Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Aug 03, 2014: Luke 23:33 They Crucified Jesus

Transcript

On Aug 03, 2014: Luke 23:33 They Crucified Jesus · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014. Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 23, verse 33. We are continuing to look at this portion, the last really few days of Jesus' life, as he is on his way to the cross. Last time we saw Jesus having been given the sentence of death by Pontius Pilate. He has been scheduled to be executed for that same morning. And so we saw him journey. We saw the procession that took place as Jesus took his cross and led the way to Christ. And that brings us to verse 33 in our portion today. It says, And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And so today we're just going to be focused here on this portion, this one particular verse, because here it says, as they arrived at Calvary, then it says that they crucified Jesus. And we want to talk today about crucifixion. They crucified Jesus. What does that mean? We are pretty far removed from the process of crucifixion. It's something that maybe you know a little bit about, mainly because Jesus was crucified. If Jesus had not been crucified, probably we wouldn't know anything. Maybe you would have seen it in history, you know, like in third grade or something for a short bit. But we wouldn't pay much attention to it. But because Jesus was crucified, the things that are involved in crucifixion become really important to us. Josephus described crucifixion as the most wretched of deaths. And so as we think about crucifixion, a lot of times, because we're so far removed, we sanitize it in our mind and it's a kind of a cleaner execution than it actually was. I kind of liken it to our familiarity with 9-11. As I say those words, 9-11, your mind probably goes back to September 11th, 2001, and you remember the horrific events as the Twin Towers were struck by this terrorist attack and those buildings collapsed. But imagine 2,000 years from now. And someone is reading about what happened and perhaps, you know, it's summarized as they're reading it. They see the words, you know, two planes crashed into two buildings. And that's accurate and that, you know, tells what happened. But, you know, 2,000 years later, they don't get all that went into that. You know, they wouldn't be thinking about all the devastation that was there and the way it hit our nation and the way it hit our hearts and how each of us remembers, you know, where we were when those things happened. And so in the same way as there would be so much distance, it would lessen the impact. The same thing happens for us with crucifixion. And so I want to take some time this morning to go through some of the details of crucifixion with you. Now the objective that I have as I go through this, what the Lord put on my heart, was to be detailed without being gruesome. It's kind of a fine line because crucifixion is a gruesome way to die. And so I don't want to be graphic, but I want to give us a little bit of a sense about what happened and what took place and what Jesus endured for our sake. And so as we begin to talk about the crucifixion of Jesus, we're heading into these final hours in the life of Jesus. It begins back at about six o'clock, probably on the Thursday night, as he would be having the last supper with his disciples. And as he had that Passover meal with them, he would go out from there to the Garden of Gethsemane. And there he would spend some time in prayer and he would be in great intense emotional distress as he was preparing himself for the events that were about to happen. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is arrested and ♪♪ and turned him over to Pontius Pilate. And so that was probably around 6 a.m. The Roman trials began. He stood before Pilate. Then he was sent over to Herod. And then Herod sent him back to Pilate. Pilate gave the sentence. He is to be executed by crucifixion. And so Jesus at that point is scourged and then mocked some more by the Roman soldiers. At about 9 a.m., Jesus would have been nailed to the cross at Calvary. He would have hung on the cross for about six hours and then breathed his last. And by about 5 p.m., Joseph of Arimathea would have taken Jesus off of the cross and buried him in the tomb. And so the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion, and his death all took place within a 24-hour time period. It happened very quickly because the Jewish leaders wanted it to happen fast before the rest of the people in the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel knew what was going on. And so that's a quick overview at this timeline. But as we get into the details now, we want to look at three points about the crucifixion of Jesus. Number one, his body was broken. Number two, his blood was shed. And then number three, he bore our sin. And so the first thing we'll look at is his body being broken. The first time really, or the first thing that we look at with his body being broken begins in Luke chapter 22 verses 63 and 64, where the Jewish soldiers blindfold Jesus and begin to beat him. After he's been questioned a couple times by the Jewish authorities, and they're holding him overnight until the morning session, the Jewish soldiers decide to have some fun. And it tells us in Luke 22, verse 64, that they blindfolded him. They struck him on the face and they asked him saying, prophesy, who is the one who struck you? And so they're having some fun with Jesus as they blindfold him. It was, you know, for two