Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
They crucified Him at Calvary outside Jerusalem where criminals were executed, placing Jesus in the midst with a thief on either side to make Him appear the worst of the three though He had been declared without fault. Unlike the thieves who had to be forced onto their crosses, He willingly submitted to be nailed through hands and feet and to endure hours of cruel agony and deepest humiliation. Stretched upon that cross He died an ignominious death for human sin, bearing the sins of the whole world as substitute for transgressors, made a curse to redeem from the curse of the law and sanctifying the people with His own blood. The crucifixion was the culmination of Satan's effort to turn the world against Him, yet by that death Satan's throne was demolished. His suffering shows the cost of salvation and calls His followers to partake of His sufferings in humility rather than seek honor, for the self-denial asked of them is small beside what He gave up.
The Crucifixion Scene
The place named is Calvary, outside the gate and outside the boundaries of Jerusalem, where felons and murderers were executed. From the judgment-hall He was led to Calvary, and a vast multitude followed Him on that road. News of His condemnation had spread throughout Jerusalem, and people of all classes and all ranks flocked toward the place of crucifixion. Because freedom from molestation had been promised to His followers if He were delivered up, disciples and believers from the city and the surrounding region joined the throng.
He was hurried away amid loud shouts of triumph, and on the way the crowd passed a retired place where the dead body of Judas lay at the foot of a lifeless tree. He had hanged himself until the cord broke, his falling body was horribly mangled and being devoured by dogs, and his mutilated remains were ordered to immediate burial. The sight briefly silenced the noise and lessened the mockery, leaving many pale and fearful. It showed retribution already visiting those guilty of His blood.
He was crucified in the midst with two others, thieves and criminals, one on either side. The arrangement was made to lead people to judge Him the most notorious of the three, even though the judges had pronounced Him entirely without fault. Unlike the thieves, who resisted and had to be forced onto their crosses, Jesus willingly submitted to a wooden cross. As a bleeding victim nails were driven through His hands and feet, He was beaten with rods and thorns pierced His brow, and He endured hours of cruel agony bearing the heaviest humiliation any living person can bear.
A crowd below witnessed the scene in grief and terror beneath a dark, cloud-filled sky, in a terrible hour of gloom and darkness. While hanging there, onlookers dismissed Him as nothing more than the rest, dying like the rest. Yet the penitent thief acknowledged Him in His humiliation and asked to be remembered when He came into His kingdom, and Christ promised him a place with Him in paradise. His death then led to burial in the tomb and to resurrection when angels rolled away the stone. The cross recorded here later became a means of death for many Jews during Jerusalem's destruction, when crucifixion, discontinued in Judea after His death, was briefly revived and crosses were set up in great numbers.
What the Cross Means
His suffering outside the city was as substitute for transgressors of God's law, answering the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden for transgression. By suffering there He sanctifies the people with His own blood and redeems them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them.
Stretched on Calvary's cross He died an ignominious death for human sin and bore the sins of the whole world. Though innocent He endured spit, the crown of thorns, and other indignities without complaint and prayed for His enemies, and His meek suffering made a way of escape for lost humanity. His death is the great sacrifice and the price by which people are bought and offered salvation for soul and body.
The crucifixion was the culmination of Satan's malicious effort to turn people against Him, prompting the world's rejection and the cry for His death and exposing Satan's hatred and revenge before the watching universe. Satan moved his agents to inflict the afflictions, with hands pierced by nails and cruel suffering endured before death, but Christ's death demolished Satan's throne.
He was crucified because people hated His purity, reproof, truthfulness, piety, and sinless character, which exposed the sin, selfishness, and refusal to honor God's claims of the proud and sensual generation around Him. After the Jewish people rejected Him they became responsible for His death. Though Pilate declared Him without fault His enemies were determined to get Him out of the way.
Being crucified on a cross rather than seated on a throne, with criminals beside Him, answers the disciples' wish for places of honor beside Him. John and James would share His suffering, though not receive positions by favoritism. James would be the first of the brothers to die by the sword, while John would endure a long life of toil, reproach, and persecution.
