Why The Cross?

By Ray Vander Laan

I’ve conducted dozens of tours to Israel, and the same thing happens each time I lead the group to the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.  Located just outside the city, it is one of the suggested sites for Golgotha.

One of the first questions I’m asked is, “Was Jesus crucified here?”

“Archaeological evidence seems to indicate He wasn’t,” I reply as we stand at the base of a rocky cliff.  “I also believe that Jesus was not crucified on the top of a hill; but at the foot, similar to where we are now standing.

“The Romans introduced crucifixion to Israel,” I continue.  “Jews had previously put people guilty of blasphemy and sexual immorality to death by stoning, but the Romans crucified their victims at the base of a hill so the condemned would be easily seen by passerby.”

During Palestine’s 400-year occupation by Rome, thousand were crucified, and this form of execution was governed by specific rules.  The idea was to make this horrible procedure as painful as possible and an example to others.  Jesus’ long suffering on the Cross was dreadful.

Directed by Almighty God, no events have been more central history changing than the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Messiah.  Before crucifixion existed, ancient biblical texts revealed God’s carefully detailed plans regarding Jesus’ death.  Let’s take a look at the facts.

ROMAN CUSTOMS

1.   Roman crucifixion took place in a public location outside the city (Psalm 22:6-7, 17).

2.   The Romans normally crucified people naked (Matthew 27:35).

3.   Romans preferred a cross in the shape of an uppercase T rather than a lowercase t.  Crosses were quite low, only 5 to 6 feet off the ground (Matthew 27:48).

4.   The condemned person was nailed to the cross through the wrists and ankles.  In John 20:27, the Greek word for “hand” refers to the part of the arm from the palm to the wrist.  Evidence indicates that the spikes were driven through the bones of the arm where they join at the wrist.

ROMAN PROCEDURES

1.     The Romans first flogged the condemned person, which often left the prisoner near death (John19:1 Isaiah 53:5).

2.     The crossbar was tied to the prisoner’s shoulders.  He was paraded through the streets for humiliation and as an example (Psalm 22:6).  A soldier carried a sign indicating the crime the person had committed (John 19:16-19).

3.     At the place of execution, the prisoner’s wrists were nailed to the crossbar.  The bar was lifted and placed on the stake, which was already in the ground.  The condemned person’s ankles were then nailed to the stake.  Finally, the sign identifying the person’s crime was attached to the stake.  The prisoner, in excruciating pain, eventually died of asphyxiation and loss of blood (Psalm 22: 14, 16; John 19:19).

4.     Prisoners could remain conscious for days.  Sometimes the Roman soldiers shortened the prisoner’s suffering by breaking his legs.  Because his legs no longer supported the weight of his body, he suffocated faster.  Jesus died without any broken bones (John 19:33; Exodus 12:46; Exodus 34:20).

5.     Roman soldiers kept the victim’s possessions (Matthew 27:35; Psalm 22:18).

6.     Prisoners could talk only in short bursts because of the stress on their diaphragms.  As Jesus hung on the cross, His statements were short:

• “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
• “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)
• “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1).
• “I am thirsty” (John 19:28)
• “It is finished” (John 19:30)
• “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

THE LAMB OF GOD

During my Israel tours, I explain to the group that Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem on the 10^th day of the Jewish month the day the Passover lamb was chosen for the Passover offering.  As each Jewish family selected a lamb to die on Passover (Exodus 12:3), their most passionate desire was for a Messiah, a savior, to come.  Jesus’ arrival on this particular day was as if God way saying: “Here’s my lamb.  Will you choose Him?”

Could the similarity between the Passover lamb and Jesus’ destiny to become God’s sacrificial Lamb for the sins of the world be just a coincidence?  Traditionally, the daily sacrifice was slaughtered at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, including on the day of Passover.  At that time, the priest stood at the pinnacle of the temple and blew the shofar, or the ram’s horn.

As Jesus hung on the Cross, He heard the piercing blast of the shofar carry across the city.  Jesus recognized that the hour of His sacrifice had come.  When the knife slit the throat of the Passover lamb, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “It is finished.”  At that moment, the Passover lamb, and God’s substitute our Passover Lamb died at 3:00 p.m.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away your sins and the sins of the world.  Have you asked God’s Son to forgive you for your wrong actions and attitudes?  Is salvation your greatest need?  If so, you can accept Jesus for who He really is and receive eternal life.

A “POLITICALLY CORRECT” MESSIAH

Culturally, Passover was a time when the Jewish longing for a messiah intensified.  Jewish tradition stats that the Temple door was to remain open on Passover eve just in case the Messiah arrived.

During this festival, Jewish people celebrated deliverance from Egyptian bondage, but in Jesus’ time it angered them that Jerusalem was under foreign control.  Messianic fervor fueled a dangerous atmosphere.

Antonia, the Roman fortress that housed Roman soldiers in Jerusalem, was located at the north end of the Temple Mount.  During Passover, Antonia was reinforced with extra troops.  Episodes involving bloodshed during Passover were not unusual.

Nationalistic Jews used the people’s awareness of prophecy to declare themselves as messiahs to gain a following, which sometimes erupted into riots.  “Messiahs” and their followers who created problems for the Romans were often killed.  Making a public spectacle was tantamount to a death wish.

Why would the Romans feel threatened by a Jewish rabbi from Galilee riding a donkey and surrounded by a joyful crowd waving palm branches?

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people chanted “Hosanna” and shouted “Please save us, O son of David!” (Matthew 21:9).  In effect, they were proclaiming Jesus as military and political savior.  The Jews wanted a warrior-messiah who, like David triumphed over the enemy.

Hosanna, a nationalistic chant, had become a prayer for political deliverance.  It meant “Give me my freedom.”  Originally, hosanna and the palms were linked to the Jewish feast of Sukkot, which included the hosanna prayer from Psalm 118:25-26.  Composed of two Hebrew words hosha meant “save” and na added a sense of urgency.  Thus, hosanna meant “Please save!” or “Help, please!”

The palm, a symbol of Jewish national identity, had little to do with peace and love.  Palm branches were to the Jews what the Stars and Stripes are to Americans.  The waving of the palm branches led Jesus to weep.

When messianic anticipation was at its highest, Jesus proclaimed His messianic identity.  Those assembled along the road into Jerusalem did not recognize Jesus’ true identity as the promised Messiah who would bring eternal salvation (Zechariah 9:9-10), not just destroy the enemy of the day.

Ray Vander Laan teaches the Bible at a Christian high school in Michigan.  He is also the on-screen historian and teacher of the “That the World May Know” video series produces by Focus on the Family.  Vander Laan was assisted by Scoti Springfield Domeij, a research specialist in the Focus on the Family Films department in Colorado Springs.