effects. Number one, that way they could have some fun and mock him and say, well, hey, you're the Messiah. So why don't you prophesy? Tell us who hit you, even though you can't see because you're blindfolded. But this would begin the body being broken for Jesus because as he was blindfolded, the strikes that would be coming at him would be unexpected. Of course, not being able to see the blows and what's coming towards his face, he wouldn't have been able to respond or to recoil or to prepare for those punches at all. And so this would have resulted in a more severe beating, a more serious effects to his body than if he was able to see what was coming at him. And so at this point, the face of Jesus would have been beaten up probably pretty severely. He would have had, you know, some bruises, some hematomas where the blood pools whenever a person is hit and there would be swelling as well in the various regions that were hit. And perhaps you could think of, you know, like a boxer after a very serious, difficult fight and the way that their face is beat up and bruised and swollen. It would have probably been very similar for Jesus at this time as they blindfolded him and struck him. Well, the next thing that took place as far as his body being broken was the scourging. And so after they turned him over to the Romans and they determined, well, we're going to crucify him. The normal practice for the Romans was to scourge a person before he was crucified. It was a method that they used to get confessions out of criminals. That they would bring this scourging, this whipping on the back, so that the criminals would confess their crimes and they would, you know, resolve those unsolved mysteries. But another aspect of the scourging, another reason why they did it, was to make the cross more painful. with the scourging that would take place and the effects that it would have on the back, then hanging against the wood on the cross would have been more painful. It also would have made sure that the criminal died of those painful injuries and not of starvation, you know, much longer. And so it shortened the time that a person could survive upon the cross. And so the process of scourging went like this. They would tie the man to a post. Think of like a telephone pole. And they would tie them with their hands overhead and they would be hanging from their arms in that way so that their back would be completely stretched out. At this time they would also be stripped naked and so this was a very, you know, humiliating thing that would be done to Jesus. And then two soldiers would take turns with a cat of nine tails. And so they would each have this whip that would have these, you know, nine tails or throngs. And there would be, you know, different objects embedded into that to make it more effective as they would bring on this scourging upon a person. And they would take turns. So one would whip and then the other would whip. And so that way it was just a continuous whipping that would be endured by the person who is to be crucified. ♪♪ And as the whips, you know, broke through the skin, it would begin to work on the muscle and create great damage to the muscle. And it would actually break through the muscle as well and it would damage the fat underneath. And so the whole back would be severely affected and open and injured in this way. And a scourging was over whenever the centurion decided that it was over. So it wasn't a certain number of hits. It was just based on the mood of the centurion in charge. The severity was based on the mood of the Roman soldiers who were doing the whipping. And so it would be more severe or less severe depending on how they felt or how much fun they were having with it. But scourging was so severe that many criminals died from scourging alone. That it was enough that if they didn't restrain themselves or if the centurion didn't stop it, that the injuries from scourging could be fatal immediately. And so this didn't happen with Jesus. They scourged him. He survived it. And then that brings us now to the next thing with his body being broken. And that is that he was mocked and beaten. So after they've scourged him and tore up his back in this way, the Roman soldiers decide to have some fun with Jesus. They give him the royal treatment, as it were. They place a robe upon him, as a king would have, saying, hey, you're the king of the Jews, so here's your robe. And then, well, you need a staff, you know, a king has a scepter to hold. And so they gave him a reed to hold as a staff. And then they also crowned him, but of course not using like a gold crown. They used a thorn bush and they took this thorn bush and they put it on his head to, you know, cause these injuries to his head. Based on studies of the different types of plants and such that are in the area, most scholars believe it was a certain type of tree that had thorns that the thorns were about an inch long. And so these would have been some serious thorns that were in this crown as they put it upon the head of Jesus. And so they bow down and pretend to pay homage and are laughing and just having a good time at the expense of Jesus. But then they become more brutal and they take the reed or the staff from his hand and they begin to beat him over the head. And so, of course, seriously impacting his head and the crown, the thorns that were there and causing more injuries as a result. And so his body was broken when he was blindfolded and beaten, when he was scourged, when he was mocked by the soldiers and beaten over the head with this staff and the crown