This was the path that Jesus walked on the way to crucifixion, the way of suffering for our saviour, the way of grief, for the hundreds who had watched the scene unfold before them, and the millions who can imagine His pain, for years to come.
As one of the most impressionable images of Easter, the journey of Christ to the cross is always depicted. Even in our contemporary play, Broken, I was told to include that scene in the script after the initial reading. I wasn’t so keen at first, as I wanted to move away from what would be a stereotypical expectation of an easter play; but as I watched the play unfold before me on the second day (I sat in the audience after my part), I was moved to realise that nothing can ever replace the powerful image of Jesus on the cross.
Atheists ask, if God is real, why hasn’t he done anything regarding the evil in our world? Where is God and does he understand the suffering in the world?
What they fail to realise is that God has already sent His answer to the evil of our world.
In fact, He bore the stripes himself.
He does not just say, “Okay, I created you. Now prepare to suffer!” He has given us a clue, a deposit, a down payment that He does have good reasons for allowing evil and that He does have a greater good in store. By appearing in human form, He showed us that we could trust Him. And what did He do while He was here? He suffered!
When we comprehend his sacrifice and love for us, it puts the problem of evil in an entirely different perspective. We see clearly that the true problem of evil is the problem of our evil. Filled with sin and guilt before God, the question we face is not how God can justify himself to us, but how we can be justified before Him. And it is through Christ’s payment for our evil by his death on the cross that we can be justified before God. Through Him we have forgiveness.
— From the site Power to Change.
To everyone who suffered something, let him reference to Christ:
1) Have you suffered rejection from friends and society?
Jesus endured that. Luke 4:29 shows that he was rejected by his own people, and by his disciples (John 6:66).
2) Have you suffered watching a loved one die?
Jesus loves the world and every living thing in it dearly. When a soul dies and enters hell, the heart of God is in pain. But his nature is also as a judge and sin must be judged accordingly. Jesus’s cousin, his friend, John the Baptist was beheaded. Later on, 11 of his closest friends, his disciples were martyred and suffered unimaginable agony in their deaths. He understands it when we lose a loved one.
3) Have you been betrayed?
Jesus trusted his disciples and one of these disciples backstabbed him and led him to his death and humiliation.
4) Have you suffered from physical pain, illness and afflictions?
Jesus suffered hunger and likely physical pain and illness in his 40 days fast in the desert. But most of all, he suffered what you suffer a thousandfold when he went up to the cross. The process is EXTREME torture. The movie Passion of the Christ depicted a small part of the brutality handed against our Lord. In actual fact, it was much much worse than what was depicted. It was possibly the cruelest, most painful punishment ever handed down to a single individual in our history, the torture of Christ Jesus.
The following is a medical account of how Jesus suffered as he journeyed to the cross, taken from this site.
The Suffering of Jesus
1) It began at the Garden of Gethsamne, where he sweated Blood. This is possible, known as hematidrosis, where capillaries in the sweat glands break. This will occur when someone undergoes extreme extreme amounts of stress. He knew his hour was at hand, and agony and brutality awaited him.
2) Jesus was arrested, and seeing one of his disciples he loved and nurtured betray him.
3) Jesus was not granted any rest through a trial lasting the entire night, and records indicated he had no sleep or rest for 36 hours till his death.
4) Jesus wasn’t sitting around either. He walked from place to place during the trial and carried the cross up to Calvary, placing extreme physical stress on himself.
5) Jesus was scroughed with cat-o-nine tails. This was so terrible a torture, Roman citizens did not go through it, it was only reserved for the lowest of Criminals. He was stripped naked, tied to a pole, then whipped on his back, his legs, his calves, his heels.
6) The cat o nines. This is a whip with nine stripes with a small pieces of bone at the end. It’s like having fishing hooks dig into your back. When it enters the skin and whipped out, it removes not just skin, but muscles and bones.
7) In medical terms, just one cut takes 20 stitches to close. Jesus endured nine cuts per whip, and was whipped 39 times. One blow would require 180 stitches and by the time they were done, it would take 2000 stitches to close the wounds of Jesus.
8) Jesus survived the scourging somehow, possibly the to the cold air during that time that constrict the blood vessels so he didn’t bleed to death, but suffered unimaginable physical trauma, his back torn to shreds, muscles and bones exposed and every step he took, blood would soak the ground.
9) Jesus was beaten in the face, possibly both his eyes were swollen shut and nose pouring blood when he took up the cross. His lips would have been cut, and his teeth broken from the abuse.
10) The crown of thorns is about 2 inches long, like an ice pick. These thorns are driven into the skull, penetrating the outer bone and cracking the skull.
11) Jesus carried the cross through via dolorosa, this way of suffering, in this condition. The splinters of the cross dug into the open wounds on his back, by now, already festering and infected.
12) At the cross, Jesus had spikes driven into his wrist, causing agony but in such a way that the spikes avoided the arteries or veins. As with his feet.
13) Everytime he breathes, he had to pull up against the spokes with their hands and push up with their feet.
14) His back, with every breath he breathes, scraped across the splinters of the cross. Everytime he spoke, was agony, as he had to pull up against the nails for every word.
15) As he hung, ravens would peck on his loose flesh and muscles.
I think we will never fully comprehend the amount of pain Jesus went through on the cross for us, neither would anyone, or any movie properly depict it, because of the inhumane brutality towards another human being. Nobody would be able to stomach it.
“Via Dolorosa”, the Way of Suffering for Christ, the Way of Grief for the witnesses there, but above all, it paved the Way of Life for us today.
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