Dear God, I love you, and thank You for everything you are! You are my world and best of the best friends! I love you! In Your Holy, Holy, Holy Name Amen
Have you ever done research and I mean real research about the cross? The crucifixion wasn’t just for Jesus. In fact, it was a very popular punishment back in the days of Jesus. The Romans were very fond of using it but, Jesus had the worst crucifixion of them all. I’ll break it down and tell you what the science is, why Jesus' was the worst, why it’s the most amazing act of love, and how we're meant to carry our cross daily.
For you guys who don’t know how crucifixion works, I will go over a quick explanation. The first thing to remember is you're hanging on a cross. Allowing your hands to be outstretched and your feet to be close together, or atop one another. The way the feet were done was by placing them on a small block where you could stand but were ultimately using the block to push yourself up and down. We will get to that part later, but let's move on to the hands. When we think of crucifixion it is oftentimes thought to involve nails piercing each hand. This is factually inaccurate, see Jesus never broke a bone in his body so how were His hands pierced? Back in the time of Jesus hands actually included the wrist area, since science wasn’t as developed, as today. Meaning then the nails were inserted in the wrist under the palm in between the two bones, in your forearm. Being one of the places your nerves travel through up to your hand. A nail therefore would have the ability to push those nerves when you push your body up. Picture this, Jesus is nailed on a cross and to breathe He has to push himself up, by doing this the nail presses on those nerves. Causing the most excruciating pain and therefore making the most painful death imaginable. Now why would you need to push yourself up to breathe. The way you hang on the cross actually pushes fluid into your lungs, making you suffocate. This is when you would be hanging down, but not being able to breathe forces you to push yourself up thus pressing the nerves in your wrist, causing the worst imaginable pain. Do you understand why this is the worst possible way to die? It can go on for hours. To make it worse the Romans who stood at the crucifixions would eventually break the legs of the crucified, forcing suffocation after hours of excruciating pain. That’s the baseline explanation of crucifixion and how it actually works. Jesus’ sacrifice was so powerful and held the worst pain in all crucifixions. The Lord’s death was the most excruciating and painful death to have ever been or will ever be.
You know crucifixion is the worst way to die, but what made Jesus’ the worst one? He was beaten, and not just a whip. A whip that was designed to rip flesh from the body, the cat of nine tails. If you only knew the pain that alone caused, but it doesn’t stop there. He was beaten so bad you couldn’t recognize Him. You couldn’t tell if He was a male or a female. He was shredded. The Romans then took a purple cloak or cloth and placed it on His back to mock Him. Purple is the color of royalty, and Christ claiming to be God. The Romans mocked him by placing the cloth on him and then letting the blood dry to it. Once dried the cloth was ripped from his body opening all the wounds that had adhered to the cloth. Imagine the pain of the beaten atop the ripping and reopening of wounds over and over. Then imagine having a crown of thorns pushed into your head. The crown of thorns wasn’t made from something small like a rose's thorn, rather large thorns grouped together and bound to make a crown. Then shoved on his head piercing his flesh and planting itself into His head. This was to mock Jesus further by giving Him a “king's crown.” Then on the cross, Jesus faced all the sins to ever exist all at once. It is unimaginable to even comprehend. Imagine all your sins and all the negative depression you have or have ever had, imagine the lies, the crime, the uncountable sin. Now imagine it from everyone all at once. If that’s not enough look into the world today and tell me, is it a loving kind world? No, it's not. Jesus hung on a cross with it all at once. And we dare to sin. We are nothing, less than dirt to the King of Kings, yet He loves us. Jesus paid the price for us to have the ability to be with Him in Paradise, and we turn from Him. Think of that and know Jesus laid His life down for you, so love Him like a child loves their mother. Cling to Him and beg for forgiveness and grace. I just can’t express this with words.
JESUS LOVES YOU TO DEATH!
I am assuming by now you understand why this is the greatest act of love.
We are told to pick up our cross daily and for us to truly understand this we must understand the meaning. It isn’t talking of a literal cross but rather the metaphorical cross, we need to carry. Jesus paid the price for us, so pick yourself up and deny those temptations, don’t fall into lust, visit and care for the lost, love your enemy, love your neighbor. You’re a fool if you think Christianity is easy. You're a fool to call yourself a Christian yet don’t grab your cross and carry it daily. I understand we fail, but don’t you ever give up. Don’t you fall into the worldly way. Pray! Pray! Pray! You must pray and ask The Heavenly Father to guide you. I used to think to myself, “I don’t deserve to be forgiven, so don’t forgive me.” You know what’s funny, that’s the dumbest thought to think. Christ died for us already and His grace is already there for us. How can I be unforgiven when the Father already forgave me. Don’t mistake this for not needing to repent, rather know, that through repentance Christ forgives. I will go into repentance in a later article, since it isn’t just a simple,” I’m sorry.”