Such symbols not only coagulate human emotions in face of potential violence but also become platforms that justify preemptive strikes. In this sense, the desecration of a sacred place or object, or the spiritual offense brought against a holy person, represents taboos that cannot be broken Little Similarly, the desecration of holy places such as the demolition of Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosque complexes in the city of Banja Luka, by the Serbian Orthodox political elite from Belgrade in Walasek Yet, the preemptive justification of violence is not only the domain of organised religion, as the secular state uses it in a similar manner.

According to the Just War theory, one of the jus ad bellum prerequisites for a just cause includes the desecration of the national symbols. While certain secular states have issued specific laws that prosecute flag desecration exclusively Welch , in North Korea, even pointing a finger at a statue or a painting of a political leader, or pointing a finger at a slogan carved in stone, is considered a severe crime against the communist state.

Even if evading their own visibility, rituals of preemptive violence act as aggregates that determine the course of collective action during social hostilities. Conclusively, religion endorses and sustains both peace and violence by providing spiritual narratives that give meaning to life and death, and by altering or changing the moral standards of the community. The relationship between the spiritual narratives and the moral standards is solidified in the public consciousness through the power of ritual.

Ritual and violence in world religions. Is religion inherently violent? Qualitative empirical studies have demonstrated that in its essence, religion is a phenomenon of trust and stability Girard , while in its institutionalised form it becomes a source of peace or violence, as mandated by interests Simion In its history, the comfort that religion took with real and symbolic violence had been expressed through rituals of 'bloody' and 'bloodless' sacrifices which displaced the deadly fury of rivals into a scapegoat that was unable to retaliate.

As such, scapegoating rituals became instruments for social stability, and tools for acquiring political power. Today, the relationship between ritual and violence in organised religions continues to follow the pattern of ambivalence. Contemporary religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and others, display complex ecosystems in which rituals are used either to generate peace and understanding, or to radicalise their followers, by demonising adversaries and justifying violence against them. Even if disguised as innocent melodramas of cultural expression, the furtive power of rituals goes hand in hand with doctrinal teachings and sacred texts, as they craft new patterns of behaviour.

In Hinduism, ritual violence was developed during the Brahmanic period BC through AD on the venues of dharma and yoga. Dharma interpreted the order of the Vedic animal sacrifice, and it imposed social conformity in a discriminatory and violent fashion. As Hermann Oldenburg explained, the Vedas imposed the killing of the animal in order 'to free oneself from the sin of a bloody deed, and from impending revenge' Oldenburg If the path of dharma offered detailed rituals of violence, the path of yoga developed specific mental techniques to destroy violence from its roots that are found in the human heart Nayak As the recent events in Sri Lanka demonstrate Gregg In a positive sense, the goal of a Buddhist monk is to attain enlightenment and become a bodhisattva ; that is a saint who deeply embodies the quality of nonviolence Nayak This is done through meditation and rituals that generate peace and nonviolence.

In attaining enlightenment, for the regular believer it is imperative that a ceremonial reading be practised twice a month, so that 'anger must be overcome by the absence of anger; evil must be overcome by good; greed must be overcome by liberality; lies must be overcome by truth' Ferguson Negatively, there are instances in which Buddhism considers ritual killing to be a path towards enlightenment and towards attaining instantly the status of bodhisattva. For instance, in AD , the Chinese ruler Fa-ch'ing led an army of 50 rebels and announced that any of his troops who killed an enemy will become a bodhisattva on the spot Ferguson Mahayana Buddhism identifies five circumstances in which the act of killing is justified and commended as a ritual act.

In some variants of this narrative, the killer-monk is the Buddha himself. Biblical Judaism often combined the act of worship with war, whereby a prayer had a direct impact over the success of the military. One classical sample of such ritual behaviour - which was adopted by Christianity and Islam - is the episode from Exodus in which the success of Israel depended on Moses being able to raise his hands in prayer: As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.

Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So, Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. At the same time, violence-oriented rituals invoke ritual killing of enemies including their livestock , as an act of worship; often performed on the basis of mythical battles against Israel's mortal enemies Eisen However, Biblical Judaism included also the nazirite rituals Num 6: Nazirism was preceded by additional rituals of purification which involved abstinence from alcohol, from cutting hair, from touching corpses and the avoidance of graveyards.

Nazirite rituals included the practice of sacrifices such as the olah [lamb as a burnt offering], the hatat [sheep as sin-offering] and the shelamim [ram as peace offering]. Contemporary Jewish rituals continue to express religious ambivalence. The peace-oriented rituals involve morning prayers shacharit , afternoon prayers mincha and evening prayers ma'ariv , or arvit , as well as Friday night and Saturday morning services. The evening prayers include a particular peace invocation such as: Regarding contemporary violence, as Robert Eisen writes, 'Judaism has inspired violence not just in religious Zionism, but in secular Zionism as well' p.

The peaceful and the violent aspects of the Muslim rituals are linked with the centrality of Mecca, and with the question of leadership. Muslim worship takes several forms such as salat [ritual prayer], dhikr [contemplative prayer] and dua [prayer of praise or exhortation]. The ritual involves a prostration towards Kaba from Mecca, which is performed daily morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening , and it is practised at home or in the mosque.

The Hajj culminates with a ritual called, 'stoning the devil' which denounces Satan's temptation of Abraham, and by extension, of the entire Muslim community. The importance of this ritual is significant as it promotes a dramatic release of frustration into a virtual scapegoat and not into a human being.

In Islam, rituals of violence are conducted prior and during military confrontations; mainly as acts of encouragement, and as forms of spiritual discipline designed to ensure that the battle is conducted for the benefit of Islam. Ritual violence is directed against external enemies, as well as internally, as a devotional symbol. When directed against external enemies, Islam practises two chants for mobilisation, the shahada and Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest].

The shahada - La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah ['there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet' - is a chant that prepares the crowd for a violent confrontation]. However, when the moment of attack is imminent, the Allahu Akbar chant is used. According to Islamic tradition, Allahu Akbar was prescribed by Prophet Muhammad to each mujahedeen [holy fighter] to ensure spiritual legitimacy when fighting 'on the path of Allah'.

The pain imposed through self-flagellation has strong emotional consequences, explaining perhaps the ease of willingness to conduct jihad and martyrdom Bowker Ritual ambivalence in Orthodox Christianity. In Orthodox Christianity, the relationship between ritual and violence subscribes to the general configuration of religious ambivalence. The metaphorical representation of violence through symbols, rites, rituals and sacred art plays a significant role in the way Christianity understands itself.


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Symbols of violence such as cross and blood were given opposite meanings through the power of ritual. While for Roman criminal justice the cross served as an effective tool to maximise pain and suffering, Paul took it to represent sacrifice, redemption and human salvation; and thus it became an object of veneration. On the same token, the meaning of the blood that Jesus of Nazareth shed on the cross was redefined to represent the glory of salvation through the bloodshed of martyrdom.

The ritual recreates a complex and symbolic world that parallels, mimics and even mocks the drama of the human condition. It replicates the deficiencies of human society by reaffirming idiosyncrasies such as social inclusion and exclusion, reward and punishment, and superiority and inferiority. The ambivalence of ritual is perhaps best represented by the Eucharist; the most significant ritual of Orthodox Christianity. While, in an allegoric sense, the Eucharist is a 'cosmic liturgy' which includes and celebrates the entire creation - should one take Maximus the Confessor in a literal sense Urs von Balthasar This exclusiveness is further dramatised once the prospective candidates to Orthodoxy the catechumens have been asked to leave the church, the doors are closed behind them, then the liturgy continues to the epiclesis.

In Orthodoxy, any liturgical act ought to echo the spiritual teachings of the Church, while also reminding the believers what moral conduct is expected of them. The language has to be carefully selected in order to accurately reflect and even impose the dogmatic teachings. A theologumena , or a theological opinion which does not contradict any dogma, has to be crafted in such a way as to modify the innermost spiritual universe of the believer and align it with the official standards.

In other words, a theologumena represents the negotiation zone between truth and heresy, which only the emotional stir of the ritual can fully control. The subject of worship is man , and the object is God. As such, man's worship is supreme and relative. The social structure replicated by the ritual is exclusively hierarchical.

The public control of ritual is the exclusive privilege of the clergy. The Orthodox clergy follow a very clear hierarchy which has specific ranks and specific duties. As for laity, their public role in the ritual is limited to various chores, such as ushers, grave diggers, bell ringers and others, as needed by the community. The gender ambivalence of ritual is revealed by the dichotomy between contents and performance.

Their privilege of ordination is simply denied. In the Orthodox understanding time is Christ-centred, and it is organised in line with the narrative of salvation. Within each ritual, time is not only confined to reflect a specific history - bracketed by the beginning and the end - as it also operates with the concept of eternity. In the Eucharist the anamnesis [or remembrance] which precedes the epiclesis of the Eucharist, time is no longer limited to a beginning and an end as it becomes an expression of eternity and everlasting life.

Therefore, during the Eucharistic moment human history and eternity overlap. As a longitudinal sequence of events, time is organised in line with the saga of salvation, and the liturgical calendar is organised in line with Christ's role of prophet, priest and king. Instead, it became associated with the feminine self-understanding of the Church bride of Christ , by being flanked by Virgin Mary's nativity at the beginning September 8 and her dormition at the end August Liturgical time also involves time set aside for personal devotion of the believer.

Aiming toward the forgiveness of sins and the eternal life, the Orthodox devotion includes periods of time dedicated for spiritual exercise to be practised in the form of thought control and physical abstinence. As an exercise of devotion, the Orthodox ritual focuses primarily on the individual and less on the group.

Guilt, which can only be expiated through acts of sacrifice, gave rise to extreme forms of manifestation culminating with martyrdom. As physical needs often pose grave dilemmas in one's struggle for spiritual ascent, the act of devotion itself came to be interpreted as a form of spiritual warfare, particularly by the desert fathers and the philokalic tradition in general. Focused on the concept of spiritual warfare , whereby a war ought to be declared against human passions and negative thoughts which undermine one's salvation Scupoli , the manifestation of such spiritual warfare took the form of severe asceticism and self-mortification.

For instance, an Egyptian spiritual narrative tells how Saint Dorotheus Theban Ascetic practised his devotion: All day long in the burning heat he would collect stones in the desert by the sea and build with them continually and make cells, and then he would retire in favor of those who could not build for themselves. Each year he completed one cell. And once when I said to him: But he would sit up all night long and weave ropes of palm-leaves to provide himself with food.

The harsh treatment of one's own body was performed because it was the body that caused the spiritual failure of the monk. For a monk, this failure was similar to that of the lapsi from the Early Church, who, out of fear of pain, have abandoned the faith during persecutions and sacrificed to the Roman gods. The extreme forms of self-mortification and self-punishment were often debated by the spiritual elders, particularly as Paul considered the human body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor 6: On account of its spiritual infallibility, the Orthodox Church has never adopted a Just War theory Simion While local Orthodox Churches defended the morality of wars conducted in self-defence, offered rituals of blessing weapons and military symbols, and even adopted the language of the Just War theory, the Orthodox Church has never justified war at a pan-Orthodox level.

The Church of Christ, which understands war as essentially the result of evil and sin in the world, supports all initiatives and efforts to prevent or avert it through dialogue and every other viable means.

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When war becomes inevitable, the Church continues to pray and care in a pastoral manner for her children who are involved in military conflict for the sake of defending their life and freedom, while making every effort to bring about the swift restoration of peace and freedom. During war, the Orthodox Church prayed for peace, and also warned its members not to kill, for killing in war was still murder.

