ALIVE: Chapter 181, Crucifixion - Necessary Injustice

Jesus watched Simon depart and silently blessed him and his sons to thank him for carrying His cross. He was on His own, subject to the will of the arrogant priests and elders. Besides, after the sleepless night of accusations and beatings, He was exhausted.

A Roman soldier approached Him with a goblet of wine mixed with gall, “Here man, drink this. It will help relieve the pain.”

Jesus look into the eyes of the sincere young Roman who was holding the goblet to His lips for him.  He started to sip, then jerked His head away, “No! I can’t drink this!” Was that because it smelled so bad, or was it because He knew that He needed to remain alert to complete His mission? He needed to feel the pain. He was thirsty and was tempted to drink whatever was offered. But He stopped Himself.

“Okay, don’t take it. You’ll be sorry!” said the soldier to Jesus. “Whatever you say.”

Two criminals were also being prepared for crucifixion. They both gulped the wine and gall obediently and gratefully.

Each of the three who were being crucified had his own team of executioners. This is what they did for a living. The men didn’t think anything of it any more. No more nightmares, no more disgust. They had gotten over all that.

Another young soldier approached Jesus and untied His hands. He was no longer a threat to them. “Now, take off your clothes.” Jesus obediently took off his coat and robe and handed them to an eager young man who was waiting to receive them.

When he  reached his friends with the clothes, as valuable as gold to them, he analyzed his stash and thought about how he could divide the one robe into parts. Seams! Good. He carefully ripped it apart and had 4 pieces of cloth to distribute! He kept one and gave the other three to his buddies. Then there was the coat. Mmm? It didn’t have a seam since it had been woven top to bottom. He looked at the guys who hadn’t gotten anything. Reuben said “Don’t tear it! “Let’s just caste lots for it, okay?”

“Good idea.”

Little did Reuben know that God predicted his solution through David when he wrote (Psalm 22:18) “They parted my garments among them. And upon my vesture they cast lots.”

The winner was thrilled. “What a beautiful and warm coat! I never want to take it off. I can even sleep in it and use it as a blanket!” That man enjoyed a peaceful and healthy long life until he met Jesus in paradise and had the thrilling opportunity to thank Him.

While the distribution of His clothes was happening, Jesus was being ordered to cooperate with His earthly demise, which of course He did without complaint. (Given the is was His idea.)

“Now lay down on this wooden cross.” demanded a hairy veteran executioner. Jesus obediently dropped to His knees and tried to position Himself on the narrow vertical beam when they heard, “Wait! Stop! Pilate sent me to tell you to nail this sign to the top of this Man’s cross.” shouted a boy running toward them.

His executioner looked over at what the kid had. It was a piece of wood with the inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that read, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The executioner chuckled at the joke and said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” Jesus stood up again and watched them nail the sign. He tried to look nonchalant, but smiled from ear to ear in His heart.

At the sound of the hammer banging on the wood, the chief priests looked up from their huddle to notice the sign being nailed. One curious priest walked over to read it. He then looked at the delivery boy in anger and said to him, “Where did this come from?” The delivery boy pointed and replied, “Pilate, over there, he gave it to me himself. Look, there he is.”

The chief priests looked over and sure enough, in the crowd was Pontus Pilate in his regalia. He had managed to have the sign carved quickly and was driven up to Golgotha with it in hand. The priests all rushed over to him before it was too late. Reaching him first a chief priest said, “Change that sign! Instead it should say, He said I am….the King of the Jews.”

Pilate looked at the man in disgust, because he was still angry about being bullied. It was his last word. Pilate bellowed with all the sound of authority he could muster, “What I have written I have written. Now leave me!”

The priests turned immediately and without another word went back to watch Jesus being nailed to the cross while saying to himself,  “What does this sign matter in the long run, at least He will die and we won’t have to think about Him any more. Besides in a few hours, this sign will be trashed.”

After nailing the sign, it was time to nail the men. All three were to be positioned and crucified simultaneously. It was the third hour. (9 am) The sun was fully up and the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem below them was in full swing.

