#512 He Endured the Cross Part 1
Please accept this dramatic rendition of Jesus last hours on earth as an attempt to make his loving sacrifice more of a reality.
Crucified
‘The evening of overwhelming emotion, the night of sleepless anxiety and suffering, the three trials and three sentences of death he received before the Jewish officials, the endless scene before Pilate, then Herod, the mockings and the beatings, then the final verdict of the people and the final scourging had totally sapped Jesus of his physical strength. (The Life of Christ, Ferrar 634) Jesus was utterly exhausted as he staggered beneath the weight of sin’s cruelty that had been placed on his shoulders. The greatest weight had been placed on his heart. The people who pushed by him and stared and hurled insults at him were his people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He recognized many faces. Many he had healed, many had followed him, many had hailed him a king just a short time ago when he had entered Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt. Many more made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to observe the Holy Passover. He sensed the oppressive darkness in their lives, a separation from God that made them crazed in their blindness and their hunger. He sensed the fear and the engulfing confusion of those who had seen his miracles and believed him to be the Messiah. He read their nobility and he read their depravity. ‘For this cause I came into the world, to open the eyes of the blind,’ he uttered in prayer to his Father.
Jesus was stripped of his clothing and nailed to the cross. The cross was slowly raised to its height and then dropped into a deep hole in the ground, in full reach of any of the gaping onlookers who may choose to strike him or inflict on him some other gesture of insult. (Ferrar 640)
For six hours Jesus experienced excruciating pain, dizziness, cramping, and a raging thirst. (Farrar 641)
The Jewish officials were smug in their victory until they noticed the wooden sign that had been nailed to the top-most portion of Jesus cross. An inscription was smeared in black letters, in three languages, and it read: “The King of the Jews.” Enraged, they sent their chief priests to beg Pilate to change the inscription to read “HE SAYS he is the King of the Jew,” but the Governor refused. And so the truth was openly victorious, even on the cross. Colossians 2:15
Please accept this dramatic rendition of Jesus last hours on earth as an attempt to make his loving sacrifice more of a reality.
Crucified
‘The evening of overwhelming emotion, the night of sleepless anxiety and suffering, the three trials and three sentences of death he received before the Jewish officials, the endless scene before Pilate, then Herod, the mockings and the beatings, then the final verdict of the people and the final scourging had totally sapped Jesus of his physical strength. (The Life of Christ, Ferrar 634) Jesus was utterly exhausted as he staggered beneath the weight of sin’s cruelty that had been placed on his shoulders. The greatest weight had been placed on his heart. The people who pushed by him and stared and hurled insults at him were his people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He recognized many faces. Many he had healed, many had followed him, many had hailed him a king just a short time ago when he had entered Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt. Many more made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to observe the Holy Passover. He sensed the oppressive darkness in their lives, a separation from God that made them crazed in their blindness and their hunger. He sensed the fear and the engulfing confusion of those who had seen his miracles and believed him to be the Messiah. He read their nobility and he read their depravity. ‘For this cause I came into the world, to open the eyes of the blind,’ he uttered in prayer to his Father.
Jesus was stripped of his clothing and nailed to the cross. The cross was slowly raised to its height and then dropped into a deep hole in the ground, in full reach of any of the gaping onlookers who may choose to strike him or inflict on him some other gesture of insult. (Ferrar 640)
For six hours Jesus experienced excruciating pain, dizziness, cramping, and a raging thirst. (Farrar 641)
The Jewish officials were smug in their victory until they noticed the wooden sign that had been nailed to the top-most portion of Jesus cross. An inscription was smeared in black letters, in three languages, and it read: “The King of the Jews.” Enraged, they sent their chief priests to beg Pilate to change the inscription to read “HE SAYS he is the King of the Jew,” but the Governor refused. And so the truth was openly victorious, even on the cross. Colossians 2:15
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