JESUS CHRIST

Of all the questions we ponder concerning Gethsemane, why the Savior suffered there is perhaps that which has most baffled scholars and saints. The Gospel writers tell us what happened at that crucial site, but they do not clearly address the question of why. In an effort to answer the question, some suggest that Christ suffered because He recognized the ingratitude of men who would not accept the Atonement He would make for them on the cross, or because He loved us and yet knew what we would commit or face in the future, such as sins, betrayals, denials, and persecutions. others offer that perhaps Jesus Christ suffered because He realized He had to yield up His divine nature and become obedient unto death, thereby becoming the “suffering servant” or be required to give up all the good that could fill His life. Some recommend that we understand Christ’s suffering in an eschatological context and view that which Jesus Christ endured and prayed to avert as the suffering and struggle that are to precede the coming forth of the kingdom. Still others suggest that His suffering simply came from His desire to find another way to be the Messiah rather than the way the Father had planned. Commonly, [some] conclude that Christ’s pain and suffering came because of fear of what He knew was ahead of Him, even His impending death on the cross and the suffering and humiliation He would endure antecedent to it. . . . (more…)

To have any measure of appreciation and gratitude for what Jesus Christ accomplished in our behalf, we must remember these vital truths:

Jesus Christ came to earth to do our Father’s will.

He came with a foreknowledge that He would bear the burden of the sins of us all.

He knew he would be lifted up on the cross.

Christ was born to be the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind.

He was able to accomplish His mission because He was the Son of God and He possessed the power of God.

Christ was willing to accomplish His mission because He loves us. (more…)

Matthew and Mark, the only Gospels that record this incident in detail, note that Jesus Christ felt forsaken by God without explaining why (see Matthew 26: 46; Mark 15:34).

Later, commentators began to explore the imponderable; suggesting a variety of explanations why Jesus Christ, innocent and guiltless, experienced complete separation from the Father at this horrific moment.

Some scholars and theologians suggest that the Father could not bear to witness the death of his beloved Son and therefore, turned aside at the moment of Jesus’ final suffering. Others hypothesize that the Father had to leave, a divine fiat, so Jesus Christ could accomplish the atonement completely alone. Finally, some postulate that Jesus was completely abandoned by God the same as all sinners because Jesus Christ suffered and died in our place (see Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). (more…)

Now, . . . what do men and women find when they discover the true Messiah? Finding the Messiah is the greatest of all discoveries. If we were to discuss the most important thing about Jesus the Messiah, what would it be? If we were to go home today to our families and say, “We have found the Messiah!” what would we say about Him? What is the most important thing about Him that we could tell another person? Would it be His height or weight, the color of His hair, the style of His clothes, the tone of His voice? Everything about Jesus Christ is important any any true detail or concept would be worth knowing, but what would be the single most important thing to find out about Him? I could answer that with my own opinion, but let us take a cue from what the scriptures say about Christ. (more…)

No. Jesus Christ was crucified. Crucifixion was a Roman punishment, not a Jewish punishment. Additionally, it should not be forgotten that Jesus Christ was a Jew. His mother and disciples were all Jews. They, of course, were not responsible for Jesus’ death. Large numbers of Jews living beyond Galilee and Judea never met or heard of Jesus Christ. They obviously were not responsible for Jesus’ execution, which they did not have any say or knowledge about during their lifetime. Most first century Jews were totally unaware of his life and ministry and, therefore, had nothing to do with his death and were, therefore, not responsible for the actions of a few individuals (Judas—who handed him over to the arresting officers; the officers who handed him over to the Jewish High priest; Caiaphas—who handed him over to the Roman governor; and Pilate, who handed him over to the Roman execution squad). Of course, Jews living before the first century and those living after the first century had nothing to do with the tragic events on that fateful Friday so long ago in Jerusalem.

In Galilee and Judea, many Jews were sympathetic to his message to “the least, last and the lost.” His enemies were afraid of the Jewish crowds who heard him and followed him (Mark 14:1-2). Many Jews who met him thought he was a righteous teacher, a healer, even a prophet (Matthew 16:13-14). Others believed he was the long-expected anointed servant—the Messiah. Even among the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, there were those who believed Jesus Christ was sent from God (see John 19:39; cf. John 3:1).

Following his death, many Jews continued to accept Jesus’ message and became ardent disciples (see Acts 2:41; 4:4). Eventually, the completely Jewish-Christian Church opened its doors to Gentiles (see Acts 10) who joined in such large numbers that they became the majority by the end of the first century.

Only much later, did Gentile-Christians begin to assign blame to the Jews as a nation, forgetting that all of the heroes and heroines of the Gospels they so admired (Simeon, Anna, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Martha, and Lazarus) were observant Jews who believed that Jesus Christ was the Jewish Messiah. Additionally, these people also forgot that Jesus himself prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

The New Testament does not assign corporate responsibility to Romans, Gentiles, or Jews. It provides the story of a cruel Roman governor and a rather small collaborating Jewish leadership who conspired to get rid of Jesus because he was so popular among the Jews living in Galilee and Judea in the first century.