of thorns. But then his body would have been further broken as he walked to Calvary. In this weakened condition, Jesus would have been forced to go the distance of about 650 yards, which is about a third of a mile. And he would be forced to carry the cross for as long as he could. Now, we don't know exactly how long Jesus carried the cross. Because we know from Luke chapter 23 that the soldiers grabbed Simon from Cyrene and forced him to carry the cross of Jesus the rest of the way to Calvary. And so Simon could have carried it the whole way if Jesus was too weak to carry it at all. Or Jesus would have carried it for some time. And then when he kept, you know, was unable to continue, then the soldiers grabbed Simon and he went the rest of the way. what they would typically do is they would bind the cross beam to the person who was to be executed. And so it would be bound to his back and he would be forced to carry that then to the place where he would be executed. And so with these injuries, it would have been very difficult. Jesus would have been extremely weak at this point, completely exhausted. Again, having stayed up all night and during these different beatings and tortures and such, and then not having eaten, not having opportunity to drink, it would have been completely exhausted at this point. And so this journey of a third of a mile would have been very difficult. But then as he gets to Calvary, then the next thing happens, and that is he's nailed to the cross. Now, Rome would fasten people to the cross in different ways, depending on how fast they wanted them to die or how long they wanted them to survive. And so sometimes they would use rope to tie a person to the cross, and then they would effectively die of starvation. Because they would be able to last for a long time upon the cross. But when they wanted it quicker, then they would use the nails to attach a person to the cross. And so in this case, they used the nails to attach Jesus to the cross. The nails would have been about five to seven inches long. They would have been square and about three-eighths of an inch thick. So pretty hefty size nails. And they would have put these nails first in his wrists. And as they would attach, you know, his arms to the cross, I know we often say that it was his hands and feet, but what really would have happened was it would have been in his wrist between these two major bones that are here in your wrist, right in between them, the nail would fit through and that would be able to hold the weight of Jesus. Now, doing this wouldn't cause huge bleeding or anything like that. The major arteries are protected by the bones, and so going in between them, they would miss those arteries, but they would sever the median nerve. And this would cause excruciating pain all up and down the arms of Jesus as this nerve is severed. And it would cause permanent damage if a person, you know, survived and had that nerve severed. The hands would be paralyzed completely after that. And so the wrists would be nailed to the wood in this way. And then they would nail his feet to the cross. And the way that they would do that is the feet would be kind of pointed down. And so one on top of the other. And the nail would be driven between the second and the third metatarsal. And so if you think about, I'll show you my hand, but think about your foot. It's the same. You have five fingers or five toes. And then there's bones that run through your foot or your hand that correspond with those bones. And so between the second and third metatarsal, those bones that run up and down your foot, the nail would have been driven between both feet in that way. And again, that would protect it from too much loss of blood, but it also would be sufficient to be able to support the weight of the man who is being crucified. And so Jesus here is nailed to the cross. The nails are driven through his wrists and then through his feet so that he is attached to the cross. Well, then as he hangs on the cross, something else would happen in regards to his body being broken. And that is that his joints would become dislocated. In Psalm chapter 22, verse 14, as the psalmist is prophesying about the Messiah and this death that he will experience, he says, "'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.'" And so this is something that Jesus would have experienced as he hung there on the cross. The Romans were very strategic in this execution. They perfected this method of execution. And so the positioning, the angles and such that would be there on the cross were strategic positions. And so having your arms stretched out like this and the weight of your body pulling down in the center would cause extreme force upon the elbow and shoulder joints of Jesus as he hung there. And so much force, physicists have calculated it'd be half of a metric ton of force upon each arm. And so, you know, severe pressure to pull these joints out of place. And not just that, but then it would continue to pull as he, you know, continued to hang there upon the cross. So that by the end, they estimate that a person's arms could be lengthened by as much as six inches as a result of this process of this weight pulling the arms in this fashion. Now, the dislocation of joints, the dislocating of his shoulders and elbows would have been very, very painful. And so this would be happening as he hung on the cross. His arms would continue to separate and to lengthen as he hung there. Well, then the final part of Jesus's body being broken as he hung there on the cross was that he would have