Jesus dies by execution. At the time when he lived the Romans has invaded the country and they had rules everyone had to live by. If people did as the Romans said they could live a good life under the rule of the invaders. If, however, someone broke the law or rebelled, they could be tried at court and be crucified. Jesus was tried under these conditions and it unfolded that he was to be crucified.
The bible tells us that Jesus knew what was to happen to him, that he was to stand in our place for the judgement we deserve for sin. It turned out that he was to take our punishment by the most brutal form of torture. First, the criminal was to be nailed to a beam of wood. The nails were hammered into the hands causing severed nerves to send electric shock pain throughout the limbs. As the feet are also nailed to the cross, incredible agony would shoot through the entire length of the upper and lower body. The criminal would begin to lose blood. the structure would be raised into the air and the weight of the body would hang onto the nails hammered into the wood. This was a public event and the idea was to show the public that if the disobeyed the Roman way, the Romans would nail you!
After some time of hanging in searing pain, weakness would sweep over the body as blood is lost. The body would slump forward and the chest would push out as the criminal is unable to hold upright anymore. In turn, the windpipe where you breath in your chest would close. Desperately trying to breath, the criminal would try to pull himself up on the nails in the hands and push up on the nails in the feet to open the restricted windpipe. Imagine trying to put pressure on the open wounds!
After some time of doing this the oxygen levels the body requires gets less and less and cramps shoot like lightning through every muscle in the body. This torture goes on for hours and hours with no food or water. All sorts of issues occur as the internal organs cease to operate without oxygen and under incredible stress. Poisons from the liver, failure of the kidneys and eventually the heart stops beating. The criminal has suffered appalling and gruesome torture.
With Jesus, he was not guilty of his crime yet went through these things for you. God saw this as Jesus taking our punishment for sin and dying in our place. Before Jesus went to the cross the Romans and Jews made sure he was beaten and abused. They lashed his back until bone could be seen and put a crown of sharp thorns on his head. He also had to carry his own cross.
Most movies tell us flash cars, guns and money make you a hero but God shows us that a smashed, bloody corpse rescues us all for real! Jesus wasn't a criminal! He never did anything wrong and came alive three days later! How? God did it and I know why! It is so we can see that nothing that happens to us, even death, can separate us from God if we choose to follow him.
Quentin Tarantino, Director of twisted gore movies would be proud, but when it comes to reality - God did this for you! Ask staff for more information on this!
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