The Hill to Die On

You go back into the law in Deuteronomy chapter 21 which stated that someone hanging on a tree, someone crucified, was cursed by God. That's what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. And then he quotes Deuteronomy 21, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

And that's the point. The journey to Calvary takes us to the heart of our faith. As we walk through the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus on that sacred hill, we're beneficiaries of the greatest act of love in history. Every step Jesus took toward Calvary was a step taken for us. Luke's gospel captures the intensity of this moment, showing how Jesus endured unimaginable pain to fulfill God's purpose and extend an invitation to everyone willing to come to him. Today we'll pause to understand what this hill really represents, a place where death paved the way to life. Today we arrive at our exposition of the gospel of Luke to sacred ground, to a hill outside of Jerusalem where the greatest transaction in history. I have to tell you, beloved, this is such a momentous passage.

I've struggled with how fast to move through it. Frankly, I could preach from this and the next chapter for the rest of my life and never reach the bottom of the well of this deep truth and grace and glory revealed to us about our Lord. This event is both horrifying and healing. It represents our sin and our salvation, our guilt and our guarantee. This is where we're going to be shown in living color that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And I'm praying for you that if you do not know the Son of God that you will leave here knowing him. Now following the prisoner exchange of Jesus, Barabbas, for Jesus the Christ, which we studied last Lord's Day, Pilate, according to Matthew's gospel account, is sending Jesus now to be scourged. This may be one last attempt to satisfy the growing mob who wants the death of Jesus, no matter what Pilate tries, and even this scourging is not going to work. Now during the days of Christ, this horrific beating was commonly referred to as the halfway death. That's because many victims would slip into a state of shock. It was not unusual for someone to die while being scourged.

Now I'm not going to attempt this morning to be graphic for the sake of sensationalism, but I do not want to sanitize it either. This is all included in the suffering of the Lamb. Matthew in fact tells us that it wasn't just a couple of lictors out there to engage in the scourging. Matthew tells us that an entire battalion came out there to watch, to get engaged in mocking the Lord.

They're all mocking this king of the Jews. Matthew describes it in chapter 27 and verse 28, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and they put a reed in his right hand. Now you need to understand the scarlet robe is mockery regarding his claim of royalty. This wrap would have just covered the shoulders. It would be held in place by a button at the neck or a tie of some sort.

It would not extend below the elbows. So Jesus has been stripped naked to add to the humiliation of this scene. The wrap is now put around his shoulders, which doesn't reach past his stomach. A reed has been put in his right hand to mimic a royal scepter, and this crown of thorns has been jammed down on his head. Matthew records next, and kneeling before him, imagine this battalion, kneeling, saying, hail king of the Jews. And then they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

And then after they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him and led him away to crucify him. And what is he doing during all of this? He's dealing no doubt with searing pain, blood running down his face, his back, his stomach, chest, down his legs.

What's he doing? He's standing here quietly, perhaps groaning in pain. But he's standing here as a lamb that has led to the slaughter as a sheep is silent before its shearer.

So he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53.7. Perhaps he's looking down the corridor of human history to that moment when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Now at this point as Jesus begins walking to Calvary, Luke introduces us to a bystander who suddenly becomes a key player unwittingly.

It will change his life. Luke writes in verse 26, and as they led him away, they seized one, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country that he's traveling now here, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. By the way, the gospel accounts never refer to Jesus falling while trying to drag a cross through the streets and up the hill. In fact, no crucifixion victim carried their cross that would have weighed more than 300 pounds.

They carried the cross beam, more of that in a moment. Now, evidently, the centurion knew right away that Jesus would be unable to carry anything because he had been so horribly beaten, experienced so much blood loss. So he drafts this man named Simon.

Now there's a little irony here, isn't there? I just want to mention very briefly, because you might wonder where the other Simon is. You know, the one that proudly declared he would follow Jesus to the death.

Simon Peter is missing. This is Simon of Cyrene. Now the fact that he's mentioned by name lets us know he became well known to the believers. In fact, in Mark's gospel, Mark even gives us the names of his sons, Alexander and Rufus, meaning they were also known to the believing community. Add to that the fact that Paul, as he wraps up the book of Romans writing to the church in Rome, he makes a special commendation to the mother of one of his sons, Rufus. She acted as a mother to Paul, blessing him uniquely. She was a special member of this believing community. One author writes that apparently Simon and his wife and his two sons became well known Christians held in honor in the church. Well, Simon, we don't know if his wife and boys are with him, but Simon has traveled to Jerusalem from Cyrene.

