Jesus Is Crucified

Jesus Is Crucified

Matthew 27:31-44; Mark 15:21-32; Luke 23:26-43; John 19:16-27

This will be a difficult week. Many people find it hard to consider in detail what Jesus endured on our behalf at the Cross. The whole idea of public execution via crucifixion is both foreign and abhorrent to us. Each of the Gospel writers included a glimpse of the grisly scene, and each one revealed something unique in his account. The descriptions of Jesus’ suffering on the cross leave us stunned and silent. Most of the talking on Golgotha was done by onlookers, not by the three men on crosses. Their statements were brief. Both their silence and their few words take us into the heart of the meaning of the Cross.

 

Stations of Suffering

Reading the Word

Luke 23:26-33, NIV

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30Then ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ 31For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.

Setting the Scene

Once the mockery of justice was over in Jesus’ manipulated trial, the sentence was immediately set in motion. Jesus began to walk the Via Dolorosa (the way of suffering). Over the centuries, believers meditating on Jesus’ experience have developed a sequence, partly based on the biblical account and partly based on tradition, called “the stations of the Cross.” These snapshots of the journey to the Cross are often depicted in stained-glass windows, paintings, carvings, and occasionally an extended walking experience with statuary that allows pilgrims to sense the movement in Jesus’ greatest act. The stations can be as many as fourteen, but ten mark events leading to the moment when Jesus was nailed to the cross: (1) Jesus is formally condemned to death (John 19:16); (2) Jesus sets out bearing his cross (Matthew 27:31; John 19:17); (3) Jesus falls; (4) Jesus meets his mother along the way; (5) Simon is recruited to help Jesus (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26); (6) Veronica wipes the face of Jesus; (7) Jesus falls again; (8) Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31); (9) Jesus falls a third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments for which the guards will gamble (Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24).

Condemned men were required to carry their own crosses to the execution site, but beatings had weakened Jesus so that apparently he needed assistance. The Roman soldiers recruited Simon of Cyrene to assist Jesus. Mark’s note that Simon was “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21) seems to indicate that the man and his family were known among the believers in Jerusalem. We don’t know if Simon was a displaced Jew in town for the Passover or whether he was a Jewish proselyte from Africa, since Cyrene is in Libya. Simon’s action points toward the significance of Jesus’ teaching about faithful discipleship being similar to bearing a cross. What Simon was required to do every believer should be willing to do, take up the cross assigned to us by God and serve Christ (see Luke 14:27).

Luke records that there was a group of believers who followed Jesus to Calvary, weeping. Jesus spoke to the women briefly, urging them to join him in grieving for Jerusalem. Their grief for him would be short-lived, but the city would soon face destruction by Rome.

Once Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was three hours from the finish line. During those hours of excruciating suffering, Jesus made several brief statements, though breathing was very difficult. Jesus’ crucified companions soon became silent. But he had some important things to say. Seven times he spoke. Three times, his words were prayers: He prayed for those who had just nailed him to the cross (Luke 23:34); he prayed as he realized God’s abandonment (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34); and his final words were a prayer (Luke 23:46). Twice he had brief conversations with others: the two thieves beside him (Luke 23:39-43) and then his mother and John (John 19:26-27). And twice he spoke to the people gathered at the foot of the cross: “I am thirsty” (John 19:28, NIV), and “It is finished” (John 19:30, NIV). His last, brief words still speak into our lives today.

Getting Personal

Knowing how the story turns out, what benefit do you find in revisiting the events of Jesus’ crucifixion? How do you respond to the fact of his suffering?

With whom do you identify most in the events of Jesus’ last hours?

What words of Jesus from the cross speak most directly to you?

When we think about the cross of Jesus, our memories of suffering can help, but we haven’t seen the Cross until we can truthfully say, “I belong there, but because of Jesus, I won’t be going there!”

Talking to God

Meditate on the suffering of your Savior, cherishing what he did at the Cross on your behalf. Ask him to help you show your gratitude to him through your personal worship and obedience today.

 

(Veerman, 2011-08-25)

Veerman, D. R.  (2011-08-25). Life Application Study Bible Devotional. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]].  Retrieved from vbk://9781414365947