Jesus

by Leonard Sweet

  In short, the smell stayed with Him.

  THE CRUELTY OF CRUCIFIXION

  We tend to forget that crucifixion was the ultimate form of torture. The science of exquisite torture has never been equaled, much less exceeded, than in crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was no exception. Crucifixion was more than an ugliness blotted out by Easter, more than a speed bump on the road to resurrection.

  Part of the cruelty of crucifixion was the emotional as well as physical torture. Yes, Jesus’ physical agonies were beyond imagining. But the emotional agonies were even worse—the humiliation of being stripped naked, with all bodily parts and functions exposed for the humiliating gaze of the public; the mixture of blood and sweat and urine and feces and refuse creating a nauseating stench, the smells of death that kept even the families of the crucified at a distance.

  But what cut even deeper were the emotional agonies of Jesus’ spirit. The Bible unabashedly testifies to Jesus’ sense of total abandonment, defeat, rejection, and betrayal. In many ways, this was where Jesus was really crucified in spirit. Not on the cross but in the kiss. The cross crucified Him in body. The kiss crucified Him in soul. He was truly despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

  Jesus was really betrayed twice, first by the kiss of Judas, then by something that cut even deeper: the kiss-off of Peter. The disciple who stuck with Jesus the longest after Jesus’ arrest, when accosted by a servant girl in the courtyard of the high priest, denied he knew Him. Before the barnyard cock crowed, the second betrayal took place.

  Of Jesus’ closest friends, one denied Him, all betrayed Him, and, save John, all ran away.

  Now do you know why Jesus said to remember “her” (the woman who anointed His head with fragrant ointment)?

  In the praetorium at Pilate’s residence, the soldiers dressed Jesus in royal clothes, like some play doll. They draped over Him a scarlet robe, stuck a reed in His hands to mock a scepter, and then used that instrument to bludgeon Jesus on the head.

  They beat Jesus’ head with their hands, fracturing His nasal bones. They took turns spitting into the contusions of his blindfolded face and knelt before Him and taunted, “Hail, King of the Jews.” Then they crushed onto His head that crown of thorns.

  With blood, spit, and sweat running down His face, Jesus looked around.

  Where were His disciples?

  Where were all His faithful followers?

  Where were all those whom He had healed?

  Where were all those whose eyes He had opened, whose ears He had unstopped, whose mouths He had opened, whose limbs He had restored?

  It was almost more than He could bear.

  Then Jesus smelled the perfume . . . and He remembered the woman with the hemorrhage of twelve years who’d had the faith to reach out and touch the hem of His garment and be healed.

  Jesus kept on.

  And when the soldiers beat Him with a whip until the blood ran down His back like a waterfall, His skin already supersensitive from the effects of hematidrosis (sweating blood); when they marched Him 650 yards through the streets and made Him climb the Via Dolorosa, carrying the 150-pound patibulum on which His wrists were later to be nailed, reducing Him to a beast of burden being led to the slaughterhouse; and when the weight of the cross produced contusions on the right shoulder and back on that three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross—Jesus smelled the perfume.

  And when He fell, causing more unnamed injuries; when He looked around for His most intimate friends, His disciples, and saw none but the four women and John at a distance; and when the agony was almost too much to bear—He smelled the perfume.

  And He remembered the twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus, whom everyone thought was dead but whom God healed when He spoke these words: “Get up, My child.”

  Jesus kept on.

  And when they stripped Him naked60 and nailed Him to the cross-piece He had carried; when they took those six-inch spikes and lacerated the median nerves in His hands and feet; and when they lifted Him up on that cross, above the sinking garbage heap called Golgotha—Jesus smelled the perfume.

  And He remembered the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter and the Galilean official and his son.

  He kept on.

  And when everyone who passed by mocked Him on the cross; when the chief priests and scribes, even those thieves who were crucified with Him, taunted and teased Him in His agony; and when the loneliness became so severe He was about ready to call ten thousand angels to rescue Him, Jesus looked around. In the haze of hurt, He barely could make out the figures of the three Marys—His mother, Mary; His aunt Mary (wife of Cleopas); and Mary Magdalene—and then He smelled the perfume.

  And He remembered the many children brought to Him by their mothers, children who jumped into His arms and lapped up His stories.

  Jesus kept on.

  And when His body, already in shock, hung from the wrists; and when He struggled for breath to chant two of His favorite psalms (31 and 22), unable to expel even small hiccups of sound without straightening His knees and raising Himself on the fulcrum of His nailed feet, the only thing the soldiers offered His parched throat (“I thirst!”) so He could keep singing was a drink of vinegar, which only made singing more difficult. And when His crucifiers used Him for entertainment (“Let’s see if He can call down the angels”) and when He searched the landscape for signs of love and faithfulness and saw He was abandoned by virtually everyone He ever loved, leading Him to cry a prayer for His disciples as well as for those who crucified Him61—then Jesus smelled the perfume.