That's 800 miles away. He's arrived, maybe swept up with a crowd that's gathering, a crowd that is talking, buzzing about the crucifixion of a Jewish man, and that is highly unusual. The Mishnah records for us that the Jews would execute a criminal one of four ways, and crucifixion was not one of them.

And for someone guilty of blasphemy, which Jesus was, according to them, he'd be stoned to death. This one is going to be crucified. And all of a sudden, at some point, Simon feels the flat edge of a Roman sword, which was legal conscription into Roman service, and he's commanded by the centurion to carry what Jesus would have carried. So here comes this procession.

Get the real picture in your mind. There's a Roman soldier among the four assigned, plus a centurion. The one in front would be carrying a titulus, the Latin word for a placard, and written on it, typically made of wood, would be written the crimes of the condemned individual. It would be held, in fact, attached to a pole and held high by that Roman soldier, so all the crowd that had gathered to watch the procession would know why he's being crucified.

What terrible crime he had committed. The gospel accounts tell us written on that simply were the words Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Now John 19 tells us that Pilate ordered it to be written in three languages, Hebrew, the language of the nation Israel, Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, and Greek for everybody else, the language of the known world. It would later be attached to the cross. So Pilate, in fact, he knew that this would infuriate the Jewish leaders.

In fact, they tried to get him to change it, and he said no. In fact, John records for us in chapter 19, in verse 22, Pilate says, what I have written, I have written. So that soldier carrying that pole and the titillus, with that message, this would have been very public, the streets are packed with people, and following that Roman soldier would typically come the victim.

But follow this. Even though carrying that cross beam is coming later and Jesus is walking directly behind the Roman soldier, keep in mind that according to the government, the carrying of this cross beam to the hill of crucifixion communicated to the public that this person was guilty. Guilty. But just think of the irony then. Jesus isn't guilty.

He's not carrying this. Mankind is guilty. So here you have, ironically, Simon becoming a representative of guilty humanity walking behind Jesus, and Jesus is simply walking underneath that placard that declares the reality of who he was. King of the Jews. In three languages. I guess you could say that this placard was the first gospel track written in three languages, free of charge.

In fact, get this, it was composed by a pagan politician. Just one more reminder to me that God has a way of overruling the rulers of our world. In every generation, in every country, God is in control. Now with that, Luke introduces us to some additional bystanders, verse 27, and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us.

For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? These women are weeping over the injustice of what they knew to be the injustice of Jesus and his death. Jesus is looking ahead about 35 years to the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the horror of what that's going to mean as thousands of people are killed, including women and children.

The nation Israel is like a green tree during the ministry of Jesus, fruitful, the blessing, the opportunity, the miracles and the signs and the wonders. But they reject the Messiah and when they do, as one author writes, they became a dry tree fit for the fire that's going to come of predicted judgment. Well, eventually the procession reaches Gaugathah, the skull. Luke writes here in verse 32, two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

We talked about last Lord's Day that these were the partners in crime with Yeshua Barabbas. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. crucifixion originally referred to nailing someone to a tree or to an upright stake.

In fact, the Greek word for tree and wood is the same word. And in this world, a tree and a cross made of wood were synonymous terms, which is why you'll read in the Scriptures, in fact, where Peter writes that Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree, 1 Peter 2.24. The crucifixions were invented by the Persians because they worshipped Ormazd, the god of the earth, or the earth was that god. They didn't want to contaminate the earth, their god, and so they devised a way to take someone's life, elevate it above the surface of the earth so it wouldn't supposedly contaminate earth. They typically nailed the victim to a stake, elevate it so that the victim was above ground. This practice traveled to other lands over time, kingdoms, centuries until the Romans adopted it but adapted it to make the victim suffer even longer.

In fact, it became such a horrific way to die that Cicero, the Roman orator, once said, the very word cross should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears, the very mention of cross, the cross is unworthy of a Roman citizen. The Latin verb form of crucifixion means to torture and that's exactly what they designed it to do. Now, let me make sure we understand that for Jesus, crucifixion was necessary not because it was painful or humiliating or slow. It was necessary because the law revealed that someone killed in that manner was rejected by God. You go back into the law in Deuteronomy chapter 21 which stated that someone hanging on a tree, someone crucified was cursed by God. That's what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us and then he quotes Deuteronomy 21.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree and that's the point. This is why, by the way, the Jewish leaders are determined to crucify Jesus, not stone him. If they can crucify him, it will be irrefutable proof that Jesus was not just a blasphemer but that he was utterly, entirely rejected by God which means he's not the son of God. He's not the Messiah. He's not the King of the Jews.

Just look at the hill. Look, he died on a cross. He's accursed. He's rejected by God. That's sort of the end of the story.

