God’s Word for You

Mark 15:24a He was crucified

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, March 18, 2024

24 And they crucified him.

When we consider what the crucifixion was, there are two things to consider. First, what was the physical act of crucifixion? Many readers in each passing generation need to be informed about this to understand it better. Second, what was the spiritual significance of the crucifixion? It is easy to get caught up in the details of cross-shapes, nails, ropes, thirst, and so on, without remembering the reason why our Lord suffered in the way that he did.

I, THE ACT OF CRUCIFIXION.

Romans no longer used the single stake for execution in the days of Jesus. We see the best evidence for this in the wounds of his hands, the burden of the cross, and the notice that Pilate had placed above his head. But there is also ample evidence from descriptions of other crucifixions and even the graffiti of the time. Of the more common first-century crosses, the three generally in use were the X-shaped “St. Andrew’s” cross (crux decussata). Second was the T-shaped cross (crux commissa), and third was the + or †-shaped cross (crux immissa). On account of the written notice of Pilate’s making (Mark 15:26; John 19:19-20), we know that the cross of Christ was the crux immissa, shaped like the traditional cross we all know about and which only one fringe sect objects to.

Archaeology has provided at least one example of foot-bones with a spike driven through in a crucifixion. If Jesus was nailed through the front of the feet, a soldier would probably choose to drive the nail between the lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are the thickest projection of bones in the center of the foot, or a little lower down (between the metatarsals). Whether Christ was nailed with one nail per foot or a single nail through both feet is irrelevant. Some criminals were nailed through the ankles, sideways into the cross.

The hands were also driven through with spikes. Some criminals were simply tied to the cross, but it’s reasonable to assume that in many cases, both ropes and nails were used. The nails of course added to the pain and suffering, and the text (Luke 24:39) tells us that nails were used on Jesus. The immovable body was then subject to the living torture that would naturally come from insects drawn by the scent of blood, and perhaps from birds such as crows and ravens as well.

The cross was raised in place by means of ropes and an apparatus I have translated as “winch” or “windlass” in the early Church fathers (Ignatius to the Ephesians 9:1). This device was a crank with a spool to raise or lower ropes or cables.

There was sometimes a small angled platform (πῆμα) for the seat or the feet to take some of the strain from the nails (not to give any comfort to the condemned). It is often depicted in artists’ conceptions of the crucifixion.

Crucifixion immobilized the body to make breathing, especially exhaling, difficult or impossible. The result was that the fluid we normally breathe out of the lungs was retained, and if the victim did not die of blood loss or a heart attack, he would eventually die of drowning as the lungs would fill up with water. We see that Jesus’ lungs were filled with “water and blood” when a soldier plunged a spear into his side after he died (John 19:34).

Crucifixion was a cruel, slow, shameful, horrible death.

II, THE MEANING OF JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION.

The suffering of the cross is itself set in place between God the Father’s wrath over man’s sin and man himself. Christ stepped into the breach between God and man, not to avert or cancel man’s punishment, but to take it onto himself in man’s place. What he endured on the cross is what we have been rescued from; it would have been our suffering in hell.

The Christian sees both law and gospel in the crucifixion. The law is of course the suffering itself, the torture of our Lord’s human body and divine spirit, twisted into unimaginable agonies. God demands blood for the payment of sin: “The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

We hear about the extent of our Savior’s pain when he, the Son of God, cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), and again, as he cries out, “I thirst!” (John 19:28). David wrote prophetically, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint” (Psalm 22:14), and “They have pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16).

The gospel is in the act of Christ enduring those agonises in our place. He loved us and had compassion on us, so that he suffered instead of us. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). He endured this suffering “to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26).

On the cross, we see Jesus our Lord lifted up, as Luther says, “suspended between heaven and earth, with nothing any longer on earth to call his own; exercising his true, real, priestly office, accomplishing the work he came on earth to do, not only with his suffering, by offering up himself, but also by his intercessions. For both constitute a priest’s work, to sacrifice and to intercede” (Good Friday Sermon, April 2, 1534).

Whether it was the intention of the human writers of the Gospels or not, the Holy Spirit has left a trail of “threes” in the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus our Lord. I will not elaborate on them here, but here are ten or so:

• Three death sentences (“blasphemy” was equivalent to a death sentence; Matthew 26:65-66).
• Three judgments of “not guilty” by Pilate (John 18:38, 19:4 and 19:6).
• Three beatings (by the Sanhedrin, Matthew 26:67; by the temple guards, Luke 22:63-64; and by the Roman soldiers, Mark 15:19).
• Three times his blood was shed (when he was flogged, when the crown of thorns was set on his head, and when he was nailed to the cross).
• Three changes of his clothing (a “bright (elegant) robe” from Herod, Luke 23:11; the purple robe the Roman soldiers used to mock him, Mark 15:17; and “his own clothes” he was dressed in to carry his cross, Mark 15:20).
• Three times he was denied by Peter.
• The three crosses on Golgotha, since he was crucified between two criminals (Luke 23:32).
• Three confessions he made to be the Messiah, the Son of God, and the King of the Jews (to Caiaphas, Mark 14:6-62; to Herod, Luke 22:70; and to Pilate, Mark 15:2).
• Pilate’s superscription written in three languages (Aramaic, Latin, and Greek, John 19:20).
• He addressed God the Father three times from the cross: “Father, forgive them,” “Eli, Eli, etc.,” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Jesus our Lord, our great High Priest, prayed for us: “I sanctify myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:19). We are sanctified—set apart as holy—through the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross, once for all: for all mankind, for all sins, forever.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

Browse Devotion Archive