His hanging on the cross as a bleeding victim and being lifted up to die as a malefactor, though He was the One in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, marks the taking away of the Bridegroom and His descent into the depths of humiliation. His death on the cross is evidence that He is at the believer's right hand to help, through whom believers may receive grace and power.
Following the Crucified Saviour
The crucifixion belongs among the great trials and works for which Jesus spent the night in prayer to His Father, with prayer going before the agony that led to the cross. His suffering for the sins of humanity stands as the example of what He endured for people, while those who follow Him show unwillingness to suffer for His sake. On a wooden cross with nails driven through His hands and feet He endured hours of agony, revealing the cost of His sacrifice and showing that the self-denial asked of His followers is small beside what He gave up.
Though declared without fault He was hung on the cross, beaten with rods with thorns piercing His brow, bearing for fallen humanity the heaviest humiliation any living person can bear. Onlookers dismissed Him as nothing more than the rest, dying like the rest, yet while hanging there the penitent thief acknowledged Him in His humiliation and asked to be remembered when He came into His kingdom, and received the promise of a place with Him in paradise, before burial in the tomb and resurrection when angels rolled away the stone. For this reason believers are to recognize Jesus as Saviour and Helper who knows how to sympathize with them, to love Him, and to be willing to go to no greater depths in humility than He went, partaking of His sufferings rather than seeking honor from others.
His being lifted up on the cross to die as a malefactor, though He was the One in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, marks the taking away of the Bridegroom and His descent into the depths of humiliation. The terrible, trying hour of gloom and darkness at the cross brought the disciples over the ground of test and trial, proved their faith, and they failed to endure the proving and lost their faith, with Peter denying his Lord before His enemies. If instead of being overcome with sleep they had watched and prayed, and had received the knowledge of Christ's sufferings and the glory to follow and shared His self-sacrifice, rays of hope would have lighted the darkness at the cross and sustained their faith. As it was, when they saw this, days of trial and temptation came, their faith was tried, their hope and courage failed, and they had cause to mourn and fast.
They crucified Him at Calvary outside Jerusalem where criminals were executed, placing Jesus in the midst with a thief on either side to make Him appear the worst of the three though He had been declared without fault. Unlike the thieves who had to be forced onto their crosses, He willingly submitted to be nailed through hands and feet and to endure hours of cruel agony and deepest humiliation. Stretched upon that cross He died an ignominious death for human sin, bearing the sins of the whole world as substitute for transgressors, made a curse to redeem from the curse of the law and sanctifying the people with His own blood. The crucifixion was the culmination of Satan's effort to turn the world against Him, yet by that death Satan's throne was demolished. His suffering shows the cost of salvation and calls His followers to partake of His sufferings in humility rather than seek honor, for the self-denial asked of them is small beside what He gave up.
The Crucifixion Scene
The place named is Calvary, outside the gate and outside the boundaries of Jerusalem, where felons and murderers were executed. From the judgment-hall He was led to Calvary, and a vast multitude followed Him on that road. News of His condemnation had spread throughout Jerusalem, and people of all classes and all ranks flocked toward the place of crucifixion. Because freedom from molestation had been promised to His followers if He were delivered up, disciples and believers from the city and the surrounding region joined the throng.
He was hurried away amid loud shouts of triumph, and on the way the crowd passed a retired place where the dead body of Judas lay at the foot of a lifeless tree. He had hanged himself until the cord broke, his falling body was horribly mangled and being devoured by dogs, and his mutilated remains were ordered to immediate burial. The sight briefly silenced the noise and lessened the mockery, leaving many pale and fearful. It showed retribution already visiting those guilty of His blood.
He was crucified in the midst with two others, thieves and criminals, one on either side. The arrangement was made to lead people to judge Him the most notorious of the three, even though the judges had pronounced Him entirely without fault. Unlike the thieves, who resisted and had to be forced onto their crosses, Jesus willingly submitted to a wooden cross. As a bleeding victim nails were driven through His hands and feet, He was beaten with rods and thorns pierced His brow, and He endured hours of cruel agony bearing the heaviest humiliation any living person can bear.
