Crucifixion is a method of execution that involves putting someone to death “by nailing or binding the wrists or hands and feet to a cross.”¹https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crucifying (Accessed 11/08/2021) When someone refers to the crucifixion, especially in a religious discussion, they generally mean the specific historical event of Jesus Christ suffering such an execution under the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate in the first century AD, and all of the theological meaning that this event carries with it.

The event of the crucifixion

The historical event of Jesus’ crucifixion is reported in detail in all four biblical gospels (Matthew 27:33-44; Mark 15:22-32; Luke 23:33-43; John 19:17-30). He was not found guilty of any genuine crime (Acts 13:28) and Pilate, the Roman governor at the time, was initially inclined to release him (Acts 3:13). Yet, in the end, the hostile crowd won the day, and Jesus was unjustly put to death in such a way that Pilate, Herod (the ruler in Galilee at the time), and crowds of both Jews and gentiles were all guilty of the injustice, as Jesus’ early followers noted in a prayer recorded in the book of Acts:

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,” (Acts 4:27).

The Roman historian, Tacitus, briefly reports Jesus’ crucifixion and places it in precisely the same historical moment:

“During the reign of Tiberius, Christus, who gave his name to the group [i.e., Christians], had suffered crucifixion under the procurator Pontius Pilate,” (Tacitus, Annals 15:44, as cited in Jo-Ann Shelton, As the Romans Did (Oxford University Press, 1998) 409[/fn]

As does the Jewish historian Josephus, who also acknowledges that this was instigated by certain among the Jewish leaders of the day:

“Pilate, because of an accusation by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross.”²Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3; For a discussion on the authenticity of Josephus’ passage on Jesus, see: Regarding the quotes from the historian Josephus about Jesus; For an example of a scholar who is a die-hard critic of Christianity and still acknowledges and agrees with the scholarly consensus that this portion of the passage is legitimate, see: Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? (Harper One, 2012) 61

The early Christian writer, Ignasius of Antioch, wrote that Jesus was “nailed in the flesh for us under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch,”³Letter to the Smyrneans, Chapter 1 and that he was “persecuted under Pontius Pilate” and was “crucified and died.”⁴Letter to the Trallians, Chapter 9 Thus, Jesus’ crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is a solidly established fact of history. Indeed, critical scholar John Dominic Crossan (certainly no friend of biblical Christianity) concedes:

“That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.”⁵John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (Harper Collins, 1991) 145

The shame and suffering of the cross

As was typical in Roman crucifixions, Jesus was scourged with whips (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, John 19:1), stripped naked for public humiliation (Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34, John 19:23-24), and nailed to a cross (John 20:25, Acts 2:23), where he hung until he died.

As if such afflictions were not enough, his accusers and those carrying out his execution also slapped him (Matthew 26:67, Mark 14:65, John 19:3), spat on him (Matthew 26:67, Matthew 27:30), beat him with their fists (Matthew 26:67, Mark 14:65) and with a reed (Matthew 27:30, Mark 15:19). They pressed a crown of thorns on his head (Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17, John 19:2) both to inflict him with physical pain but also to mock him as the “king of the Jews.” This was, indeed, the point of crucifixion. It was both to inflict maximal bodily suffering while also publicly humiliating the person so as to render it the worst possible way to die.

The famed Roman lawyer Cicero described crucifixion as “hanging there, suffering the most horrible punishment ever inflicted [even] on slaves” and went on to declare:

“To put a Roman citizen in chains is wrong. To flog him is a crime. To execute him is almost parricide. And what shall I call crucifixion? So abominable a deed can find no word adequate enough to describe it.”⁶Cicero, The Prosecution of Veres, as cited in Jo-Ann Shelton, As the Romans Did (Oxford University Press, 1998) 284

Modern scholar Dr. Alexander Metherell echoes this sentiment:

“The pain was absolutely unbearable. In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word, excruciating. Literally, excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’ Think about that: they needed a new word, because there was nothing in the language that could describe the intense anguish caused during crucifixion.”⁷Dr. Alexander Metherell, as quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Zondervan, 1998) 197-198

For a detailed medical description of the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross, see “On the Physical Death of Jesus” in the March 21, 1986 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.⁸For a summary of this article’s conclusions, see chapter 5 in The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona (Kregel, 2004)

The purpose and meaning of the crucifixion

So, we get what crucifixion is, that Jesus definitely did suffer and die by it. We understand that His agony was almost unimaginable. But why did Jesus go through this? And, since so many other people were also crucified by Rome and other nations in the ancient world, why does this particular incident alone get to be called “the crucifixion”? What sets it apart from all other horrific deaths? Simply put, the crucifixion of Jesus, though carried out by unjust men with wicked intentions, was actually God’s foreordained plan:

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death,” (Acts 2:22-23).

And what was that plan? Nothing less than the redemption of sinful man! Jesus was guiltless of any sin of his own (Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). He deserved no punishment at all, but He stood in our place and took our punishment on Himself! As the prophets said long before:

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him,” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

For everyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ, He has already served their sentence. He has paid the legal debt for their sin:

“having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross,” (Colossians 2:14).

The purpose of the crucifixion was to take away the guilt and shame of sinners and reconcile us to God so that, by His grace, we can live with Him forever:

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” (Romans 5:6-10).

I can say without exaggeration that the crucifixion (and subsequent resurrection) of Jesus Christ is the most important event in all of human history and the best news that anyone could ever hear!

Conclusion

What is the crucifixion? It is Jesus, the perfect and sinless Son of God, dying a brutal death on a Roman cross to bear the guilt and shame of everyone who believes in Him. It is the historical event wherein Jesus of Nazareth was beaten and nailed to a cross-shaped piece of wood to hang in agony while He slowly suffocated. Yet, it was also God in flesh offering Himself as our substitute to pay the price for our sin.