Beaten, spit upon, slapped, taunted and insulted by Roman Soldiers he kept his mouth shut. He did not fight back nor did he beg for mercy. The crowd called out ‘’Crucify him’’ yet he said not a word. The soldiers put a heavy cross on his back and made him carry the instrument of his death. In a weakened state, with open wounds on his back he carried that heavy cross to the hill where he was to be killed.
The cross was placed on the ground and he was quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The soldier drove a heavy, square wrought iron nail through his hands being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross was lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. Jesus Christ who is our Savior was crucified.
To breath, he has to push up with his nailed feet and pull with his nailed hands, while the open wounds in his back rub against the rough wood of that cross, splinters find their way into the already injured skin. He has to repeat this process until he is too exhausted to lift himself up, then he suffocates if he doesn’t die of the blood loss first. Between two thieves, dying the death of a criminal; he died for you and me.
On the morning of the first day of the week, Mary went to his grave only to find it empty, he had risen from the dead. He conquered death and the grave for you and for me. We no longer have to pay the price for our sins, he did it for us. All we have to do is die out to sin by repenting of our sins, bury those sins through baptism in Jesus Name and rise from that grave with a new life by receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. All this because ‘’God so loved the world that HE gave . . . ‘’