The case closed and to this world, it would indeed be the end of the story. They had no idea that Jesus planned to be rejected by God the Father. That was the plan, to become the curse, the cursed one for our own sake and for our forgiveness. Now, let me take some time to correct the mental picture many people have of this scene. As I mentioned, the Roman cross weighed around three hundred pounds. The victims did not drag a three hundred pound cross hundreds of yards and then up a hill, especially those who were suffering, of course, from the blood loss and pain of scourging. Now, we know from both Jewish and Roman historians that the vertical piece of the cross was permanent. At the site of executions, there would be dozens of them.

We know from history that thousands of people were crucified during the lifetime of Jesus. This is Rome's favorite way to put somebody to death. It was a public way of saying, never defy the Roman Empire. Jesus would have been carrying the cross beam, the patibulum.

I've asked Ryan to illustrate this by carrying the patibulum down the aisle here to the platform. The Romans would place that beam on the ground and then they'd place the victim on his back. That beam averaged about a hundred pounds in weight. The centurion knew Jesus couldn't carry that.

That's why he enlisted Simon and Cyrene. Typically, the condemned criminal would carry the beam to the site of the crucifixion. After walking some distance, you can imagine I'd struggle under the weight.

I had to find someone young enough and strong enough to do this and none of us elders qualified. The cross was constructed with a mortise and tenon joint. In other words, the cross beam had a hole in the center of it and it would be taken and it would slip down over the vertical beam.

Good gentleman and relieve Ryan. Now again, after nailing his hands to this cross beam, he would be stood up, his hands raised up with that cross beam and then it would be put down over the site. Now, recent discoveries and historical research indicate that the nails would have been driven through the hand.

If you look at your hand and you sort of cup it, you have a little valley right here. That's where the nail would enter and then they would nail it at such a way that it would exit through the wrist affixed to the cross beam. Now, there's one piece of the cross that's typically left out and I think it's unfortunate that it is. It's called the sedile which gives us our word, saddle. It was a block of wood which we show here upon which the victim perched just enough wood to rest upon. This enabled the soldiers to then draw up the knees of the victim and place his feet flat against the beam and then drive a nail through each foot. Sometimes the soldiers wanting to be cruel perhaps would swivel the body and overlap the feet and then drive a nail through the ankles. Later in Luke's account, Jesus is going to show the disciples his hands and his feet which indicates they were nailed individually. The saddle also allowed, again it was designed to be the slowest, most painful way to die. Now if the Romans needed the cross for the next person, they would push the victim off the saddle, break his legs which would allow him to be unable then to raise himself up to inhale and exhale and he would be dead in a matter of minutes.

The Romans used a cross, most often like this one is a towel, Greek letter for a T, would be no more than six to seven feet high, maybe eight at most. This would allow the people to come by and look him in the eye to curse him. Perhaps the family members of someone he murdered to spit on him. This will happen to Jesus. It also allowed victims to die and most did, many did, by being attacked by wild animals at night who would eat them. One historian wrote that vultures would circle above the scene of a crucifixion waiting for the crowd to leave. The Apostle Paul writing in Philippians chapter two of the humility of Christ and his willingness to die like this said that he was obedient to the point of death and then he writes, even death on a cross as if to say even if you can imagine it this kind of death. But he couldn't be stoned to death. He couldn't be drowned. He had to be crucified. He will fulfill the law by becoming accursed by God on our behalf. So we will never be cursed by God.

This is not an accident. This is a sacrifice. This is the final lamb dying for us. Unrecognized, disbelieved, mistreated, mocked, more importantly cursed by God the Father, accursed for us. He's willing to be rejected on earth and by his Father so we will not be rejected in heaven by our Father. For those of you who've come to this hill, who've come to Calvary and you've trusted in his death for your life, well then he's coming for you one day either through death which he conquered or the rapture of the church for which we wait today. But I like to think of the foot of this cross being an illustration.

It touched earth as if to declare that God had moved to touch mankind and the arms of the cross stretch outward as if to say whosoever will may come. I trust you've come. And this sacrifice paid the price for your redemption.

Have you come to Calvary because he went there for you? That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's lesson is called The Hill to Die On. Stephen is a resource to help you understand the gospel more fully. I invite you to visit wisdomonline.org forward slash gospel. That's wisdomonline.org forward slash gospel. There you can learn more about the salvation Jesus Christ offered you through his sacrificial death. You'll also find this resource on the Wisdom International smartphone app. And if you'd like print copies to share with others, call us for information. Dial 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. When we come back next time, Stephen will begin a series from the book of Revelation here on Wisdom for the Heart.