“Okay, now lay down on the wood again!” Jesus fell to the earth beside His cross and struggled to balance Himself on the vertical beam. There were men on either side helping Him. They lifted His body so that the arms rested on the horizontal wings. They tied each hand to the wood so it wouldn’t move when they nailed it. His head firmly balanced at the top. His feet also were tied to the bottom bar. Left over right.

Firmly tied to the cross, it was time for the nails. His executioner looked down at Jesus whose eyes were closed and barked, “We told you to drink that stuff! Here we go!”  The executioners of the three looked over at each other. The nailing had to be simultaneous to contain the screams in a fixed period of time. A man assigned to timing, looked at the three nailers and shouted, “One. Two. Three. NOW!”

At that, each nailer lifted his hammer high and with a long nail firmly positioned on a certain location of the right hand, known to be able to support the body took the first heavy pound. They were professionals. All eyes were on them.

Suddenly the crowd heard ear shattering cries. The victims emitted a cacophony of pain-filled shrieks. The three nailers quickly went to the other side to nail the other hand, ignoring the screaming, and then to the feet. For a quarter of an hour, loud cries and moans bruised the air.

Women and children immediately covered their ears and soon men did too. The pain to the eardrums from the sound of these men was as excruciating to the hearers who imagined the pain. Mary Magdalene, Salome and the other Mary collapsed to their knees in unison. They covered their ears and closed their eyes tight in a failed attempt to escape the reality of the moment. The emotional pain was excruciating.

Jesus’ mother and John were wailing. Rachel and others who had been healed and fed, who happened to be in Jerusalem for the Passover and heard about the crucifixion were wailing too.

Among the people who a few hours earlier had been shouting, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” there was a mixed reaction. The ones whose opinions are generated by others, suddenly woke up as if from a dream, and wondered why they were so adamant that this violence should befall a simple rabbi. No one is perfect. These are the ones who felt shame, and regret. Among them were several priests.

But there were also those stubborn egotistical ones, in whose life wrong was never admitted. They were still proud of their decision and looked forward to their Passover Feast with this irritant behind them. They could freely chant and worship God in the temple with a clear  conscience, thinking what a joyous Passover this will be and how much they looked forward to a hearty lamb supper.

In the midst of lingering loud cries, both from the crowd and three being crucified, it was time for the lifting of the crosses. This phase was accomplished one at a time. They needed the manpower. The lifting team of gorilla-men approached the first robber who was a bulky man struggling to endure the extreme pain in his hands and feet that ran throughout his brain and the sensation of the ride from the ground up to a vertical position.  For the gorilla-men, lifting the top required a forceful thrust. Two at the head and two at each arm. Heave ho. The men not only had to bring the weight of the wood and bulky man vertical, they had to move it to its hole in the ground and lift it into position deep enough for it to stay stable and still. With the use of ropes and teamwork the heavy robber was installed.

The gorilla men, once they were certain that the first cross was fixed and stable moved over to God’s cross. The Father, His Spirit, were in Jesus. As One, they lay on the cross, feeling, knowing, being, waiting. The angels, the thrones and archangels fluttered around the cross laying on the ground. Now it was their turn. Jesus was still feeling the pain, but He stopped emoting about it as did the other two.

The crowd also subsided in expressing their grief and horror. In fact, the scene was so overwhelming that except for environmental sounds all was relatively quiet.

When the gorilla men went to do their job for Jesus, they found the cross to be lighter. None of the men mentioned this phenomenon. Each man assumed it was because the first man was so heavy and that this one was relatively slight. But they were wrong.

Jesus/God felt the smooth rising of the cross and a breeze that attended it, from the fluttering of the angels moving the air because they were so many. This cross went easily into the posthole. Hanging by His tied and nailed hands, and because He was so exhausted from being awake for two days, and the hearings with Ciaphas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod, the people demanding His crucifixion, the beatings, the piercing crown of thorns, the jeering, the hike up the mountain, the physical shock to His body from the nailing, all that wound up as the means to cause Jesus to collapse from exhaustion on the cross. Whether divine or circumstantial, Jesus rested. They couldn’t torture Him any more than they already had. Soon, He could do what He came to this moment for.

The third man was being lifted and positioned. Jesus/God, instinctively knowing this man’s crime and circumstances and the history of his life felt compassion for him and alleviated his pain a notch.

