Ep. 11: Jesus on the Cross | The Crucifixion of Jesus

Jesus is led to a place called Golgotha, the place where the skull is hung on a cross. It's here that we hear the very last words of Jesus. Someone's last words say a lot about them. What did he say? What did they mean? My friend Malcolm is going to explain right now. Jesus could have avoided the pain that he experienced that day. He did not have to be there. He didn't choose to be there. Maybe asking where's there that place is called Golgotha. If you haven't heard of it, it's literally translated as a hill shaped like a skull. It's the place made famous for his crucifixion. You might know it as Calgary. And this is a part of the story that I feel like we often gloss over. I just want to take a moment to slow down and be reminded of a statement that he made that day that would have left everyone utterly speechless. And he said, In the midst of Jesus experiencing a ton of torture and pain, literally being murdered, being bruised, bloodied, being stripped naked, humiliated in every way you could possibly imagine. His main concern was to say, Dad, please forgive these people. They don't know what they're doing to me. Just imagine the Roman guard that's standing there. It's probably his 98th execution. He's used to doing these things. He's used to seeing people pass out, die, curse God, curse them, spit on them, be angry, frustrated, be bitter. And yet for the first time, he's hearing someone that is literally being murdered ask for forgiveness for the people that are murdering him. And that changed how the Roman guard saw Jesus in that moment.

That Jesus may feel mysterious to us, but back then he wasn't a mystery. People knew who he was. They knew that he was claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God. They knew of his miracles, the works that he had done. And yet for the first time, they were seeing Jesus for the fullness of who he was claiming to be. Can you imagine being one of his friends in that moment, watching one of your dear loved ones die in a way that they don't deserve? Being crucified, being murdered, being executed, you'd be frustrated, you'd be angry. You would want to do anything in your power to take the pain away from them. Then there again in that moment, you see your friend who is literally being executed ask for forgiveness for the people that are torturing him. I mean, that's humbling to me. That's sobering. It's a sobering thought. It's a reminder for all of us that there are tons of times in our lives where we are extended grace and forgiveness for things that we've done that we haven't deserved and earned. But it also is a time to look inward and say, in what ways are we not extending grace and forgiving people in situations? The times that we get cut off in traffic, we want to flip the bird or do things that we're going to be sorry for later. And instead of choosing anger and frustration in that moment, what does it look like to extend grace and forgiveness? The time someone unintentionally throws us under the bus in a meeting around our peers and our bosses, what does it look like for us to extend grace and forgiveness in that moment? I think the encouraging thing to know is that if Jesus has capacity and willingness to forgive people in that moment, to forgive his murderers, and when we turn away from God, when we go the opposite direction, when we sin against God, as long as we repent, as long as we change direction back to him, God always has room to extend grace and forgiveness to us.