difficulty breathing. And as I look at these things and study, you know, the issue of crucifixion, I think this is probably the worst part of the cross. This is, you know, the most difficult part of this whole method of death. The positioning of the body of Jesus on the cross would make it painful and difficult to breathe. Because, again, as I said before, they attach the feet in this way. But when they attach the feet to the cross, they didn't do it with his legs all the way extended. But they did it with his legs bent at about a 45 degree angle. And so when his legs were bent at this angle, he would be down and his arms would be kind of like in a Y position. Now, this would cause him to be in a place where he could inhale, But he could not exhale. It would be very difficult for him to breathe out. He could only breathe in. And it would be very short breaths. So he would be able to breathe in. And in order for him to let out the air and the carbon dioxide as his body is processing that. The only way for him to let that out would be to straighten his legs. And so pushing down on the nail in his feet, that would move his arms into the T position as he lifts himself up. And so it would require him to pull on the nails that are in his wrists and push on the nail that is in his feet to bring himself up to an upright position. And then he could let air out. But of course he couldn't hold it there very long because it was very painful. And so then he would drop back down to the 45 degree bend in his legs and to the Y position in his arms. And so every time he would take a breath... He would have to go through all of this. He would be down here. He would come up. He would let out some air. He would come back down, take a breath, come back up and breathe out. All the while, you know, experiencing the pain of all these nails, the muscles, you know. Well, that's another thing I didn't mention. But because of the lack of blood flow, because of the lack of oxygen, The muscles in his arms, the muscles in his legs, as well as in his chest, uh, suffering the effects of this lack of oxygen and would be spasming very severely. There would be cramps and spasms and they would be in just basically crisis mode and he would be experiencing that kind of pain as well as his muscles were not able to handle this type of exercise with that little of oxygen and blood flow. And so this was a constant process for Jesus. Again, he hung on the cross for about six hours. And so if you want to get a tiny glimpse of, you know, something that Jesus went through, you know, try that. Bend your knees at 45, hold your arms up. And then every time you take a breath, you know, go up to the T position, back to the Y position, T position, Y position. And you'll get like a little bit of a glimpse of, you know, those six hours on the cross with the cramps, the spasms, you know, the things that were going on. You could kind of think of it like being held underwater because, you know, he would not be able to breathe as he hung and then he would come up for air. And so it's like, you know, being held underwater, you can't breathe. You come up, you gasp for breath and then push back under. It would have been like that. So almost like drowning or suffocating for that time upon the cross. His ultimate death, the typical death upon the cross, would be the result of the lack of oxygen or asphyxiation. And so he would be, you know, his body would be shutting down. It would become too painful, too difficult to bring himself up for air. And so ultimately that would cause the death of a person who is crucified. And so the body of Jesus was broken. And this is what Jesus wanted us to remember as he instituted communion for us. In Luke chapter 22 verse 19, it tells us that he took the bread, he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus took the Passover meal and he gave it new meaning and he said, look, this bread is my body. He hadn't been crucified yet. He was going to the cross, you know, within the next few hours. And he says, I want you guys to know in advance, I'm doing this willingly. All of this stuff that happened to Jesus, to his body being broken, was not done against his will or it wasn't done like forced upon him. Jesus gave his body to be broken in this way. Jesus gave himself to be afflicted in this way so that he could offer to us everlasting life and forgiveness of sins as he died upon the cross for us. And he wants us to remember that. And so he says, this is my body, which is given for you. And so as we partake of communion, Jesus says, I want you to remember this. Don't forget what I gave you. Don't forget what I did in giving myself for you. My body was broken. And so Jesus experienced these severe effects to his body. His body was broken. But now as we go on into the second point for the message this morning, it's that his blood was shed. And so what I'd like to do is kind of rewind the tape a little bit and look at some of the different ways that Jesus lost blood throughout this process and consider how that would have impacted his condition as he went to the cross. Of course, because his blood being shed was the second part of communion and what Jesus wanted us to remember. And so as we consider that, we're going to go back now to the Garden of Gethsemane. And there in the Garden of Gethsemane, it's about 9 p.m., the night before Jesus is crucified. There he would have began to lose some blood. He was under incredible pressure. Matthew chapter 26 verse 38 tells us, he tells his disciples, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. As