The Messiah and His Miracles

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (Continued)
The Death of the Messiah (Continued)

The execution of the Messiah – But why crucifixion?

Prior to these events and in the will of God, authority to inflict the death sentence had been removed from the Jewish courts.  So it was the Roman justice system that pronounced the guilty verdict and called for the execution of Jesus, “that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die.”[1] He had prophesied His death on several occasions. First after Peter properly identified and confessed Him as Messiah: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[2] “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day”.[3]  Then again, when they were in Galilee: “Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.”^[4] And then again: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again”[5] 

The train of events that had begun in the Garden of Gethsemane moved towards its inevitable conclusion, execution by crucifixion.  In fact, Jesus had said God would allow no other way for Him to die as the Saviour of the world.  “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up”,[6] and again: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He”,^[7] and again: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself”.^[8]

Jesus would fulfil the prophecy from the Garden of Eden at His execution. As the promised Messiah, He would bruise Satan’s head, and the physical manner of His death would demonstrate and symbolise the spiritual defeat of the Adversary.  The head of the serpent had to be below the foot of the seed of the woman.[9] Since the serpent was the one ‘cast down’, Jesus, of necessity, had to be the One ‘lifted up’.  Therefore, the key phrase is ‘lifted up’.  If the execution had remained with the Jews, it would have been one of the four prescribed ways of judicial killing.  They were (1) stoning, (2) burning, (3) decapitation, and (4) strangulation.^[10] Although those that were stoned to death would be hanged on a tree afterwards, in none of them is the victim ‘lifted up’.  In the case of Jesus, under the Jewish judicial system He would have been stoned.  Those that are stoned are ‘cast down’.  Often, the place of execution was a form of pit. The Mishnah declares the place of stoning has to be twice the height of a man.[11] The individual would be stoned from above.  To maintain the proper positions of the Messiah and Satan, the Son of man had to be lifted up, and crucifixion, as prophesied in Psalm 22, was the mode of execution that maintained the physical demonstration of the spiritual act.

Roman/Gentile complicity

The events of the historic night demand further scrutiny.  The larger Sanhedrin, having condemned to death their Messiah, then sent a delegation to fulfil the previously arranged appointment with Pilate.  However, aiming to obtain a guilty verdict from the Procurator had become much more difficult because their main political witness, Judas, was no longer available.  Nevertheless, they pursued the accusation of sedition, but Pilate would have none of it and pronounced Christ innocent of the charge. Nevertheless, the Jews continued to clammer for the death penalty. 

Pilate, the personal representative of the Roman Emperor proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth innocent of all charges on six separate occasions, the last time officially from the judgement seat, but the Jewish leadership showed bulldog tenacity in holding firm to their demand for the execution of Jesus. At any stage, the Sanhedrists could have drawn back from their course of action, but they were stubborn and obstinate.  They had one more weapon in their armoury. A piece of intelligence that could be used as political blackmail, which they hoped would secure Pilate’s compliance.  Knowing that the governor was concerned about his position under Caesar, they felt he would be vulnerable to a cleverly worded threat, so they warned him that failure to comply with their demands would result in a report to Rome - a report that would confirm previous rumours of Pilate’s complicity in activities to undermine the authority of Caesar.  When the threats were voiced, Pilate capitulated and handed the Messiah over for crucifixion, at the same time giving the order to release Yeshua Barabbas, a man bearing the name ‘Jesus, Son of the father’, who was himself awaiting execution for sedition and murder.

From the Antonia fortress, where He had been scourged in the parade square, Jesus was brought through the Herodian extensions on the north side of the Temple. Then, just like the lambs for the morning offerings, He was taken through the gate of the lambs, the Tadi gate, before leaving the Temple through the only exit gate on the Eastern wall, the Shushan gate.  The red heifer was taken to slaughter through this gate.  It was also the gate through which the scapegoat was led.  Like the red heifer, Jesus was taken through the Shushan gate to slaughter.  Like the scapegoat, Jesus was taken through the Shushan gate, to bear away the sins of the people. They took Him to the place of execution, an ancient holy site named Calvary or Golgotha, the place of a skull.[12]  There He was lifted up and crucified.  During His hours on the cross, the Messiah fulfilled His own personal responsibility under the Mosaic Law and made provision for His mother by placing her in the care of John.

Other signs that attended the crucifixion included three hours of darkness over the earth, an earthquake, and the rending of the sixty-foot long, four-inch thick, Temple veil from top to bottom.

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[1] John 18.32

[2] Matt. 16:16

[3] Matt.16.21; cf. Luke 9.19

^[4]Matt.17.22,23; cf. Luke 18.33

[5] Matt.20.18,19; cf. Luke 24.7

[6] John 3.14

^[7]John 8.28

^[8]John 12.32

[9] Gen.3.15

^[10]San. 7:1(b) (Mishnah)

[11] San. 6.4 (A)(Mishnah)

[12] Matt.27.33; Mark 15.22; John 19.17