Lesson 32
The Crucifixion
Josephus, the still highly respected Jewish historian of the first
century spent a lifetime documenting Jewish history. He covers this history in
fascinating but almost excruciating detail.
And yet, when he made mention of the event fifty years after the
crucifixion, his comments were a really short few sentences, and an obvious
echo of the standard language in Christian hymns sung at that time. This tells
us something of the impact, or lack thereof, Jesus’ crucifixion had on the
general Jewish, Greek and Roman populace fifty years after the fact.
Today, the faithful look back two thousand years with a powerful laser
beam of emotional and even fanatical interest that leads to a distorted belief
that Jesus’ life and death and perhaps resurrection hit the ancient world like
an atomic blast: This event just couldn’t have been missed. Unfortunately, that
was not the case. (But, we will take a quick snapshot of the impact on the
early church later.)
For now, let’s discover what the everyday crucifixion was actually
like, since this is what Jesus suffered. Take photos only if you want them in
your own album.
After being found guilty, the criminal was given the obligatory
whipping. Humiliation followed, and for Jesus this included a thorned crown and
sign above him on the cross mockingly saying , “King of the Jews”. This
represented his political crime since the only king of the Jews was considered the
Roman emperor. The criminal then carried just the cross bar up to the hill
outside of the city, since the posts were left in the ground for the daily
crucifixions that occurred.
Golgotha was not a tourist attraction. This was a place people avoided.
There would be few people to watch this tortuous event, perhaps only family and
a few close friends. But, keep in mind. Jesus was a political criminal, and so
showing support at his death tarred the supporters with the same crime. Peter
understood this and denied knowing Jesus several times. Cowardly, perhaps, and
painfully regretted, but understandable.
Nails were driven through the wrists, not hands, and a wedge on the
post was placed in the most uncomfortable of spots, between the legs. All
engineered to painfully support the weight of the criminal for the longest time
possible. Most died from asphyxia as the lungs filled with fluid as did Jesus’,
since recorded memories tell us a sword thrust in Jesus side caused fluid to
run.
After his death, the body was removed by family and given a resting
place in a tomb donated by a faithful follower of the beloved rabbi.
We don’t have to take any photos, we can head back to the present and
see what tradition says is the actual tomb still preserved near Jerusalem.
Certainly, you can get on the internet and see the photos already taken by
others over the years.
What actually happens next in the story of Jesus?
I will research and contemplate this, and then share my discovery in
the next section.
Questions to Contemplate and Discuss
1. Compare how little importance the ancient
world placed on this particular crucifixion of a criminal and how the modern
day looks at it. What are your thoughts about this difference?
2. Who actually witnessed the crucifixion of
Jesus and why were they there and not others?
3. What have you possibly learned about the
technical handling of a crucifixion and how do you feel about this information,
and about Jesus himself going through this?
Lesson 33
The Aftermath - Splinters
Shock! Disbelief! Denial! Anger! Questions! Trying to make sense of it
all! The followers of Jesus are not just one group of apostles, but many groups
scattered around the area from Egypt to Jerusalem, more than you can count on
two hands – each one creating its own coping mechanism for Jesus’ death.
We have gathered photos of Jesus from the beginning until the seeming
end. Yet, just like the Jesus followers after the crucifixion, we need a few
more answers and a clear direction. So, grab your cameras as we go back to the
first century.
Take time to snap lots of photos of all the disparate groups calling
themselves followers of Jesus spread around the Mediterranean, each with a
different take on what happened after the crucifixion. Some are really ticked off
that just a few short years after they lost John the Baptist shrieking that the
end of the world was near, their next great prophet extolling a new world, has
been killed. And there is still no sign of a new world.
Some followers retell the stories and parables that Jesus shared, to
begin a rich source of hymns that will form the basis of the accepted gospels. Notice
and take some snapshots of how some of these groups are creating a lineage of
stories, each lineage reflecting the teachings of an original apostle. There is
a Mark group, Matthew group, John group, Thomas group, Mary group – each
singing their memories of Jesus during their weekly home meetings. Eventually
these will create a large list of gospels, four to be accepted as the basis of
a new religion and many others not quite lost to history.
Here is an intriguing fact I discovered: The original gospel of Mark,
the first to be written down a good twenty years after Jesus’ death, ends not
with resurrection but simply an empty tomb. It will be decades later, after
Paul starts his preaching to the Greeks across around the Mediterranean, that
stories of a resurrected Jesus will be added to the hymns and then eventually
the four accepted gospels.
The Matthew and Luke gospels, written decades after the original Mark,
take huge swaths of exact lines from the Mark gospel and then glue on the
resurrection story. Only a very long time later is the resurrection added to
the gospel of Mark.
Historian now have large and small fragments from many gospels
circulated back then, and all need to be accepted as just as important as the
four chosen three hundred years after Jesus’ death to be the only ‘official’
ones. Historians now agree that each of the gospels was created as a propaganda
piece for aparticular groups of Jews and/or gentiles. They never were
considered ‘history’, just memories to be handed down.
Fifty years after Jesus, the Romans finally burn down the Temple, most
of Jerusalem, and the angry, heartsick Jews spread out across the world. Jews
no longer have a single identity tied to the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews are a
shattered and splintered people creating new and different sects - the Jesus
followers become some of them – all trying desperately to recreate a new Jewish
identity. By this time the original apostles, as well as a man named Paul (who
took the tale of Jesus to the Gentiles), are all dead. Most killed by the
Romans.
Take a snapshot, for it will be during this confusing time the name
‘Christian’ starts to be used. Gospels are now written and shared, letters
copied and sent around to blossoming communities around the Mediterranean. . .
. . .Christianity is born
Questions to Contemplate and Discuss
1. Review the three types of messiah Jews, as
well as Jesus’ own apostles, were waiting for. How do you think these varied
Jesus followers reacted to Jesus’ crucifixion
- unified, diverse, sad, angry?
2. Did you previously know there were so many
gospel stories of Jesus and how does this affect your view of the accepted New
Testament?
3. Note the length of time between Jesus’
death and the first written stories. Note the length of time after Jesus’ death
that Paul began to preach his version of events. How does this affect your view
of the ‘history’ of Jesus as it is offered in the New Testament? And your
faith?
**************************
Lesson 34
Resurrection- A Very Private Matter
Once more I scan my self-appointed title ‘ Looking for Jesus, His Life
and Times’. What has history discovered about the resurrection of Jesus? What
have we, together, discovered as we took snapshot, after snapshot?
The original and first gospel, Mark’s, never mentioned resurrection and
ended with an empty tomb. Only much later grieving followers began grappling
with the death of Jesus. To find answers they went to the only place of wisdom
used by Jews for centuries – the scriptures and the prophets. Here, they
plumbed the eloquence of Isaiah and found the words that would both comfort and
explain. A messiah would come and lead them to a new world. Jesus was this
messiah.
Are the stories of Jesus’ resurrection accurate or allegory? I must come to my personal conclusion. The
glory and splendor told in the New Testament I will need to accept on faith.
And so, I ask the next obvious question - What does the resurrection of Jesus mean
to me? And perhaps, you must ask this also -What does it mean to you?
I will put away my camera and close my eyes. Inside my own heart and
mind will I ask for Jesus to enter . . .
Here, he is fully alive, resurrected in the spirit.
Here, I ask him to explain it all to me.
Here, I will discover the meaning of his death and his resurrection . .
.
. . . and here, in my heart,
I will melt into the loving presence of my
savior.
Questions to Contemplate and Discuss
1. What does the resurrection mean to you?
2. If, like me, you are a student of ‘A
Course in Miracles’, what has the Course taught us about the resurrection?
3. Contemplate what you have read in this
book and give yourself over to the Inner Comforter for your own personal ‘look’
at Jesus.
I am currently working on ‘Looking for
the Early Church’, the natural continuation of this personal journey.
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