You
must read it all to answer the question!
It’s said
that a picture is worth a thousand words. Often times a picture or symbol can convey
a meaning more effectively than someone can describe it! For example, the cross above the altar! It’s a beautiful work
of art and it’s precious to us because of all that it represents. It keeps
before our minds and hearts the greatest act of love in all eternity, our
Savior’s atoning death on Calvary! It pictures God’s saving grace in Jesus! The
cross has long been a symbol of all that the Christian faith is and teaches. But
the cross Jesus was nailed to wasn’t a beautiful work of art but a hideous
implement of torture used to inflict the most pain possible! Jesus had been condemned
to die, most rejoiced. It seems they loved to
hate Him. Spirit bless…
The Romans
who carried out our Savior’s crucifixion were members of the 10th Legion, they
were mercenaries known for their brutality. To them, Jesus was just another
criminal to be crucified. Jesus, having been led out of the city with two
criminals as prophecy foretold, was then shamefully
stripped naked, nails like railroad spikes were hammered through His hands or
wrists. (In Jesus’ day, the wrist was considered to be part of the hand ) His
feet, one foot on top of the other, were nailed to the cross through the middle
and arch of each foot. The way Jesus’ arms were stretched out caused cramping
and paralysis of the chest muscles, making it impossible to breathe unless some
of the weight was held up by the feet.
Jesus
had to push up against the nail in his feet to breathe causing excruciating
pain. After taking a breath He would have to slump back down to relieve the pain in His feet and legs. The
breathing process had to be repeated over and over again. Most of those
crucified ultimately died of asphyxiation, what a horrible way to die, they
suffocated to death!
Crucifixion was a slow, torturing death. the most painful death ever conceived,
but that was only the physical
pain!!
Our
Redeemer willingly embraced the death of the cross because of His love for
mankind! On
Calvary Jesus carried the sins of the world in His own body, He had to endure the full fury of His Father’s wrath against
our sins, the pain of hell itself. God was reconciling
the world to himself in Christ! that saving Message was unknown to most
who witnessed His crucifixion. It had been cunningly and purposely hidden by
the Jewish leaders.
Most present
celebrated the fact that soon they would be rid of Jesus who they saw as their
enemy, He was feared by the leaders of the Jews. Their unbelief blinded them to
His love and reason for coming, to save mankind by taking our place under the
Law and suffering what we deserved. By what they said, He
saved others; let Him save Himself if He is God's Messiah, the Chosen One,
and by their cries of crucify Him, they showed their
vicious rejection of Jesus! The accusations they used
to have Jesus condemned were lies. Even Pilate, a rank unbeliever and evil
man knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.
they loved to hate Jesus!
The
spiritual leaders of the Jews were afraid the people would hear Jesus’ saving
Gospel and believe in Him. Many Jews and Gentiles had already been brought to
faith and they wanted that stopped! They weren’t the least bit concerned about
the spiritual welfare of those they served. If Jesus wasn’t silenced, they
would lose what they held dearest, their status and the praises of the people! You’d
think they had to see the Savior’s love, it was abundantly evident, but no! Unbelief
is blind and deaf to God’s Word, it can’t understand the love, forgiveness, and
peace the Gospel proclaims. Even so, Jesus had no bitterness, no resentment in His
heart; not even against those who carried out Pilate’s sentence. With all they
said, with all they did to Him, in all His pain and suffering, Jesus didn’t
condemn them, instead He prayed for them! His prayer had no conditions, no
strings attached to it. He asked that all involved in His death be forgiven! From
Pilate down to the lowly soldiers of the 10th Legion whose grim duty it had
been to nail the Savior to His cross! Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them. they
do not know what they do!
Though the world was made through Jesus, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His
own did not receive Him. Their hardened
hearts refused to even consider that this carpenter’s Son could be Israel’s
hope, mankind’s Redeemer. The beaten, bloodied, dying Savior had no beauty or majesty
to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
They saw Jesus only as a criminal and danger to Israel. Jesus’ forgiving grace,
His undeserved love, was lost on them! Though Jesus had come to die for them,
to win forgiveness and life eternal, they chose to reject Him. they loved to
hate Him! We’re just as guilty; it was our sins as well that nailed Jesus
to the cross, but it was His love for mankind that kept Him there.
The guards
who remained as the Lord suffered sat down under the shadow of His cross. They
had no clue that all around them raged the final battle in the war for
salvation. They were oblivious to what was going on and spent their time gambling
for the Lord's clothes. What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Nothing
has changed!
Most people
today live within walking distance of a church, oblivious to their soul’s
needs. Most have no clue that they’re dying a needless death, gambling away
their priceless time of grace until it’s too late. Their
hearts have been deceived by the world and its prince! Father, forgive them and us for the times we’re
sluggish and cold toward our Redeemer and His saving grace, for the times we
take His love and salvation for granted, for the times we think we’re too busy or
tired to serve Him whose blood has redeemed us! Father, forgive us for Jesus’ sake, and He has!
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from
all sin!
Amen!
