Have we sanitised the cross?

“Gratuitous violence,” shrieked the critics of Mel Gibson’s latest film. The Passion of the Christ was given an 18 certificate in the UK. Violent. Bloody. Shocking. But then us 21st century British people aren’t used to witnessing crucifixions. We tend to make our crosses of silver and hang them round our necks. The symbol of death and punishment has become a shining piece of jewellery. No one wears a hangman’s noose or a guillotine necklace, so perhaps we have sanitised the crucifixion of Christ. Maybe Mel Gibson will help a new generation to understand the Passion of Jesus.

So what really did happen in the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life?

Betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples, who for 30 pieces of silver (the wages of a labourer for 120 days) led the Temple Guard to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was identified with a kiss. After the confusion and chaos which saw Peter hack off Malchus’ ear (no wonder Peter didn’t want to be too closely identified later!), and a young man flee naked from the scene (thought by many to be Mark) Jesus was led away.

"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities"

He was taken before Annas, the former high priest deposed by the Romans in AD15, for the first of six trials. (See John 18 v13). This one, at night, was illegal by the Jews’ own law. This preliminary hearing decided they had enough evidence to execute Jesus and passed him onto the high priest Caiaphas (Matthew 26 v57). The third trial was before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26 v59) who didn’t have the authority under the Romans to carry out the death sentence which its ‘council of 23’ could impose.

The Roman trials of Jesus began with a hearing before Pilate (Matthew 27 v2). Pilate sent Jesus for his fifth trial before Herod (Luke 23 v7) and the sixth was back before Pilate (Luke 23 v11-25).

The charge in the Jewish courts was blasphemy – claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God. The charge in the Roman courts was treason – claiming to be a king and opposing payment of taxes to Caesar. Pilate, despite finding Jesus innocent of the charges, and seeing through the motives of the Jewish leaders who’d handed Jesus over, still sentenced him to death.

"the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed"

Herod’s soldiers had beaten Jesus up. Now Pilate’s men were allowed to scourge him. For this they would have stripped him, tied him to a post, and used a flagrum. This whip had a sturdy handle to which were attached long leather thongs of varying lengths. Sharp, jagged pieces of bone and lead were woven into them. The Jews were limited by their law to administering 40 lashes. The Romans had no such restrictions.

After ramming a crown of thorns on Christ’s head, they began to mock him saying, “Hail, the King of the Jews.” They also spat on him and beat him with a rod. Then they led him away to be crucified.

Jesus was made to carry the cross-beam, but weakened by the torture he was unable to continue. The soldiers pulled Simon of Cyrene from the crowd to carry the cross. On arrival at Skull Hill (Hebrew - Golgotha, Latin - Calvary) the soldiers stripped Jesus and later gambled for his one piece robe.

Next they laid him out and nailed him to the cross. Sometimes the victims were tied, but Jesus later bore the scars of nails, very probably through the wrist joints as the weight of the body would have torn out nails driven through the palms. The Romans may even have economised by using only one nail for the feet turning the ankles sideways to do it.

The heel bones of Yohanan Ben Ha'galgal with a 7 inch nail driven through. Found in Ossuary 4 of Tomb 1 near Mt Scopus, Jerusalem in June 1968

For years the scholars such as Harvard’s Dr J W Hewitt doubted the use of nails for crucifixions. However, in June 1968, archaeologist V Tzaferis, under the direction of the Israeli Department of Antiquities and Museums, discovered 4 cave tombs just north of Jerusalem. In Ossuary 4 of Tomb 1, inscribed with the name Yohanan Ben Ha’galgal were the bones, dating from the time of Christ, of an adult male and of a child. A large 7 inch spike had been driven through the heel bones and both legs had been fractured.

The cross of Jesus was then lifted and dropped into its posthole. People who were crucified did not normally die from loss of blood. It all had to do with the position of the arms. Hanging with them at that angle it was impossible to breathe. In order to breathe Jesus would have hauled himself up on his torn pinned arms and pushed up with his crushed nailed feet for air – until he could stand the pain no longer. Then he would slump down again.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son"

Death came to the victim only when he had no more strength to heave and thrust and he finally died exhausted of suffocation. Jesus went through the whole business without relief, refusing the drugged wine, and conscious enough to talk to those of his family and friends who dared to stand by; conscious enough to give encouragement and hope to the wreck of a man dying with him, conscious enough to pray for his enemies, conscious enough to utter that piercing agonised cry which turned their hearts to ice “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And there in that strange darkness which lasted from midday to 3pm, Jesus suffered. “It’s finished,” he cried and he bowed his head and died.

News of his early death startled the Roman governor. When the Jewish authorities, who, ironically for religious reasons, didn’t want bodies hanging around on the Sabbath next day, asked him to cut the ordeal short, Jesus was already dead. In the case of the thieves crucified with Jesus, the troops smashed their legs, so they could no longer push up and breathe.

Jesus was already dead, so to check one of the executioners thrust a spear in his side and out came blood and water. Dr Truman Davies states in the Arizona Medicine Journal, “There was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart. We, therefore, have rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Christ died, not the usual crucifixion death of suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.”

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!" The picture on the right shows the inside of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

So Mel Gibson is right when he portrays the Passion of the Christ as bloody and violent. That’s how it was. And maybe, as Mr Gibson has done, we need to realise that this was more than just a violent death of a Jew, for there have been many of those. This was the Son of God laying down his life and taking the punishment for the sins of the whole world. That’s why Mel Gibson’s only appearance in the film are the hands that drive the nails into Jesus. It was you and I, all of us, that put Jesus on the cross. And this was a death like no other, for as the last 12 seconds of the film show, three days later the tomb was empty, Jesus had risen from the dead!

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