“Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle…. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” …When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
John 19:16-18, 28, 30 NIV
How inconceivable that this glorious, supremely perfect, unequalled human life should end like this! What had Jesus done to deserve this ignominious death? Naked, bloodied and battered beyond recognition, helplessly skewered to a Roman torture stake, suffocating under the weight of His own body, insulted and mocked by His tormentors, He died!
Luke inadvertently expressed in two words the absolutely outrageous nature of this event…
“When 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.”
Luke 23:33 NIV
What was He, Jesus, the Son of God, doing there…on a cross…outside Jerusalem…His own royal city…the King of heaven crowned with thorns?
From a human perspective, this was the worst possible way to end any life, let alone the life of God who came from heaven as a man to serve mankind! Was this the most terrible mistake ever made by the God of the universe? Did He lose control of an impossible situation? Did Jesus push His enemies too far? Did He end up the victim of His own ego?
The Bible has a very different interpretation to an unintelligible event!
First, this situation…detail by detail, was planned before time…
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
Revelation 13:8 NIV
…and prophesied centuries before it happened.
“Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—”
Isaiah 52:14 NIV
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
On the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His glorious ministry of revelation, caused the truth to spill out of Peter’s mouth…
Quoting an ancient prophecy, Peter declared…
“ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Acts 2:17, 22-24 NIV
Yes, dead on Passover…but alive three days later!
This Jesus, whom the Roman soldiers hung by nails on a cross and watched HIM THERE, is the same Jesus who sits on the throne of heaven, exalted to the right hand of God, the Father. To Him was given the title, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
No, the cross was not the end of a beautiful life but the beginning of a new species…sons and daughters of the living God through His mercy and grace.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
1 Peter 1:3 NIV
“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV
All this is possible only because the Jews condemned Him to death, and the soldiers carried out the Roman governor’s order, and Jesus was crucified there…on Golgotha…for our sins…and rose again…for our justification, and they watched HIM THERE!
- My song is love unknown–
my Savior’s love to me;
love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?
- He came from His blest throne
salvation to bestow;
but men made strange, and none
the longed for Christ would know.
But oh, my Friend, my Friend indeed,
who at my need His life did spend!
- Sometimes they strew His way,
and His sweet praises sing;
resounding all the day
hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
and for His death they thirst and cry.
- Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run;
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
themselves displease,
and ‘gainst Him rise.
- They rise, and needs will have
my dear Lord made away.
A murderer they save;
the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suff’ring goes,
that He His foes from thence might free.
- In life, no house, no home
my Lord on earth might have;
in death, no friendly tomb
but what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
but mine the tomb wherein He lay.
- Here might I stay and sing–
no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.
(Author: Samuel Crossman, source: hymnary.org)