My Weekend and Thoughts About Visiting Passion City Church

Jesus, begins by having a Passover meal with His disciples.  Peter and John go to prepare a place where they can have the Passover meal together.  Knowing all to well what was going to be happening to Him.  As Jesus is sitting having a meal with His disciples Satan enters into one of the twelve named Judas Iscariot. As they are sitting together Jesus institutes a beautiful symbol of His sacrifice by teaching them the Lord's Super. He took a cup and gave thanks and said this is my blood that is poured out for you.  Then He took bread, He broke it and gave thanks telling them to take and eat in remembrance of His body that was broken and beaten for us.  Then He took Judas's hand and said the hand that is with me will be the one who will betray me.  Jesus knew what He had to do to fulfill the scriptures and His mission from God the Father.  Jesus then took the disciples to go with Him to pray. Jesus was in such deep agony that He began to sweat drops of blood which is clinically called hermatidrosis. It is a rare condition when a human is suffering from extreme levels or stress. 


Then before He knew it that time had come for Judas to hand him over. They captured Jesus and mocked him and took Him to Pilate.  The Jewish leaders presented their case before Pilate even though there were nine breaches of justice in their case in which Pilate saw no wrong doing in Jesus. 1) Jesus was arrested through a bribe aka "blood money", 2) He is arrested without a clear charge, 3) Trials could not be held at night or on feast days 4) They will use physical force to intimidate Jesus during the trial, 5) False witnesses will offer conflicting testimony against Him, 6) Jesus will not be given a chance to cross-examine the witnesses, 7) The High Priest never asks for a vote of the Sanhedrin, 8) As Jesus is taken to Pilate, the charges against Him will change, and 9) He will be convicted and executed on the same day. The Jewish people were relentless and so Pilate sends Jesus away to be judged by King Herrod. Herrod's men played some pop the prophet and released Jesus as well not finding any fault in Him. Pilate addressed the Jewish crowd pleading them to release Jesus. He lets them choose between a murdering criminal in Barabbas or Jesus and they choose Barabbas.  Interesting thing about Barabbas is his name "bar" means "SON"... "abba" means Father.  Barabbas means SON OF THE FATHER. Pilate washes His hands and lets them know I want to have nothing to do with this but being the coward that he is he allows the people to make the ruling instead of standing up for what is right and allows Jesus to be crucified.


Jesus was flogged.  Jesus was stripped naked in front of a crowd of people in public.  They tied His hands to a pole leaving his back fully stretched out and exposed. They took wooden rods and beat Jesus with them 39 times to soften up the skin and tenderize Him.  Then they used a "flagellum" which is called the cat of nine tails.  This was a small whip that had nine leather straps with and hook made of either metal, bone, glass or other sharp objects to it and they began to whip him with it.  They beat Him 39 times with it knowing that 40 times would kill someone.  Most of the time a person being excecuted wouldn't live past the 39 lashings from the flagellum.  Most mens would pass out from the beating and the soldiers would want for the person to regain consciousness before they would beat them again so they could feel the full impact of eat whip.  The flagellum would latch onto the flesh or ribs and rib open the flesh sometimes even pulling off ears, ribs or even spinal columns being pulled out of the persons body. Jesus begin young and in great physical shape was one of the few to not die from the flogging alone.  Isaiah 52:14 tells us that His appearance was so disfigured beyond recognition. After the flogging in order to mock him they places a purple rob on His body and pressed a crown made of thorns deep into His scull.


The road to the cross is full of more of the same.  By this time the robe would have dried onto his body and He is then striped again causing the wounds to be ripped open yet again causing more excruciating pain.  The soldiers then take a rough piece of lumber called the patibulum and they tied it to the back of Jesus.  A patibulum would usually way anywhere from 75 to 125 pounds.  This was also usually a recycled cross that had been used before which means it was likely to have blood, sweat, urine, tears and feces of other men still remaining. Jesus began carrying His cross to the place of His crucifixion called Golgotha which means the place of the skull.  Following right behind Him was a roman soldier carrying a titilus.  Which was required by law for the soldiers to carry a sign on a pole with the reason for crucifixion. Engraved on the titilus was "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".

Crucifixion was very common in that day.  The Romans had invented crucifixion as a means of deterring crime and affirming their supremacy as the most powerful empire in the known world.   Crucifixion was painful, shameful and public, in plain view so that all could see.  And it was done frequently.  On the day that Spartacus died in battle 6,000 men were crucified in a day lined up on the shoulder of the highway to serve as a reminder to all people of what happens when you rebel against the emperor.  

Jesus would have nails pounded into His hands & feet.  In typical Renaissance fashion, most painters have depicted Jesus as having nails driven through the center of His palms and the tops of His feet.  The problem with that is the weight distribution.  If a victim had a nail driven through his palms, it is highly unlikely that the victim’s hands could’ve held the weight.  So where did they drive the nails?  It is more probable, that the nails were driven between the ulna and radius bones of the forearm, thus putting the weight of the body on the complex gathering of wrist bones.  Driving between those two bones, the soldiers would’ve severed the media nerve.  This would cause the hand to immediately tense up and could potentially send searing pain throughout the arms and shoulder region.  The muscle cramps would’ve been unbearable. 

One of two things usually happened to the feet.  The torso was either twisted and the feet were nailed one above each other.  Or the legs were forced to straddle the cross and the nails were then driven through the ankle or the heel.  Both options were horrific & forced the victim to alter their typical breathing routine.  Breathing became so laborious that their lungs would eventually fill with abnormal and sometimes fatal amounts of carbon monoxide.  The sign, King of the Jews would’ve been nailed to the top of the cross as a means of scaring those who passed by from committing the same crimes.  Jesus is then lifted up and the cross is dropped into its hole.  Jesus’ body likely shook violently and He experiences complete trauma.  The feet of the victim were no more than 18-inches off the ground, so that people could look them in the eyes and hurl more insults and mocking.  Most people see paintings of Jesus on a cross way up in the air but this wasn't the case.  Jesus would have been hung eye level with His accusers.
Crucifixion is painful so much so that a word has been invented to describe it!  Excruciating: Latin literally means “from the cross”.   Josephus described it as “the most wretched of deaths.”  Most victims lasted an average of 72-hours or 3-days.  The longest recorded stay on the cross was 7-days.  Because of what Jesus had gone through, He will last a mere 6 hours.

Severe pain in His wrists.  Muscle cramps knotted His forearms and upper arms and the pads of His shoulders.  And not only that but the pectoral muscles at the sides of His chest were momentarily paralyzed.  This induced within Him an involuntary panic.  For He found that He could draw air in, but He was powerless to exhale.  And so He had to fight to raise Himself, in order to get in and out, even one small breath.  Each movement, each adjustment cut deeper into the bone and tendons and raw muscle.  Fever would inevitably set in, inflaming the wounds and creating an insatiable thirst.  Waves of hallucination would drift the victim in and out of consciousness.  And this went on for hours.  Cramps, the pain of the open wounds on His back, as He moves up and down the cross trying to get in and out each breath.

The soldiers continually mock Him.  If you are like me you read the part where the soldier offers Jesus a drink of sour wine and think, "Oh thats nice."  But what you need to know is that in that day when people who were well off carrier a sponge and a stick with them that they would use after they would go to the bathroom to clean themselves off.  Then after they clean themselves they would submerge the sponge into sour wine/vinegar to clean and sanitize the sponge.  So they gave the King of the World a drink of their toilet paper.


Around noon on that Friday a storm began to roll in.  The curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Then Jesus in a loud voice cries out, "Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit!" When Jesus cried out He then breathed His last.


And that is GOOD FRIDAY...