For instance, Canon 13 of Basil the Great stated that any soldier who killed on the battlefield was to be deprived from receiving communion for 3 years Mantzaridis With martyrdom as the ideal way of embracing the paradise, the attitude was simply reduced to the logic that it is better to be killed than to kill, and it challenged the moral authority of erratic sovereigns. In fact, immortality and paradisiacal life can only be attained via two exclusive paths' - martyrdom or pious life - criteria used to recognise sainthood.

In the contemporary context, the collective Orthodox thinking favours an obvious sense of ambivalence. For instance, while the Russian Orthodox Church blesses weapons of mass destruction as a show of aggression of the Russian state Simion Ritual and the military. During the late 6th century, the Byzantine military manuals started to include specific guidelines for religious rituals to be performed in the military camps before and during battle.

The rituals included blessings of soldiers, blessings of flags and liturgies, as well as rituals of religious burials for the fallen warriors. In preparation for the battle, the generals had the duty to ensure that the proper rituals had been conducted in order for God to grant victory with minimum casualties. Taktika of Leo VI prescribes the following ritual: O general, before all else, we enjoin upon you that on the day of the battle your army should be free from sin.

The night before, the priests are to offer fervent prayers of intercession. As Pilate sat in judgment of Jesus, he failed to give the accused justice. Pilate had all the evidence he needed to do the right thing - to release Jesus. His wife sent to him, saying: In addition to all of these, Pilate also had a unique and remarkable messenger - his wife's dream.

We can only conjecture what she saw in this dream.

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Perhaps she saw Jesus, an innocent man crowned with thorns and crucified. Maybe she saw Him coming in glory with the clouds of heaven. We know that the vision of Jesus in her dream made her suffer I have sufferered many things today in a dream because of Him. It was a remarkable occurrence. She awoke late in the morning, disturbed by the dream. She asked where her husband was, and her attendants told her that he was called away early to his business as a governor - the religious leaders of Jerusalem sent over a prisoner for judgment.

Immediately, she asked a messenger to go to her husband with news of her dream. Scarcely have any of you had a dream which made you send a message to a magistrate upon the bench. Because of all this, there was a great urgency about her message to Pilate. She was bold to send it, and she implored him to simply having nothing to do with this man Jesus. Don't punish Him even a little. All of this was God's merciful message to Pilate; a merciful message that he rejected. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus: The religious leaders knew the best way to influence Pilate.

Not through his own judgment of Jesus, not through his wife, and not through the religious leaders themselves directly. The best way to push Pilate in a certain direction was by the voice of the multitudes. Here is a man who knows the right thing to do - and knows it by many convincing ways. Yet he will do the wrong thing, a terrible thing, in obedience to the multitudes. We see here how dangerous wicked priests are in the Church of Christ; when pastors are corrupt, they are capable of inducing their flock to prefer Barabbas to Jesus , the world to God , and the pleasures of sense to the salvation of their souls.

The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you? The mob did not answer Pilate's request for evidence or proof when he asked, " What evil has He done? They called for more than His death - they called for Him to be executed by torture through crucifixion " Let Him be crucified! They all said to him: When the crowd chose Barabbas instead of Jesus, it reflected the fallen nature of all humanity. The name "Barabbas" sounds very much like son of the father.

They chose a false, violent son of the father instead of the true Son of the Father. This prefigures the future embrace of the ultimate Barabbas - the one popularly called the Antichrist. Jesus Christ was not only the friend of man, so as to take human nature upon himself, but he was the friend of sinners, so that he came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.

People today still reject Jesus and choose another. Their Barabbas might be lust, it might be intoxication; it might be self and the comforts of life. He was a terrorist and a murderer, yet he was set free while Jesus was crucified. The cross Jesus hung on was probably originally intended for Barabbas. We can imagine Barabbas, in a dark prison cell with a small window, waiting to be crucified. Through the window he could hear the crowd gathered before Pilate, not far away from the Fortress Antonia where he was imprisoned.

