The Crucifixion

Okay, I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary. We're just saying and we do believe in a hill called Mount Calvary. We're going to take a look at what happened on that hill probably for the next three or four weeks. We will be on the crucifixion scene. We're just beginning it tonight. Actually the journey to the cross. We have seen that the trial had ended and Jesus is now being led to the place of execution, to the place of crucifixion. We're going to see that later what the soldiers who would crucify people actually did when they put someone on a cross. And when we look at that we will recognize these are very hardened men. They're very hard soldiers. They could not have done day in and day out what they did without being very callous and hardened toward human suffering and pain. But there are there are things that will happen in relationship to the death of Christ that are unlike anything they have ever seen. On the way to the scene of crucifixion as they actually get there things that will happen when they place Jesus on the cross through the six hours he is on the cross. There are a number of things that will happen that will soften the hearts of those very hardened men. Because there are a number of unusual events that take place. There are a number of very common things that will take place. The event of the crucifixion itself will be very much like any other crucifixion. So what we're going to try to do is balance those two. I want you to understand what would actually happen in a crucifixion. The scriptures just say they crucified him that was enough for the people who were reading it. The Jews who were reading it because they understood all of what would take place. They had seen it many many times. There were multiple crucifixions in Israel. They were usually done in very public places. So they would be warnings to the Jewish people. So they were very familiar with what happened at a crucifixion. We are not familiar with that. And so I want us to understand the very real event that was taking place. But I don't want in the midst of that to lose the person who was being crucified and the purpose for which he was being crucified. So in order to to span both of those the physical and spiritual side of the crucifixion, it's going to take a little while to mind the depths of all that's taking place. The events that happen that are unusual that I mentioned earlier are unusual because of the interaction Jesus has with people. That is very unusual. Every time Jesus interacts with people on the way to the skull to Golgotha Mount Calvary. Everyone interacts with while he is on his way or while he is on the cross is extremely different, extremely unusual. And so that's what makes this an amazing scene and what makes it different for the Roman soldiers that would carry it out. Kent Hughes, who is one of my favorite expositors and commentators on the Gospels, calls these interactions with different people dazzling explosions of grace. I just love that terminology. They really are. Every time Jesus interacts with someone, it is literally an explosion of grace that is extended to people. And we'll see that as we as we move along. We began last week in Luke 23 and that's where we are tonight. Luke chapter 23, all four of the Gospels obviously record the crucifixion and we will jump back and forth a little bit but we'll focus on Luke 23 tonight. We saw last week that Jesus on the way to the scene of crucifixion because of all that has been done to him, loss of blood, loss of energy, loss of rest, because of everything that's been done. Jesus is his strength is just about gone. And so whether or not he falls, as you often see in the movies, we don't know the scriptures don't tell us that, but obviously the soldiers recognize that he was too weak to carry the crossbeam and might not even make it to the hill where he would be crucified. And so they grab this guy just a bystander, one who is coming into town who has no idea really of what's going on. His name is Simon and so the first explosion of grace at the beginning of the crucifixion is Jesus and Simon. In verse 26 we find how Luke states it. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene and remember Cyrene is North Africa just west of Egypt and where present they Libya is who was on his way in from the country. He's just coming into town. And so they are leading the two thieves in Christ on a main thoroughfare out of town. We actually know pretty well where it would have been and this man is coming into town. And so they grab him and the Bible says they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Now the procession would be such and I described this a little bit last week. There were four Roman soldiers around the person who was going to be crucified. Typically that person would be carrying the beam, the crossbeam that would be across the top of the cross. They would be carrying that. There would probably be someone in front of him carrying a placard and we'll see that a little bit later. That would list the crime or it might possibly be worn around the accused neck. It was done both ways. But Jesus is too weak to carry that crossbeam and so Simon is pressed into service. That much we saw last week. What we didn't get to last week is that there is more to the story of Simon. Mark gives us a little bit of additional detail in the verses on the screen for you. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country and they forced him to carry the cross. The thing that Mark adds that none of the other gospels have is that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. He just mentions their names as though they would be known to whomever Mark's gospel is intended for. Now if you remember three years ago when we introduced the life of Christ and we talked about the gospels were intended for a different audience, Mark's gospel was intended basically for the Roman audience. Mark was writing from Peter's perspective and probably had heard, maybe even Peter had in a sense dictated to him the events that Mark records, so Mark's gospel is basically intended for the church at Rome. So it's quite possible that Alexander and Rufus are in the church at Rome. An interesting side note is that Paul mentions in Romans chapter 16 and verse 13, a man by the name of Rufus, in the church at Rome. Greek Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother who has been a mother to me too. Now it's obviously impossible to know for sure that the two Rufuses are the same, but the fact that they are both mentioned as being well known in the Roman church leads you to believe that they may be one and the same. They may be the same person. So that leads us to believe that quite possibly Simon after he carried the crossbeam to the place of execution may have hung around to see what was happening, may have heard all that was going on somehow either been affected deeply by that then or got connected with the disciples later, who knows how it happened, but very possibly, quite probably, Simon became a believer. And his two sons are mentioned as being known to the Roman church and were quite probably a part of that church. So the song that we have heard around here a lot and was originally composed by Ray Bolts, watch the Lamb, Jerry has sung that song a good bit, that may well represent a true event that Simon with his two sons witnessed the crucifixion and end up recognizing that Jesus really is the Lamb of God. It's quite possible that would happen. By the way, Ray Bolts wrote that song, my mind is leaving me. Who does the drama here in town? Norm Ahrington. After he had seen Norm Ahrington do that drama and then he wrote the song and of course the song became very, very popular. But at any rate, Simon may have well been a recipient of one of those explosions of grace that comes from our Lord on the way to the cross. The second one is the mourners. Jesus and the mourners. Let's look at verse 27. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. These women are not part of the followers of Christ. These women are professional mourners. It was common. It was a commonplace thing for this to happen. Whenever people were being taken to execution, there were certain women who tried to show mercy on them. They were not professional mourners in the sense of being fakes or actors. They were women who had a genuine compassion for people, Jews, who were being led away to execution and would walk alongside sometimes offering prayers, sometimes doing whatever they could to encourage them. Apart from intervening in the Roman soldiers and what they were doing. But this was very common. They would weep. They would try to encourage in any way they possibly could. They were in a very real sense professional mourners trying to do whatever they could to ease the pain and suffering. They were very kind and sympathetic people. These are probably the people Jesus addresses and notice he does address them in verse 28. Jesus turned and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. Immediately Jesus is concerned about them. Now these mourners commonly were concerned and wept for and did whatever they could to help those who were being led to execution. This is extremely unusual for one who is being taken to be crucified, to turn and speak to those who are supposed to be encouraging them. But Jesus does and it's a warning. He says, don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. He goes on then to give a prophetic statement. He says in verse 29, for the time will come when you will say, blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed, then they will say to the mountains, fallen us and to the hills, cover us. What do you think Jesus is referring to here? What time is he talking about? Tribulation time, something very similar. AD 70, second coming. We have a wide spectrum of things here. I think Jesus probably is referring specifically to the destruction of Jerusalem and Israel in AD 70 by the Roman armies. Obviously that is very similar to what happened in the tribulation time prior to the second coming. But I think that's what he's referring to specifically because these women were in a sense trying to ease the pain of suffering for those who were being led to execution. Jesus basically says, there are people in the future, your own children possibly, who will suffer much more than this in the future. Woe to them, cry for them, weep for them because at that time people will want mountains to fall on them, hills to cover them. That certainly is true, that expression of the tribulation time, but you can see it kind of offset like it was a common saying, it was a common poetic type of referring to extreme suffering. And Jesus basically is warning them of the judgment to come. That's what he's doing. It literally is a prophecy of that. And then in verse 31, he makes this statement kind of a proverb, for if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? If people do these things, in other words, if the Roman government and the Roman army do these things to people, if you're seeing crucifixions suffering in your nation like this, when the tree is green, probably referring to the fact when the Messiah is here, what will happen when it is dry? What will happen 40 years after the Messiah has been rejected by the Jews? Then the judgment is going to be even worse. Okay. This is happening even in the midst of the time when the kingdom was offered to the Jews. And it was ripe for the taking. The tree was green. It was, it was the opportune time. 40 years later, when their opportunity has a long since passed and everything is dried up in that sense, as far as the expectation, the Jews, how much worse it will be when God uses the Roman army to actually punish the whole nation. So it's a warning, but it's also, in a sense, a warning couched in grace. He is warning them so that they can avoid that future time of punishment and God's judgment. Okay. So Jesus and the mourners and the next people he interacts with. Any comments or questions there? Okay. Let's move to the next one. In Jesus and the soldiers, the soldiers are the next people that Jesus will interact with. And we're going to spend a little bit of time on this because this is where we actually get to the events of the crucifixion itself. The first thing that happens, the first thing that is mentioned is the two criminals in verse 32. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. A couple of things going on here. One is that Jesus being executed with two criminals is in a sense a message being sent by the Jews and by the Romans that he is no better than a common criminal, which is another reproach that is cast on him, another injustice that is thrown his way in his suffering. These criminals, we know them as thieves, some translations, use the word thief or thieves. That really does not give us the full picture. And so some newer translations use a little more descriptive word. The word thief is not just a common petty thief who may have broken into someone's home. That was not a capital crime, even in the Roman system of justice. The word thief really is a word for a vagabond, a rebel, an insurrectionist who would plunder and steal whenever they burned down something or attacked something. So they were just really bad guys. Barabbas was that kind of person. He was an insurrectionist, a rebel. And as I mentioned earlier, it's quite possible these two men were to be crucified with Barabbas. It's quite possible that Barabbas would have been the third one executed that day. Had not the Jews said we want Jesus executed in Barabbas released. So these were not just petty thieves. These were hardened, really bad guy kind of criminals. And so the text is appropriate to use that word criminal. Okay, he is hung between the two criminals. Let's take a moment to talk about the place. Verse 32 says they let him out to be executed. Verse 33, when they came to the place called the skull. They crucified him there along with the criminals one on his right and the other on his left. This place is called the skull. It is a hill outside the city wall of Jerusalem called the skull. It is at times referred to in the biblical text as Galgatha, which is the aramaic word for skull. So it's basically the same word. We use the word Calvary. We used it in a song tonight. That comes from the Latin Calvary is the word for skull. And so really the place is called the skull. That's the proper name for the skull. In the aramaic language it would be Galgatha. We call it Calvary from the Latin. But the place is the skull. That's what it was called. And while we're thinking about the place, let me show you some pictures of potential places. And it's important to recognize kind of the flow of events here. Jesus has come from the Praetorium, the palace of that was built by here at the great occupied by the Roman governor. So that's where pilot would have tried him. He would have been led from there. This line indicates outside the city wall to a place just outside the city on a main thoroughfare, a main road going outside the city. Crucifixions were intended to be very public. So it would have been on a main road. And the spot has been pretty well identified since early times. And in 325, 330 or so just after Constantine became emperor, he began building churches all over Israel to commemorate holy spots. So he would have chosen places that had good tradition behind them that would have probably been the most reasonable place for it to be. And this is where he has actually chosen. Notice this next picture if you will please. This is the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And this church, huge church, this is a cutaway of it, is was built by Constantine in the 300s over the place where most likely Jesus was crucified. It is the place that has the best tradition to it. Both the crucifixion over in this area and the tomb over in this area are commemorated by this building. I have been in this building and I have seen all that is inside it and it is kind of sickening really because it is a combination of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and several other religions that have built this and maintained it today. And it is just extremely well just all kinds of artifacts and candles and everything else. Next picture you can see right here is a rocky outcropping. This is in all likelihood the actual hill, Galgoth has been covered, put behind glass and the actual place of execution is covered next picture with all of these shrines. It just takes away the actual importance and beauty of the place. But it is hard to see a little bit but this is glass and underneath the glass on both sides here is the top of the actual hill, the rocky outcropping. And this really does have the best tradition behind it. Most historians would say this is the location. In the late 1800s a general who was a believer, General Gordon was in Jerusalem, it was on a trip to Israel. And standing on the city wall he looked out across to another rocky outcropping and saw what he thought looked like a skull and he decided maybe that is the place. This place was so built up with all the religious stuff. It is kind of lost its meaning. And so the next picture shows what is typically called as Gordon's Calvary. Gordon's Calvary, the place of the skull you can see maybe in a couple of different ways here. The eyes, nose, shape of a skull. And Gordon was on a city wall which is about where this picture would be taken from. This whole area is built up a lot now. Doesn't look like this. This is an older picture. In fact, at the base of this mountain right now is at least in 1984 when I was there. It is a bust terminal. So, but he said this must be the place. This is the place of the skull. And so from the late 1800s on this is typically the place you hear that the crucifixion took place. It is called Gordon's Calvary. And there is a garden that has an empty tomb close to this place and that is the place that you typically see in pictures when you hear about