Crucified for you and me

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"Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called the Praetorium and they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed  Him with  purple and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head and began to salute Him, 'Hail King of the Jews.' Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on him; and bowing the knee, they worshipped Him. And when they had mocked Him they took the purple off Him , put His own clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him."  Mark 15:16-20. NKJV

How does this make you feel? This is Jesus that they abused, used and murdered for no reason at all. Prior to this terrible ordeal, Pilate had Him scourged. (John 1:19). This was the Roman practice of being whipped 39 times. The whip was probably made of leather and would have had broken pieces of pottery and sharps stones woven into the leather itself. The idea was when the person was flogged, the whip would wrap itself around the body and the person doing this awful act, would then pull it. The result being, it would tear the flesh causing the most diabolical pain and suffering. Jesus had this done 39 to 40 times. His skin would have been torn and on fire. 

He was then abused by the soldiers, as mentioned above. They slapped Him and tormented Him, rammed the crown of thorns onto His scalp. These thorns were possibly 2 to 3 inches long. Again, the pain would have been awful.
Not stopping at that, they made Him carry His own cross to the place of execution - the place of the skull or in Hebrew, Golgotha. All the way, the majority of people would have been jeering Him, laughing and trying to throw things at Him. Every movement would have caused Jesus terrible discomfort because of the flogging He had received

Arriving at the designated place, the soldiers laid Jesus down on the cross and nailed His hands and feet to it. The nails were probably 9 inches long and rusty too. They then hoisted the cross and dropped it into a hole with so much force that it may have pulled His bones out of their sockets. There they left Him to die.

As He hung there, people laughed at Him and suggested that He give Himself a miracle by coming down from the cross. They would then believe in Him. All Jesus said was, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' (Luke 23:34)
Two other men were crucified alongside Jesus. One shouted abuse at Him but the other one defended Jesus after rebuking the other man, he said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.' Jesus replied, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. ' (Luke 23:40-43)

In all the emotional turmoil and the severe pain that He was suffering, He was still prepared to do God's will. That should show you the heart of Jesus. That criminal is now in heaven. 

The pain and humiliation that Jesus suffered that day, He did for you and me. Why? To give us all the opportunity of sharing heaven with Him when we die. You see, we were born sinners and no matter what we do, we cannot get away from this fact. God's a Holy God and cannot and won't look upon sin, therefore, God came down to earth, as a man, in the form of Jesus Christ, and took our sins and our sicknesses, upon Himself so that as we accept Him into our hearts as our Lord and Saviour, He forgives our sin and declares us 'Not Guilty'.

The people who had been involved in His crucifixion, thought that it was over. But it was only Friday - Sunday was coming!

If you have been affected by this and know that you are not saved, Born again or whatever we Christians may call it, why not ask Jesus into your life, right now

'Lord Jesus, thank you for dying in my place. I ask You to forgive my sins, and fill me with You Holy Spirit. Please be My Lord and Saviour from this day. Amen'

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com