Perhaps he could not hear Pilate ask, " Which of the two do you want me to release to you? But when the soldiers said, "Barabbas, you are a guilty man - but you will be released because Jesus will die in your place," Barabbas knew the meaning of the cross better than most. We wonder if he ever took it to heart. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person.

You see to it. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all: It was out of character for Pilate to bend this way to the religious leaders and the crowd. He could have chosen differently. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude: Pilate washed his hands saying, "It's out of my control. Personally I wish this Jesus no harm, but these things happen.

Saying "I find no fault in Him" was not enough. Looking for a clever solution in releasing a prisoner at Passover was no solution. Washing his hands was meaningless. Therefore he could not escape responsibility, and is forever associated with the crime of sending Jesus to the cross, echoed through history in the creeds crucified under Pontius Pilate. There is a strange mingling of cowardliness and courage about many men; they are afraid of a man, but not afraid of the eternal God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. I am innocent of the blood of this just Person: Hidden in Pilate's attempt at self-justification is a declaration of Jesus' innocence.

When he called Jesus " this just Person ," he admitted that Jesus was the innocent man - not Pilate. Just because Pilate said " I am innocent " doesn't mean that he was innocent. Strangely, in later periods of Christian Anti-Semitism, some Christians tried to rehabilitate Pilate, wanting to put all the blame on the Jews. Some even said that Pilate and his wife became Christians, and "to this day the Coptic Church ranks both Pilate and his wife as saints.

His blood be on us and on our children: They really had no understanding of what they asked for. They didn't understand the glory of Jesus' cleansing blood, and how wonderful it would be to have His blood … on us and on our children. They also didn't understand the enormity of the crime of calling for the execution of the sinless Son of God, and the judgment that would be visited on their children some forty years later in the destruction of Jerusalem. This is one of the passages wrongly used as a justification by wicked and misguided Christians who persecuted or allowed persecution of the Jews.

They did not understand that even if this did put these people and their descendants under a curse, it was never the duty of the church to bring this curse to bear upon the Jews. Indeed, as God promised Abraham, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you Genesis Those Christians wicked and foolish enough to curse the Jews have indeed been cursed by God in one way or another.

Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. When he had scourged Jesus: The blows came from a whip with many leather strands, each having sharp pieces of bone or metal at the ends. It reduced the back to raw flesh, and it was not unusual for a criminal to die from a scourging, even before crucifixion.

The goal of the scourging was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse and death. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive the cross. Moreover, hematidrosis had rendered his skin particularly tender. The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state.

Therefore, even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus' physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical. Commonly the blows of scourging would lessen as the criminal confessed to his crimes. Jesus remained silent, having no crimes to confess, so the blows continued with full strength.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified. Gathered the whole garrison around Him: They only needed a regular group of four soldiers - called a quaternion - to carry out the execution. Yet they gathered the whole garrison around Him.

It wasn't to prevent His escape. It wasn't to prevent a hostile crowd from rescuing Him. It wasn't to keep the disciples away. Young man, abandon the idea that you may sin in a crowd. Beware of the notion that, because many do it, it is less a guilt to any one of them. Phoenicians, Syrians, perhaps Samaritans. It is not likely that there were as many as that in Jerusalem. These soldiers were Pilate's bodyguard who accompanied him from Caesarea, where his permanent headquarters were. This place might be termed in English the court house , or common hall. Mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!

The Jewish rulers had already mocked Jesus as the Messiah Matthew Now the Roman powers mocked him as king. When a prisoner was crucified, they were often nailed to the cross naked, simply to increase their humiliation. Jesus hasn't been crucified yet, but His humiliation had begun, and He was publicly stripped.

Kings and rulers often wore scarlet , because the dyes to make fabrics that color were expensive. The scarlet robe was intended as cruel irony. Kings wear crowns, but not crowns of torture. The specific thorn-bushes of this region have long, hard, sharp thorns. This was a crown that cut, pierced, and bloodied the head of the King who wore it. Kings hold scepters, but glorious, ornate scepters that symbolize their power.

