In 1940, Clarence Jordan, a farmer-theologian, founded Koinonia farm in Americus, Georgia, to promote racial unity and cooperation. Soon after that, a pastor gave Jordan the red-carpet tour of his church. The pastor proudly pointed to the rich, imported pews and luxurious decorations. Then, with darkness falling, they stepped outside where a spotlight shone on a huge cross atop the steeple.
“That cross alone cost us ten thousand dollars,” the pastor said with a satisfied smile.
“You got cheated,” said Jordan. “Times were when Christians could get them for free” (Michael Jinkins, Itasca, Texas, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 3; www.PreachingToday.com).
Some Christians today have lost their appreciation for the cross. They see it is a decoration for their churches or jewelry for their bodies, but forget that it was an instrument of horrendous torture and death.
Recently, a Franciscan University in Ohio posted a series of ads on Facebook to promote some of its online theology programs. Facebook, however, rejected one of the ads because it included a representation of the crucifixion. The monitors at Facebook said the reason for their rejection was that they found the depiction of the cross "shocking, sensational, and excessively violent."
The Franciscan University of Steubenville responded with a blog post that no doubt surprised Facebook: they agreed with Facebook's assessment! The Franciscan university posted:
“Indeed, the crucifixion of Christ was all of those things. It was the most sensational action in history: man executed his God. It was shocking, yes: God deigned to take on flesh and was 'obedient unto death, even death on a cross' (Philippians 2:8). And it was certainly excessively violent: a man scourged to within an inch of his life, nailed naked to a cross and left to die, all the hate of all the sin in the world poured out its wrath upon his humanity.”
They went on to say that it wasn't the nails that kept Jesus on the Cross but his love for [humanity]:
“He was God. He could have descended from the cross at any moment, [but] love… kept him there. Love for you and for me, that we might… have eternal life with him and his Father in heaven” (Rebecca Manley Pippert, Stay Salt, Good Book Company, 2020, pp. 132-133; www.PreachingToday.com).
If only we could go beyond seeing the cross as a decoration. If only we could fully appreciate what Jesus went through on the cross for us. It would deepen our love for Him and transform the way we live our lives.
So, how do we come to fully appreciate the cross? How do we grasp the full weight of its anguish and pain? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to John 19, John 19, where John gives his eyewitness account of Jesus’ crucifixion. We’re not going to look at the whole chapter, just the middle of it, where John records three of seven cries Jesus makes from the cross. Those cries capture the essence of His agony, and they help us appreciate what Jesus did for us on the cross.
John 19:25-27 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (ESV).
Jesus sees His distraught mother, standing with John, the disciple He loved, and He asks John to take care of His mother, to be the son He can no longer be. Mary was probably a widow at this time. Her other children are in Galilee, far to the north. So Jesus is the only one left to care for His mother, but now He’s dying.
They didn’t have Medicare in those days, so Mary would have been left destitute without a son to care for her. That’s why Jesus asks John to be her son. It’s a tender moment, a sorrowful moment, as Jesus says good-bye to His mother. The cross brought real emotional pain to Jesus and His family. So to appreciate what Jesus did for you on the cross…
FEEL ITS SORROW.
Sense the anguish Jesus and His mother felt. Suffer the grief of their loss.
On the scenic foothills of the Alatoo Mountain Range in northern Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz people have built a great monument complex, called Ata-Beyit, overlooking city of Bishkek. Ata-Beyit means “grave of our fathers.”
Now, usually, people build monuments to commemorate national victories and grand achievements. However, the Kyrgyz people built this monument to commemorate magnificent defeat. Specifically, they remember three heartbreaking defeats on that scenic hill.
The first defeat happened in 1916 when Tsar Nicholas II decreed that all Kyrgyz men be conscripted into the Russian army to fight in the First World War. On that mountaintop some 100,000 men died when soldiers massacred them, or they were lost in the brutal winter.
The second defeat took place in 1938 when Joseph Stalin ordered the execution of Kyrgyz writers, teachers, artists, and politicians. The authorities rounded up 137 leading citizens, led them up those hills, and murdered them.
The third defeat happened more recently in 2010, when the Kyrgyzstan dictator, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, ordered snipers to fire into a crowd of protestors in the capital city of Bishkek. Eighty-four (84) young people lost their lives that day, murdered for protesting against yet another brutal regime, standing in the way of freedom. Sixteen (16) victims of the sniper shootings were buried in a field beneath the Ata-Beyit memorial.
Nothing but tears on that mountain… but the Kyrgyz people believe they must remember those tears forever. They came from magnificent defeats that made the Kyrgyz people what they are today, proud and thriving.
On the foothills, just outside another great city, there is another site remembered with many tears and a monument to unthinkable injustice. There, on Golgotha’s hill, just outside of Jerusalem, the brutal Roman authorities nailed Jesus to a cross, slowly executing Him in the most cruel and inhumane way they could imagine.
However, as Max Fleischmann says, “On that terrible hill—by his wounds, we were healed. On that terrible hill—through his cross, we are saved. On that terrible hill—death may have won the day, but life-everlasting secured an unbreakable victory…
“The Kyrgyz people have a mountain, and its name is Ata-Beyit. The people of God have such a mountain. Its name is Calvary” (Max Fleischmann, "Monument to Defeat," Thinking Outside the Box, 3-10-17; www.PreachingToday.com).
Please, remember the tears shed on that mountain. If you want to appreciate what Christ did for you on the cross, 1st, feel its sorrow. Then 2nd…
GRASP ITS SUFFERING.
Understand the physical pain Jesus experienced there. Know the torment Jesus went through for you. Look at Jesus’ second cry from the cross that John records.