And now it was the time to wait for death. The men were able to speak as they hung on their crosses. First, Jesus looked down and over at His mother whose face was red and flush from crying. When she looked up at Him she saw that He was looking at her too, so she walked closer in case He had something to say. John, who was at her side followed as did her friends. Indeed He did have something to say. It was short and simple as it had to be.

Jesus looked down at His mother and said with as much volume as He could, given the pressure on His thorax and lungs, and to be heard over the murmuring of the crowd.“Woman, behold your son.” and nodded slightly toward young John. John perked up and nodded in agreement.

Noticing that, Jesus said to John, “Behold, your mother!” John replied, “Of course my Lord.” And he turned to Mary and hugged her which she returned with tears covering her face again because her precious Son cared so much that He would be thinking about her own welfare at this painful time. But like the woman whose only son had died, Jesus’ compassion for the plight of childless single women was so strong that he had brought that young man back to her from the dead. He made sure that His mother had someone to care for her. By holy orchestration, that woman and her son were in the crowd that morning. They too came to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had squirreled their way as close to Jesus as they could. When they saw John hugging Mary, the son hugged his crying mother. He Who restored his life was being murdered, pre-meditated, intentional, cruel, in plain sight. What crime were they being taught to avoid?

Jesus closed His eyes. No one knew if He was praying, or absorbing pain, but it was clear that He was still alive. His mother, John, and the other Maryies stood back. His mother began to chant in a low but beautiful voice as she had at the grave of her father Joachim with her mother by her side, and later, alone, at her parent’s graveside, and for Joseph. Her friends joined her, and soon there was an undertone of melodic worship that rifled through the large crowd revealing how many worshippers were peppered among those who demanded this crucifixion, along with the friends and relatives of the robbers, some of which were praying in chant for their loved ones gone astray.

The mix of pure good and pure evil, of compassion and hostility, of knowledge and ignorance was never more obvious than on Golgotha that day. It was about high noon and the three crucified men were hot and parched. The people in the crowd were getting antsy having waited so long for the men to die. To keep their own blood flowing and their legs from cramping the people milled around the scene. From time to time, a hostile, arrogant person, walked up to Jesus, looked up, paused, and wagged his or her head and said loud enough for Jesus and all the people around, including His own mother, to hear their heartless jeers, “So You are going to destroy the temple are You? And rebuild it in three days? Okay, let’s see you save Yourself!” The person looked over at the crowd for heads nodding in agreement, and without noticing any added louder, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Come on, we want to see Your miracle!”

God replied, but of course could not be heard through the solid barrier of arrogance, “My timing is perfect. My purpose beyond your awareness. You will see my miracle. Be patient. You who are dying in doubt.”

Meanwhile, an elder piped up to add to the jeers saying, “He saved others; it looks like He can’t save himself.” A cacophony of mocking and chuckles ensued. A mean woman shouted, “He is the King of Israel; let’s see Him come down from the cross! Then we will believe Him!” Feeling cocky and confident she scanned the crowd, looking for confirmation, which she received when she heard another woman to her left and behind others say, “He trusted in God; let God deliver Him now. I’m sure He could if God wanted to! Obviously, He doesn’t want to save this charlatan.”

Jesus hung there listening to the insults. It’s so easy to kick someone who is down. A soldier lifted a stick with a cloth soaked in vinegar to quench His thirst. Jesus who just yesterday distributed a goblet of wine to His disciples telling them that it was His blood of life was offered vinegar, the dead grape. He smelled it and shook His head and clenched His lips.

Reproach has broken my heart,

And I am full of heaviness

I look for someone to take pity,

But there was none

And for comforters

but I found none

They gave me gall for my food

And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Psalm 69

The other man being hung, the husky one on His right, also listening to the jeers and mocking decided to join in. He had become numb to the pain, “Miracle man! Save yourself, and while You’re at it, and save us too if You are who some say You are. Let’s jump off this tree and run away!”

The other man to His left answered for Him, “Shut up!!! Look at you, hanging there, waiting to die. You’re already dead! Don’t you even yet fear God?”

The only response the thief could make was with was a grimace in his face, and then he spit on the ground.

