Don’t let the reality of Jesus Christ escape you this Easter. The glory of God has been substantiated throughout the earth, from the fine tuning of the universe to the fulfillment of prophecy and the nation of Israel’s existence today. There are peace treaties being signed with Israel now that are fulfilling prophetic scripture before our very eyes. It is time for the people who have a heart for God to awaken with true situational awareness. We are about to witness the fullness of time! The Holy Bible is the most authenticated writing in the history of man. The historicity of Jesus of Nazareth is a fact.
It is through this lens that we must contemplate the happenings of the original Good Friday, the crucifixion of Jesus two thousand years ago. The things that he endured on our behalf should pierce our hearts and drop us to our knees. So much gets lost when we gloss over the details of that fateful day when the lamb of God was sacrificed to atone for the wickedness of men.
That morning began with Jesus being tied to flogging post and then flogged with a flagrum, which was a leather whip, with leather thongs or cords of varying lengths, in which small iron balls and sheep bone fragments were fixed at intervals. The leather balls would deeply bruise the victim’s flesh while the bone fragments would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Eventually the underlying muscle would be lacerated, and the recipient experienced severe pain and blood loss. The word excruciating is derived from the Latin word excruciare, cruciare, to crucify. The flagellation itself was called the half death as many victims died shortly after.
After being flogged, Jesus was forced to carry the cross beam of the cross to the place where he was to be crucified however, part-way, a bystander, Simon of Cyrene was made to carry it, because the weakened Jesus was unable to. He was then nailed to the cross and hung. Death during crucifixion was usually the result of asphyxiation. Since the victim’s shoulders would dislocate from being hung by the arms, they would be unable to breathe properly. When they struggled to exhale, they were forced to push up with their legs from the nails in their feet. Without enough oxygen being inhaled, carbon dioxide would build up in the blood resulting in high levels of carbonic acid. This would in turn cause damage to the capillaries and watery fluid would leak into the surrounding tissues.
The repeated pushing up against the wooden cross would aggravate the already exposed back muscles, with friction, slivers and splinters of wood becoming imbedded. Once the victim was no longer able to push up to facilitate breathing, they would suffocate. There is also a good chance that Jesus suffered from hypovolemic shock from loss of blood.
Late Friday afternoon as the Sabbath approached, the Roman soldiers were instructed to hurry the process along so it would be complete by sunset when the Sabbath began. They did this by breaking the legs of the two criminals crucified with Jesus so they could no longer push up to exhale. When they got to Jesus, he was already dead, so they thrust a spear into his side to confirm that was the case. John 19:34 says, “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’s side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” Verse 36 goes on to say, “these things happened so that scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’” (Psalm 34:20) and Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”
While Jesus hung on the cross dying, “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” Mathew 27:45. Then Jesus died. “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split…” Mathew 27:51.
Sextus Julius Africanus wrote in his History of the World, around 52 AD, “On the whole world there pressed the most fearful darkness, and the rocks were rent by an earthquake and many places in Judea and other places were thrown down. Greek historian Thallus commented on this darkness, in the third book of his history, saying, “as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.” Indeed, Jesus was crucified at Passover, which took place on a full moon, on the fourteenth day of the month which always began with a new moon. A full moon is never visible during the day therefore, as Thallus correctly noted, it could not have been an eclipse of the sun.
The night before he was crucified, Jesus established the New Covenant with the breaking of bread and sharing the cup of wine. In my book Truth Cries Out, I wrote how this covenant is very much like a first century Jewish marriage contract (shetar and/or ketubah) with Christ as the bridegroom and the body of true believers as the bride. The marriage contract stipulated the father of the bridegroom pay a price for the bride or dowry. Once the contract was ratified with the bride drinking from a cup of wine, the father would then take his son and return home where the son would prepare a place for his bride to live. At this point the woman was considered acquired, or bought with a price. The son would return for her when the marriage chamber was complete.
Since we are betrothed to Christ in this same way, we are called to be faithful until he returns. We are witnessing events in our world today that confirm the truth of the scriptures and never before have the signs been so vivid that Jesus will soon return for his bride. The Bridegroom wants his bride. Jesus wants his people. “As a young man marries a young woman, so your Builder will marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5.
This Good Friday remember the reality of the crucifixion. Remember that Christ’s sacrifice was made at a great price. A real and deeply personal price with real and profound pain. Remember that the death of Jesus on the cross tore the curtain of the temple in two and facilitated our access to God through Christ’s atonement for our sin. Because of Jesus we can be forgiven. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18.
When we contemplate what Christ has done for us we ultimately fall short of adequately comprehending the depth of his love for humanity. That he willingly allowed himself to be crucified, thereby paying the price of our salvation. I pray that the gravity of the gospel and the reality of the crucifixion that took place two thousand years ago in Jerusalem will cut to the depths of your heart this Good Friday. I pray that you will honor Jesus and pledge your loyalty to him as your Redeemer and Bridegroom and that you surrender yourself to him completely, as a faithful bride awaiting the return of her Bridegroom.