the resurrection. The only problem with that is there is no historical credence to that at all. History is far back as we know basically has located the place and a church covers it now and all of that other stuff. So, this is probably not the place where Jesus was crucified even though it is very attractive because it is not so covered up with everything. Okay, any comments or questions about the place of crucifixion? So, on the crucifixion, do we know how often they crucified people? No, but we know there were a lot. There are Roman records of multiple crucifixions at the same time. Many more than like the three here. Dozens of them at the same time along the road. Road is going out of Jerusalem so that it would be a warning to people. So we know there were many how often it happened. I don't know. I guess those were the three that were on the docket that day. There might have been more the next day or the next week but those were the three that had their sentence had been passed and they were ready to be executed. I don't know that there is any other reason for the number. It might be. I don't know. Did they always beat him? No, they didn't. The beating in Jesus' case, it did happen sometimes and sometimes the beating happened without crucifixion. Sometimes that was just the form of punishment for someone. The beating happened for Jesus. Remember as pilots attempt to get rid of him and not put him to death. He hoped that would soften the hearts of the religious leaders and they would say, okay, that's enough. We've seen it up blood. Let him go. But they didn't. And pilot was really just doing that kind of as a last resort to keep from executing him. That didn't happen with everybody for sure. The other two who were executed, yes, they would have been led out at the same time, which is another reason to suspect that maybe Barabbas was intended to be on that cross. They were probably all brought out of the Praetorium and led through the streets and to the place of crucifixion. Yes, Greg? My guess would be that it would not be the only place, but it probably was a common one. They deliberately chose significant places, high places that could be seen from much of the city and were along main roads. How many of those places there would have been accessible to them in that day, I really don't know. And I'm not familiar with anything that would tell us definitely. But certainly this would be a prominent place. It's hard to tell how steep that would have been. You saw a picture of Gordon's Calvary. That's pretty typical of those rocky outcroppings and rocky cliffs in that area. Some of them are pretty straight down, pretty steep. But it's hard to tell what Golgotha actually looked like. Because it's all covered up now. Okay. The next thing that happens, and this is described for us in Matthew 27, is the narcotic that was offered. I think we have the verse for you on the screen, Matthew 27, 34, there, and this would happen before they would put the person on the cross. There they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with Golgotha, but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. Now this was a common narcotic, basically, to deaden the pain of the person who would be put on the cross. I mean, when we describe in a few moments what they would do to them, you understand why they would provide this for them. And a lot of it was to keep them from fighting back so much. And so this was a typical narcotic that would be used to deaden the senses, kind of put them half out, if it were, as it were. But when Jesus tasted it, they offered to him, He tasted it, realized what it was, He refused it. Which again tells you something about Him being in complete control of the situation, and that He wants to be fully aware of what's happening. There are several things He's going to accomplish on the cross. Seven statements He's going to make on the cross. They are purposeful statements. They were not random statements. They were purposeful statements. And so Jesus wants to be in complete control of His faculties, even though He is in horrible pain and loss of strength, He will not deaden His senses as He experiences the cross. And that is an amazing, amazing thing. That had to be one of the first signs that something difference going on here to those Roman soldiers. Okay, let's mention the written charge next because this also would be taking place at about the same time they would be offering the narcotic. The written charge is described in John chapter 19. So let's hold our place in Luke and turn over to John 19. This is the most complete description of the written charge. John chapter 19, verse 19. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. Let me just say this. This was a very common. I mean, this happened with most people who were executed. The charge that they were condemned for would be written on a placard, kind of wooden placard. And it would either be paraded in front of them as they went to the place of execution by Roman soldier or it would be worn around their neck. But when they got to the place of crucifixion, when they got to the scene, they would take that placard and they would nail it to the cross so that anybody coming by would be able to see what that criminal was charged with. And this is what Pilate had put on that placard in regard to Jesus. