THE CRUCIFIXION

When it comes to describing Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the gospel writers make no attempt to arouse our emotions: they simply state what happened. Yet what happened was horrific.

For the Romans, the point about crucifixion was not that it was an appropriate punishment for criminals but that it deterred crime. The Roman writer Quintilian said: ‘Whenever we crucify the guilty, the most crowded roads are chosen, where most people can see and be moved by this fear. For penalties relate not so much to retribution as to their exemplary effect.’ The value of crucifixion lay in the fact that it was a horrible way to die.

Although there were variations in the details of crucifixion, the basic principle was the same. The man – almost all victims were men – had his arms fixed by ropes or large nails hammered through the wrists to a crossbeam that was then raised and slotted into a vertical post. The feet were then nailed to the upright and the victim then simply left to die. With his weight supported largely by his legs, the victim found breathing agonizing, with every breath forcing him to push down on his nailed feet. For all the cruelty involved in fixing the victim to the cross, the process caused no major wounds to vital organs and death often occurred slowly. A crucified man could survive for days, suffering dehydration and sunstroke and, increasingly, becoming food for birds, animals and insects. Eventually, though, exhaustion would set in, the victim would become unable to lift up his head far enough from his chest to breathe, and death by suffocation would occur.

It was characteristic of Roman efficiency that they had developed a technology of crucifixion and could hasten or extend the duration of the suffering. Giving the victim a peg or a ridge to sit on delayed death, and breaking the leg bones – which made breathing harder – hastened it. The deterrent effect of crucifixion was enhanced by the way that it exposed the victim to public humiliation: stripped naked, unable to move, he could be mocked by all. Crucifixion was the most numeric and appalling of deaths.

Under Roman guard, Jesus was taken to the place of execution. As was customary for convicted criminals, he was made to carry the crossbeam himself. Weakened by the floggings, Jesus stumbled under the weight and the Romans ordered a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the wooden beam. The site of the crucifixion, at Golgotha (‘the place of the skull’), would have been somewhere prominent just outside the town walls where the maximum number of people could see what happened. There, in the late morning, Jesus was nailed to the cross.

The gospels provide some details about the crucifixion. Jesus was crucified between two other criminals. The grim procedure was supervised by a few Roman soldiers under the command of an officer, who passed the time gambling for Jesus’ clothes. At the greatest moment in history, people were playing games. Of Jesus’ followers, almost all had now deserted him. Only the women and one disciple, John, remained. The crowd gathered, including the curious and some of the religious leaders. It is an horrific but authentic insight into human nature that the mocking that had been directed at Jesus continued as he was pinned helpless to the cross. Soldiers, bystanders, the religious leaders, even the criminals nailed next to him: all ridiculed him.

Above the cross, Pilate had arranged for a title to be fixed: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ It was written in three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. As Pilate doubtless intended, the title infuriated the religious leadership. Pilate’s petty attempt to retaliate for being outmanoeuvred allowed Jesus to die with his identity proclaimed above him.

The gospel writers see many of these details as the fulfilment of prophecy and their accounts are interwoven with references to the Scriptures, particularly Psalms 22 and 69.There seems little doubt that they also saw what happened that day as a remarkable fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies of the Suffering Servant:

‘Many were amazed when they saw him – beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person.’

‘He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.’

‘Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!’

‘He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins – that he was suffering their punishment?’

‘He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.’

The early Christians were certain that, for all its dreadfulness, what happened on the cross was no accident: it was the awesome culmination of God’s age-old plan.