Mark 15:21-32 (NIV): A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
Jesus started out carrying His own cross (actually the heavy crossbeam, which would be attached to the upright at the execution place), but it quickly proved to be more than He could handle in His severely weakened condition. The executioners had no patience to nurse Him along, so they impressed Simon into service to carry the crossbeam for Him.
The simple words, “And they crucified Him,” repeated with only slight variation in all four gospels (cf. Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:33; John 19:18) betrays the disgust that all four writers felt over the very words. For anyone who had ever witnessed a crucifixion, the word itself was enough to conjure up in their minds the gut-wrenching reality of the experience. But even for those who hadn’t, the word itself seemed to carry a load of horror that you wanted to stay away from.
After being stripped naked (the loincloths seen in paintings were added to avoid shocking more modern sensibilities), the victim was nailed to the crossbar with large spikes driven through the wrists. This crushed and tore through a major juncture of nerves, causing excruciating pain that radiated through the arms and across the back. (Victims were generally offered wine mixed with myrrh to deaden a bit of the pain, but Jesus refused. His job was to experience every bit of the suffering involved in the process.) The crossbar was then lifted onto the upright post and fastened in place. During this time, all of the weight of the victim was left dangling on the nails through their wrists, frequently dislocating their elbows and shoulders. Their feet were then nailed through with the same kind of large spikes. These lower nails provided a platform for the condemned to use to push themselves up on to temporarily relieve the pressure on their arms.
Despite paintings showing tall crosses, the feet of the condemned were only a few inches off the ground. The execution places were chosen for maximum exposure, usually along the main road into the city. The charges for which each person was being executed were written on a board which was then nailed above their heads. Those crucified on either side of Jesus had boards that read “Robber.” The one above Jesus’ head read “King of the Jews.” The whole purpose of those boards was to tell people, “If you do these things, this will be your punishment.” It was an effective deterrent.
The humiliation of crucifixion was multi-dimensional. In addition to the shame of hanging there naked and helpless right next to the main road, those passing by often threw insults at the sufferers. Jesus had a special share of those in the form of the Sanhedrin members and chief priests, all of whom came to watch their old nemesis die. They thought that it was doing their hearts good to see the all-powerful, all-wise Jesus hanging there, unable to even save Himself. And they added their jeers to those of the others in the crowd: “He claimed to have saved others, but He can’t even save Himself!” “Hey Jesus! Come down off that cross, and we’ll believe in You!” And while all of this was going on, just a few yards away, the soldiers in charge of the execution detail were dividing up the clothing of the victims – one of the perks of the job.
Those who were mocking and taunting Jesus for His helplessness and His inability to save Himself had no idea that with a single word He could have changed everything. Jesus knew that if He called on the Father, that He would immediately place at His disposal more than twelve legions of angels to rescue Him (cf. Matthew 26:52-54). But He also knew that going through all of this suffering was the only way that salvation could be purchased for all humanity, and He was absolutely committed to seeing it through. It was not that He was unable to save Himself; He was unwilling to save Himself at the cost of our salvation.
Father, when I think of all that Jesus went through, all of the pain as well as the humiliation, I am ashamed when I remember that I sometimes forget how much He went through for me, and that I sometimes treat His sacrifice lightly. The idea that He could have easily put an end to all of it, but refused for my sake, and for the sake of all humanity, is humbling in the extreme. Help me, Lord, to never forget the cost of the salvation that Jesus bought for us, to never gloss over it, and to never treat it lightly. Amen.