Sometimes it is good to be reminded of exactly what Jesus went through, both physically and emotionally, over his final few days. It may seem most appropriate at Easter since at Easter our minds are very conscious of those horrendous days. It is, however, very relevant throughout the rest of the year as well and, of course, it is always relevant on Sundays when we prepare to take the emblems.

But I think not every Sunday morning. Personally, I would find it much too emotive to listen to, and impossible to talk about, too often.

Yet I think that sometimes we need to remember the cost to Jesus. We may acknowledge it using words such as “the price he paid”, but those few words can never describe the enormity of what the Lord Jesus went through, of what it cost him.

Three and a Half Years

What happened over those three to four days around the Passover has to be taken in context – the build-up to it cannot be ignored. For around three and a half years Jesus had been working virtually every day, and often it seems all day and all night. So many days were spent in teaching, healing, exhorting, and enlightening – and many nights spent in prayer and meditation.

There was no motorhome for him to travel from town to town. He would have walked everywhere. There was no hotel for him to stay in, or bed and breakfast, or Air BnB. He would have slept wherever he could – possibly in the home of one of his followers, possibly out in the open. We do not know these details since there is little or no reference to this in the Bible. But there can be no doubt, from what is recorded, that he rarely paused. No two-week vacation. Always ready to respond to the needs of others. And so, by the time he arrived in Jerusalem for that final Passover, he must have been physically and emotionally drained.

No wonder the passage in Isaiah describes our Lord like this:

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. (Is 53:2-3)

So, we should never, ever underestimate what our Lord had been through since his baptism. Three and a half years of roaming the region. Three and a half years of teaching, of healing, of praying. Three and a half years of being constantly watched for opportunities to discredit him, to catch him out.

Yet all the time his thoughts were for his friends, his disciples, for those whom the Father had called to follow him. And most of all, his thoughts were to do the will of his Father, first and foremost, completely.

Prophecies of Pain

We see an example of the full extent of this love earlier that fateful week within the account of the raising of Lazarus. That love is encapsulated in just two words in that account but, oh, the power and the depth demonstrated in those two words – Jesus wept.

He wept for those whom he loved that were suffering. He wept too, I think, for those who did not understand what he had been sent to do. But he knew – he had always known. And in these last few days he tries to prepare his disciples for what he knew was inevitable. And John passes that information on to us. Five chapters out of the 21 that make up the Gospel of John are more or less dedicated to Jesus trying to equip his followers for what was going to happen.

Because he knew. He had always known.

And his mother had always known, too. Since before the angel came to her in Nazareth, she knew. God didn’t choose her at random, for He knew her completely. We get a glimpse of her character, of what made her tick, from her response to the greeting of Elizabeth. It is recorded in just a few verses from what is known as The Magnificat,¹

Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.

How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!

For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.

For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.

He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.

His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. (Lk 1:46-51)

She is quoting a lot from Hannah’s prayer² – but there are also links to so many other Old Testament writings. According to one set of cross-references I checked, there are links to 44 verses scattered from Genesis to Malachi! In a culture where education was focused on males, it is quite amazing that both Hannah and Mary clearly knew and loved the word of God.

Later she was reminded by Simeon (as if she needed reminding) when she and Joseph took the baby Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Simeon, guided by the Holy Spirit, meets them in the temple courts. It had been revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ, so it is not hard to imagine his excitement when he sees this baby – the baby that the Holy Spirit had guided him to. But it is not his excitement that I am interested in at the moment, rather his words to Mary. He directs these words specifically to her:

Listen carefully: This child is destined to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be rejected. Indeed, as a result of him the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul as well! (Luke 2:34)

A sign that will be rejected – these are ominous words. But his final words are the most telling and personal to Mary: A sword will pierce your own soul as well. With joy she would recall the words of the angel as he told her that she was to bear the Messiah – the one who would be called the Son of the Most High – but that joy was now tempered by the knowledge that those who should welcome him would, in fact, reject him.

She had been chosen, she was the favoured one, and she knew her scriptures. She would know what that rejection would entail, and the pain and grief that was to come to her. She could probably recite Psalm 22. And Jesus, as a result of his education as a Jewish boy, most definitely could. We know from the records of Matthew and Mark that Jesus starts to quote this psalm after he was crucified,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46)

I think he completed it in his head, and I also think that so did many in the crowd around that cross. They couldn’t help themselves. Their education had involved learning it by heart. What a shock it would have been to them to realise, on that fateful day, that so many of those words of the psalmist had come to pass before their very eyes.

Ex Cruci

But we’ll come back to those words again shortly. Because I want to think for a little while about what had happened shortly before the crucifixion – to remind us all of what Jesus suffered for me and for you.

In the nineteenth chapter of John’s gospel, we read in verse one that Jesus was whipped. Some versions use the word scourged. This scourging would have been done in the Roman manner rather than the Jewish one. In other words, much more severely. Jewish law limited the number of lashes to 39, but the Romans had no such limit.

More significant, though, is what would have been used to inflict this punishment. It would have been no ordinary whip. No, this one did not consist of just a single length of leather but several. And each one would have a sharp piece of stone or metal inserted into the end of it. And each lash of that scourge would not just have cut the flesh. Those pieces of metal or stone would have ripped out pieces of flesh.

