Bleeding Love

Bleeding Love

??????????? Crucifixion was the cruelest death, intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful, gruesome, humiliating, and public. Jesus was arrested and put on trial for claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Jewish leaders feared Jesus and with the help of Judas Iscariot and Rome, He was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Jesus prophesied, Matthew 20:28: “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” and John 19:17-18: “and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” Jesus’ death was horrific. Nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, with each nail approximately 6 to 8 inches long, driven into His wrists, not His palms as commonly portrayed. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support Himself so that He could breathe. Next, both of His feet were nailed together, forcing support of Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support Himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using His legs just to continue to breathe. Envision the struggle, the pain, the suffering. Hence the term excruciating, literally “out of crucifying”. Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was whipped and beaten so severely that it tore the flesh from His body and the crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most would not have survived this severe torture. This was foretold, Isaiah 52:14: “But many were amazed when they saw Him. His face was so disfigured He seemed hardly human, and from His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man.” Jesus last words, Luke 23:46: “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!’ And having said this He breathed His last.” Many extraordinary events marked the death of Jesus: the sky turned completely dark, the moment of His last breath, the earth shook, the temple curtain split from top to bottom, and the tombs of saints opened and their bodies raised from the dead. 1 Peter 2:24: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” Jesus had to endure this experience so our sins could be forgiven. Jesus gives us clear teaching, Matthew10:32-33: “Everyone who acknowledges Me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before My Father in heaven. But everyone who denies Me here on earth, I will also deny before My Father in heaven.” The sinless life of Jesus was given so that we could receive salvation and eternal life in heaven. Truly, He bled love for us.