the 19th chapter of the gospel of John. Let's return there, John chapter 19. We'll begin at verse 16. The trials having now concluded, pilot having now given over to the will of the Sanhedrin. He's turned Christ over for crucifixion and we will journey to Galgotha together with our Lord today. So he that is pilot delivered him that is the Christ over to them to be crucified so they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the hearing of his people. A cross is a popular symbol today for both the Christian and the secularist. The cross in fact finds universal acceptance. Nearly any place should go unless it is being used specifically as a religious symbol. What place does or what place should the cross occupy in the Christian life? What place does the cross occupy in your own life? Entertainers often wear large diamond-studded crosses hanging and prominently displayed on the outside of their clothing even as they sing the most ungodly and vile lyrics. Crosses are used superstitiously to ward off evil spirits. People will hang them in places in their homes or use them as some way of divining and casting out evil spirits. They used as a universally recognized symbol of the Christian church as well. Adorning the top of steeples or gracing the inside of sanctuaries. It's a far cry in today's usage of the cross from the words of Rome's most famous ord or Marcus Tullius who said, even the mere word cross must remain far from not only the lips of the citizens of Rome but also from their thoughts, their eyes, their ears. Cicero once called crucifixion one of the most frightful punishments that human cruelty had ever thought up. The historian Josephus called it quote the most wretched of all ways of dying in quote. So how should we see the cross today? This symbol which is carried down through the ages since the crucifixion of Christ. Is it a symbol of cursing or is it a cherished symbol of our faith? Is it a proclamation of sorts or is it something that we should look at and turn our faces away from because of the curse that was placed there? The practice of crucifixion itself seems to have originated with the Parisians, or rather the Persians, I guess they would be called the Parisians perhaps, who refused to defile the earth with the body of a criminal so they would place the criminal high up and then allow the vultures and the birds to pick the bones until there was nothing left. Rome learned the practice from Carthage. It was handed down from the Greeks. The Greeks seemed to have rejected the practice so they learned this instead from Carthage and they relied on it to maintain order and security in the outlying provinces of the empire. It was rarely discussed or even practiced in Rome proper but certainly in the outlying province as you found crucifixion to be an effective means of deterring rebellion. In turbulent Judea, crucifixion was common. Quantillus and Varus crucified 2,000 Jews on one occasion and during the siege of Jerusalem 500 Jews were crucified every day during the siege in front of the city until it is said that there was no more wood to build crosses and that there was no more place to put them even if they had them. While crucifixion was in a punishment under Jewish law, Deuteronomy 24-23 does prescribe that one that is stoned to death should be hanged on a tree to show that he is particularly accursed by God. The Jews applied this and their idea of crucifixion in his work titled The Suffering Saviour, crew marker comments on Deuteronomy 24 noting this. Such of them as were enlightened well knew that all this included in it a typical meaning and had a prophetic reference to one who should hang upon a tree on whom heaven's wrath would be poured out but in whose atoning sufferings the curse and condemnation of a sinful world would reach its termination. Here he's saying simply put, the cross is the termination point in Christian theology of the prophecies and of the types and the symbols relating to the wrath of God upon sinful man. Those who were stoned because they were in the nathema to the Jewish community and because their sin would bring down the wrath of God upon the community were stoned and then hung on a tree so that it would be clear just how vile their sin was before God. The Jews taking that same symbology and understanding looked at crucifixion in the same way and so we find in crucifixion again the termination point of the understanding of God's wrath as all of Jewish history comes to this very point when they would hang one on a tree whom they considered to be one bringing down upon them the wrath of God but whom we now understand and who those who were enlightened understood was the Lamb of God who would take away God's wrath because he took away sin. The Jews of Jesus' time regarded the victim of crucifixion to be a cursed over and above all other curses by God and we need to keep that in mind when we remember how urgently the Sanhedrin were pressing for crucifixion nothing else would do it had to be crucifixion they wanted the visible symbol of Christ hanging on a tree they wanted that to fit into the theology of Jerusalem and of the Jews that this one who claimed to be the son of God was hung as one a cursed by God and the new Christian church Paul would speak directly to this and put it in theological perspective we have to wonder now in that first century church without the benefit of countless sermons on the cross of Christ without the benefit of countless written theologies and systematic theologies and studies that had been handed down age after age after age without confessions of faith such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed what was the first century church to do with the idea that the one day called Messiah was hung on a tree which in Deuteronomy seems to indicate that he was a cursed by God Paul in Galatians 3 13 said Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written cursed as everyone who has hanged on a tree Paul doesn't dismiss Deuteronomy he says yes indeed there was a curse and that curse was found on the cross because Christ became a curse for us so the symbology was held in attacked but through that one who became a curse also came forgiveness when Pilate delivered Jesus for crucifixion it was getting very near midday there was no appeal process there was no second chance there was no opportunity for overturning the verdict and the journey from the fortress the journey from Antonia to Calvary was some five to six hundred yards not taking into account winding roads not taking into account hills and valleys it would be about five to six hundred yards to travel some conjecture that there would have been a second scourging as was very traditional before a crucifixion one was sentenced to crucifixion and then would be scourged prior to the crucifixion perhaps if that's the case then this would have been the worst of two scourging perhaps the first which was meant to convince the Jews that Jesus had had paid enough of a penalty for their alleged crime perhaps that would have been a more of a light scourging this would have been the more severe we don't know that there was actually two it's not necessary that there would have been two we do know that there was at least one that was brutal no doubt the Sanhedrin pressed to have Jesus at Golgotha by noon because of the festival customs of the day and if possible that the corpse would even be removed and placed in a tomb by sunset perhaps because of that rush the Sanhedrin failed to notice the white tablet whitened with a coating of gypsum that was either carried or hung around the neck of a condemned all condemned carried such a sign because on there listed their crime and we know that Pilate listed Jesus is very specifically that he was the king of the Jews but there's no mention of that by the Sanhedrin until Jesus is finally at Golgotha John tells us that Jesus kept the custom of carrying his own cross it may have been only the crossbeam that Jesus was made to carry that very frequently was the case the crossbeam would have weighed between 75 to hundred pounds if he had to carry the entire cross it would have weighed at least two hundred pounds and probably more the beam would have been placed on his shoulders his arms may have been tied to hold it into place two other men would join Jesus to walk to Golgotha on what is traditionally called the via de la Rosa both are described in the same terms as Barabbas they are called robbers and that word that is used and translated as robber can also be translated as insurrectionist which fits the scene more appropriately soldiers walked along there would be a patrol in the front there'd be a centurion that would follow most likely on horseback there would be armed patrols on each side and then there would be a rear guard as well to keep down any opportunity for interference by the crowds from Antonio Jesus will walk through the gate and turn left they would be taking the longer route to Golgotha because part of the Roman strategy was to expose this scene and this mockery to as many Jews as possible to discourage any future crime they would parade their victims through the city and they were taking him to the Ephraim gate which was a thickly populated densely populated part of the city at this time of the year especially during the festivals for Passover being the best attended festival bazaars and vendors would be lining the streets the upper floors above the vendors would be apartments and homes which now became box seats to the spectacle that was passing below I tried to imagine in my mind what do we have that could possibly compare to this maybe you've been to Marty Gras people are partying in the streets or maybe you've been to some other festival which had vendors lining the streets and the streets would be teaming and packed with people and there imagine in the midst of all of this celebration as people from all around gather centrally into one city you have someone dragging through and to beside him across going to be crucified what a contrast that presents the procession was almost at the end of the journey when they reached Ephraim gate they had only about a hundred yards beyond the gate that they would have to travel there Jesus finally begins to show signs of his mortality we don't know if he stumbled or he fell it's quite likely that he would have for the centurion to recognize that he was struggling under the weight of the cross there was a last uphill part of the journey the anguish of Gethsemane the brutality the beatings the scourging the lack of rest and any fluid or food had finally taken their toll and Jesus is faltering under the weight of the cross the centurions quick to act he orders Simon of serene to carry the cross of Christ we don't know much about this mysterious figure this Simon he most likely migrated from serene and northern Africa between Egypt and Carthage if so he was no doubt to be influenced by the serenic school of philosophy that taught rank hedonism which is the pursuit of pleasure as life's highest good mark tells us that this man Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus it's interesting that they would include that detail except that we also know that Mark was writing for the Christian community in Rome and it's likely that they were there and a part of the church and that would complement Rome I mean rather Paul's request in Romans 1613 that his greetings be extended to Rufus it would all make sense that Paul would extend a greeting to Rufus if Rufus was the son of the man who helped carry the cross of Christ this would mean that Simon himself most likely became a Christian sometime after he fulfilled literally and physically Jesus's admonition to take up his cross and follow him Simon gives us our first glimpse of our own inward disposition as a cross bearer the cross of Christ must become ours through a process of self accusation and a continual dying with him this we call the mortification of sin we hear that term frequently at least here I use that term frequently what does it mean it means that we die daily to sin we wage a war against the flesh how do we wage that war by self accusation through introspection of our own the state of our own soul and our walk before the Lord as we reflect on the admonition that we are to be holy as God is holy that we are to be imitators of God then we consider our own lives and we accuse ourselves of our own sin repenting of that we then die to self for we are united with him in a death like is if we have been crucified with Christ then we have been raised a new creation in Christ how terrible the way to that cross must have been when it was thrust across Simon's shoulders how much heavier when Simon later felt the burden of his own sin it's just as John Bunion describes it in the Pilgrim's progress shoulders hunched the man plots through life straining with every step to carry the great burden on his back it has been a night and day companion not once has he known relief from its merciless weight the character John Bunion writes of his name Christian and he stumbles and struggles up a hill to where he sees a cross and as he arrives at the cross he sees there an open seplica attune and as he approaches the cross and he surrenders himself to Christ the straps on his pack which carries his sin begin to unravel and it falls away and the load of his sin falls into that open tomb never to be seen again his sins are forgiven and he is then dressed in splendid attire the righteousness of Christ Simon in the picture is that Christian slogging along under the weight of sin when we have taken the cross of Christ on ourselves God will comfort and lift us up in union with the resurrected Lord from this point Luke's account and his gospel points out that a considerable crowd was now following the condemned all three of them and the only lookers were adding insult to injury by mocking the Lord the crowds swelled to the point that cleafest later a week later on Sunday remarked while traveling on the road to Emmaus when he walked with Jesus that even a stranger in Jerusalem couldn't be ignorant of the day of Christ crucifixion Luke 23 27 does tell us that not that wasn't his disciples that were in the crowd however but a group of women who mourned and lamented for him we might have expected to hear of the disciples who were either there cowering or hiding or mourning but there's no mention of the disciples perhaps John was there or Mark was there with Mary the mother of Jesus they do appear at Golgotha but what we do here is of women who were there we don't know who they were specifically only that they were wailing and mourning for Jesus Jesus now with the cross on Simon's back perhaps is able to stand more upright under the cross he would have been hunched over and not able to see so much of the crowds around him but now perhaps he's able to stand more erect and he looks out and he sees the women who are mourning and wailing and crying and he says to them don't wait for me but for yourself and your children and then referring to the destruction of Jerusalem he says that they will see it as a curse on future generations and he then said for if they do these things when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry and the first testament a green tree was the symbol of a righteous and upright man here the green refers to Christ if they will do this to the wood that is green then what will they do to that dry wood which is Jerusalem the justice of God will reach out to Jesus what will the wrath of God be against the people who have crucified the Lord Jesus says to them no tears or shows of pity for me but weep for your own condition weep for the future of your children weep for ourselves as we watch as Christ travels the road to Golgotha we are told to weep for ourselves 40 years later in one of the most horrible days of history the city would be laid to waste in judgment and the Jews that are there are either killed or sold in the slavery how often is the passion of Christ presented or told or read how often are we made to picture and to see the story and the narrative of Christ but left incomplete for we are left like the women who are mourning and wailing at the sad state of Christ who's been beaten and is bleeding and is stumbling under the weight of the cross as no angels come to his aid because now he's being taken outside of the city gates to become sin for man how often are we left with that sense of despair and of shame or pity for the Lord but the Lord would look and say don't weep for me and he's not doing so simply as a statement of courage but the Lord saw clearly their own future and he's saying to them if you know your own future you'd be weeping for yourself and you'd be weeping for your children not for me the procession moves on through the gate about a hundred yards outside the city walls there's a place it's elevated it's just to the right of the highway as they travel where all could see the gruesome executions as they travel back and forth in and out of Jerusalem scripture attaches great importance to his being let outside the gates it's not simply because it was custom or because that just happened to be the place there's great importance described in Hebrews 13 that Jesus was taken outside of the city gates and Hebrews 13 and 11 and 12 we read for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood if only the people of Jerusalem had eyes to see that this was the sin sacrifice whose blood was being spilled even already and who would be taken outside the gate just as they did in their practice of sacrifice for sin as to the actual crucifixion john omits any details about that historical accounts give us plenty of detail we won't dwell on them here except just to say that we know that Jesus was fastened to the cross with spikes or with nails in his hands and his feet the thieves traditionally would have been crucified in the same way there wouldn't have been different standards of crucifixion used for each of the ones who were receiving crucifixion on that day I wouldn't argue that there were times that they were tied to the cross but on this occasion they were nailed to the cross how strange the contrast with the manger there when Jesus was born surrounded by dooring shepherds eventually to be visited by kings from the orient showered with gifts angels and song now he is surrounded by criminals and insults the two criminals hanging beside Jesus were just another expression of pilots disdain for the Jews he put before them their king with two of the loliest subjects of the kingdom thus pilot through pilot rather the word of god was being fulfilled however in Isaiah 5312 we learned that the one who would come that is Jesus who has come was to be numbered with the transgressors transgressors and while the Jews had cast Jesus out god through pilot was associating Jesus again with his people they had excommunicated Jesus through the trial but now pilot hung a sign above him that says the king of the Jews and he places beside him two Jewish insurrectionists and so in the crucifixion pilot is reintegrating Jesus again back into the Jewish community this shows us the death of Jesus' humiliation because even here on the cross he surrounded only by words of scorn and the rabble of mankind from the cross Jesus looked down on the sons of the first Adam of those who were of the old creation and his ears received their taunts and their complaints even the thieves on their crosses joined in taunting the Lord how like us each of us as a sinner who search out the blemish in another just as those thieves hanging for their own crimes crimes hurled taunts at the Lord even in our own sin we can point to another and would rather point to another and reflect on their sin than on our own how much more we love to see the splinter in our neighbor's eye while ignoring the plank that is in our own we hear the words of the taunting thieves right down to this day they said if you are the Messiah if you're the Son of God then why don't you save yourself and why don't you save us today people say if God is real then why doesn't he relieve my pain why doesn't he relieve my sickness why does he why doesn't he remove this from me the scoffer with a heart that is hardened and unbelief is to be left to his fate but in the midst of the taunting the Lord God pricked the heart and the conscience of one thief perhaps he grew silent as he began contemplating his own demise and the man that was hanging beside him as a probable zealot he would have known of Jesus in his ministry as he reflected on Jesus and the world that crucified him he was moved to change his tone listen to his self-accusation this man is innocent but we are being punished for our own crime we are receiving the due rewards for our deeds he professed Jesus's innocence and he claimed himself to be a sinner aren't these the very steps to salvation Jesus is the righteous one of God I am a vile and unworthy sinner and then a prayer Lord remember me this is the very moment we in the Christian church pray for unbelievers a moment of reflection of introspection and remembrance of Christ and then a decision to say that this man is innocent but I am guilty and I would be punished justly if I received what my deeds deserve but Jesus is just and righteous Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom James Montgomery boys equipped what did Jesus answer did Jesus say it's too late for you now you should have thought of that when you were joining the revolutionary band did he say I appreciate your confidence but I don't know if we get through this I'll see what I can do for you did he say we're both in the same boat Mr we just have to grit our teeth and bear it we know he did not instead he said in quiet confidence I tell you the truth today you will be with me in paradise what place do we conclude that the cross should occupy in the life of a contemporary wished Christian centuries ago just off the coast of South China the Portuguese built an enormous cathedral up on the top of a hill overlooking the Marco Harbor on the front wall they placed high up into the air a bronze cross visible from many many miles away only a few years later a typhoon struck the south coast of China and it swept the cathedral away everything except the wall with the cross still high up in the air centuries later a ship would wreck outside of that harbor just beyond the harbor and it left very few survivors John Boeing clung to wreckage without any idea where land was and as the waves would come and swell and then receive he would ride the wave up and each time the wave would take him up high he could see across the water the faint glimmer of a cross far in the distance and he began to make his way to that cross later Boeing would write these words in the cross of Christ I glory towering over the wrecks of time all the light of sacred story gathers round its its heads sublime when the woes of life or take me hope deceive and fears annoy never shall the cross forsake me low it glows with peace and joy again I like to quote quote crewmaker the experience of all who in faith take upon them the cross of Christ agree in this that they are ever longer drawn into the death of him who hung upon the tree they decrease the more completely they suffer shipwreck as to everything their own the more valuable the cross becomes to them as the only plank of rescue from the surge how fervently is it then again embraced how lightly and loudly praised what place does the cross occupy in your life is it ornamental an object of jewelry and home decoration is it an object of superstition where you want to make sure that you have a cross in your pocket or you make sure that it's strategically placed to ward off evil spirits and demons or is the cross the place where you are found daily confessing the Lord both who he is and introspectively who you are and then praying Lord God remember me in your kingdom