When Jesus arrived at
Golgotha, the Bible says, "They gave him vinegar to
drink mingled with gall." According to Jewish law,
if a man was about to be executed, he could request
a narcotic, mingled together with wine, which would
help alleviate the pain of his execution. The word
"gall" in this verse refers to this special
painkiller that was mingled together with wine for
this purpose.
There was a group of kind women in Jerusalem who
made it their good deed to help anesthetize the pain
of people who were dying horrific deaths. These
women wanted to eliminate as much pain and misery as
possible for the scores of people being crucified by
the Romans. Therefore, they produced the homemade
painkiller that Matthew tells us about in this
verse. Jesus was offered this anesthetic twice -
once before His crucifixion and once while He was
dying on the Cross (see Matthew 27:34,48). In both
instances, Jesus turned down the offer and refused
to drink it, for He knew that He was to fully
consume this cup the Father had given Him to drink.
Verse 35 begins, "And they crucified him." The word
"crucified" is the Greek word staurao, from
the word stauros, which describes an
upright, pointed stake that was used for the
punishment of criminals. This word was used to
describe those who were hung up, impaled, or
beheaded and then publicly displayed. It was
always used in connection with public execution. The
point of hanging a criminal publicly was to bring
further humiliation and additional punishment to the
accused.
Crucifixion was indisputably one of the cruelest and
most barbaric forms of punishment in the ancient
world. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian,
described crucifixion as "the most wretched of
deaths." It was viewed with such horror that in one
of Seneca's letters to Lucilius, Seneca wrote that
suicide was preferable to crucifixion.
Different parts of the world had different kinds of
crucifixion. For example, in the East the victim was
beheaded and then hung in public display. Among the
Jews, the victim was first stoned to death and then
hung on a tree. Deuteronomy 21:22,23 commanded, "And
if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and
he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a
tree: his body shall not remain all night upon the
tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day;
(for he that is hanged is accursed of God;)."
But at the time Jesus was crucified, the grueling
act of crucifixion was entirely in the hands of the
Roman authorities. This punishment was reserved for
the most serious offenders, usually for those who
had committed some kind of treason or who had
participated in or sponsored state terrorism.
Because Israel hated the occupying Roman troops,
insurrections frequently arose among the populace.
As a deterrent to stop people from participating in
revolts, crucifixion was regularly practiced in
Jerusalem. By publicly crucifying those who
attempted to overthrow the government, the Romans
sent a strong signal of fear to those who might be
tempted to follow in their steps.
Once the offender reached the place where the
crucifixion was to occur, he was laid on the
crossbeam he carried with his arms outstretched.
Then a soldier would drive a five-inch
(12.5-centimeter) iron nail through each of his
wrists into the crossbeam. After being nailed to the
crossbeam, the victim was hoisted up by rope, and
the crossbeam was dropped into a notch on top of the
upright post.
When the crossbeam dropped into the groove, the
victim suffered excruciating pain as his hands and
wrists were wrenched by the sudden jerking motion.
Then the weight of the victim's body caused his arms
to be pulled out of their arm sockets. Josephus
writes that the Roman soldiers "out of rage and
hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners
in different postures." Crucifixion was truly a
vicious ordeal.
When the victim was nailed to his cross, the nails
were not driven through the palms of his hands, but
through his wrists. Once the wrists were secured in
place, the feet came next. First, the victim's legs
would be positioned so that the feet were pointed
downward with the soles pressed against the post on
which the victim was suspended. A long nail would
then be driven between the bones of the feet, lodged
firmly enough between those bones to prevent it from
tearing through the feet as the victim arched
upward, gasping for breath.
In order for the victim to breathe, he had to
push himself up by his feet, which were nailed to
the vertical beam. However, because the pressure
on his feet became unbearable, it wasn't possible
for him to remain long in this position, so
eventually he would collapse back into the hanging
position.
As the victim pushed up and collapsed back down
again and again over a long period of time, his
shoulders eventually dislocated and popped out of
joint. Soon the out-of-joint shoulders were
followed by the elbows and wrists. These various
dislocations caused the arms to be extended up to
nine inches longer than usual, resulting in
terrible cramps in the victim's arm muscles and
making it impossible for him to push himself
upward any longer to breathe. When he was finally
too exhausted and could no longer push himself
upward on the nail lodged in his feet, the process
of asphyxiation began.
Jesus experienced all of this torture. When He
dropped down with the full weight of His body on
the nails that were driven through His wrists, it
sent excruciating pain up His arms, registering
horrific pain in His brain. Added to this torture
was the agony caused by the constant grating of
Jesus' recently scourged back against the upright
post every time He pushed up to breathe and then
collapsed back to a hanging position.
Due to extreme loss of blood and hyperventilation,
the victim would begin to experience severe
dehydration. We can see this process in Jesus' own
crucifixion when He cried out, "I thirst" (John
19:28). After several hours of this torment, the
victim's heart would begin to fail. Next his lungs
would collapse, and excess fluids would begin
filling the lining of his heart and lungs, adding
to the slow process of asphyxiation.
When the Roman soldier came to determine whether
or not Jesus was alive or dead, he thrust his
spear into Jesus' side. One expert pointed out
that if Jesus had been alive when the soldier did
this, the soldier would have heard a loud sucking
sound caused by air being inhaled past the freshly
made wound in the chest. But the Bible tells us
that water and blood mixed together came pouring
forth from the wound the spear had made - evidence
that Jesus' heart and lungs had shut down and were
filled with fluid. This was enough to assure the
soldier that Jesus was already dead.
