered the most painful death ever invented by humankind.
Because it’s such a slow and painful death the English language derives the word ‘excruciating’ from the word crucifixion.
Roman crucifixion was not only painful but it was designed to cause the most gruesome…humiliating…and inhumane death as possible…it was carefully orchestrated to produce a slow death with maximum pain.
In the first century this form of death was reserved for only the worst of criminals…in fact crucifixion was so hideous that Roman law prohibited Roman citizens from being crucified…except under only the worse crimes… the reason Paul was not crucified.
Crucifixion was a means of extermination…it had as its express purpose to eliminate victims as members of the human race.
If a first-century Roman soldier was to walk into a Catholic church today he’d be shocked to see such a hideous instrument of capital punishment as something worshiped.
I say a Catholic church because traditionally…historically…Baptist churches don’t have statues…or a crucifix.
I don’t think we can relate to the Passion of Jesus…we’ve all had a bad day at work…we deal with health issues…being hurt by a family member or friend… we all know how annoyed we are when we suffer even the slightest pain…a splinter in our hand…hit your finger with a hammer…but to really grasp the nature of Jesus’s sacrifice you need to picture its full tragic reality.
That video depicted just the pre-crucifixion part of what Jesus endured.
For Jesus it was a long 24 hours of abuse that started after His arrest in the Garden Thursday evening after the Last Supper.
It was the fulfillment of His own prophecy concerning how He would suffer and die. [Matt. 16:21].
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
From Thursday night until Friday morning Jesus was subjected to six trials… three religious…and three civil…interesting…in all three Roman trials Jesus was proclaimed innocent…His only charge was:
You being man, make yourself God [John 10:33]
The Six Trials of Jesus:
Three Jewish religious trials where he was proclaimed a sinner:
- First Religious Trial (Jewish): Annas, Jn.18:12-14.
- Second Religious Trial: Caiaphas, Mt.26:57-68
- Third Religious Trial, Sanhedrin, Mt.27:1-2, Lk.22:63-71
Three Roman Civic trials where Jesus was proclaimed innocent. - First Civil Trial (Roman): Pilate, Jn.18:28-38… Decision: Not guilty.
- Second Civil Trial: Herod, Lk.23:6-12… Decision: Not guilty.
- Third Civil Trial: Pilate again, Jn.18:39-19:6. Decision: Not guilty
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His first trauma began right after His arrest when He was taken before Caiaphas the Jewish High Priest…there a soldier strikes Jesus across the face for not answering Caiaphas’s question.
The palace guards then put a blindfold on Him and began pulling out His beard while continuing to strike Him in the face.
By early Friday morning Jesus…battered…bruised…dehydrated…and exhausted is taken across Jerusalem to the Roman seat of government …a walk of approximately two and a half miles one way from Pilate to Herod and then back again…after a 5 mile walk he is pronounced for the third time ‘not guilty’ …but regardless
Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified…[John 19:16]
This is where the Romans took over…Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged as required by Roman law before crucifixion.
These guys were specialists…they were trained to cause maximum pain without allowing the accused to pass out or die…it was an art.
The condemned were stripped naked in order to die with as little dignity as possible while mocking and jeering was encouraged…it was a form of entertainment.
The Romans would begin by using sticks to beat the condemned…then a scourging whip was used next…a leather whip that had iron balls tied near the end with sharp bones attached to the leather.
When hit the metal ball would cause serious bruising or contusions while the sharp bones at the end would cut into the skin causing deep lacerations.
Interestingly…Jewish law prohibited any one to be struck more than 40 lashes which is why Paul several times received 39 lashes…but the Romans made no attempt to follow Jewish law and was probably the reason why Jesus received many more than that.
Imagine the tremendous physical pain and suffering in being beaten by a Roman scourging whip to the point of either passing out or dying.
He was then forced to carry the horizontal portion of the cross to His place of crucifixion…often times Jesus is pictured carrying the entire cross but the accused carried only the horizontal piece…the vertical piece remained in the ground permanently.
The accused was made to carry the crossbeam…weighing about 100 lbs., from inside the city to a location outside the city where they were to be crucified.
We can imagine how difficult it would be for a man at full strength to carry that crossbeam for any distance…let along someone having spent a night of being brutally beaten…as such He is unable to carry the cross…so Simon of Cyrene is forced to assist (Matt. 27:32).
By this time Jesus’s physical condition had become critical…severe blood loss, exhaustion…dehydration…caused Jesus to be undoubtedly in shock.
In the politically correct 21st century we live in we shy away from the graphic images of Christ’s crucifixion…it’s repulsive…for many the Cross is little more than a religious symbol.
…but it’s a reminder that on the Cross God put on Jesus the punishment we all deserve…theological term is called propitiation.
In the 5,000 year history of mankind three events stand out against all others.
First— the crucifixion of Jesus…which was both the greatest crime committed in the history of mankind…and the greatest supreme act of sacrificial love in the history of mankind.
Secondly — what separates Christianity from the other 4000 religions in the world…was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Thirdly — the only time in eternity when God the Father and Jesus the Son were separated…at the Cross God poured all of our sins on Jesus…because God cannot look upon sin He turned His back on Jesus for those six hours.
We don’t like to dwell on the events of Good Friday…not wanting to visualize the horrors of a man put to death on a Cross.
All the events leading up to the betrayal…crucifixion…and resurrection were confusing and traumatic.
For a moment let’s project ourselves into the thought process of the disciples… they watched Jesus being nailed to a cross…some stood at the foot of the cross weeping…hoping for a miracle that didn’t happen…some looked on at a distance in hopes that somehow He would come down from the Cross…but He didn’t.
After His death they were so disheartened and confused they just walked away and went into hiding.
On the surface…from their thinking…it was preposterous to believe that anyone could raise themselves from the dead…it’s all over…no one…not even those closest to Him, ever expected to see Jesus alive again…no one comes back from the grave!
People today aren’t really much different than the disciples in that respect… they may say they believe Jesus rose from the dead…but for some it’s a belief that is a mere idea…and not a conviction that dwells in their hearts.
Even for millions of Christians around the world Resurrection Sunday is a story with an exciting ending…they have all the basic facts down…Jesus was arrested…crucified…and three days later God raised Him from the dead.
They miss what turns Resurrection Sunday into a life altering event…as ugly as it was…without Good Friday…when Jesus…voluntarily…willingly… sacrificially…and obediently of His own free will went to the Cross…there would be no Resurrection Sunday…which brings us to where we are today.
1 after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. [Matthew 28]
3 But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord. [Luke 24]
I would suspect that because you’re here this morning…for you…Jesus’s resurrection is more than a mere idea.
For us…the belief that Jesus Christ is alive today, risen from the dead, is the most powerful belief in the world.
Resurrection Sunday is God’s promise that not only has Christ risen from the grave, but that we, through his power, shall also rise one day victorious from the grave.
Jesus’s death and Resurrection proves you can have life after death… that there is life beyond the grave…but it requires that you do something…
FIRST…it’s a decision you have to make…it’s not just given to you.
SECONDLY…the determined decision to believe that Jesus is God’s Son.
THIRDLY…a commitment to be a follower by living a lifestyle that is Bible based.