In their mockery of Jesus, they gave Him a scepter - but a thin, weak reed. Kings are honored, so they offered mocking worship to this King. It was meant to humiliate Jesus, but also the Jews - saying, "This is the best King they can bring forth. We might say that in contrast, Jesus says to the kings and rulers of this age that their crowns are false and their scepters are reeds.

We can also decide to do the opposite to what these did to Jesus. Let us offer to Christ the real homage that these men pretended to offer him. Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head: They now shifted from mockery to cruelty. They seized the ironic scepter, took off the mock-royal robe, and began to hurl their spit and their fists at the head of Jesus.

Even the hands that drove the nails into His hands unto the cross did only what they were commanded to do. Yet they spat in His face just for the pleasure of doing it. Even in this, Jesus stood in the place of sinners. Rebellious man wants to be a king, yet he is a sorry kind of king. Even so, Jesus endured the mocking kind of royalty that man, left to himself, is capable of. It is possible for us to mock Jesus today by the way we live.

For that purple robe meant that they made him a nominal king, a king who was not in truth a king, but a mere show. Your Sunday religion, which has been forgotten in the week, has been a scepter of reed, a powerless ensign, a mere sham. You have mocked and insulted him even in your hymns and prayers, for your religion is a pretense, with no heart in it; you brought him an adoration that was no adoration, a confession that was no confession, and a prayer that was no prayer. Is it not so? Spurgeon wondered how Matthew heard of this crown of thorns and the mocking that went along with it. He wonders if it was not one of the solders that was later converted and came to faith in Jesus.

And led Him away to be crucified: The march to the place of crucifixion was useful advertising for Rome. It warned potential troublemakers that this was their fate should they challenge Rome. Normally a centurion on horseback led the procession, and a herald shouted the crime of the condemned.

As Jesus was led away to be crucified, He was - like most victims of crucifixion - forced to carry the wood He would hang upon. The weight of the entire cross was typically pounds. The victim only carried the crossbar, which weighed anywhere from 75 to pounds. When the victim carried the crossbar, he was usually stripped naked, and his hands were often tied to the wood.

The upright beams of a cross were usually permanently fixed in a visible place outside of the city walls, beside a major road. It is likely that on many occasions, Jesus passed by the very upright He would hang upon. When Jesus said, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me Matthew Everyone knew what the cross was: The cross wasn't about religious ceremonies; it wasn't about traditions and spiritual feelings.

The cross was a way to execute people. But in these twenty centuries after the death of Jesus, we have sanitized and ritualized the cross. How would we receive it if Jesus said, "walk down death row daily and follow Me"? Taking up your cross wasn't a journey; it was a one-way trip. There was no return ticketing; it was never a round trip. Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink.

The ambivalence of ritual in violence: Orthodox Christian perspectives

But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. A man of Cyrene, Simon by name: This man was probably a visitor to Jerusalem, there as a faithful Jew to celebrate the Passover. Him they compelled to bear His cross: Simon knew little if anything about this Jesus, and had no desire to be associated with this Man who was condemned to die as a criminal. Yet the Romans ruled, and Simon was not given a choice. Perhaps he was chosen because he was an obvious foreigner and more conspicuous in the crowd. Wonderfully, we have reason to believe that Simon came to know what it really meant to take up one's cross and follow Jesus.

There is some evidence to suggest that his sons became leaders among the early Christians Mark A place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull: There was a specific place outside the city walls of Jerusalem, yet still very close, where people were crucified. At this Place of a Skull Jesus died for our sins, and our salvation was accomplished. Golgotha - in Latin, "Calvary" Luke As a place of cruel, humiliating death it was outside the city walls, yet likely on a well-established road.

It may also be that the hill itself had a skull-like appearance, as is the case with the site in Jerusalem known as Gordon's Calvary. They gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink: It was customary to give those about to be crucified a pain and mind-numbing drink, to lessen their awareness of the agony awaiting them.