he goes into this time of prayer, it's an intense time of prayer. And so much so that he says, I'm exceedingly sorrowful even to death. And so he's really feeling the effects of this sorrow, this pressure that he is in. Luke records in Luke chapter 22 verse 44 that Jesus being in agony prayed more earnestly and then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Now there is some discussion between Bible scholars about what exactly was taking place here. If Luke was recording, you know, the type of sweat that Jesus had, it was big drops that were falling to the ground. But most believe that this is actually a physical condition that Jesus was experiencing. And Luke, being the physician, points this out for us. There is a medical condition called hematidrosis. It's very rare, but it does happen in times of intense stress. And this is, of course, what Jesus was experiencing. He's exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. He's in agony. And so he's under this kind of stress. And what can happen in this condition, hematidrosis, is that the capillaries under the skin burst. As a result of the strain, the pressure, it's, you know, as a result of the emotional stress that's going on, these capillaries burst and then the blood from that mixes with the sweat. And so as the sweat is coming out of the pores, the blood from those burst capillaries comes out of the pores as well. Now, This is probably what happened to Jesus. We can't say it happened for sure. But if it did happen, it wasn't a huge amount of blood loss. It would have been slight, not enough to, you know, really be concerned about. But it was an indication of the stress that he was under, the things that he was going through as he prepared for the events of the cross. The effect of this condition happening to him would have been several things. It would have been weakness. He would have been, you know, extra tired as a result of this. It would be incredibly stressful for the body as well as the emotional stress. It would also have resulted in dehydration because of the amount of sweat that would be coming forth, but then now added to that the loss of blood. So he would be dehydrated. He would be losing fluid. Another thing that's been observed for those who have this condition is sensitive skin. And so his senses would have been heightened. His skin would have been sensitive for the remainder of the events that happened as Jesus was crucified. And so it would have heightened the pain that he experienced as he went through the different things with his body being broken. Well, the next way that his blood was shed, we go now again to the time that Jesus was scourged. And so this is several hours later where Jesus is being scourged by the Roman soldiers. And this was the biggest cause of blood loss during the crucifixion process. Now, a normal person has about five liters of blood in their body. And so you can convert that to 5,000 milliliters or 1.32 gallons, you know, whichever system, you know, fits best for your understanding. But at five liters, you could think about, you know, a couple of two liter bottles. So two and a half, two liter bottles is about the amount of blood in a normal man. And so this is the blood that Jesus would have started out with. And then at the scourging, he would have lost about 35%. of that blood. Almost two liters would have been lost during this scourging process. Now, of course, they weren't there measuring the blood, you know, so these are estimations based on experts who look at these things and figure out. And so they say, you know, between three to five pints of blood would be lost at a scourging of this magnitude. And so, you know, And so I kind of took the middle ground and put that down as 1,750 milliliters or almost two liters of blood that would be lost during this process. Now, if you need some, you know, kind of comparison to be able to relate to that, if you have ever given blood, when you donate blood, they take from you about 470 milliliters or about one pint of blood. And so this would have been, you know, three to five times more than that for this scourging to take place. The blood loss would have been very serious. It would have put Jesus at stage three or class three of hypovolemic shock, which is a condition where your body, when it's lost so much blood, it goes into panic mode. And it's trying to, you know, stop the blood loss. It's trying to preserve the organs. It's trying to do everything it can to survive in the midst of this severe blood loss. 35% would be quite significant. And that would be the initial loss. he would continue to lose blood because of course his back would not be treated or patched up. And so it would continue to lose blood for the duration of his time upon the cross. And so it could be up to another liter or so over this next eight hours. Now the effect of this loss of blood would have resulted in multiple things. Number one, he would have had a very reduced blood pressure, which would cause dizziness and drowsiness. And so his body would be, you know, having a hard time to continue to function. And his mind would have a hard time continuing to function as well as a result of this blood loss. the heart would respond to this drop in blood pressure and it would increase its rate. And so it would be beating at greater than 120 beats per minute at this point, which is pretty high, kind of like when you're exercising. And so it'd be trying to like, you know, restore and get things back working the way that they're supposed to because of this drop in pressure. Along with