  And He remembered the woman who had given all she had so He would remember God’s love for Him, and in that smell He could even detect the odors that reminded Him that He was going home, from whence He had come.

  He kept on.

  The cross was the only footbridge that could get us across the chasm of sin into the true Promised Land. And that perfume kept Jesus on the cross.

  The greatest honor a person can give anyone is to tell his or her story. Here was someone who “did what she could” (literally, “She used what she had”). She gave all that she had.

  Love.

  Now we know why Jesus said, “When you remember Me, remember her.”

  SONGS OF THE CROSS

  There was one more activity of Jesus on the cross that went far beyond words. We have images of Jesus doing almost everything we do in worship—praying, preaching, teaching, and healing. But can you come up with an image of Jesus singing?

  There are a couple of occasions where the Bible says clearly that Jesus sang. The first explicit reference was on Maundy Thursday, before Jesus and His disciples headed out into the darkness: “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”62 They sang the Hallel psalms (113–118), hymns that were (and are) standard fare on the first and last nights of Passover. Jesus would have sung these hymns His whole life. But we are reminded definitively by His disciples that Jesus sang at the Last Supper. At this “first Mass,” Jesus even sang about His mother: “I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant.”63

  The second time Jesus sang was on the cross. We have missed this song for many reasons, not the least of which is our acute versitis.64 In fact, we have separated Jesus’ final words (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” “I thirst!” “It is finished!”) into separate phrases, but they are really parts of one song, the greatest song ever sung in the history of the world.

  We have heard the cry of “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” as a despairing scream from the depths of divine abandonment. Our secret shame is that we find it strangely consoling that Jesus said this since it makes us feel less special when we’re feeling abandoned by God and alone in our anguish.

  But the real story is very different.

  First of all, these words—“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”—are not Jesus’ own words. They are famous as the opening line of Psalm 22. />
  Second, the Psalms are a hymnbook. They were meant to be chanted, not stated. In fact, a good Jew always sang the Psalms, never just spoke them. And they often came bundled. Psalms 22, 23, and 24 are examples of such a package. They are the “two mountains and a valley” song, with Psalm 22, the Psalm of the Cross, a song of tribulation and triumph; and Psalm 24, the Psalm of the Crown, a song of jubilation and exultation. Between these two great mountain peaks of human experience is the more famous rod-and-staff Psalm of the Valley.

  Third, the question is not whether Jesus sang this Psalm of Tribulation and Triumph from the cross, but rather, how much of the psalm did Jesus sing? Even if He only lined out the first few stanzas, Jesus functionally sang the whole song in the same way we would be inviting others to inhabit the whole power of the song “Amazing Grace” if we only lined out the first few words. In times of trouble and uncertainty, we hum or sing. On the cross, Jesus sang Psalm 22.

  It is the greatest song ever sung in the history of the world. And it behooves us to listen carefully to all the stanzas, because while Psalm 22 begins as a climb up the mountain of tribulation, it ends with a cheer and a view from the mountaintop of triumph.

  My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

  Why are You so far from helping Me,

  And from the words of My groaning?

  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;

  And in the night season, and am not silent.

  But You are holy,

  Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

  Our fathers trusted in You;

  They trusted, and You delivered them.

  They cried to You, and were delivered;

  They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

  But I am a worm, and no man;

  A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

  All those who see Me ridicule Me;

  They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

  “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him;

  Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

  But You are He who took Me out of the womb;

  You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.

  I was cast upon You from birth.

  From My mother’s womb You have been My God.

  Be not far from Me,

  For trouble is near;

  For there is none to help.

  Many bulls have surrounded Me;

  Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

  They gape at Me with their mouths,

  Like a raging and roaring lion.

  I am poured out like water,

  And all My bones are out of joint;

  My heart is like wax;

  It has melted within Me.

  My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

  And My tongue clings to My jaws;

  You have brought Me to the dust of death.

  For dogs have surrounded Me;

  The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.

  They pierced My hands and My feet;

  I can count all My bones.

  They look and stare at Me.

  They divide My garments among them,

  And for My clothing they cast lots.

  But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me;

  O My Strength, hasten to help Me!

  Deliver Me from the sword,

  My precious life from the power of the dog.

  Save Me from the lion’s mouth

  And from the horns of the wild oxen!

  You have answered Me.

  I will declare Your name to My brethren;

  In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

  You who fear the LORD, praise Him!

