Weird Ideas: Crucified, Dead, and BuriedНамуна

“He was crucified.” Summarizing the accounts of the Bible (and other ancient historians), that’s what the Apostles’ Creed says.

Crucifixion isn’t widely practiced anymore, though in some parts of the world it’s still used to mock and persecute Christians. People in Jesus’s day would have understood it full well. The Roman statesmen, Cicero, writing on crucifixion, says: “Let the very word ‘cross,’ be far removed from not only the bodies of Roman citizens, but even from their thoughts, their eyes, and their ears.” It was a horror unlike anything devised by man.

Plenty has been written about the details of crucifixion, as have movies like The Passion of the Christ. Each gives a deeper look into the visceral horror of this Roman execution. Crucifixion was meant to kill you. But it was meant to kill you slowly. Crucifixion was torture. It was also meant to degrade. It was meant as a deterrent for any enemy of Rome. “Cross us, and this might happen to you.”

Jesus faced crucifixion for you. Willingly. Some might dare to die for others. But Jesus dared to die in the most excruciating way. The word “excruciating” derives from crucifixion; ex crucio – from the cross. Think about it. The word we use to describe the worst kind of pain is literally what Jesus faced.

That’s why Christians celebrate it. That’s why Christians have adorned themselves with crosses and why the cross has become the central symbol of the Christian faith. Jesus did this for me. For me! And by it I am saved.

Thank Jesus today for what he did for you.