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Now you have to actually put all three gospels, all four gospels together to get the entire statement because each of the gospels reports it just a little differently. The whole statement reads this way, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. That was the statement that was put on the cross. And notice, John says many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek to make sure everybody, no matter what part of the world they come from, would be able to read it, written in three languages. Notice what happens next, this is extremely interesting. The chief priest of the Jews protested the Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate's response in verse 22, Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Now, Pilates, well let me ask you, what do you think, what do you think Pilate was getting at there? I've had enough of this, surely seems to be some of that. Yeah? Right, I think there's some of that in there as well. I think Pilate is kind of stiffening himself against the Jewish leaders, he hates them anyway, and he's felt played by them, he's felt manipulated by them, you know, all they used to try to play him against Caesar and that kind of thing. I think finally he's saying, okay, I get the last word on this, I think there's some of that. And I think mixed with that, there is a deliberate attempt to mock and take revenge on the Jewish religious leaders. I do not think Pilate meant this as a mockery against Jesus, not after all that happened in the trials, I don't think he's mocking Jesus. I don't think he's saying, look, here's your king, look at him, he's some kind of king, I don't think that's it. I think because the Jews included that in the charge against him, that Pilate is mocking the religious leaders, and what you've said is true, he's had enough of this, and he's wanting to say, you people, I get the last word on this, you're not going to make me do anything else. So I think that's basically why the statement is made, and Pilate sticks to his guns on writing the charge that he wrote. Was it, did it have something to do with these wives' dream? Who knows, it might have, it may be that in this dream his wife became aware of who he was or suspected who he was or something. We don't really know, but that may have factored into it, and is Pilate actually saying, I believe he is the king of the Jews? That's a bit of a stretch, I don't know, I don't know. Surely Pilate's career from here on shows no evidence of any life or heart change. So I don't know that he made a personal commitment to Christ, but certainly he may have been still scared, superstitious about his wife's dream, that may have factored into it. Okay, the next scene itself is the scene of crucifixion, and we only have about five minutes left, and we really don't have time to get into the description of this in any length. But before we close, let me at least give you a little bit of background on how execution came, or crucifixion came to be the preferred means of execution by the Roman government. The crucifixion actually goes all the way back to ancient Persia, the Persian Empire, the Mito-Persian Empire, and they're the ones that came up with it, they're the ones that kind of devised it, and the reason they did is because the ground was sacred to one of their gods, and could not be defiled when they were putting someone to death. Now, obviously people died on the ground all the time, but if they were putting someone to death, they did not want the ground defiled and contaminated because of their god. So they were looking for a way to, in a sense, execute people off of the ground so that they would not touch the ground. So what happened is they found that by driving nails in someone's feet and hands into a wooden beam off the ground was a good way to execute people, but to keep them from touching the ground. So they were the ones that really came up with this, the Persians. Later on, the Phoenicians would actually do a study, they would actually do a study of the different kinds of execution. They studied, for instance, stoning, spearing, boiling in oil, strangling, drowning, burning, and on and on it goes. They basically did a case study of all the different kinds of executions and decided that none of those were too fast and did not create enough suffering. They were too fast and they were not cruel enough. And so they chose crucifixion as the most painful means of death ever thought of, and it probably is the worst kind of torture ever devised in the evil human mind. It is slow, it is humiliating, it is public, it is painful beyond description, and we'll try to describe some of it next week. But usually the person being crucified would be stripped naked, and so the public humiliation with all the crowds going by the Romans typically did that way. The public humiliation of all this was just unbelievable. Mixed with the incredible pain, the thirst, the torture, the exposure to insects, whatever elements there may be, and all of that continuing on, interminably. It was just an absolutely horrible, horrible way to torture someone to death. Next week, what I would like to do is actually take you through a typical crucifixion. I've never seen anything not even in Mel Gibson's movie that really captures what was actually done and each step of it, what each Roman soldier did, and how they had this down to a science. It's just incredibly brutal. But I think we need to understand that our Savior was willing to do this and not strike back, not retaliate, and not even speak out against his tormentors because he was burying our sin. I think we need to understand that. So we'll come back to this next time. Okay, let's pray. Father, I pray that you would, as we examine very carefully what happened on that day when your son died, when we try to experience at least somewhat, what those who actually witnessed it saw, what they must have sensed and felt. We pray, Father, that we will come to a better understanding of the extreme price that was paid for our sins. Lord, what actually happened that day has been so distorted with the pictures and the crucifixes and the things that we often see that we really do not have an accurate picture. So I pray that we will understand better the price that was paid, the length to which Jesus was willing to go to become a sacrifice for us. That he did not take the easy way out. He did not take a quick, painless death. The very death itself seemed to indicate the horror and the awesomeness of the sin he was paying for. So Father, help us to understand that better. Thank you, Lord, for your love for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.