  All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,

  And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!

  For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;

  Nor has He hidden His face from Him;

  But when He cried to Him, He heard.

  My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;

  I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.

  The poor shall eat and be satisfied;

  Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.

  Let your heart live forever!

  All the ends of the world

  Shall remember and turn to the LORD,

  And all the families of the nations

  Shall worship before You.

  For the kingdom is the LORD’s,

  And He rules over the nations.

  All the prosperous of the earth

  Shall eat and worship;

  All those who go down to the dust

  Shall bow before Him,

  Even he who cannot keep himself alive.

  A posterity shall serve Him.

  It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,

  They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,

  That He has done this.

  Now do you know why we call it the greatest song ever sung? As the Roman “soldiers nailed him to the cross,”65 Jesus was singing the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and transcending His tribulation and torture with a musical commentary on what everyone was doing. Once again, Jesus got there before everyone else, even at the point of His own death. Whether Jesus sang only Psalm 22 or sang different psalms that incorporated other features of His crucifixion,66 He was connecting the dots for His disciples and for anyone else with ears to hear and eyes to see. Even the Roman soldiers went from maiming and mocking Him67 to marveling and honoring Him: “Truly this was the Son of God!”68

  The reason we are 99.99 percent sure that Jesus sang the whole song at least once? In the middle of the song, Jesus chanted with a loud voice, “I thirst!” ( “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.”69) And the very last line of the song is a shout of triumph: “[God] has done it.”70 The Hebrew words for the English translation “God has done it” are a bit different from the original Hebrew: “To a people that is born, that He hath made!” The people of God’s new covenant have been newly born, made by Christ into a new church, for Jews and Gentiles. At the point of Jesus’ death, the church was conceived, and Jesus’ mission was completed. With that, Jesus’ last words were heard: “It is finished!” In Hebrew, the word is kalah, the very word uttered by the temple priests after all the sacrificial lambs had been slaughtered. Jesus the Lamb of God had sung the final “amen” to His temple ritual, and the new Temple, the Garden of God, was born. In the Hebrew psalms, the word selah is used to denote a pause in the musical notation. With Jesus’ last words, “It is finished,” He uttered the final selah. But His psalm was a song of victory, for what was finished with a pause marked only the beginning of the resurrection promise.

  As Jesus sang this victory song, the world resonated with the words. The earth quaked, and the most sacred temple curtain was ripped to shreds, the very curtain that once blocked the entrance to the temple’s holiest room, the place that housed the ark of the covenant, God’s earthly home. No longer could God be contained or controlled by space or time, clime or clergy. In the words of one of the church’s earliest theologians,

  Christ has now become the High Priest . . . . He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever . . . . Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.71

  This is the good news of the Jesus story. The words good news are a literal translation of the Greek word euangelion, which was used at a specific time for a specific reason and at a specific place. The specific place was the village square where the community gathered. The specific time was after a battle had been fini
shed. The specific reason was to cry out at the top of one’s lungs: “Good news! The victory has been won!”

  The greatest song ever sung in the history of the world was a victory song, sung by Jesus on the cross, announcing victory over the subjugation of sin. The entire universe echoed back that song in vibrations that shook the earth at its core.

  CHAPTER 14

  ..............................................

  The Atonement and the

  Harrowing of Hell

  There is redemptive power in Christ

  crucified unmatched anywhere else.

  —F. F.BRUCE 1

  THE CHARGES AGAINST JESUS WERE BOTH POLITICAL AND RELI-gious: a threat to destroy the temple; blasphemy; being a false prophet; messianic claims that were a threat to the Roman officials. Most scholars agree that Jesus was put to death mainly because of His dramatic action in the temple.2 When Jesus cleansed the temple, He was striking at its very existence and symbolizing its destruction. Since Jesus was challenging the most sacred symbol of Jewish life, the Jewish authorities had to act. Jesus, then, suffered the fate of countless prophets before Him.3 Israel’s true Messiah and the world’s true Lord was executed by the state as a rebel ruler, a “king of the Jews.”

  LOOKING AT THE CROSS FROM A DIFFERENT MOUNTAIN

  Let’s now change the landscape and look at the Lord’s crucifixion from the divine vantage point. We believe that the enormity of what Jesus did on the cross has been lost to us. But according to the Second Testament, what Jesus did on the cross is beyond what any of us can imagine.

  • On that cross, He took upon Himself every sin that you and I would ever commit. He took upon Himself the accusation of the enemy against the whole human race. He paid the penalty for the transgressions that made us subject to decay and death.4

  • On that cross, He took upon Himself the entire world system that is in rebellion to God.5