The Broad Outline of the Crucifixion

The Broad Outline Events of the Crucifixion

V8a, (1) the abuse and injustice of His trials, “He was taken from prison and judgment,”

V7b, (2) His journey along the Via Dolorosa, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter”

V8b, (3) He was crucified and died, “He was cut off out of the land of the living,”

V9a, (4) He was crucified between two wicked thieves, “they made his grave with the wicked,”

V9a, (5) He was buried in the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, “but with the rich in His death.”

Christ’s submission and resignation to enforced and abusive treatment are evident throughout His arrest, trial, and crucifixion and finally in His dying. Surely, death is the ultimate and final submission to sovereign Lord. For each one of us death is the crowning act of a lifetime of obedience and surrender to the will of God – Lord prepare me and help me to die well! These acts of continual submission are expressed and executed by silence throughout, “He did not open His mouth,” except at key points when His words were remembered and became an integral part of the Gospel accounts of His crucifixion.

Christ’s continued submissive silence throughout is testimony to His submission to Father’s will and is pictured by Isaiah as “a lamb being led to the slaughter.” This was an apt description in the light of O.T. typology with reference to the lamb. John in the Revelation writes, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a (little) Lamb as though it had been (freshly) slain” (Rev.5:6). Jesus’ resignation to unjust trials, the hostile verbal and physical abuse of His enemies was forced upon Him but His response to that was voluntary, - he chose how He would respond, and He responded with silence to Pilates’s insistent questions.

As Jesus said, “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? (Mat.26:63). All the resources of heaven were at His disposal but He chose to die as a man without heavenly assistance. Angels had originally expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and Christ would suffer outside of God’s paradise, “outside the gate” to gain man’s repossession of Eden.

Resignation in the face of oppression and affliction meant that He did not defend Himself against injustice and illegalities. However, He managed Himself prudently, He controlled His tongue and He actively suffered and submitted Himself to the atrocities of the cross. Study the seven words He spoke from the cross in order to gaining insight into His thinking.8 Paul writes, in the most famous Christological statement in the N.T., “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil.2:8). There are two sides to this: part of His sufferings was due to His helplessness – He was hanging, nailed to the cross, losing blood and He was dying. Jesus had no control over this. He struggled to retain consciousness and would have struggled continually to get His next breath. Over these things Jesus had no control. The other side of the crucifixion is that Jesus was enabled by the resources of the Holy Spirit to endure and to prevail. I am viewing these sufferings in the context in which Paul made His statement in Philippians, “and being found in appearance as a man.” As a man Jesus was anointed to fulfil the role of Messiah as the LORD’S suffering and dying Servant. The purpose of the anointing in the Jordon was to fulfil the work of salvation as portrayed in Isa.ch.53. Yes, He healed by the Spirit’s power and for this He was also anointed, but the fact is that healing does not bring salvation. One day He performed His last miracle on earth and then He went to the cross to suffer and die to gain salvation for lost men and women.

In His deepest sufferings, His silence is observed with surprise, “he did not open His mouth.” We have made no reference to the spiritual travail of soul in seeking the prize of our redemption, “for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb.11:27). The ultimate issues of the cross were directly related to, “the LORD and His Christ” (Acts 4:26).

3. John 19:26–27: Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother 4. Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? 5. John 19:28: I thirst. 6. John 19:30: It is finished. (From the Greek "tetelestai" which is also translated "It is accomplished", or "It is complete"). 7. Luke 23:46: Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

The physical death of Jesus meant that he could also die for our sin. The judgment of God was unobservable to those who watched the Messiah die. They saw only physical agony but behind the visible suffering there was the central issue which precipitated His agonized prayer and bleeding drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane – it was the issue of the holy Messiah drinking the lethal cup of sin and suffering as a consequence the wrath of Almighty God against sin. It was this that caused Jesus to hesitate and to shrink from its awful consequences when He prayed in Gethsemane for Father to remove the cup from Him, if it was at all possible.

Isaiah reaches into the deeper recesses of Christ’s real sufferings when He writes, “You make His soul an offering for sin” (v10), and “He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied” (v11 KJV). Paul speaks also of Christ being made sin for us, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Cor.5:21). In the margin of your Bible, you will find an alternative translation which says that He was made a sin offering on our behalf (as in CSV translation). Almost without exception the several translations keep to the KJV text. Just before Paul made this statement about the spiritual significance of Messiah’s death, he wrote, “that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2Cor.5:19). This key verse declares that God was actively involved “in Christ” to reconcile the world to Himself.

The Messiah dies, “He was cut off from the land of the living.” These were stark words, but death was inevitable once Pilate had delivered Him up to be crucified,