It was customary for Roman soldiers to break the
lower leg bones of a person being crucified,
making it impossible for the victim to push
himself upward to breathe and thus causing him to
asphyxiate at a much quicker rate. However,
because of the blood and water that gushed from
Jesus' side, He was already considered dead. Since
there was no reason for the soldiers to hasten
Jesus' death, His legs were never broken.
This, my friend, is a brief taste of Roman
crucifixion.
The above description of crucifixion was exactly
what Jesus experienced on the Cross when He died
for you and me. This is why Paul wrote, "And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross" (Philippians 2:8). In Greek the emphasis is
on the word "even," from the Greek word de, which
dramatizes the point that Jesus lowered Himself to
such an extent that He died even the death of a
Cross - the lowest, most humiliating, debasing,
shameful, painful method of death in the ancient
world!
Now you understand why the kind women of Jerusalem
prepared homemade painkillers for those being
crucified. The agony associated with crucifixion
is the reason they offered Jesus this "gall" once
before the crucifixion began and again as He hung
on the Cross.
Meanwhile, the soldiers near the foot of the Cross
"parted his garments, casting lots." (Matthew
27:35). They didn't understand the great price of
redemption that was being paid at that moment as
Jesus hung asphyxiating to death, His lungs
filling with fluids so He couldn't breathe.
According to Roman custom, the soldiers who
carried out the crucifixion had a right to the
victim's clothes. Jewish law required that the
person being crucified would be stripped naked. So
there Jesus hung, completely open and naked before
the world, while His crucifiers literally
distributed His clothes among themselves!
Making this distribution of clothes even cheaper
was the fact that the soldiers "cast lots" for His
garments. The Gospel of John records that "when
they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and
made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also
his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven
from the top throughout. They said therefore among
themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for
it." (John 19:23,24).
This account informs us that four soldiers were
present at Jesus' crucifixion. The four parts of
His clothing that were distributed among them were
His head gear, sandals, girdle, and the tallith
- the outer garment that had fringes on the
bottom. His "coat," which was "without seam," was
a handmade garment that was sewn together from top
to bottom. Because it was specially handmade, this
coat was a very expensive piece of clothing. This
was the reason the soldiers chose to cast lots for
it rather than tear it into four parts and spoil
it.
When the Bible refers to "casting lots," it
indicates a game during which the soldiers wrote
their names on pieces of parchment or wood or on
stones and then dropped all four pieces with their
names written on them into some kind of container.
Because the Roman soldiers who helped crucify
Jesus were remotely located, it is probable that
one of them pulled off his helmet and held it out
to the other soldiers. After the others dropped
their names in the helmet, the soldier shook it to
mix up the four written names and then randomly
withdrew the name of the winner.
It is simply remarkable that all of this was
taking place as Jesus was pushing down on that
huge nail lodged in His feet so He could gasp for
breath before sagging back down into a hanging
position. As Jesus' strength continued to drain
away and the full consequence of man's sin was
being realized in Him, the soldiers at the foot of
the Cross played a game to see who would get His
finest piece of clothing!
Matthew 27:36 says, "And sitting down they watched
him there." The Greek word for "watch" is the word
tereo, which means to guard. The Greek
tense means to consistently guard or to
consistently be on the watch. It was the
responsibility of these soldiers to keep things in
order, to keep watch over the crucifixion site,
and to make sure no one came to rescue Jesus from
the Cross. So as they cast lots and played games,
the soldiers were also keeping watch out of the
corners of their eyes to make certain no one
touched Jesus as He hung dying on the Cross.
When I read about the crucifixion of Jesus, it
makes me want to repent for the callousness with
which the world looks upon the Cross today. In our
society, the cross has become a fashion item,
decorated with gems, rhinestones, gold, and
silver. Beautiful crosses of jewelry adorn women's
ears and dangle at the bottom of gold chains and
necklaces. The symbol of the cross is even
tattooed on people's flesh!
The reason this is so disturbing to me is that in
beautifying the Cross to make it pleasing to look
upon, people have forgotten that it wasn't
beautiful or lavishly decorated at all. In fact,
the Cross of Jesus Christ was shocking and appalling.
Jesus' totally naked body was flaunted in
humiliation before a watching world. His flesh was
ripped to shreds; His body was bruised from head
to toe; He had to heave His body upward for every
breath He breathed; and His nervous system sent
constant signals of excruciating pain to His
brain. Blood drenched Jesus' face and streamed
from His hands, His feet, and from the countless
cuts and gaping wounds the scourging had left upon
His body. In reality, the Cross of Jesus Christ
was a disgusting, repulsive, nauseating,
stomach-turning sight - so entirely different from
the attractive crosses people wear today as a part
of their jewelry or attire.
At this time of the year, it would be good for all
of us as believers to take a little time to
remember what the Cross of Jesus Christ was really
like. If we don't deliberately choose to meditate
on what He went through, we will never fully
appreciate the price He paid for us. How tragic it
would be if we lost sight of the pain and the
price of redemption!
When we fail to remember what it cost Jesus to
save us, we tend to treat our salvation cheaply
and with disregard. That's why the apostle Peter
wrote, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and
gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers; but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot" (1 Peter 1:18,19).
The kind women of Jerusalem wanted to anesthetize
Jesus to remove His pain. He refused their
painkiller and entered into the experience of the
Cross with all His faculties. Let's not allow the
world to anesthetize us, causing us to overlook or
forget the real price that was paid on the Cross.
Why not take time today to let the reality of
the Cross sink deep into your heart and soul? As
you do, you'll find that it will cause you to
love Jesus so much more than you love Him right
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