There They Crucified Him

In Luke 23:33, the beloved physician proves himself to be the master of understatement: “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him…”{NKJV}. It was all that was necessary. His readers lived in the Roman Empire and knew about crucifixion up close and personal. We who live in twenty first-century in America need to be reminded what crucifixion was all about if we are to fully appreciate what Jesus suffered for us. The first time I saw Cecil B. DeMill’s original black and white movie, The King of Kings, I was overwhelmed by the realization that He endured the cross for me!

Dr. Toyozo Nakarai, a former Buddhist living in a Shinto society said, “When I realized that Jesus died for me, I could not resist Him!” Mel Gibson’s portrayal of the death of Jesus in “The Passion of Christ” was almost unbearable in its meticulous accuracy. The farther the Apostles got in time from the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the more they saw them as a single event. My intention here is to look at this event in an attempt to deepen our appreciation of what Jesus has done and is still doing for us. My hope and prayer is that, realizing these eternal truths will motivate us to be more like Him in our dealings with one another.

CRUCIFIXION

Crucifixion was borrowed from the Persians by the Romans. The Greeks under Alexander used it infrequently. It may possibly have originated in Phoenicia. It was never practiced by the Hebrews whose traditional method of execution was stoning. The Romans introduced the practice into Palestine. They used it throughout the empire to execute those who posed a threat to Pax Romana. The two men who were crucified with Jesus were probably not “thieves.” Rather they, as Jesus, were crucified because Pontius Pilate was convinced that they were insurrectionists. Had they been thieves, the Romans would simply have cut off their hands. Pilate consented to the crucifixion of Jesus only after the Jewish High Priests convinced him, following Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that the Nazarene was planning to lead a revolt against the Roman occupation of Israel.

The history of Roman crucifixion gives the impression of gradual evolution as a form of legal execution. There are few records of crucifixion being used by the Romans as a common form of punishment. Other accounts say that it was used for slaves, as in the case of the slave uprising led by Spartacus in 73 BC, in which the leaders of the rebellion and 6600 rebels were hanged on crosses lining the Appian Way from Brindisium, on the south west coast of Italy, to Rome like telephone poles.
Those accused of sedition, such as the Galilean Zealots led by Judas just prior to the Christian era, were probably candidates for crucifixion. It may have been later extended to thieves and rioters in the conquered territories. Nero may have even used it to execute Roman citizens, although, prior to Nero, crucifixion was forbidden to citizens. By far the most common use of this form of execution was for those accused of violating Pax Romana by resisting or advocating the overthrow of Imperial rule.

Forms of crosses varied from the “tau cross,” erected in the form of a “T,”to the “X” shaped crux cominissa, later called “the cross of St. Andrew.” The crux imissa is perhaps the best known, with its upright, stipes extending upward above the cross bar, patibulum. The stipes remained in the ground at the crucifixion site. The patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, was carried to the site by the one to be crucified. This was likely the type of cross upon which Jesus of Nazareth died, inasmuch as the Gospel writers record that His title as a charge against Him, “Jesus the Nazarene, The King of The Jews” was inscribed “above His head.” The simplest implement of crucifixion was not a cross at all but crux simplex, or simple stake.

Contrary to most modern portrayal, Romans crosses were comparatively short. The top of the upright was probably between seven and nine feet above ground level. This may have been a deliberate device to facilitate access to the dead body by feral dogs or other wild animals.

Whatever the form of the instrument used, death by crucifixion was one of the most exquisite forms of torturous execution ever devised by “man’s inhumanity to man.” It consisted not only of the infliction of excruciating physical pain but also the most intense form of psychological torture known prior to the twentieth century. In addition to being pinned to the cross in such a way as to elicit the greatest possible bodily agony, the victim was presented publicly in such a way as to cause the maximum of shame and disgrace. Because it was originally used to execute slaves, crucifixion never lost its symbolic implication that the crucified person was of the lowest of social classes. The captive was presented naked as the day he was born in a culture in which public nakedness was the epitome of shame.

The administration of torture by the Romans in connection with crucifixion was classic in proportion. Scourging, so severe that the lucky ones died under it and were thus spared the agony and shame of actual crucifixion, always preceded it. The scourge consisted of a flagellate composed of multiple rawhide thongs. (It was probably the precursor of the British cat-of-nine-tails). Pieces of metal or bone were tied into the end of each thong to increase its cutting capacity when laid across the victim’s back.

In preparation for scourging, the prisoner was stripped naked and his back was stretched taut, either by tying his hands high enough above his head to cause extension or by bending him over a log in such a way as to accomplish the same effect. By law, the scourge fell forty times “save one.” The legal limit was forty stripes but, being sticklers for the letter of the law, the Roman authorities allowed him to be struck only thirty nine times, just to be sure.