Not being able to see that vulgar gesture, speaking face forward, the other crucified man said, “You and I deserve to be hanging here, we knew we were doing wrong, but this Man, doesn’t deserve this!” Then he turned his head to see as much of Jesus as he could and said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

The man closed his eyes and tried to imagine Paradise. He felt lighter, as if the nails in his hands and pierced feet were lifting him up. He wished he could fall asleep and wake up in Paradise.

The drone of people chatting continued. Tears and cries had subsided because so much time had passed and shock morphed into boredom.

Until suddenly, at the sixth hour (3 pm) the sky grew dark, as the sun had receded in embarrassment, refusing to be witness, and in sympathy that the Light of lights, its predecessor, should be extinguished.

Jesus relished the darkness, for the fear of it brought relative peace and quiet to the trembling  crowd. Three hours in daytime darkness passed slowly. Those who had been up all night at Caiaphas’s house fell asleep on the ground, when suddenly they were awakened by the sound of Jesus. Those closest to Him, His mother, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome all heard Him cry out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

God, the Father Who had instantly left Him, winced in the Spirit. He grieved more than ever. With the emotions of anger, frustration, disappointment, and then tolerance and love that God had experienced with humanity from Adam through the prophets and kings to Jesus, hadn’t felt such passion until this moment.

The Creator God had waited patiently for the right time to lift the curse on humanity. Here, the moment had finally come as fast as a bolt of lightening and as powerful. Yet, to be separated from His Son if only for an instant was more emotional than He expected it to be. The feeling reminded Him of when he regretted the flood and vowed never to do that again.

As in a daze, Jesus heard a man with a strong deep voice that carried throughout the crowd on the mountain,  “Let’s see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”

After this, knowing that all things were finished, that the description of the event in Psalm 22, might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst.”

A clay bowl full of vinegar was nearby. A guard, hearing that He was thirsty ran to get some for Him. He bent over and took the sponge inside the bowl that was soaked in the vinegar, and wrapping it in stems of hyssop attached it to a wooden stick and returned. He lifted the stick of vinegar to His mouth. This time Jesus received the vinegar and groaned out loud and then managed to say, “It is finished.” The living wine was dead. His head fell and He yielded His spirit.

Miles away, in Jerusalem, archangels ripped in two the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom. The people inside the temple watched in fear and shock. They had no idea what was happening. Suddenly, the earth under their feet began to quake. The quake rumbled throughout Judea and on Golgotha. Huge rocks split from the pressure, littering the ground with pieces of what had taken centuries to form.

Feeling the earth shaking under their feet, and the daytime darkness lingering, the people in the crowd on Golgotha that day: centurions, elders, priests, friends and neighbors, the curious and the grieving all of them united in fear. Those, who hours before demand that Jesus be crucified beat their breasts in contrition. A middle aged older Roman centurion with leathery skin cried out loud, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

…

This was the moment. The moment in time that the impossible occurred. With the flash of separation from the Father, i.e., sin, Jesus experienced the sinful condition of humanity.

God, the source of Life, cannot die. He had to first become human. Only in a human form, because humans are made in the image and likeness of God and are thus as free as God is free, even free to deny God, to separate from God, to distrust God, to sin. To die.

Intense physical pain had evolved into spiritual pain for Jesus. For the moment of feeling forsaken, a fractal of sin exploded into all the sins of humanity past, present, and future. He is the Lamb of God. He is Pharaoh’s son that released God’s people from slavery, only this time the Son released God’s people from the slavery of sin. He is the Red Sea parting. He is the cloud guiding. He is the Passover that God’s people should never forget.

With the weight of the world upon Him, Jesus descended into Hades.

The first to greet Him there is John the Baptist who smiles and says with a big grin, “I told them You were coming my Lord. Many of them didn’t believe me!”

Behind John are His grandmother Anna, and His grandfather Joachim with beaming faces. The place is dense with souls. Adam and Eve are sheepishly hiding behind Moses and David. They had been suffering the most for thousands of years, since everyone knew it was their fault that they had to die at all. Jesus sees them hiding and reaches out his hand.

“Come.” He says with a smile, drawing them out. “Your curse is lifted. Come, I will let you out. Trust Me.”