A crowd below witnessed the scene in grief and terror beneath a dark, cloud-filled sky, in a terrible hour of gloom and darkness. While hanging there, onlookers dismissed Him as nothing more than the rest, dying like the rest. Yet the penitent thief acknowledged Him in His humiliation and asked to be remembered when He came into His kingdom, and Christ promised him a place with Him in paradise. His death then led to burial in the tomb and to resurrection when angels rolled away the stone. The cross recorded here later became a means of death for many Jews during Jerusalem's destruction, when crucifixion, discontinued in Judea after His death, was briefly revived and crosses were set up in great numbers.
What the Cross Means
His suffering outside the city was as substitute for transgressors of God's law, answering the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden for transgression. By suffering there He sanctifies the people with His own blood and redeems them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them.
Stretched on Calvary's cross He died an ignominious death for human sin and bore the sins of the whole world. Though innocent He endured spit, the crown of thorns, and other indignities without complaint and prayed for His enemies, and His meek suffering made a way of escape for lost humanity. His death is the great sacrifice and the price by which people are bought and offered salvation for soul and body.
The crucifixion was the culmination of Satan's malicious effort to turn people against Him, prompting the world's rejection and the cry for His death and exposing Satan's hatred and revenge before the watching universe. Satan moved his agents to inflict the afflictions, with hands pierced by nails and cruel suffering endured before death, but Christ's death demolished Satan's throne.
He was crucified because people hated His purity, reproof, truthfulness, piety, and sinless character, which exposed the sin, selfishness, and refusal to honor God's claims of the proud and sensual generation around Him. After the Jewish people rejected Him they became responsible for His death. Though Pilate declared Him without fault His enemies were determined to get Him out of the way.
Being crucified on a cross rather than seated on a throne, with criminals beside Him, answers the disciples' wish for places of honor beside Him. John and James would share His suffering, though not receive positions by favoritism. James would be the first of the brothers to die by the sword, while John would endure a long life of toil, reproach, and persecution.
His hanging on the cross as a bleeding victim and being lifted up to die as a malefactor, though He was the One in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, marks the taking away of the Bridegroom and His descent into the depths of humiliation. His death on the cross is evidence that He is at the believer's right hand to help, through whom believers may receive grace and power.
Following the Crucified Saviour
The crucifixion belongs among the great trials and works for which Jesus spent the night in prayer to His Father, with prayer going before the agony that led to the cross. His suffering for the sins of humanity stands as the example of what He endured for people, while those who follow Him show unwillingness to suffer for His sake. On a wooden cross with nails driven through His hands and feet He endured hours of agony, revealing the cost of His sacrifice and showing that the self-denial asked of His followers is small beside what He gave up.
Though declared without fault He was hung on the cross, beaten with rods with thorns piercing His brow, bearing for fallen humanity the heaviest humiliation any living person can bear. Onlookers dismissed Him as nothing more than the rest, dying like the rest, yet while hanging there the penitent thief acknowledged Him in His humiliation and asked to be remembered when He came into His kingdom, and received the promise of a place with Him in paradise, before burial in the tomb and resurrection when angels rolled away the stone. For this reason believers are to recognize Jesus as Saviour and Helper who knows how to sympathize with them, to love Him, and to be willing to go to no greater depths in humility than He went, partaking of His sufferings rather than seeking honor from others.
His being lifted up on the cross to die as a malefactor, though He was the One in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, marks the taking away of the Bridegroom and His descent into the depths of humiliation. The terrible, trying hour of gloom and darkness at the cross brought the disciples over the ground of test and trial, proved their faith, and they failed to endure the proving and lost their faith, with Peter denying his Lord before His enemies. If instead of being overcome with sleep they had watched and prayed, and had received the knowledge of Christ's sufferings and the glory to follow and shared His self-sacrifice, rays of hope would have lighted the darkness at the cross and sustained their faith. As it was, when they saw this, days of trial and temptation came, their faith was tried, their hope and courage failed, and they had cause to mourn and fast.