Jesus Death Has Meaning

  When one looks at history, specifically in the days of Jesus amongst the Jews, it’s a fact that once a revolutionary died, their revolution was soon to die as well. This is true throughout history. Jesus was considered a revolutionary. His movement was considered a rebellion of sorts, yet when he died, his movement grew. His revolution changed the face of the entire world, not just his small corner of the world, as many similar religionist revolutions have done. Jesus When one looks at history, specifically in the days of Jesus amongst the Jews, it’s a fact that once a revolutionary died, their revolution was soon to die as well. This is true throughout history. Jesus was considered a revolutionary. His movement was considered a rebellion of sorts, yet when he died, his movement grew. His revolution changed the face of the entire world, not just his small corner of the world, as many similar religionist revolutions have done. Jesus died young as well. Many forget to recognize the small amount of time, which Jesus lived. He died at roughly the age of 33 and only began his ministry three years prior. Historically and biblically we see very little of his life between birth and 30. Many speculators have ideas and opinions, but many of those theories are reaching. Many other revolutionaries had more traction, more life to their revolutions. For example, Muhammad died when he was roughly 61 years old. Jesus life on earth was only a blip in time, yet Christianity is a worldwide movement.

 

  Many are skeptical of Jesus and wonder what Good he and his followers are today. Many look at his death as a sad happening to a nice man. Others see it as a tragedy, others see it as a deserved end and still others claim his death brings about life.   We are led then to ask: “What Good Is Jesus’ death?”

 

READ- Luke 23:26-43; Let us examine Jesus and the cross, its reality and it’s meaning

 

The Death of Jesus was Real (John 19:31-37)

Many people in history, in order to disprove Jesus and disqualify his revolution have sought to disprove his death. Many said he simply “passed out” (called the swoon theory) and didn’t die. This and other fabrications were spread in an effort to disprove the resurrection, which we will discuss next week, but he did in fact die. Let’s look at the historical facts.

 

Once Jesus came before Pontius Pilate he had been abandoned, beaten, spit on, mocked, jeered at and falsely accused. He’d also been up all night being carted to and fro like cattle to a slaughtering house. That’s when the real physical agony began.

 

Romans were experts at death, torture and physical pain. They knew medically how much beating a human body could endure and they always purposed to bring each human convict destined for the cross to the brink. They never let a man on a cross live. Jesus was no different in their eyes. They began the process of death with the whip.

 

In Rome, the cat of nine tails was the whip of choice. It had 3-9 leather straps (thus the name) and embedded into each strap were shards of glass, sharp metal shards at the ends, pieces of bone as well as heavy metal balls to “tenderize the flesh”. The majority of humans who underwent this torture would die after 40 lashes. Many historians would say that Jesus was given 39 lashes. These lashings would rip flesh off of bone; cause heavy bleeding from the back as well as exposing the spinal cord and in most cases the ribcage as well. This beating was extreme and extremely difficult to watch. Jesus endured this scourging.

 

After the beating they placed a silk robe upon Jesus and then a crown of thorns in mockery. They plucked out his beard, spit on him and cursed his name. They then forced this beaten, tired man to carry his own cross for a stretch, but it was too heavy for him. Simon of Cyrene picked it up and made the march next to Jesus up to the place of the skull called Golgotha.

 

At Golgotha, Jesus was stripped naked to further shame him publically. Public nakedness in the Jewish culture especially was regarded as one of the most shameful things that could happen to a person. When he was stripped however, the silk robe they purposefully placed upon his back would act like a scab, where his congealed flesh and blood would be torn off his back, reopening the wounds of the whip and making it to feel as if it all just happened again.

 

After this painful re-opening of the wound upon his back, Jesus was placed naked atop of the rugged, wooden cross; a worn piece of splintery wood where wooden shards would dig into his broken back. They would then expertly find the space in the wrists that hold an extremely important and painful nerve. Once this space was found they would hammer nails into each wrist causing this nerve to shoot lightning pain throughout Jesus body. They would then find a similar nerve in the feet and hammer a nail there as well. These nails were thick enough to hold the entire weight of a man. Every movement of Jesus would cause these now nail pierced nerves to shoot extreme amounts of pain throughout the entire body, even the slightest wrist twinge would cause extreme pain.

