One Guy Didn't
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:1-3
Three guys were tried for crimes against humanity.
Two guys committed the crimes.
One guy didn't.
Three guys were given government trials.
Two guys had fair trials.
One guy didn't.
Three guys were whipped and beaten.
Two guys had it coming.
One guy didn't.
Three guys were given crosses to carry.
Two guys deserved them.
One guy didn't.
Three guys were mocked and spit upon along the way.
Two guys cursed and spit back.
One guy didn't.
Three guys were nailed to crosses.
Two guys warranted it.
One guy didn't.
Three guys agonized over their abandonment.
Two guys had reasons to be abandoned.
One guy didn't.
Three guys talked while hanging on their crosses.
Two guys argued.
One guy didn't.
Three guys knew death was coming.
Two guys resisted.
One guy didn't.
One...
Two...
Three guys on three crosses.
Three days later
two guys remained in their graves.
One guy didn't.
Unknown

The Agonies Of Crucifixion
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4,5
Dearest Reader,    I want to describe something to you, and I challenge you to read it in its entirety, for you see, I want you to know the agony my Lord and Savior loved me enough to endure. But know this, as you read it, He endured it for you, too. I want you to understand that He gave up the perfection of Heaven to come to this earth to carry out the will of His Father. And what did the masses do with Him? The Bible records that He was beaten with 39, I repeat, 39 stripes, he was pummeled, bitten, spit on, stripped, and a crown of thorns not merely placed, but forced around His head. This was after all the other humiliations he had endured during his ministry.    He was then led away to carry his own crossbeam to His place of death. The Bible records that at some point, the soldiers pressed one "Simon, a Cyrenian" into service to carry His crossbeam for Him. This was not due to any mercy they were showing to Jesus--they knew they would never get to Golgotha if someone else didn't carry the load. Thus began the horrible ordeal of crucifixion, so cruel that writers long avoided describing it and artists rarely depicted it.    Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, thieves, and political criminals. The Romans had set up permanent stakes to use for this purpose. Some sources state that the crossbeam was lowered into a groove at the top of the stake. Others say the crossbeam was secured to the upright beam, and then the prisoner was nailed to it. Whichever way it happened, it was sheer agony for the condemned person.    Jesus was forced backwards with his shoulders against the beam. The soldier, using a large mallet, drove the large, crude iron nails (used by Roman carpenters for joists) through the depression just at the top of each hand. The soldier knew to not draw the arms so tightly as to completely restrict movement.    Once the hands or wrists, if you will, were secured, the cross was lifted into place and again Jesus suffered abject agony as it hit the bottom of the hole in which it stood, tearing at the freshly-made wounds. Then His knees were bent and both feet were secured, one on top of another, as was the Roman custom, with one of the large nails. Contorted in this manner and hanging as a dead weight, He could barely breathe. This was the whole point of execution in this manner--to cause as much torture as possible before the release of death.    In His already weakened state, Jesus could only sag against the weight of His own body. As He did, the nails in His wrists put pressure on the median nerves, causing excruciating pain to shoot along the fingers and up the arms. To counteract this, He attempted to push Himself up, only to feel the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves of his feet. He could breathe in, but not out.    Because He could not breathe out, carbon dioxide began to build up in His blood, putting ever greater demands upon His heart. Within mere moments, wrenching cramps began contracting His muscles, greatly restricting His ability to breathe, yet still, instinctively, He fought to push Himself upward.    Jesus' ordeal has been described as "hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, and intermittent partial asphyxiation". Pain beyond description, as His back was gouged and lacerated from his efforts to bring in life-giving oxygen. Then a new horror began: a crushing pain as His chest filled with fluid and His heart was compressed.    Even as He suffered these agonies, soldiers cast lots for his garments there at His feet. Those He had known came and went. The crowd included His own mother for a time. Can you imagine how she must have felt? Whatever else she knew about Him, Whomever else she recognized Him as being, this was her son--she had carried Him and bore Him and loved Him; yet in His agony, He commended the care of His mother to John. He reached out in love and forgiveness to one of the thieves at His side...What love! What Divine Love!    It was almost over. His tissues had very little fluid left in them. His compressed heart could not pump the thick, sluggish blood through His body. His lungs frantically gasped, trying to bring in small bits of air. Just moments before His final breath, He lunged upward and cried, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (That is, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?") He felt the desolation of being totally alone, as his final words were spoken: "It is finished."    This ordeal of agony had lasted for six hours. Even at that, it was shorter than most had to endure. The two thieves had their legs broken to hasten death--but not Jesus. Not a bone was broken in His body. The reason? Because He didn't fight the cross, He gave in to it. He surrendered to the Cross. He could have come down at any time, He could have called thousands of angels, but no one could take Him from His cross. He endured it all, out of divine love, for you and me.    He surrendered to that old cross there on that hill, that dark and dismal afternoon. Will you? Will you come? Oh please come and surrender to the Jesus Who died for you on that old rugged cross...
"The Agonies of Crucifixion" Copyright © 2000 by Patricia Sikes. All rights reserved.
Had that tomb not been empty, had that stone not been rolled away, none of the rest of it would have meant a thing!
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The Old Rugged Cross
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