But Jesus refused any numbing drug. He chose to face the spiritual and physical terror with His senses awake. In Mark Jesus declines the drink, apparently without tasting, desiring to suffer with a clear mind. We have yet to see an accurate, full depiction of crucifixion in modern media.

If it were ever made, it would be limited to adult audiences, because of its intense horror and brutality. The Bible spares us the gory descriptions of Jesus' physical agony, simply stating " then they crucified Him. Edwards and his associates. The quotations belong to the article, and much of the other text is paraphrased from the article. The victim's back was first torn open by the scourging, then opened again as the congealing, clotting blood came off with the clothing that was removed at the place of crucifixion.

When thrown on the ground to nail the hands to the crossbeam, the wounds were again opened, deepened, and contaminated with dirt. With each breath attached to the upright cross, the painful wounds on the back scraped against the rough wood of the upright beam and were further aggravated.

Driving the nail through the wrist severed the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve produced bolts of fiery pain in both arms, and often resulted in a claw-like grip in the victim's hands. Beyond the severe pain, the major effect of crucifixion inhibited normal breathing. The weight of the body, pulling down on the arms and shoulders, tended to lock the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state, thus hindering exhalation.

The lack of adequate respiration resulted in severe muscle cramps, which hindered breathing even further. To get a good breath, one had to push against the feet and flex the elbows, pulling from the shoulders. Putting the weight of the body on the feet produced more pain, and flexing the elbows twisted the hands hanging on the nails.

Lifting the body for a breath also painfully scraped the back against the rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper breath was agonizing, exhausting, and lead to a sooner death.

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Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals. Death from crucifixion could come from many sources: If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs were broken, and the victim was soon unable to breathe.

A Roman citizen could not be crucified except by direct order of Caesar; it was reserved for the worst criminals and lowest classes. No wonder that the Roman statesman Cicero said of crucifixion: What shall I say of crucifying him? An act so abominable it is impossible to find any word adequately to express. How bad was crucifixion? We get our English word excruciating from the Roman word "out of the cross. Then they crucified Him: It is significant to remember that Jesus did not suffer as the victim of circumstances.

He was in control. Jesus said of His life in John It is terrible to be forced to endure such torture, but to freely choose it out of love is remarkable. Can we ever rightly doubt God's love for us again? Has He not gone to the most extreme length to demonstrate that love? And divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: Divided His garments, casting lots: Jesus lost even His clothing at the cross.

He was nailed to the cross as a naked, humiliated man. Jesus came all the way down the ladder to accomplish our salvation. He let go of absolutely everything - even His clothes - becoming completely poor for us, so we could become completely rich in Him. That it might be fulfilled: Yet even in all this sin, pain, agony, and injustice God guided all things to His desired fulfillment.

It may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet the invisible hand of God guided all things, so that specific prophecies were specifically fulfilled. Sitting down, they kept watch over Him: This was to prevent someone from rescuing Jesus from the cross. They felt it was false , because they did not believe that Jesus was the King of the Jews. They also believed it was demeaning , because it showed Rome's power to humiliate and torture even the " King of the Jews.

Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left: In His crucifixion, Jesus stood right in the center of sinful humanity.

With the mockery of the criminals, the rejection of Jesus by His people is complete. Even criminals rejected Him. One of these robbers repented and trusted in Jesus, and one did not Luke And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads: In the midst of His staggering display of love, Jesus was not honored.

David Guzik :: Study Guide for Matthew 27

Instead, He was blasphemed and His enemies sneered, saying, "Save Yourself. When Jesus Christ most wanted words of pity and looks of kindness, they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads. They acted as if Jesus did what they said, they would believe Him. Yet it is precisely because He did not save Himself that He can save others.

