Crucifixion was a method of killing people widely used in earlier times. The victim was hung on a cross (usually made of two wooden beams) and left there until death. Crucifixion was designed as a cruel, painful way to die.
Jesus’ crucifixion is the most famous in history. Jesus allowed the Romans to kill him because it fulfilled God’s plan, bringing salvation to sinners. Jesus’ death on a cross made it possible for everyone who believes in him to be forgiven of their sins and accepted by God.
The term “cross” is also used in the Bible in a symbolic way. Jesus used it to describe the kind of sacrifice that his followers must be willing to make. Similarly, Paul used it to stand for the death of self that takes place when a Christian becomes more and more like Christ.
TYPES OF CRUCIFIXION
Within Israel and in its surrounding lands, crucifixion was carried out in a variety of ways.
HOW GENTILES CRUCIFIED PEOPLE
Long before Jesus died, crucifixion was used by many different peoples to punish their criminals and enemies. A few hundred years before the time of Jesus, the Medes and Persians were apparently the first people to practice crucifixion. Crucifixion was also used by other nations who lived around the Mediterranean Sea: the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and, closer to the time of Jesus, the Romans.
These peoples used different kinds of crosses. Sometimes a person would be impaled on a sharp, pointed stick planted in the ground. (The Greek word for “cross” means “stake.”) More often, a person would be hung on a cross that was formed either in the shape of a capital T or in the shape we are more familiar with-the crossbeam attached partway down the upright beam.
Crucifixion was seen everywhere as the most horrible type of execution. For that reason, the Greeks and Romans used it only for slaves and foreigners, not for their own citizens. Other peoples would hang victims on crosses only after they had died by some more merciful form of execution.
The Romans generally performed their crucifixions this way: First, the victim was severely whipped. Then he was forced to carry the crossbeam to the spot where the crucifixion was to take place. There he was either tied or nailed to the crossbeam, with the nails driven through his wrists. Next, the crossbeam (with the victim hanging from it) was raised and fixed to an upright pole. A sign describing the crime was sometimes hung around the victim’s neck or attached to his cross. The victim’s ankles were sometimes nailed to the upright pole. If the executioners wanted to make the suffering last longer, a small seat or a support for the victim’s feet was provided.
A person crucified in this way eventually died from blood loss or suffocation from hanging in such an awkward position. Sometimes the dying process took days. If the executioners wanted to hasten the death, they broke the victim’s legs with a club. Once the victim was dead, his body was usually left on the cross to rot, although sometimes it would be given to relatives for burial.
HOW JEWS CRUCIFIED PEOPLE
Crucifixion is mentioned only a few times in the Old Testament. The Law says that if someone were hung on a “tree” (that probably means hung on a cross), the body had to be removed before nightfall. The victim was considered accursed by God, and his body could not be allowed to defile the land (Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:13). We don’t know how often the Jews actually used crucifixion as a way to execute criminals.
We do know, however, that some foreigners in the Old Testament used a type of crucifixion. For example, the Philistines cut off King Saul’s head and then hung his body on a wall (1 Samuel 31:9-10). The Persian king Darius threatened to impale anyone who tried to change his orders (Ezra 6:11).
In Jesus’ day, the Jews did not normally crucify people as the Romans did. One exception took place in 76 BC when the Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 rebels-an action criticized by other Jews. There is also evidence that the Jewish courts condemned some criminals to Roman-style crucifixion after the second century AD.
CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION
The Bible tells us a lot about Jesus’ death by crucifixion because it was the main reason he came to earth. Because of Christ’s death, his followers have the chance to be accepted by God. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are the most important events recorded in the Bible.
JESUS’ PREDICTIONS OF HIS DEATH
At least three different times, Jesus told his disciples plainly that he would be killed (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). Similarly, the gospel of John has three sayings about the Son of Man (Jesus) being “lifted up” (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-33)-a reference to crucifixion. And Jesus hinted about his death in his references to the murder of the prophets (Matthew 23:29-30; Luke 13:33), in some of his parables (Matthew 22:1-14; Mark 12:1-10), and in his teachings about the coming sufferings of his disciples (Matthew 10:24-28; Mark 8:34-35; John 15:18-25). Clearly, Jesus’ death was an important part of his overall message, and he wanted people to understand its meaning.
We can learn at least four things from the Gospels’ presentation of Jesus’ death by crucifixion. First, Christ’s “Passion”-his suffering and death-was a key part of God’s plan for saving sinners. Second, both Jews and Romans bore responsibility for Jesus’ death. Third, his death would be followed by his Resurrection, which would prove that all he had said was true. Fourth, his death was the way he entered into eternal glory.
HOW CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION HAPPENED
There was plenty of blame to go around for Jesus’ crucifixion-both Jews and Romans were to blame.
The Jewish leaders, called the Sanhedrin, worked hardest to get Jesus killed. They arrested Jesus and tried him (Mark 14:43, 53-64). They stirred up the common people to call for Jesus’ death. They made sure that Jesus went through a trial by the Romans, since they did not have the authority to condemn anyone to death.
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, didn’t really want to condemn Jesus to death (Matthew 27:24). But he eventually gave in to the pressure of the Jewish leaders. Those leaders had portrayed Jesus as a threat to Roman rule.
Not surprisingly, the way Jesus was beaten, mocked, and forced to carry his crossbeam was typical of Roman crucifixion. It was also typical of Romans to crucify people on a hill near a road, so that many people could see it and realize what might happen to them if they broke Roman law. The sign on the cross that identified Jesus as the “King of the Jews” in three languages was also in keeping with Roman practice.
