Crucifixion

In this report we will deal with Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. This report we’ll have as bible text the gospel of Matthew 27:32-50, and these verses will be analyzed verse by verse. It’s very great to observe that all gospels talk about Jesus’ Crucifixion in a larger section than others events from his life. There is a great reason: for Jesus this last part of his work means the finishing God’s plan of salvation. Paul says he humbled himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Philippians 2:8). So we will observe the following of event as Matthew wrote in his gospel.

27:32-34: 32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cy-re’na, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross, 33 They were come unto a place called Gol’-go-tha, that is to say, a place of a skull, 34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

These verses are about the passions of Christ before his crucifixion. History says that traditional station of the Cross begins in Via Dolorosa, which is one of the principal east-west streets of Jerusalem. Today on this street we can find the chapel of Flagellation and Covent of the sister of Zion. Our Lord, Jesus, has borne his cross a part of the route and they came out of Jerusalem. The soldiers compelled a man Simon, by name, from Cyrena a town from North Africa, to bear the cross of Jesus. Some theologists believe that Simon was a Jewish man anthers believe that he was a black man. But the most important is that he had the great privilege to bear the Jesus’ cross.

Verse 33 is about the crucifixion place. All four gospels have the geek word kranian, which has reached into English by many of the Latin form cranium. In Matthew, Mark and John this is translated skull in the King James Version, but it is translated Calvary in Luke (23:33). This word Calvary comes from the Latin Vulgate, where calvaria is the regular translation of the Greek kranion writes Earle Ralph in Beacome Bible Commentary.

They came to the execution place; probably the common place of execution, the soldiers in charge with execution of Jesus Christ gave him vinegar to drink with gall. That drink was usually offered to convicts that their pain to be improved. But Jesus didn’t drink this drink, he refused it because he wanted to “drink all undiluted bitterness”.

27:35-38: 35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cost lots. 36 And sitting down they watched him there. 37 And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 38 Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. Jesus was crucified, his hands and foot were mailed to the cross, and then reared it up and

him hanging on it; because that was the manner of Romans to crucify. Henry Matthew writes in his commentary next thing: “The barbarous and abusive treatment they gone him, in which their wit and malice vied which should excel. As if death, so great a death were not bad enough, they contrived to add to the bitterness and terror of it.”

The sufferings of Jesus intensified as he drew near to the cross. In Matt. 26:38 Jesus told

His disciples of something of the agony he was going through and he said, “my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” Jesus bore the penalty for our sins and died in our place. The Holy Scriptures teaches us that there were three different aspects of the pain that Jesus experienced. Wayne Grudem writes in his book Systematic Theology who are these four different aspects. The first one is physical pain and death. We need to hold that death by crucifixion was one of the most horrible forms of execution ever devised by man.

A physician writing in the Journal of American Medical Association in 1986 explained the pain that would have been experienced in death by crucifixion:

“Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows … However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves….Muscle cramps and paresthsias of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort. As a, each respiration effort would become agonizing and tiring and led eventually to asphyxia.”

In some cases, crucified man would suffers for several before to die this was why the executioners would sometimes break his legs. The gospel of John says that so the soldiers come and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him, but when they come to Jesus and saw that