Jealousy, anger, to be in another’s place, to have…
Yet, there was One for Whom 2000 years plus there is nary a person to lay aspersion on His life… Yes, there are those who claim…though thinly veiled; explanations and suppositions of the death of Christ. Some have even gone beyond and postulated far reaching fallacies….
Jesus ‘died’ too quickly on the cross allowing him to be revived. We must read that there were countless witnesses to the flogging, the pain, exhaustion and very near death on the road to cavalry. The bloodied visage of flesh to be hung to die. Bearing his own cross; Jesus fell and was helped to bear the cross the rest of the way.
If you study crucifixion; the accused were typically tied to the crucifixion staves. Hunger, dehydration, nature…were the agents that ‘escorted’ them to their death.
Right quick; we review the flogging: Some say the number is unknown. This site says Jesus was probably scourged 39 times. In 2 Corinthians 11:24, St. Paul speaks of receiving “forty lashes less one.” Whipping a person 39 times was the standard practice in NT times.
The crown of thorns; dehydration; lack of rest or sleep… Once again, we review the occurences:
Scourging was the punishment ordered for Jesus by Pontius Pilate: He was to be flogged (Matthew 27:26) but not killed in that way. His death was to be carried out by crucifixion after the scourging.
It is hard to imagine the level of hatred necessary to consign an innocent man to such a fate. Yet the Jewish leaders and Pilate did this very thing, knowing Jesus was innocent. Worse, the man they sent to be flogged and crucified was the Son of God. We hear and refer to the story of Jesus’ death so often that sometimes we fail to stop and think about how evilly He was treated by those He came to save. The torment He endured was prophesied in Isaiah: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The “stripes” referred to in this prophecy are a direct reference to the lashes Jesus received.
On Jesus’ path to cavalry; the morbid lack of regard for human life was evidenced by Veronica who gave Jesus her handkerchief to wipe way the blood and sweat…
Luke 23:27-31 tells us that certain women lamented as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, although at this stage there was no suggestion of anyone wiping his face. An early medieval story named one of these women and said she offered a cloth to wipe the face of Jesus, which then resulted in a portrait on the cloth (now kept as a relic in Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome).
Her name was given as Veronica (vera + ikon = “true image”), and she now has a place in the Stations of the Cross.
At cavalry as opposed to tying Christ to the cross; he was so macerated…tying Him to the cross was impossible and He was nailed to the cross.