This large crucifix once hung in a church. It is relatively modern, so they probably just replaced it with something better, but when I saw it, I found it very moving. I started a cross and crucifix collection years ago, and this is one of my favorites.
As a Christian, Jesus Christ represents the power of God’s salvation to me. The title "Christ", means "Anointed One", or "Chosen One", though by our standards, what He was chosen to do is something none of us would want to be chosen for! He was to bear the sins of mankind, and mankind’s punishment for those sins, by being beaten and executed on a cross.
Though the Romans performed the execution, it was His own people, the Jews, who turned Him over to them. After an illegal trial in the dead of night, Jesus was sent to Pontius Pilot, who found no guilt in him, and sent Him to the Jewish King, Herod, to judge. Herod sent Him back to Pilate, who under pressure from the Jewish Pharisees and High Priest, had Jesus beaten with a cat o nine tails, a whip that had pieces of metal, bone or glass attached to it, to cause massive damage and pain. Once again, with Jesus bleeding and probably near death, Pontius Pilate thought that would be enough, but the mob demanded crucifixion.
It was the Roman custom once a year to free one prisoner of the peoples’ choice. So Pilate, thinking he had found his ticket out of passing judgment on Jesus, offered to release either Jesus, or a radical murderer, Barabas to them! Surely, the crowd would have enough sense to see a murderer was more dangerous! They didn’t. Again, they demanded that Jesus be put to death on the cross, one of the most hideous and shameful forms of execution of all time.
Having no more recourse, Pilate released Barabas, blamed the crowd for the decision, and washed his hands of the matter, literally, by publicly washing his hands and trying to convince himself that it wouldn’t be his fault that Jesus would die. His own wife had had a dream that this innocent man would be killed, and had pleaded with him not to do it! With that weighing on him, Pontius Pilate still sentenced Jesus to death, and they strapped the huge beam He would hang on across His back, and began the torturous walk through the streets of Jerusalem all the way to Golgotha, the place of execution outside the city gates. Golgotha means "skull", and there is a rock formation there which resembles one. We know this place now as Calvary.
Before arriving at the execution site, Jesus collapsed and could no longer carry His heavy burden alone. A man was chosen from the onlookers to help carry it. Once there, the heavy beam would have been laid down, and Jesus, the chosen one, would have spikes driven into his hands and feet, and would have been hoisted up as the cross was raised with Him on it. It took hours to die, which only shows how incredibly strong he was. At 33, Jesus was in His prime, and as a carpenter, was a strong, physically fit man.
Now, in modern times, they have run tests on athletes to see what the effects of crucifixion would be on an even younger man in peak physical condition. College students volunteered to do the experiments, and were tied to a cross, not nailed, in the same position Jesus was in. None could endure it for long, the pain and stress on the body being horrendous, and the position causing the lungs to become unable to breathe. This was no easy death. It was agonizing, but Jesus chose to be born as a man, and suffer the penalty for sins He never committed so we wouldn’t have to pay that price. That kind of love is stronger than any man’s body, and God’s Anointed, Chosen One, died on that cross to take our sins unto Himself so if we believed in Him, God would have mercy on us. Why? Because according to the bible, nothing short of the shedding of blood is enough to atone for sin. It’s that serious.
On the third day, lying in a borrowed tomb, Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God His Father, and appeared to His disciples again! He stayed for a while, and taught them more things, and then ascended back to God and to His rightful place in heaven.
Many religions speak of things we must sacrifice to appease God. This is the only one that shows that GOD was willing to sacrifice His only Son for US! Such is the love of the Creator for the people of this puny planet, that He was not willing for all of them to suffer eternal separation from Him, in a place that had been designed not for man, but for the devil and his demons! Hell is a place of torment, but we were created to fellowship with God forever, not be tormented! Jesus was the escape plan that the Lord used to free us from the fate our sins deserved. Jesus said that He was the only way to the Father, and to heaven. He earned that with His tremendous sacrifice for us.
This crucifix hangs by my front door. I am aware as I come in or go out, that I now live for Christ, the Chosen One. He chose me, and I am forever grateful.
