By His Wounds We Are Healed, By His Love We Are Redeemed

Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and

carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew,

Golgotha. There they crucified him (Mt.27:33-36) Being sentenced to die on the cross,

Jesus was made to suffer the worst type of punishment reserved only to the worst type of

criminals. Prior to his crucifixion, he was scourged, beaten with rods, and a crown of

thorns pressed into his skull.  Aside from the extreme physical pain he endured, Jesus

must have felt so alone seeing himself abandoned on the cross by almost all his apostles,

save for his mother and three women along with John. It is no wonder then that he

literally expired after a few hours of agonizing emotional and physical pain amidst the

jeers and insults of those who came to witness his humiliation.  Pilate, for his part,

publicly heralded Jesus  "The King of the Jews" as he died upon the cross, no doubt to

irritate and annoy the chief priests and Pharisees.

Quite ironically, it was this very title “awarded” by Pilate to Jesus that gave him

and the Romans a reason to consider Jesus a threat: Jesus answered, "My kingdom does

not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be

fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not

here." So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a

king…” (John 18:36-37) As for the Jews, they had understood that the Messiah would

come as king to establish God's reign for them.  They wanted therefore a king who would

free them from tyranny and foreign domination. Many had high hopes that Jesus would

be the Messianic king. Little did they understand what kind of kingship Jesus claimed to

have.  Jesus came to conquer hearts and souls for an imperishable kingdom, rather than to
conquer perishable lands and entitlements. Jesus' parting words, “It is finished!"

expressed triumph rather than defeat. Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit

knowing that he had given everything of himself for the salvation of humanity.

It would be hard, indeed, to see the cross of Christ as a sign of victory if we are

not able to realize that it wasn’t just the mere endurance of the suffering of Jesus that

saved us, but rather, the love and forgiveness of Jesus, that is the source of our salvation.

Needless to say, Jesus’ act of sacrificing his life was full of compassion, which in its

simplest terms means to "suffer with love.” We can find no greater proof of God's love

for us than the willing sacrifice of his Son Jesus who died on the cross for love of us.

The cross begins to make sense the very moment we see that love is more powerful than

anger, hatred and death. The cross of Christ, far from being a decoration or just an

external badge of identity, is the very substance of our pain and struggle.  It tells us there

is hope for us even at our very worst and seemingly trying and helpless situations. It

extends beyond us at both ends of the scale: it measures our life and gives meaning to it.