Then a key appears in His hand and He walks over to the enormous iron  gate. He puts the key in the lock and turns it. All who saw this marveled! It looked so easy. He pushes the gate open and calls out to the souls, “Come, you may leave now. Go back to earth for a bit, look around, a lot has changed and nothing has changed. And then you will go to the judgement seat for your first judgment. Those of you who deserve it will enjoy the foretaste of heaven called Paradise. I’m afraid that others will be punished for their behavior, but you were free to be evil or good, to trust Me or not. You made your choice. Each of you will be judged one by one. It will take thousands of years. After that, I will return to the earth to gather those still there. There, will be the second trial. Between the first trial and your second trial…well, you will find out. Okay let’s go.”

With the souls all floating out, Jesus went over to the gate and pulled out the key. The souls of the saints poured out in wonder and merriment. Some went to visit their bodies who had been laid in various tombs around Jerusalem. They cautiously emerged from the tombs and went into the city where they had lived centuries before. Jerusalem looked so different, so built up and busy. Some sensitive living people saw them, and ran back into their homes in fear.

…

His mother Mary was the first to sense that her Son left His body. There was no more crying. She knew. She bowed her head. Her friends and John bowed their heads as well. They closed their eyes looking for a vision of where He was.

The chief priests, many who had also been following Jesus since the arrest the day before, were exhausted too. Having accomplished their mission, all the adrenaline that had kept them going through so many intense hours was spent. Besides, they were reminded that the sun would set soon and Sabbath, and Passover, would be upon them. The huddled hierarchy selected a man to dare approach Pilate again.

Pilate watched the priest approach him. “Yes, what do you want? Do you have another rabbi you would like me to crucify?” said Pilate when the priest came within range.

“No sire, we thank you. However, it looks like the men are dead, but we can’t be sure and the sun is about to set. Would you please do us this kindness and break their legs to finish them off so we may take them away? We must obey our law to bury them before sunset.” The priest tried very hard to look meek to engender a condescending but positive response.

“So be it! Soldier, go break their legs and call my chariot!” barked Pilate, just as glad to get the day over with.

The soldiers went off straightaway and approached the heavyset thief. He carried a bat and hit the man’s legs as hard as he would a 90 mile an hour baseball, the man opened his eyes at the pain, and then gave up his spirit. It was the last straw.  Then the soldier passed Jesus who looked quite dead, and batted the legs of the other man. No response. Dead.

When they came back to Jesus, and were sure that he was dead already, one of the soldiers pulled his sword out and pierced his side for no good reason at all; he just got the urge to do that. It was strange, but when he did` water poured out of the man as well as His blood. Very strange. Several people witnessed the phenomenon. What was the water? Could it have been the water of baptism? Was it the water that all children of God are baptized with into His death?

However, little did they know that the real phenomenon was that centuries before, the prophet Zechariah said,”And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. Zechariah 12:10

Footnote: Like the sacrificial lamb, Jesus took our sins, our abhorrent (to God) sinfulness upon Himself as He died on the cross. Like the lamb, who was innocent, Jesus was a perfect sinless, innocent being. Like the lamb, He was killed to save sinful others.

Unlike the lamb who was slaughtered first, the pain of death being quick, and the fire being painless, Jesus suffered long and slow, pain, thirst, humiliation.

Unlike the lamb, Jesus, at the time that He took our sins upon Himself was hated and jeered, whereas the lamb was revered, the sinners penitent as they watched the sacrifice of its life in horror to observe the wages of sin, and afterward they felt gratitude and relief. Whereas the observers of the crucifixion were largely ignorant of the magnitude of this sacrifice. Not humbled by it. Many were still angry and hateful. Satisfied over their own victory that they had secured His death.

Like the lamb, whose death was salvific, whose body was consumed for nourishment and strength, the body of Jesus consumed while He lived and continues to live and be consumed continues to nourish the soul and strengthen the whole person, body, mind, and soul. The antidote for the poison of abandonment of God and the commandments is God’s own flesh and blood in the Eucharist.

Lamb of God? Yes and no. Much more than that. Add the suffering, add the disrespect, add the humiliation.

Add the resurrection.  Add the new covenant between God and humankind.

It is finished. Sabbath Rest.