Following scourging, the prisoner was forced to carry the rough cross beam of his cross, patibulum on his lacerated back along the most indirect route to the crucifixion site. The site was located prominently in a public square or beside a heavily traveled street or roadway to assure maximum public exposure. A sign, titulus, announcing the crime for which the prisoner was being executed, was nailed to the stipes to identify him.

Commonly, there were two methods of attaching the man to the cross. He might be nailed to the crossbeam that was then forced into a prepared notch cut into the upright or he might be stretched out on his back to be nailed and the entire cross, bearing his weight, dropped into a prepared hole.

The nails used were crude spikes seven to nine inches in length. These were driven into a point in the wrist to prevent their tearing out through the soft tissue of the hands when the man’s weight was suspended on them. The nail penetrated the medium nerve. The arms were allowed a small amount of flexibility to facilitate the hanging process. The knees of the victim were then bent at a slight angle, both his legs twisted to the same side, the left foot pressed behind the right, and a single nail driven through the largest anklebone. The design of this hanging position was to make breathing as difficult as possible. The worst physical pain probably came from the nerves of the wrists and ankles damaged by the nails.

Between shoulder level and the feet, at a point where it would catch a man’s crotch when he lowered his weight was a small seat, sedile fixed into the upright beam of the cross. The pain caused when the prisoner attempted to sit on the sidle could be as excruciating as any experienced in the gruesome process. Each movement made to relieve a pain caused a counter pain.

Actual death in a crucifixion was elicited by several factors, primarily suffocation and shock. The scourging caused deep lacerations in the back. The skin was torn away. Muscles and blood vessels were exposed. Bleeding was torrential. By the time he was given the cross beam to carry; the victim was in severe shock. Some died on the way to the site of crucifixion. The irritation of torn flesh by the cross beam that he carried and the exquisite pain of the driven spikes intensified the shock.

In addition to shock that extended throughout the man’s entire system, the position in which he hung was designed to constrict the rib cage and cause suffocation. When he pulled himself up, placing his weight entirely on the nails in his wrists, the pain was unbearable. When he relaxed and sagged against the nails in both wrists and ankles, the chest cavity closed in on his lungs, making breathing nearly impossible. The additional pain caused by this activity, as well as the prodding by the sedle poking from behind, intensified the shock that was already threatening his life. The loss of blood and lack of adequate oxygen in his lungs sapped his strength until eventually he could struggle no more.

The blood rushed to his head, triggering a massive headache. Fever and chills intermittently shook his body. His muscles convulsed, insects swarmed into every orifice of his body and the flies crawled into his eyes and nose. Death occurred from a few hours to several days following the erection of the cross. To end the crucifixion the crurifracture, breaking of the prisoner’s legs, ended his ability to exhale. Death followed immediately.

THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST

In the climate in which Jesus died, the heat of the sun and the biting of hundreds of insects added to the torture. It could also exacerbate the onset of tetanus as well as infection in the wounds. The physical pain of Jesus was increased by the slaps to his face and the crown of thorns driven into his scalp in connection with the scourging.

The spiritual agony of Jesus must have made the physical torture seem almost enjoyable by comparison! His mother, His aunt and two other women who had followed and ministered to Him during His ministry looked through their hot tears at His nakedness. His best fiend, John stood beside them, helpless. One of those He had called to be His witnesses had betrayed Him. On the way to trial the night before He had heard Peter swear that he didn’t know Him.

God Himself, the Heavenly Father who had loved Him in eternity before the world was, turned His face from Him. “Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf” (II Corinthians 5:21) and He cried out, ”Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani (My God My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me)?!

He was quoting the first verse of Psalm 22 which pictures both His mental and spiritual agony...it continues; “Why are you so far from saving me, and so far from the words of my groaning? O, my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and I am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in You they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me: they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.’... I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; and has melted away within me. My strength has dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; and a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing...”

Six hours after they nailed Him there, He cried out between clenched teeth, “It is finished... Father into your hands I commend my Spirit.” In the temple, the four inch thick veil that had for centuries shut people out from the presence of God was split down the middle from top to bottom and He took a repenting criminal to paradise! When the guards came to break His legs so that He would suffocate immediately, they found Him already dead. As He had promised, John 10:18, No one took His life. He gave it as “a ransom for many.” Just to be sure, they drove a spear into His heart.

A Mayo Clinic report confirms that the blood He sweat in Gethsemane the night before and the blood mingled with water that flowed from the wound in His side indicate that the actual cause of Jesus’ death was a massive heart attack brought on by suffocation .He literally died of a broken heart! Three days later, He got up and walked out of His own grave! The death-burial-resurrection of Jesus is the most thoroughly documented single event of ancient history!