Love kept Jesus on the cross, not nails! Jesus did greater than come down from the cross; He rose from the dead, yet they did not believe even then. Jesus also showed us how we should regard the scorn and mocking of this world - that is, to not regard it at all. Let us scorn scorn. Does the world laugh at us? Let us laugh at the world's laughter, and say to it, 'Dost thou despise us?

It is not one half as much as we despise thee. Our fathers despised thy sword, O world, thy dungeons, thy racks, thy gibbets, thy stakes, and dost thou think that we shall tremble at thy scoffs, and jeers? Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing: There were many low points to Jesus' ordeal on the cross, but this is surely one of the lowest.


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Even among the three crucified men, Jesus was put in the "lowest" position. This was the peak of God's love for man: But it was also the summit of man's hatred for God; God came to earth, and this is what man did to Him. Jesus had to suffer this alone, outside the gate. He was cut off from the community; both so we could be joined to His community, and also so that our experiences of isolation can be redeemed and made into opportunities of fellowship with Him.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour: From the Roman reckoning of time, this was approximately from This unusual darkness lasted for some three hours, much longer than any natural eclipse. This was not the entire time Jesus was on the cross, but the later part of that time. According to Mark The first three hours of Jesus' ordeal on the cross were in normal daylight, so that all could see that it was in fact Jesus on the cross, and not a replacement or an impostor.

This darkness was especially remarkable because it happened during a full moon - during which time Passover was always held - and during a full moon it is impossible that there be a natural eclipse of the sun. There was darkness over all the land: The remarkable darkness all over the earth showed the agony of creation itself in the Creator's suffering. God was angry, and his frown removed the light of day … The symbol also tells us what our Lord Jesus Christ endured.

The darkness outside of him was the figure of the darkness that was within him. In Gethsemane a thick darkness fell upon our Lord's spirit. There was contemporary evidence for this unusual darkness. Phlegon, Roman historian wrote: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him. My God, My God: In quoting Psalm 22 , Jesus declared His fulfillment of that prophecy, in both its agony and in its exultation.

The Psalm continues to say, You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You Psalm It is no argument against this that the spectators might not understand what He said, for the utterance was not meant for the ears of men. Why have You forsaken Me? Jesus had known great pain and suffering both physical and emotional during His life. Yet He had never known separation from His Father. At this moment He experienced what He had not yet ever experienced. There was a significant sense in which Jesus rightly felt forsaken by the Father at this moment.

It is not, 'Why has Peter forsaken me? Why has Judas betrayed me? This stroke has cut him to the quick. At this moment, a holy transaction took place. God the Father regarded God the Son as if He were a sinner. As the Apostle Paul would later write, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Yet Jesus not only endured the withdrawal of the Father's fellowship, but also the actual outpouring of the Father's wrath upon Him as a substitute for sinful humanity. Horrible as this was, it fulfilled God's good and loving plan of redemption. At the same time, we cannot say that the separation between the Father and the Son at the cross was complete. Paul made this clear in 2 Corinthians 5: God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself at the cross. The agony of this cry is significant. It rarely grieves man to be separated from God, or to consider that he is a worthy object of God's wrath.

Yet this was the true agony of Jesus on the cross. At some point before He died, before the veil was torn in two, before He cried out it is finished , an awesome spiritual transaction took place. God the Father laid upon God the Son all the guilt and wrath our sin deserved, and He bore it in Himself perfectly, totally satisfying the wrath of God for us.

As horrible as the physical suffering of Jesus was, this spiritual suffering - the act of being judged for sin in our place - was what Jesus really dreaded about the cross. This was the cup - the cup of God's righteous wrath - that He trembled at drinking Luke On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, an enemy of God who was judged and forced to drink the cup of the Father's fury. He did it so we would not have to drink that cup. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We can imagine the answer to Jesus' question: You, who have never known sin, have made the infinite sacrifice to become sin and receive My just wrath upon sin and sinners. You do this because of Your great love, and because of My great love. Knowing this agony of the Son of God on the cross should affect how we see sin: Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime!

Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? This man is calling for Elijah: