To be with us

~ Crucifixion involved being severely beaten, followed by several days of being nailed to a cross, naked, just a foot or so above the ground.. so that onlookers could still look you in the face and ridicule you as you died, so they could spit on you and smack you. It was considered the most vile and painful death in every way.

Infection and decay often set in while you were still alive.. a fever d...eveloped and a raging thirst.. all culminating in your body growing weaker and weaker. That weakness is what finally leads to death. The weight of your body and your hands outstretched makes it difficult to get a full breath. You have to pull your weight up by the nails in your hands and feet to breathe. As your body weakens, you can't pull yourself up so your lungs can expand.. so you eventually soffocate.

Death on a cross is actually a gruesome form of suffocation, lasting days as your breath gets more and more shallow and your body is slowly drained of all strength and health as you witness the decay.

But if the sabbath was close.. soldiers would break the legs of the ppl being crucified so they couldn't lift themselves up to breathe.. thereby rushing their death before sunset.

They broke the legs of the men on either side of Jesus to rush their death as sabbath approached.. but Jesus had lost so much blood from being beaten so badly in events leading up to the cross, that he was already dead when they got to him. So instead of breaking his legs, they just ran a spear thru his side to be sure he was dead. This acually fulfilled one of the prophecies Isaiah gave about Messiah when he would be led as a lamb to the slaughter.. not a bone would be broken in his body.

Hollywood didn't exaggerate how badly Christ was beaten.. it was so badly that he died before the other two men, because he had lost so much blood. He was a carpenter, he was in excellent health, a strong and robust man. But he couldn't even carry his cross all the way to calvary's hill because of the severity of his beatings..

All this not for shock factor.. just to remind us that it was real, and it was costly, and tho he was God.. he suffered as we suffer but multiplied.. even tho he was innocent of any wrong or sin. The blood he spilled that day from his arrest to the cross was cash doled out to buy our freedom.

Pretty incredible... that it would mean that much to him, just so he could be WITH US. We serve a crazy God.. one that loves to crazy extremes <3


~ 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.

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.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

(Isaiah 53)


~ It all comes down to this.. how real is he to you?.. all that he did, all that he said, all the good things he has planned for you that he came to fulfill.. it wasn't a story.. it was God.. who became a man.. just to die.. so that he could restore life.. to you and to me.

I love this guy, this Jesus, my precious Lord and Friend ♥

~ "and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

~ Hollywood exaggerated nothing, historians of the time of Christ reported how badly he was beaten.. that his face was grabbed and his beard ripped out of his face.. it was hate.. it was gruesome.. it was evil.. and yet he endured it all for our sakes. Having all the angels of heaven he could have called in any instant to escape the pain.. but he refused to quit, until salvation of mankind was won. Our God is awesome, full of courage, worthy of all praise!