THEY CRUCIFIED HIM, Daily Devotional, March 21, 2013

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013

11 Days to Resurrection Sunday

Luke 23:33 “When they were come to Calvary they crucified him…”

SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 19:17,18

17 And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. 

18 Where they crucified Him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

Mark 15:25; Matthew 27:35

REFLECTION: 

How succinct. How stark. How sad.

With little or no commentary the Gospels report our Lord’s crucifixion.  Two recount His miraculous birth.  But all four tell of His death.

It was 9 o’clock in the morning when our Lord laid His bruised and bleeding body against the patibulum (the cross member) with his shoulders against the wood.  The soldiers drove a square wrought-iron nail through His wrist and deep into the wood.  Quickly the action was repeated on his other wrist.  The patibulum was then lifted into place at the top of the stipes (the upright post).  Jesus’ legs were extended and with toes down a nail was driven through the arch of each foot.  It is generally believed that Christ hung not more than a few feet off the ground. 

A titulus (sign) was nailed above his head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  The soldiers stood back to watch their victim.  They gambled for his clothing.

Both John and Luke tell us that Christ was crucified at “the place of the skull.”John recorded the Hebrew name Golgotha.  Luke recorded the Latin name, Calvarie Locus.  It is from this we derive “Calvary.”

Some have thought it was called “the place of the skull” because when it is viewed from a certain angle the hillside appeared to resemble a skull.  Others suppose that it was known as “the place of the skull,” because regular executions were carried out at that location.  Origen, a Church Father of the 3^rd century, imagines that Adam’s skull was buried at the precise place where Christ died.  More recently some have thought that it was the place where King David buried the skull of his arch-enemy, Goliath. 

While the place is uncertain, it is certain that it was a place. 

The cults are notorious for either over-spiritualizing (accenting the truth that “Christ was very God” and teaching that physical realities are not actual) or over-materializing (emphasizing the truth that “Christ was very man,” and denying the spiritual natureof the Savior’s sacrifice). 

Yet at a certain place, on a certain day, at a certain time, a certain very God very Man Savior suffered on a certain cross, to redeem a certain sinner.  Oh What A Savior!

Historians divide human history at the point of Christ’s birth—BC and AD.  But the redeemed know that Calvary was the decisive point that changed history and eternity for one and for all.

Had it not been for a place called Mount Calvary,
Had it not been for the old rugged cross;
Had it not been for Man called Jesus,
Then forever my soul would be lost.

Rusty Goodman

PRAYER: Our Father, We come to you in the Name of your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We thank you for your Providence—protecting and providing for our needs.  We thank you for your Presence—assuring and guiding us moment by moment.  We thank you for your Promise—that you will not leave nor forsake us, and that you will come again for us.  As we look again at the cross, we pray that we would never take for granted the price you paid for our redemption.  With the song writer we say, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”  In the name of Jesus, Amen.“Our Father, &c.”