 

Once the nails were placed, they would then hoist and drop the cross into the ground, causing the shoulders to be dislodged and again enforcing shooting pain throughout the body of Jesus.

 

In agony and extreme shame and pain there was Jesus broken, bruised and wounded body for all to see. Jesus would then feel the total weight of our sins and he would bare it all. It became so thick about him that the Father turned away from Jesus in a separation that was even more painful to Jesus than the physical pain he had just endured.

 

As previously stated, Romans were experts at death. They would know when someone was dead and when someone is alive. They also respected the Jews in their religious timeline and so they were going to speed up the process by breaking the prisoners legs so they could no longer push up to breathe. Once they came to Jesus, they realized he was already dead and decided to ensure his death by piercing his side with a spear. Blood and water came out and only water would come out if he were dead.

 

Jesus’ Death has Theological Meaning

 

The Old Testament made it clear, that due to our sinfulness and falleness, God could no longer commune with us as he once did with Adam and Eve. Our sin turned God away because a Holy God could not be in the same place as the darkness of our sins. Our relationship with God was broken, just like a clay pot could be broken. We needed salvation, some of us still need it. We needed right relationship, we needed redemption. God’s wrath against sin needed to be satisfied. God set up in the OT the sacrificial system to make right, that which was broken. This however was not a permanent solution since it needed to be repeated year after year. God had not failed, but simply offered an arrow pointing towards Jesus. In Hebrews 9:22 we read that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. So, sin could only be atoned through blood. God sent Jesus His son from Heaven to earth to pay the price of blood that was required, to restore and make whole, our relationship with him, like putting a broken clay pot back together as new. In Philippians 2:5-9 the Scripture tells us that Jesus willingly left his position above all in heaven to humble himself to death, even death on a cross. Jesus lived a perfect life and died the brutal death you and I should have suffered. In the OT law the sacrifice had to be without blemish and perfect. This is why Jesus had to live a sinless life, so he could be without blemish. He took all of my sins and all of your sins as well as all of Gods wrath upon himself in that moment and made a way for our sins to be cleansed and a right relationship with God restored. Jesus is our substitute, our propitiation, our righteousness and our sanctifier all due to the cross. Our wholeness comes not of our own merit or work, because just as that broken pot cannot fix itself, we can not fix ourselves. Our whole ness comes from His heart and His work on the cross. I have seen in my own life how this brokenness can be made whole. In have seen Gods power in my family’s life and the lives of others restore that which was broken. This whole ness, this putting back the broken pieces can only be done because of the power of the cross. Satan lost. Sin lost and death lost on that Good Friday. That is why on that cross before Jesus died, he could declare it is finished, because Satan’s hold on our lives, sins imprisonment on our hearts and death’s sting were all defeated and in that moment, it was finished.

 

Jesus’ Death has Historical Meaning

I have an incredible brother. He is an outstanding father, husband, pastor and role model. There are several compliments I would give to my brother…compliments many brothers do not get to give and for that I am extremely grateful. One compliment I will never give him however is that he is God. I will never say that because it’s not true. Imagine if I did say it however, there is no way I’d be willing to die for that statement because I would know it was false. Historically we know that James, the brother of Jesus did just that however. James followed his brother, believed his brother, and he saw his brother die. James declared that his brother was not only a prophet but was God himself and the theological meaning behind his death mentioned earlier was all true. James was eventually killed for these beliefs. If there was anyone in the world who would’ve known if the claims of Jesus were false, it would be his brother. Jesus claimed to live a perfect life. James would know and he declared to his grave that Christ was God. Personally, this one fact has kept my faith grounded. When I doubt whether or not this whole thing could be true, James’ testimony (which is historical fact) screams into my heart and life. The cross of Jesus was real and Jesus death has (not had) meaning.

 

Jesus’ love lured him to the cross. His desire to set you free and to set me free drew him to his death, the most brutal death of all. There is no greater love story in the world! No narrative so raw, real and provable. Where do you stand on the death of this loving revolutionary? How can His death impact your life?