The place is a hill in Jerusalem. The date is the 7th of April in the year A.D. 30. Jesus of Nazareth has been arrested, tried, and found guilty. His death is to be by crucifixion. He is nearly dead before he even carries his cross to the hill called Golgotha.
It was a common way to execute criminals in the Roman Empire. The guilty was first lashed with a flagellum consisting of heavy leather thongs with two small, lead balls attached at the tip of each. Across the shoulders, back, and legs, blows would be hurled at full force each time. Ribbons of torn, bleeding flesh would hang from the victim’s backside after the first few blows. When the centurion in charge saw that death was immanent, the beating was stopped.
The condemned was then forced to carry the crossbeam, or patibulum, weighing over 100 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution. In the case of Jesus, it was 650 yards from the fortress of Antonio to Golgotha. An upright post fixed in the ground was planted where the execution was to take place. Heavy square, wrought iron nails were driven through the wrists placed on the patibulum and through the feet on the post.
Once hoisted upward, the crucified experienced great waves of cramps, sweeping through his muscles, knotting them in unspeakable pain. It also rendered him unable to lift himself upward, so that air could be drawn into his lungs, but only spasmodically inhaled. Carbon dioxide would build up in the lungs and the bloodstream. The heart would become compressed as it tried hard to pump the heavy, thick blood to the body’s tissues. Slowly the chill of death would come on, creeping through the crucified’s body. If death did not ensue according to the timetable of the executioner, there could be a breaking of the bones of the legs, which would cause rapid suffocation; or a spear could simply be thrust into the heart of the victim.
This unspeakably cruel form of execution was intended by the Roman government to deter any who would rebel against its authority. It is this death that our Lord Jesus Christ accepted willingly to atone for the sins of the whole world. Tilemann Hesshus, professor of the University of Helmstedt, states that although innocent, Christ places himself before the Father “as one who himself was guilty, just as if he had committed Cain’s murder, Judah’s incest, Aaron’s idolatry, David’s adultery, Absalom’s insurrection, Peter’s denial, the tax collector’s theft, the abominable vice and sin of the heathen, my sin and yours, and the sins of all the world.” Jesus Christ, who is without sin, takes the sins of all humanity upon himself, and then takes the penalty for our sin, dying on the cross.
One of the most striking witnesses to the Christian faith that I have ever seen is in the front of the Cathedral of St. Peter in St. Petersburg, our own cathedral of the Diocese of Southwest Florida. Situated on a corner in downtown St. Petersburg, there is a large crucifix, Jesus dying on the cross, and there is a sign which simply says, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” The verse from the Lamentations of Jeremiah is used to question all people for all time whether or not they will respond to the sacrifice made on their behalf. How many of the people who pass by that corner take the time to think about it and respond? How many simply pass by and see it as only a vestige of an antiquated piety? How many are perhaps led to search their own souls?
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Many Christian choose not to worship on Good Friday. We customarily have over 300 worshippers at Redeemer for the various services on this day and over 1600 for Easter. People want to celebrate the resurrection without thinking, at least too much, about the crucifixion. But you cannot have the resurrection without the crucifixion. You can’t have the victory without the sacrifice. In his book, The Kingdom of God in America, H. Richard Niebuhr, characterized much of the religiosity of our society with these words: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of a Christ without a cross.” That’s what I call sundial religion; it only counts the sunny hours.
We cannot understand or appreciate what happened on this day until we come to grips with our own sin. If we see ourselves as basically good people with a few minor imperfections that really don’t matter in the large scheme of things, then, whether we are present worshipping today or not, the crucifixion is simply pageantry for the pious and nonsense for the unbelievers. That is what our society teaches: that sin is nonexistent. That is what Satan, the Great Liar, wants us to believe. The irony is that we think we can see clearly the reality of sin in others. We can see the sin of those in authority over us, the sin in government officials, the sin in the Church, the sin in our children, the sin in our parents; some of you might even be able to see the sin in your spouse. We can see the sin reported every day in the news. We know that something is dramatically wrong in human society whether or not we call it sin. Yet the temptation is to view our own participation in human sin as a minor, insignificant matter. Jesus was so opposed to our judging others not because others are not sinful, but because our judging ignores our own sinfulness.
If we are to understand the crucifixion, God taking the penalty of our sin on himself, we must understand it with our hearts convicted not of the sin of others, but of our own sin. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Or is it the love of God poured out for you?
The place is a block in downtown Sarasota, defined by Ringling Blvd, Palm Avenue, McAnsch Street, and Gulfstream Avenue. The time is the 6th of April, A.D. 2012, the person is Fred Robinson, or______________, or whoever you are. Jesus invites us to come to the cross, acknowledging no sin but our own, accepting and giving thanks for his sacrifice for us.