that, Jesus would be experiencing some hyperventilation. normally a person will take about 12 to 20 breaths per minute. But in this condition, with this loss of blood, it would increase their rate. And so it would probably be about 30 breaths per minute or more. And so it'd be very short breaths, like panting in order to try to, again, his body's trying to recover from this severe loss. And so the oxygen levels are severely depleted. The heart is having a hard time. And again, the mind would be affected by this as well. There would be great confusion and anxiety that would result as well because the body is having a hard time functioning with this much blood being lost. Well, the next thing that would happen for Jesus in regards to blood loss is the crown of thorns that was placed upon his head. Again, this was immediately after the scourging. The Roman soldiers decided to have some fun. They put this crown on him. These thorns would have been about an inch long or so. And many believe actually it probably wasn't like a strip like we often see, but more like a bush that they just, you know, crammed down onto his head. And so as a result of this, there would be some serious lacerations, some serious cuts, punctures as a result of these thorns being upon his head, and head wounds bleed a little bit more than some of the other places in the body. And so he would have lost probably another 250 milliliters or about half a pint of blood at this time from these head injuries. And so that would continue to drop his blood pressure, continue the effects of dizziness and drowsiness, continue the heightened heart rate of 120 beats per minute or more. It would continue the hyperventilation as he was gasping for breath. And his mental condition would continue to deteriorate with more confusion and anxiety. Well, then the final aspect of the blood loss of Jesus was death. to the cross. The nails in the wrists and in the feet. Now the Roman soldiers as they crucified people were pretty precise. And so the positioning of these nails was strategic in that not much blood would be lost. And so they wouldn't bleed out from the cross, but that they would then suffer upon the cross. And that was their goal. That was their intention. And so there would not be a huge amount of loss of blood, but maybe another 150 to 300 milliliters of blood would be lost. About another half pint of blood would be lost. Again, it wasn't a huge amount from these, you know, nails going through. But that is enough to take his blood loss to a total of 43%. And this moves it into the next class of hypovolemic shock, where he would have had, you know, even worse conditions now. Once you get past 40% blood loss, 50% of the people will die within 15 minutes. And so it's, you know, it's a very serious condition. Some will survive or half will survive. And of course, Jesus survived for another six hours on the cross. But it would be, you know... very, very difficult because the blood pressure would drop yet further. So, you know, more effects from that, the dizziness and the drowsiness. The heart rate would continue to increase. So now jumping up to at least 140 beats per minute. And so his heart would be pounding, you know, trying to save his the body as best it could. And then the hyperventilation would also continue. So about 35 breaths per minute would be going on for him. Again, just this desperation for air, desperation for blood flow. The organs would be starving in that sense from lack of oxygen. And then also the blood would not be able to take away the waste of the body. And so those things would be building up. There'd be serum buildup and all of those kinds of effects. And the confusion and anxiety would continue. In fact, it's possible and likely that Jesus was in and out of consciousness as he was on the cross. Of course, not for too long because then he'd have to lift himself up to breathe. But there was this, you know, critical condition that he was in. And his body was fighting to survive as a result of this amount of blood being lost. And so his body was broken and his blood was shed. And so we can see through the hematidrosis or the sweat in the blood, through the scourging of his back, through the thorns on his head, through his wrists and feet being nailed to the cross, the amount of blood loss would have been significant and seriously affected the rest of the things that were happening as he was being crucified. And Jesus looking ahead towards this at the last supper with his disciples, he took the cup in Luke chapter 22 verse 20. It says that he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. And so again, in advance, Jesus lets these guys know, he lets you and I know, I know what's about to happen. I want you to remember what I went through and also remember that this is for you. Jesus says, you're worth it. I know what's going to happen to my body. I know the brokenness that will be there. I know the blood that will be shed. And it's going to result in the opportunity for you to be forgiven, to have salvation, and to enter into eternity with me. And so this cup will remind you of that. And so he says, do it often. And as often as you do, remember me. This is my body which is broken, he said with the bread. And now with the cup, he said, this is my blood which is shed for you. And so as we partake of communion regularly, this is what the Lord wants us to remember. He wants us to remember that he counted us worth it. He decided you're enough, you're sufficient, you're valuable enough that I will give my body to be broken. I will give my