History's Saddest Moment

We journey from Gethsemane’s bloody sweat to the house of Caiaphas and judgment. Remember Pilate’s hall with its mockery, spit and terrible flogging? Here was Jesus with all the power of heaven and yet accepting that mockery of human spittle on his face—and no record that He even reached to wipe it away.

I was transfixed by the gospel story. Someone else put a blind fold on Him and smashed Him across the head. After Jesus was beaten, His back, buttocks, shoulders and arms had flesh hanging in strips. Only then did they finally cut Him down and allow Him to slump, groaning, to the ground—wet with His own blood.

A robe was thrown over His shoulders in mockery. A crown of thorns was placed on His head and pulled down until it ripped into His scalp. Once again, tissue was torn with blood running in a 380 degree circle around His head, dripping onto His shoulders, back and chest.

History’s saddest moment was only beginning. The robe Jesus wore had become stuck to the blood and the flesh and skin came off with it. A heavy wooden beam was lashed to His back. This timber weighed more than 100 pounds, and in His battered condition, Jesus staggered beneath the load. He stumbled and fell. The rough wood gouged deeper into His body. The soldiers, knowing their weakened victim would never make it to a hill called Golgotha without help, forced one Simon from Cyrene to carry Jesus’ crossbeam the rest of the way.

It was a 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha. A battered-beyond-recognition Jesus barely made it. Somehow He did make it. He knew that this was His appointed place.

He was thrown to the ground and pinned against the wood. One of the Roman legionnaires felt for the depression at the front of the wrist. That was the place for the spike so that there was no possibility that the weight of the body would break its hold and allow the body to shred and fall from the cross. What may have looked like a railroad spike was driven through one wrist and then swiftly into the other. Then a spike was driven through His feet.

Powerful Roman muscles flexed as they lifted that hideous load on to what now formed a cross. It was customary to nail the accusation to the cross of the condemned man so all would know His crime. The words concerning Jesus were dictated by Pilate—“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” They were written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin—so all the world would understand.

Dr. C. Truman Davis wrote, “Hanging by the arms, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn to the lungs but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.”

He was now near death. The dying process was tortured as He tried to say something. His words were deliberate—tender. “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they do.” Then He took time while dying to save a repentant thief who was dying next to Him. “Today,” He said, “you will be with Me in paradise.”

He was so lonely as He hung there dying. The only disciple around Him was John. Jesus looked at His mother, whose Jewish heart was broken. He said, “Woman, behold your son.” And then the great eyes, now glazed, looked toward young John: “Behold your mother.” The two would be together from then on.

The next cry was almost a scream of anguish. “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” The twenty second Psalm foretold this frightening moment. His tongue had virtually stuck to the roof of His mouth as Jesus groaned, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” It didn’t sound clear. Some thought He was calling for Elijah. But He was crying out in torment, for in that moment God appeared to have abandoned His beloved Son.

Jesus had become something that is impossible for us to comprehend—the sin-bearing Lamb taking on the sins of the world? The Bible teaches that Jesus was made sin for us though He never sinned, that we could be made righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Bible also says in Isaiah 53:10 that it pleased God to bruise Him. The Father put Christ to grief in order to make Him a sacrifice, an atonement for the sins of mankind. For your sins! For mine! (To be continued)

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras