Friday, April 15, 2011
John 19:17-18 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.
JESUS ON THE CROSS: NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS
Crucifixion was reserved for the worst of criminals. In such a death a person was robbed of all dignity. You were crucified with very little clothing on, left to hang in the elements sometimes for days. It was a worse spectacle than hanging someone, or putting someone in the electric chair, which took only moments. This form of public execution was meant to torture and humiliate, and paraded you before the public as a vile offender.
Stop at the cross and observe that Jesus was numbered with the transgressors as was prophesied in the Old Testament. There on either side of Him was a thief paying the punishment for crimes committed.
It didn't matter that no crime could be pinned on Jesus. Pilate could not find a thing that he had done wrong. Neither could King Herod. In His trial before the Sanhedrin no two witnesses could agree to a crime that He had committed. But for Jesus there would be no slap on the wrist. There would be nails through His wrists and His feet, and out of hate He was counted as a criminal.
He was also counted as a criminal out of love. He knew that He was innocent. He volunteered to go this route. He allowed Himself to be arrested. He allowed Himself to be nailed to that cross. In fact, on the cross He would not only be numbered among the transgressors by people, but by His Father. Jesus was literally the worst of the worst as He hung on the cross as He became an enemy of God. He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