If the books of the New Testament were printed in the order in which they were originally composed, Paul’s letters would appear first. His earliest letters-1-2 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, and Romans-were written sometime between A.D. 49 and 57 (perhaps even earlier for Galatians), before Matthew, Luke, and John were written and nearly contemporary with the Gospel of Mark. Therefore, the earliest written accounts of the Jesus Christ’s last hours on earth-the Last Supper on Thursday, the fateful crucifixion on Friday, and the glorious resurrection on the first Easter Sunday-are found in Paul’s letters.

The earliest explicit references to these events are found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, written about A.D. 57. Paul noted, “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). That was not all. Later in the same letter, Paul wrote to his readers, “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

This threefold aspect of the mission of Jesus Christ-that he died, was buried, and rose again-is echoed in many of Paul’s other letters. These other references often represent only allusions and implicit references to the events fully detailed in the Gospel narrative. However, Paul’s accounts provide written evidence demonstrating that an oral account of Jesus’ life enjoyed a fairly wide circulation across the entire Mediterranean basin before the Gospels were recorded.

“The passion of Jesus, more than other parts of the gospel story, cries out for a theological commentary. While the uninitiated can easily appreciate scenes of Jesus’ ministry, in which he appears as compassionate healer and teacher, they will be less clear about what to make of a gruesome execution. The crucifixion made no sense to Jesus’ own followers, who had to start rereading their scriptures in an effort to discover why the mighty prophet of God the one God raised from the dead, died an ignominious death.” The Christian Century (9 March 2004), 5.

The Passion Narratives were some of the earliest oral or written accounts of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The term passion comes from the Latin for “suffering” (patior/passus) and is found in the King James Version of the Bible in Acts, “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3, emphasis added). Although scholars differ on where the Passion Narratives begin and end in the individual canonical Gospels, they usually agree that the material dealing with the period from Gethsemane through the Grave is included (see Matthew 26:36-27:66; Mark 14:32-15:47; Luke 22:39-23:56). In the Fourth Gospel the material found in John 18:1-19:42 is often associated with the Passion.

Crucifixion was an ancient method of execution the Romans adopted almost exclusively to deter criminal acts by non-roman citizens in the empire. Crucifixions were carried out on busy streets, particularly on roads that led into and out of city centers. The Romans hoped that as many onlookers as possible would see those crucified and reconsider acting against Roman provincial law.

One first-century example of a crucified victim demonstrates that the feet of the crucified were at least sometimes nailed sideways through the heel bones and that the feet were possibly nailed together, although recent commentators feel that side by side was the more common practice. Nailing the feet from the top through the bottom caused the feet to tear, providing little support for the victim and therefore hastening death-something the Romans sought to avoid. The hands were most commonly nailed, and although Christian art commonly depicts the wrists of crucified prisoners as being tied, the only documented practice was nailing. The Romans drove nails into the hands and wrists to fasten the person for long periods of time and also to avoid excessive bleeding. If the victim were to bleed excessively, the main purpose of crucifixion-to execute the individual in as painful and public a way as possible-would be circumvented.

The actual crucifixion of Jesus Christ also differs in another important way from our modern artistic impressions of the event. Crucified individuals were stripped naked to humiliate them as much as possible. We have no evidence that the Romans made concessions to Jews to accommodate the Jews’ prohibitions against nakedness.

Many visitors to the Old City in Jerusalem take the opportunity to walk along a crowded pedestrian way that is marked in Arabic, English, and Hebrew as “Via Dolorosa.” The Latin name means “the Way of Sorrow,” “the Way of Grief,” or “the Way of Pain.” According to a tradition reaching back to Ricoldus de MonteCrucis in 1288, the Via Dolorosa as the route Jesus Christ trod from Pilate’s Judgment Hall, where Jesus Christ had been condemned, to Golgotha, the place of his execution (see Matthew 27:31-33; Mark 15:20-22; Luke 23:26-33; and John 19:16-17). During subsequent centuries, Stations of the Cross emerged, presumably marking specific spots where events in Jesus Christ’s last walk occurred, including the place where Simon of Cyrene was made to bear the cross, where Jesus’ face was wiped by Veronica, and where he fell a third time. Some of these events, however, like the three falls and the wiping of his face by Veronica, came from non-canonical sources-legends that are not rooted in the Gospel narratives.

Eventually, fourteen stations were firmly established along this route. Seven stations are found in the Muslim quarter of the city; two are found within the Christian Quarter but outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and the last five are found within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Archaeologists and historians universally have rejected the route as tracing the actual steps of Jesus Christ. Most agree that Jesus was judged by Pilate in Herod the Great’s palace, located in the western part of the city, and not in the Antonia Fortress, located in the eastern part of the city, the place where the first Station of the Cross is located on the Via Dolorosa. Furthermore, the original path lies far beneath the present level of the Old City and was located in a different part of the city. Nevertheless, many pilgrims continue to walk along the Via Dolorosa to provide them an opportunity to contemplate Jesus Christ’s last walk on earth as the suffering Messiah.