CRUCIFIED

Jesus hasn’t slept at all. His forehead and what’s left of His robe are saturated with His drying blood. 

The unseen heavenly realms, even in the full knowledge that these next hours were divinely ordained in aeons past, surely must have been distraught that their King was willingly succumbing to the worst humiliation man could deliver. Yet, in this macabre and hateful spectacle, humanity’s eternal deliverance was being played out. 

Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries and the most vile of criminals. Not merely a public humiliation, crucifixion was deliberately engineered to be a drawn-out, painful process, breaking both the body and the spirit of its subject, as well as posting a graphic warning to anyone considering similar heinous crimes. 

Crucifixion gave us the word ‘excruciating’ to convey the prolonged nature of the pain – mental and physical. Each 22cm nail (more reminiscent of a crudely-formed metal wedge) forced through our Saviour’s wrists, palms and feet was specifically placed to regularly replenish pain as the weight of Jesus’ body wilted from weariness and despair.

How soul-destroying these hours must have been for those closest to Jesus. How many prayers were being raised to heaven from breaking hearts imploring God to deliver Jesus from this torment? 

Instead, all they heard was the howling, jeering crowd and perhaps the occasional laboured breath from their teacher, the Son of Man. 

And while all this was playing out, Jesus quietly interceded for the tormenting guards gambling for His clothes and the howling, jeering crowd below. 

What divine grace. What unfathomable love. 

written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES