A very painful reminder of what Jesus went through for us. I didn't want to watch the movie but I did and I cried. I cried very hard. Jesus was such a good man and teacher. His way of teaching reached the heart.
When you think of why Jesus had to come to Earth, it makes things a bit clearer than I learned growing up. Think about this. Jesus had the power to get himself down from the stake and yet he didn't.
He suffered so we can have life. But imagine how Jehovah felt. How would you feel if you watched your son or daughter die? Jehovah I can imagine was hurt.
Also, the cross itself. Why do so many get that wrong?
The use of the cross can be traced back to Mesopotamia, to two thousand years before Christ. Crosses even decorated Scandinavian rock engravings during the Bronze Age, centuries before Jesus was born.
Such non-Christians used the cross as a magic sign giving protection, bringing good luck. It is no wonder that the New Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the cross is found in both pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures, where it has largely a cosmic or natural signification. Why, then, have the churches chosen the cross as their most sacred symbol?
By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. pagans were received into the churches and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted.
In the two centuries after the death of Jesus it is doubtful that the Christians ever used the device of the cross. To the early Christians, the cross must have chiefly denoted death and evil, like the guillotine or the electric chair to later generations.
More important, no matter what device was used for the torture and execution of Jesus, no image or symbol of it should become an object of devotion or worship for Christians. Flee from idolatry: 1st Corinthians 10:14. Jesus himself gave the real identifying mark of his true followers. He said: By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.
The Apostle Paul says: "Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us, because it is written: ‘Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake."’ (Gal. 3:13) His quotation was from Deuteronomy, which mentions placing the corpse of an executed person on a "stake," then adds: "His dead body should not stay all night on the stake; but you should by all means bury him on that day, because something accursed of God is the one hung up; and you must not defile your soil."-Deut. 21:22, 23.
In fact, the Hebrews had no word for the traditional cross. To designate such an implement, they used "warp and woof," alluding to yarns running lengthwise in a fabric and others going across it on a loom. At Deuteronomy 21:22, 23, the Hebrew word translated "stake" is ‘ets, meaning primarily a tree or wood, specifically a wooden post. Executional crosses were not used by the Hebrews. The Aramaic word ‘a’, corresponding to the Hebrew term ‘ets, appears at Ezra 6:11, where it is said regarding violators of a Persian king’s decree: "A timber will be pulled out of his house and he will be impaled upon it." Obviously, a single timber would have no crossbeam.
In rendering Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 ("stake") and Ezra 6:11 ("timber"), translators of the Septuagint Version employed the Greek word xylon, the same term that Paul used at Galatians 3:13. It was also the one employed by Peter, when he said Jesus "bore our sins in his own body upon the stake." (1 Pet. 2:24) In fact, xy’lon is used several other times to refer to the "stake" on which Jesus was impaled. (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29) This Greek word has the basic meaning of "wood." There is nothing to imply that in the case of Jesus’ impalement it meant a stake with a crossbeam. So, the evidence indicates that Jesus did not die on the traditional cross.
But as mentioned it's not how he died, it's what he died for and why he had to die. It should really build our faith.
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