How Do We Know What Crucifixion Looked Like?
Matthew 27:33-37, NIV - They came to a place
called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed
with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up
his clothes by casting lots. And sitting
down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge
against him: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.
Crucifixion was ghastly. For hundreds of years after Jesus was
crucified, Christian artists never depicted this brutal execution method. As horrible as modern Christians imagine the
crucifixion was, early Christians worked hard not to imagine it. Most of them had seen at least one crucifixion
because they lived in a time and place where they were common. It is estimated that Matthew wrote this
gospel in 85 AD, approximately half a century after Jesus was crucified. Still, there is no description of what
crucifixion involved. Matthew (nor the
other Gospel writers for that matter) felt the need to include details because
everyone already knew those details all too well. We know the details because of historians
like Josephus and others who knew that future generations would no longer realize
just how barbaric the practice was.
Matthew
did not have to paint a picture with words of what the crucified Jesus would
look like for he knew his readers would already know the image well. To that image, Matthew adds the sign hanging
above Jesus’s head which listed the charge for which Jesus hung on the cross, “this
is Jesus, the king of the Jews.” Jesus
had mounted no armed revolution nor challenged any ruler. Matthew makes sure we know that Jesus hangs
there for no legitimate reason, as if a legitimate reason exists for killing a
human being in this barbaric way. While
Jesus hangs there, he listens as the guards who just nailed Him to the cross
cast lots to see who gets His clothes. In
addition to painting the guards as completely unfazed by the cruelty they
performed day after day, this detail also signals to us that Jesus hung on that
cross naked. The humiliation was
complete.
After
the winner of Jesus’s clothes was determined, they just sat here and watched
Jesus. This, of course, was their
job. No one must interfere with the
execution, which normally would take about six to nine hours. Other gospels suggest that Jesus didn’t last
that long, for he had already been badly injured. In any case, all who were present just sat
there watching bleeding Jesus slowly suffocate to death over the course of at
least three to four hours. Can you imagine spending hours watching such a
thing?
Most of
us can’t imagine that. I’m pretty sure I
would have had to walk away or at least look away. Even
in our culture that often glorifies and desensitizes us to violence, this is
too much. Gory deaths on TV take a few
seconds, about the same amount of time as it takes to read the verses above. We move on quickly. My aim here in this reflection was to slow the
process a bit, to invite us to feel the barbarism of this moment, to sit with
Jesus’s utter humiliation and pain for at least a few minutes.
Why? Because this moment is why Jesus said that He
came:
“From that time on Jesus began
to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things
at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and
that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. “ (Matt
16:21-22)
The Son of God came to suffer and be murdered. If that is why Jesus said that He came, then
it at least merits our deliberate reflection.
So. my hope is that, as we encounter this awful moment over the next few
reflections, we will give Jesus that – a few moments of making ourselves see
what we’d rather not see or dwell on.
Question: What
happens in you when you spend a few minutes thinking about the difficult
details of the crucifixion?
Prayer: Jesus, it is
hard to look upon You hanging on that cross.
Even so, we look into Your eyes as you willingly submit to it for our
sake. Help us to not look away. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people that you are aware of that are suffering terribly right now.
Song: When I Survey
the Wondrous Cross – Kathryn Scott
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