Crucifixion
- Cornerstone Church
- Jun 29
- 7 min read
This week’s readings come to the purpose of history created by God and for God. The readings display the purpose of God in glorifying Himself and sharing His perfection with all His creation. It’s the plan laid before the foundation of the world... the point at which eternity past and future will point to and all heaven will celebrate forever. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection (resurrection will be covered next week), are the singular points that humanity’s salvation hangs on. See Jesus’ sufferings for God’s glory and your salvation as the perfect Lamb without blemish slain before the foundation of the world. This is and will always be the Big Picture.
Each week, as you take in the Bible, find some friends to talk it out. You can follow this simple guide to help. First, R.E.A.D. and P.R.A.Y. on your own. Then, meet with friends to share what you've learned.
R - Repeated words
E - Examine and mark
A - Ask what you learn about God
D - Do if there is anything to do
P - Praise
R - Repent
A - Ask
Week 27 -
Bible Reading Plan
Daily Prayer Plan
START IT.
We're reading the Bible together in 2025 to see how Love Shows Up from the Old Testament and into the New Testament. How do we understand so many stories and lessons through the entire Bible while trying to stick to the "sacred timeline"? The answer is the big picture. If we get the big picture, we get the story the Bible is trying to tell. From Sunday's message or The Big Picture Bible Reading Plan this week in Matthew, Mark, and John, what is impacting you the most? How has praying daily through the Psalms impacted you? Was there a word, phrase, Bible verse, or theme that impacted you?
STUDY IT.
Read Revelation 13:8 and John 17:1-5. What do we learn about God and Jesus from these passages? Everything that follows was in God’s plan for salvation from the beginning.
Read Isaiah 53. Look for how Isaiah 53 matches this week's readings? What did you find?
Read Matthew 27:15-23. What is shocking about this passage? Read John 15:25.
Read Matthew 27:46. Read Psalm 22:1. When Jesus was squeezed, what came out?
Read Matthew 27:54 and Luke 23:40-43. Who were the first people to believe in Jesus after being brought to be crucified? Why is this ironic or surprising?
SHARE IT.
Read John 15:18-20. What is the warning here to the Christian and what should you not be surprised by?
Read John 15:16, 16:7-15. Who has Jesus sent to you and how is this a help to you?
Read Matthew 27:54 and Psalm 22:1. What comes out of you when you are squeezed? How might you make your reactions more Christ honoring over time (Psalm 119:1-2)?
Read Psalm 119:11. What is the last verse you memorized to hide in your heart? How are you treasuring God’s word this week?
What is the worst physical pain you have experienced? How might this compare to Crucifixion (see below).
FINAL THOUGHT
Jesus arrived at the place of his crucifixion called Golgotha having already been beaten multiple times, flogged, and with a crown of thorns. Matthew 27:34 states, “they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink. But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it.” Mark 15:23 states, “They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.” Gall is any bitter herb, including myrrh, that was used as a pain reliever. Jesus took the full cup of God’s wrath against sin (Jeremiah 25:15, Matthew 26:39) while being unwilling to dampen his sufferings in obedience and glory to the Father. John Stott states, ““Divine love triumphed over the divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice. The cross was an act simultaneously of punishment and amnesty, severity and grace, justice and mercy.”
The following is excerpted from The Expositors Bible Commentary (Volume 8, pages 775-780, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984.)
(Commenting on Mark 15:15) The Romans first stripped the victim and tied his hands to a post above his head. The whip (flagellum) was made of several pieces of leather with pieces of bone and lead embedded near the ends. Two men, one on each side of the victim, usually did the flogging. The Jews mercifully limited flogging to a maximum of forty stripes; the Romans had no such limitation. The following is a medical doctor’s description of the physical effects of flogging.
The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper in the subcutaneous tissues, producing first and oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles… Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. (C. Truman Davis, “The Crucifixion of Jesus. The Passion of Christ from a Medical Point of View,” Arizona Medicine 22, no. 3 [March 1965]: 185)
It is not surprising that victims of Roman floggings seldom survived.
(Commenting on Mark 15:17-18) The crown was made of some kind of prickly plant such as abounds in Palestine. This they pressed into his scalp. Again there must have been copious bleeding because the scalp is one of the most vascular areas of the body.
(Commenting on Mark 15:19) The mocking was followed by further physical violence. The blows hitting his head from the staff drove the thorns more deeply into Jesus’ scalp and caused even more profuse bleeding. They also kept spitting on him…
(Commenting on Mark 15:20) At last tiring of their sadism, the soldiers tore the robe from Jesus’ back. The fabric had probably stuck to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds. Thus when it was callously ripped off him, it caused excruciating pain, just as when a bandage is carelessly removed. Jesus’ own clothes were now put back on him.
(Commenting on Mark 15:21) Men condemned to die by crucifixion were customarily required to carry the heavy wooden crosspiece (patibulum) on which they were to be nailed, to the place of execution. Jesus started out carrying his cross (John 19:17), but it proved to be too much for him. The patibulum usually weighed thirty or forty pounds and was usually strapped across the shoulders. One can hardly imagine the pain caused by the rough heavy beam pressing into the lacerated skin and muscles of Jesus’ shoulders. The scourging of blood so weakened him that he could not go on carrying the heavy crossbeam.
(Commenting on Mark 15:24) Mark simply says, “And they crucified him.” What incredible restraint! Especially when one considers that crucifixion was, as Cicero said, “the cruelest and most hideous punishment possible” (In Verrem 5.54.165). What took place physically is described by Davis (“Crucifixion of Jesus,” pp. 186-187).
Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The cross is then lifted into place.
The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain, —the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. . . . Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. Jesus fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
It is now almost over the loss of tissue fluids reached a critical level the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues. His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally he can allow His body to die.
All this, the Bible records with the simple words, “And they crucified him” (Mark 15:24).
Comentarios