It is no surprise, then, that it was not unknown for scourging like this to actually be fatal.

And all this was inflicted on a man – an innocent man – who was exhausted after some 42 months of non-stop travelling, teaching, healing.

Those of you who have seen the Mel Gibson film The Passion will have some idea of what Jesus Christ had to endure. The actor who portrayed Jesus in that film was actually whipped but had the benefit of a thick piece of leather covering his back underneath his robes. And even with this protection, he was severely bruised.

I find it impossible to imagine the agony that Jesus endured for me and for you. Endured because of his love for me and for you.

And then a crown of sharp thorns was put on his head. Actually, it almost certainly wasn’t just put on his head. I suspect it was rammed on with as much force as a hardened Roman soldier could manage. And then he was led away to be crucified.

I want for a few minutes to talk about crucifixion. It is pretty clear today that Psalm 22 was talking about crucifixion when it refers to the piercing of his hands and his feet, but Psalm 22 was almost certainly written about 1,000 years before the events we are currently talking about. And the first incident that is recorded of crucifixion was about 500 years after Psalm 22 was written.

So for many, many years the horrendous truth behind those words was hidden from many.

But Jesus and Mary would both have heard of crucifixion as it was a widely-used form of execution in the Roman world. They may have even seen the results as the victims were often left on display for days, the sight intended to act as a deterrent to others. They would have known what lay ahead.

So Jesus knew. He had always known.

It is not at all clear whether Jesus was nailed to a single upright or, as is often depicted, an upright with a cross piece. Descriptions of both exist in the historical records. What is recorded is that where there was a cross piece, it was often this that the victim was forced to carry. And that piece alone could weigh about 45kg (which is about 100lb or 7st 2lb). And this is not an insignificant weight to carry – especially for a man who, already exhausted, had been subject to the brutality of scourging.

The victim would almost certainly have been nailed to the crosspiece. Most depictions of Jesus on the cross show the nails in his hands, but the Greek word translated here as hand can mean the arm from the elbow down. Since the object of this method of execution by the Romans was not meant to just kill the victim, but to humiliate them and cause them as much pain as possible, no doubt they had worked out the best place to position the nails to avoid major arteries whilst maximising the pain. The weight of the body would have been borne by those nails.

Then the crosspiece, with the victim attached, would have been hauled into place.

The nails in the feet were almost certainly hammered through the ankle bone as skeletal remains have been found with nails in situ. The feet would have been positioned each side of the upright and the nails then hammered in. Each of those nails was about 11.5cm or 4 ½ inches long. As the words in Psalm 22 had warned Jesus, so they also remind us: they pierced his hands and his feet. And as the crowds surrounding the cross recited the words of Psalm 22 in their heads, they too were reminded.

Death was almost certainly caused by asphyxiation. It was a slow and agonising death. It might take hours, it could take days. And it was literally excruciating pain. Our English word excruciating comes from the Latin ‘ex cruci’ meaning ‘out of crucifixion’. This is what our Lord endured. Vicious scourging, humiliation, excruciating pain, and an agonizing death. Jesus endured that for me and for you.

The Prospect of Joy

Remember those absolutely amazing words:

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2)

And that joy had many dimensions – firstly the resurrection, and then the glorification by the Father. But there was also the joy of knowing that he had made a way for you and for me to come back into the presence of the Father – to have a close and intimate relationship with him.

WOW! What an amazing gift – grace upon grace – for he is alive. Hallelujah.

And because of that resurrection, because he is now our living Lord, we are no longer hopeless. It is our loving Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. We must never forget the pain – the excruciating pain – and the humiliation Jesus endured in order to achieve that. But, like him, we can look past that. We can look to the joy that is set before us, the prospect – the sure and certain prospect – of hearing those words,

Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Matt 25:34)

The cost to our Lord Jesus was enormous, but the prospect is glorious.

I want to close with the lyrics of song. When it comes up on my playlist whilst a I am driving, it is a much-needed reminder for me.

How Much Do You Think You Are Worth?

by Graham Kendrick

Is a rich man worth more than a poor man?

A stranger worth less than a friend?

Is a baby worth more than an old man?

Your beginning worth more than your end?

Is a president worth more than his assassin?

Does your value decrease with your crime?

Like when Christ took the place of Barabbas

Would you say he was wasting his time?

Well, how much do you think you are worth, boy?

Will anyone stand up and say?

Would you say that a man is worth nothing?

Until someone is willing to pay?

I suppose that you think you matter.

Well, how much do you matter to whom?

It’s much easier at night when with friends and bright lights

Than much later alone in your room.

Do you think they’ll miss one in a billion?

When you finish this old human race?

Does it really make much of a difference?

When your friends have forgotten your face?

If you heard that your life had been valued,

That a price had been paid on the nail.

Would you ask what was traded, how much and who paid it,

Who was He and what was His name?

If you heard that His name was called Jesus,

Would you say that the price was too dear?

Held to the cross not by nails but by love,

It was you broke His heart, not the spear!

Would you say you are worth what it cost Him?

You say ‘No’, but the price stays the same.

If it don’t make you cry, laugh it off, pass Him by.

But just remember the day when you throw it away

That He paid what He thought you were worth.

How much do you think He is worth, boy?

Will anyone stand up and say?

Tell me, what are you willing to give Him

In return for the price that He paid?