A PLACE OF HUMILIATION
October 10, 2022
“And when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots.” – Matthew 27:35
Golgotha was chosen as the place of Jesus’ crucifixion for a purpose. There was not just one purpose, but three major purposes why it was Golgotha that was the location where Jesus would be nailed to the cross. As we have looked at the last two days, Golgotha was a place of public executions, and it was a place of excruciating pain.
But there was one more purpose; it was a place of humiliation. They didn’t just want to crucify the Son of God; they wanted to embarrass Him. That was the point of the cross. See, in modern-day movies or reenactments for this scene at the cross, most of the time Jesus is hanging there on the cross and He’s got this loincloth covering Himself up.
But I want you to know that according to most historians, they recorded that the Romans actually crucified men on crosses completely naked. You might ask, why in the world would they do that? The answer is humiliation.
They knew that the Jewish people primarily were extremely modest, and stripping them completely naked and revealing them to the world would maximize the embarrassment and shame.
Therefore, one of the major points of Golgotha was to embarrass the Son of God. So here was Jesus, publicly abused, tortured, experiencing excruciating pain, and now…humiliated. That is what Jesus went through for you and me. As we said yesterday, words will never be able to truly describe what Jesus actually went through.
We cannot possibly imagine it, at least not accurately. But that does not mean we can’t spend time thinking about it. “But pastor, why do I want to think about it? I know what He did for me, but why would I want to picture such an awful event?”
To answer that question, I would so that picturing it, imagining it, and trying to really understand it, is what puts us a little closer to realizing the love of Jesus. When we begin to understand what Jesus truly went through for us, we can know the heart of the One we are following. I don’t know about you, but I will follow someone who not only laid down their life for me but did so in these circumstances we just talked about.
Aren’t you thankful for the love of Jesus Christ?
“And when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots.” – Matthew 27:35
Golgotha was chosen as the place of Jesus’ crucifixion for a purpose. There was not just one purpose, but three major purposes why it was Golgotha that was the location where Jesus would be nailed to the cross. As we have looked at the last two days, Golgotha was a place of public executions, and it was a place of excruciating pain.
But there was one more purpose; it was a place of humiliation. They didn’t just want to crucify the Son of God; they wanted to embarrass Him. That was the point of the cross. See, in modern-day movies or reenactments for this scene at the cross, most of the time Jesus is hanging there on the cross and He’s got this loincloth covering Himself up.
But I want you to know that according to most historians, they recorded that the Romans actually crucified men on crosses completely naked. You might ask, why in the world would they do that? The answer is humiliation.
They knew that the Jewish people primarily were extremely modest, and stripping them completely naked and revealing them to the world would maximize the embarrassment and shame.
Therefore, one of the major points of Golgotha was to embarrass the Son of God. So here was Jesus, publicly abused, tortured, experiencing excruciating pain, and now…humiliated. That is what Jesus went through for you and me. As we said yesterday, words will never be able to truly describe what Jesus actually went through.
We cannot possibly imagine it, at least not accurately. But that does not mean we can’t spend time thinking about it. “But pastor, why do I want to think about it? I know what He did for me, but why would I want to picture such an awful event?”
To answer that question, I would so that picturing it, imagining it, and trying to really understand it, is what puts us a little closer to realizing the love of Jesus. When we begin to understand what Jesus truly went through for us, we can know the heart of the One we are following. I don’t know about you, but I will follow someone who not only laid down their life for me but did so in these circumstances we just talked about.
Aren’t you thankful for the love of Jesus Christ?
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