blood to be shed. Well, the final point for the message this morning is that he bore our sin. As we consider this crucifixion of Jesus, I think it's important for us to understand that Jesus' physical sufferings were not the worst that humanity has ever experienced. Remember, even on this day that Jesus is crucified, two other criminals are crucified with him. And they lasted longer than he did. The Roman soldiers broke the legs of those two criminals so that they would die faster because of the feast that was going on. But they didn't have to do that with Jesus because he was already dead. And so their experience on the cross, and they would have been scourged as well, and then attached to the cross in the same fashion as Jesus, it lasted longer. And so their suffering, you could say, you know, was worse as far as the physical is concerned. And so the significance of the cross when it comes to Jesus is not just the amount of suffering, or we're not trying to say that it's the worst suffering that, you know, anybody has ever experienced physically. The significance is that Jesus is not just some guy. Jesus is God who became man. And he humbled himself. And the amazing thing is that he humbled himself to this point, to suffer so severely. And so he's not just another human being. And it's not just that he didn't commit any crimes, but that he being God, his rightful place is in glory. And he humbled himself and became a man. And then he humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death, the death of the cross, Paul tells us in Philippians chapter two. And so Jesus's suffering is significant, not just because of the intensity and the severity of the suffering, but because of who he is, his rightful place and the glory that belongs to him. And Jesus did all of that. He humbled himself to this extent in order to bear our sin. The author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 and 28 tells us, "...as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation." And so the author of Hebrews says, "...men have been given this appointment to die once." And in the same way, Christ was offered once. He died once in order to bear the sins of many. This death of Jesus Christ was significant because in this death, he bore our sins. He paid the price for our sins. He carried our sins and received the death that we deserve, the judgment that we deserve. Now, we spent some time looking at some of the details of his body being broken and his blood being shed. There's much more depth and you can get much more graphic as you look at those things if you'd like. But it's interesting because we can research those things. We can look at the medical aspects and all of that. We can go into great detail. But when it comes to him bearing our sin, I would say that this is the one that we know the least about. because there's no medical books you can look at, you know, there's no graphics or pictures that you can better understand this one. This is what the Bible teaches us. And so we know that it took place. We also know that it's the most important and it seems that this is the most difficult part of the cross for Jesus. And so this was more severe than the physical suffering was the reality that he bore our sin. He did so willingly so that we could have life. And you can see that in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, where the apostle Paul says that he, that is the father, made him, that's Jesus. So the father made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so here we see that Jesus who knew no sin, he was sinless, but he was made to be sin for us. This doesn't mean that he literally became sin, but that he was treated as if he had sinned. He had not sinned, but he was treated as if he had sinned. And so it's the greatest of injustices as Jesus is crucified as if he had committed crimes, but also God related to him as if he had sinned. And so there's this change that takes place, this change in this relationship that Jesus has with the Father in that, well, in all of eternity, he existed in oneness, in unity with the Father. In John chapter 10, verse 30, Jesus says, I and the Father are one. They're part of the triune, you know, nature of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And there was this unity there. But here upon the cross, Jesus is treated as if he had sinned. So that, notice what Paul says there. He says that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So Jesus being sinless was treated as if he had sinned so that you and I who are sinful could be treated as if we were righteous. Jesus took our place upon the cross, received our penalty upon the cross. He bore our sin. Paul puts it another way in Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. He says, We were under the curse of the law. That is, unless you lived a perfect life, you could not be saved. You could not enter into eternity with God. Unless you were absolutely flawless from beginning to end, you would not enter into eternity with him. And so that's the curse of the law. But Jesus became a curse to redeem us from the curse. Because what Deuteronomy tells us, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And so Jesus hung on a tree, became a curse that we could be redeemed from the curse of the law, from the death that we deserve, from the destruction in hell that was awaiting us. He took our place. He bore our sin. He became the curse on our behalf so that we could be redeemed from it. But it resulted in this change with him and the father. And he expresses that in Matthew chapter 27, verse 46. There on the cross about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why did Jesus cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I think there's a couple of reasons. First, it's a reference to Psalm chapter 22. It's actually the first line of Psalm chapter 22. And so Jesus is pointing them back to this Psalm. He's essentially saying, turn to Psalm 22 and read it. It's all about me. And as you look at Psalm chapter 22, it's written by David, but you can see the prophetic nature of it as he speaks about the Messiah and the torture, the affliction, the suffering that he will go through. And so he's referencing Psalm 22, but also I believe that Jesus here is just expressing how he felt. He felt forsaken. And so he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's interesting to note here that Jesus talks to the Father and he calls him, my God. Typically, as we go through the Gospels, we see Jesus refer to the Father as the Father or my Father. As he speaks to the Father, he speaks to him as my Father. But here that changes and instead he says, my God, instead of my Father. remember at the baptism of jesus as he's coming up out of the water the holy spirit descends upon him and the father speaks from heaven and says this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased they had this oneness this unity he was well pleased with the son but now jesus feels forsaken the father did not forsake jesus But as Jesus bore our sin, he felt the effects of that. And so he felt alone. He felt forsaken. He felt the distance. And so he says, my God, instead of my father, why have you forsaken me? It's not an exact comparison, but if you could think about back when you were a kid, perhaps you had the experience when you had done something wrong and gotten caught. And your parents, as they're talking with you, they say those terrible, terrible words. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. And when your parents say those words, it's like, oh, like it's hurtful. Like you wish, I'd rather you be mad. I'd rather you be angry. Go ahead and just spank me because that's better than those words. I'm just disappointed. And there's a hurt that happens there. It's not exactly parallel. Jesus, you know, well, the father is still pleased with Jesus, but Jesus feels this disconnect. He feels this separation. He feels forsaken. And so he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus bore our sin. He was perfect. He was sinless. He was flawless. But for our sake, he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so they crucified Jesus. It's just three words. You know, there in verse 33, they crucified him. And the people of the day, they understood all that that meant because people were crucified right next to roads, right next to city gates. And so they saw it, they knew it, they knew all that went into it. But we being so far removed, not having crucifixions on the street corners regularly, we forget many times what really went on, what Jesus went through. He did this for you. He said in advance, look, this is my body, which is broken for you. I'm giving myself to these things. This is my blood, which was shed for you. Because without this, you cannot have forgiveness of sins. Without this, you can't be saved. And so I will bear your sin. I will receive your penalty. I will be crucified, put to death, so that you can have everlasting life. It's an amazing thing that Jesus has done for us. An amazing work that he has accomplished for us. And as we consider the cross, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of suffering. It can be quite emotional, you know, as you consider the pain, the agony, the time that Jesus suffered. But one last thought about the crucifixion of Jesus that I'd like us to consider. And that's from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Here in Hebrews chapter 12, the author says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, those are the people who believed God back in Hebrews chapter 11. Here's what we should do. He says, let us lay aside every weight. Here it tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. His body was broken. His blood was shed. He bore our sin, all devastating to him. But he did it because there was a joy that was set before him. It was the joy of those who would be able to be redeemed by believing in him. It was the joy of offering forgiveness to to the people that he loves so greatly. He already had everything. He was in glory with the Father in all eternity. But he humbled himself... And suffered in this way and bore our sin so that you and I could experience eternity with the Father. It was the joy that was set before him. And that's why he endured the cross. And so as you consider the cross, yes, it was great suffering. And yes, it brings sorrow because Jesus had to die on our behalf. But Jesus did it for the joy that was set before him. And so in the same way for us, for the joy that's set before you, he says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let's run to Jesus. Let's run ahead in our walk with the Lord, in our call, in our lives. Let's run forward. for the joy that is set before us. It's the only appropriate response. As Jesus has done this for us, for our sake, for the joy of being with us, the only appropriate response for us is to run for it as well, looking to him and having that set as the joy before us, that we will get to be with Jesus in eternity. And for that, I will lay aside the sin, the weights that ensnare me, And I will run with endurance the race that He's given to me.