SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/9/2024 9:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-7 “The Ignorant Wicked”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
27:27-37
Message of the verses: “27 Then the
soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. 28 They
stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 And after twisting together a
crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and
they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the
Jews!" 30 They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him
on the head. 31 After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe
off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
“32 As
they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed
into service to bear His cross.
“33 And when they came to a place called
Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him wine to drink mixed
with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. 35 And when
they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by
casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him
there. 37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read,
"THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’”
“When they had crucified Him
does not refer to the finished execution but to raising Him upright and placing
the vertical beam into the hole prepared for it. It was at that point that the actual
crucifixion began.
“Crucifixion originated in Persia,
where a deity named Ormazd was believed to consider the earth sacred. Because a criminal who was executed had to be
raised above the earth in order not to defile it, he was suspended on a large
pole and left there to die. The practice
was picked up by the Carthaginians and then by Greeks and especially the
Romans, whose extensive use caused it to become identified with them. It is estimated by the time of Christ the
Romans had crucified some 30,000 men in Israel alone, primarily for insurrection. The crucifixion of only three men outside
Jerusalem was therefore virtually insignificant in the eyes of Rome.
“None of the gospel writers describes
the procedure for securing Jesus to the cross.
The literal Greek text is even less revealing than most English
renderings, saying simply, ‘The having crucified Him ones parted His garments.’
It is only from Thomas’s comments several days after the resurrection that we
learn about Jesus’ being nailed by His hands and feet (John 20:25), rather than
being tied with cords or thongs as was often the case.
“Judging from nonbiblical
descriptions of crucifixion in New Testament times, Jesus was placed on the
cross as it lay flat on the ground across the horizonial beam and nailed
through the wrists just above the hand, allowing a slight bend at the knees
when the body was extended. The cross
was then picked up and dropped into the hole, causing excruciating pain as the
weight of His body pulled at the already torn flesh around the nails.
“In his book The Life of Christ, Frederick Farrar describes crucifixion as
follows:
A death by crucifixion
seems to include all that pain and death can have of the horrible ghastly—dizziness,
cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, shame, publicly of
shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of
intended wounds—all intensified just up to the point at which they can be
endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to
the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness.
The unnatural position
made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed
with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened
[when a victim took several days to die]: the arteries—especially at the head
and stomach—became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood, and while each
variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the
intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst, and all these physical
complications caused an internal excitement and anxiety, which made the
prospect of death itself—of death, the unknown enemy, at whose approach man
usually shudders most—bear the aspect of a delicious and exquisite release.
One thing is
clear. The first century executions were
not like modern ones, for they did not seek a quick, painless death not the
preservation of any measure of dignity for the criminal. On the contrary, they sought an agonizing torture which completely humiliated him. And it is important that we understand this,
for it helps us realize the agony of Christ’s death. (Vol. 2 [New York: E. P.
Dutton, 1877], pp. 403-4).”
There is more to this, but this is
all that I want to place on this SD as I think about what my Lord went through
in paying for my sins, as He suffered and died on the cross almost 2000 years
ago.
8/9/2024 7:56
AM
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