But there were some Jewish influences in how Jesus was crucified. It was a Jewish custom to offer a crucifixion victim some wine mixed with myrrh (a drug to dull the senses), as happened with Jesus (Mark 15:23). Also, Pilate gave permission for Jesus’ body to be removed from the cross and buried before the Sabbath, the Jewish weekly holy day, because some Jews requested these favors (John 19:31). These details confirm that Jesus’ crucifixion was an actual event, not a made-up story.
PICTURES OF CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION
All four Gospels tell about the crucifixion of Christ. But each one supplies some details that the others leave out. Thus each one emphasizes different aspects of the meaning of what took place. In this sense, the Gospel writers were theologians as much as they were historians.
MATTHEW
Reading the first Gospel, we get a clear sense that Jesus allowed himself to be killed. For example, it says that when he died, he “yielded up his spirit” (Matthew 27:50). It also shows that his death was something that God wanted to happen, since when Jesus died, the temple veil was ripped, and dead people came back to life (27:51-53). The veil kept people out of the part of the temple where God’s presence was believed to dwell. Therefore, the ripping of the veil showed that from then on people would be able to enter God’s presence another way. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead showed that his death makes eternal life possible for all his followers. According to Matthew, Jesus’ death was the beginning of a whole new age of salvation.
MARK
In Mark’s Gospel we see the horror of Christ’s crucifixion. Mark mentions how people made fun of Jesus as he hung on the cross, urging him to save himself (Mark 15:29-31). Mark describes the darkness that came over the land during the crucifixion. He also tells how Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (15:33-36). At his crucifixion Jesus took upon himself our sins (not his own, since he didn’t have any). Because God the Father is perfectly holy and cannot have anything to do with sin, on the cross Jesus was cut off from his Father for the first and only time.
LUKE
The third Gospel stresses two things. First, it shows Jesus’ remarkable, loving attitude during his crucifixion. Luke mentions that Jesus forgave those who caused his death. This Gospel also tells how a centurion, the head soldier in charge of Jesus’ execution, gave his opinion that Jesus was innocent (Luke 23:47). Second, Luke shows the worshipful feeling that surrounded this tragic event. Jesus prayed from the cross. He forgave another criminal who chose to believe in him. And he committed his spirit to the Father.
JOHN
The final Gospel goes further than the others in showing that Jesus was in charge throughout his crucifixion. A sense of calmness surrounds this picture of Christ’s death. It shows Jesus as a king and as a priest who offered himself as a sacrifice for others. The kingship appears in the sign over Jesus’ head-a sign that only John notes was written in three languages. The priesthood comes out in John’s mention of a hyssop-a plant used by ancient Hebrew priests. Jesus cried, “It is finished!” before dying, indicating that he had successfully completed the mission given to him by his Father (John 19:29-30). When blood and water flowed from his side, it symbolized the river of life that pours out for all who believe in Jesus (19:31-38).
Taken together, the four Gospels show us all that happened at Jesus’ death. More importantly, they help us understand what his crucifixion means for us.
THE MEANING OF CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION
The death of Christ, along with the resurrection that followed, is at the center of the Christian faith. The crucifixion is meaningful both because of who was put to death and because of what that death accomplished. It’s no surprise, then, that the early Christians talked about Christ’s crucifixion over and over again.
The apostles who wrote the New Testament letters described the crucifixion of Christ as the main part of God’s plan to provide salvation for sinners (Galatians 3:1). It is not just an interesting event from the past. Christ’s death is something that each person in every age must decide what to do with. The question is this: Will you accept what Christ did for you on the cross, or will you reject it? Depending on how you answer that question, your eternal destiny (heaven or hell) hangs in the balance.
The apostle Paul was one of the New Testament writers who wrote often of the crucifixion. One thing he emphasized was the power of the cross. A death by crucifixion was a humiliating way to die. It was therefore offensive both to Greeks who loved philosophy and to Jews who focused on obeying religious laws. But Christ’s death by crucifixion was special in that it revealed the power of God to bring Christ back from the dead and to remove guilt from sinners (1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5). Thus, surprisingly, an execution is the key to having a right relationship with God.
Paul went on to explain how the crucifixion is the key to relating rightly with God. He emphasized the way that Jesus’ death was for us. (This thought goes back to the Servant passages of the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 53:10-12.) We are sinners, and sin must be punished. But Jesus took upon himself the guilt of our sins and died in our place (Romans 4:25). On the cross he received the punishment that we deserve. Therefore, when we commit ourselves to him, the exchange is completed by our receiving Christ’s holiness. In the eyes of God we become perfect and can be admitted into His perfect presence. Theologians use words like “atonement,” “redemption,” “propitiation,” and “justification” to describe this process.
But, of course, believing in Christ is not the end of the Christian life. There is much more to it. And so another way the New Testament writers speak of Christ’s death is as a model for our behavior (Matthew 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27). As Jesus carried his crossbeam to Calvary outside Jerusalem, so we are to “carry a cross.” As Jesus died on the cross, so each of us is to die to self.
The reason the Romans forced a criminal to carry his cross to the place of execution was to humiliate him. Everyone he passed in the streets could see what he was going through. Similarly, we must be willing to become outcasts for the sake of Jesus. If obeying God means doing something that others laugh at us for, we must be willing to accept the embarrassment.
Furthermore, when we choose to follow Jesus, we must be willing to put away all of the sinful parts of our old lifestyle. Becoming a Christian is like being crucified and resurrected, spiritually speaking. We have a new life now, and we can’t go back to the former life. We must die to our old self. Paul said the believer is “crucified with Christ” and that therefore “it is no longer I who live” (Galatians 2:20).
This all goes to show that Christ’s crucifixion is crucial not only for how we begin a relationship with God but also for how we live it throughout our lives. Nothing is more important for us than the death of our Lord.