John 19:28-29 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth (ESV).
This was a literal, physical thirst, which the soldiers tried to quench with cheap, sour wine. It points to the excruciating, physical pain Jesus endured on the cross.
Psalm 22 describes that pain in amazing detail hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born. It is a Messianic psalm, predicting the sufferings of Messiah.
And there in that psalm, Messiah cries out, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws” (Psalm 22:14-15).
Several years ago, Dr. Truman Davis described the crucifixion of Christ from a medical point of view. Take a look (show video: A Medical Examination of the Crucifixion of Christ, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3t-btAgTSI).
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea, but Hero returned him to Pilate.
It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews. A Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs.
At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally, the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood.
The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again, there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa.
In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650-yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” is nailed in place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. The cross is now lifted into place and falls painfully into its socket. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.
As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again, there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen.
It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded:
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said, “Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.”
The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”
Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins—a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.” A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn’t take any of the liquid.
The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”
With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward, resulting in immediate suffocation. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that this was unnecessary.
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. John 19:34 reports: “And immediately there came out blood and water.”
Medically, this is caused by the escape of fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure. At the same time, this action fulfilled the OT obligation that the sin offering required the offering of blood and of water.
Though the forensic scientists of CSI might conclude that death was due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid of the pericardium, we know that it was the weight of our sin that caused him to die of a broken heart. This is one glimpse, including medical evidence, of the epitome of evil man has exhibited towards man and towards God. And as the cruel fist of God’s judgment fell upon sin, suddenly I realize that He did it for me. He did it for you.
Oh, my dear friends, appreciate what Jesus did for you on the cross: 1st, feel its sorrow; 2nd, grasp it’s suffering; and 3rd…
TAKE ITS SUFFICIENCY.
Receive the complete payment Jesus made for you on the cross. Accept the finished work of Christ on the cross for yourself. Look at Jesus’ third cry from the cross that John records.
John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (ESV).
It is finished—tetelestai in the Original Greek. Years ago, archeologists were digging around an ancient garbage dump, where they found this word stamped on hundreds of tax receipts from the First Century. The word means, “Paid in full!”
You see, when Jesus died on the cross, He paid your sin debt in full! There is nothing more you need to pay. There is nothing else you need to do to earn your place in heaven. Just reach out by faith and receive God’s free gift of eternal life, which cost His Son everything.
In America is the story of a young Irish family that illegally relocates to New York City from Canada. Johnny, Sarah, and their young daughters Christy and Ariel settle in a rundown, tenement apartment in a neighborhood known for its drug trafficking.
There, they befriend Mateo, a reclusive African-American man in their building, who is seriously ill. Mateo is mysterious. He is a gifted artist from a wealthy background but chooses to live in this rundown neighborhood.
When Sarah discovers she is pregnant, Mateo predicts the child will enrich their impoverished lives. As the pregnancy develops, doctors find that the baby has significant problems and may not survive. As hospital bills mount, Johnny promises payment, but he is incapable of raising the thousands of dollars they need.
After Sarah gives birth, the premature baby lies in an incubator struggling for life as the parents anxiously look on. At that moment, Mateo is in the same hospital near death. His face grimaces in pain as his head rears back and his eyes open. At that exact moment, the baby's eyes open, he draws his little hand near his face emitting a hungry cry. Johnny and Sarah smile broadly. They each reach an index finger toward the baby through an opening in the Plexiglas.
Mateo's eyes grow big and then close for the last time. As the nurse holds his hand, it falls limp. Meanwhile, Johnny retracts his index finger from the baby's clutching fist. A close up on the baby's little hand shows fingers stretching fully alive.
Then the scene shifts to the business manager’s office. She announces, “The hospital bill arrived. It came to $30,420.20.” As Johnny nervously contemplates how he’s going to pay that huge bill, the business manager scrolls down her computer screen. “The bill’s been paid,” she says in a matter-of-fact voice.
Johnny asks in disbelief, “What do you mean?”
“Mateo Kwame paid it,” she adds hitting the enter button on her computer. “There's no balance” (In America, 20th Century Fox, 2002; directed by Jim Sheridan, written by Jim, Naomi, and Kirsten Sheridan, 01:29:50 to 01:33:00; www.PreachingToday. com).
When Jesus died on the cross, He did the same thing for you. You owed a debt you could never pay, for the wages of sin is eternal torment in the Lake of Fire. But Jesus paid that debt for you on the cross. As the eternal Son of God, He suffered eternal torment in the six hours he hung there. Then, at the end of that suffering, He cried out, “It is finished”—Paid in Full! There is no balance you need to pay. All you have to do is take His payment on your behalf. Please, stop trying to pay for your own sins. Instead, swallow your pride and accept the payment he already made for you on the cross.
Oh, my dear friends, please, appreciate what Jesus did for you on the cross. Feel its sorrow. Grasp its suffering. And take its sufficiency. You’ll never be the same again!
Ten years ago (2014), former Wheaton College Provost Stan Jones talked about his experience with a debilitating disease. Then he said:
Most of our why questions about suffering are ultimately unanswerable. God does not seem to be in the business of answering the why questions, and most of our philosophical responses to the question of suffering amount to various forms of taking God off the hook for the problem of suffering. But God doesn't seem to be interested in getting off the hook. In fact, the answer of God in Jesus Christ to the problem of suffering is not to get off the hook at all, but rather to impale himself on the hook of human suffering with us in the very midst of our suffering (Philip Ryken, When Trouble Comes, When Trouble Comes, Crossway, 2016, pages 95-96; www.PreachingToday.com).
You can’t help but trust and love such a God!
