News24 reports this morning of volunteers being nailed to a cross as part of Good Friday rituals in Paombong, Philippines. I cannot imagine having to prove my devotion in this way but, at least to some extent, this practice of non-lethal crucifixion provides a vivid reminder of that fateful 24 hours 2000 years ago when Jesus was subjected to all this and more. Check out this video taken a few years back in the Philippines - taking great care not to choke on your Lindt Bunny
What is it about such things that we find so fascinating? While I generally believe in watching a good movie again there are two good films I have not had the stomach to watch twice. One is Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" and the other is "Bravehart" - which coincidentally also stars Mel Gibson.
In the former's case, it was the brutality and bloodiness of the scourging and crucifixion. In the latter's, the closing scenes in which Wallace is brutalised by the king's torture squad. The process he was subjected to was known as being "hanged, drawn and quartered" - a suffering which comes close to and, some would say, even eclipses the miseries of crucifixion. According to Wikipedia:
Convicts were fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where they were hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded and quartered (chopped into four pieces). Their remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge
The scene really rattled me for some reason. Mercifully, sufficient time separates us moderns from those barbarous methods and we, for the most part, are blessed to live under more temperate penal methods.
Yet, as Mark Driscoll points out in "Vintage Jesus", if we don't see crucifixion as the ancients saw it, we don't appreciate it the way they appreciated it. The practice was not only widespread but a very public one too. Driscoll cites a lowlight of history which, in the aftermath of Spartacus' slave revolt, saw 6000 men crucified in a single day along the Appian Way. Crucifixion was so barbaric that it has even produced the word "ex-cruc-iating" to describe the depths of pain and misery experienced. The Roman Orator Cicero described it as "the most hideous of punishments" and even Roman criminals were not subjected to it.
The process didn't simply involve being nailed to a cross. The whipping with a "flagrum" which preceded it was often enough to kill less hardy victims. The intent was to cause so much blood loss, pain and circulatory shock that the victim would be near death when raised up.
The driving of long iron nails between the bones of the wrist would probably have pierced the median nerve. The "slouch" position assumed by the victim once the cross was upright would have made breathing unusually laborious requiring him to force upwards with his feet - also nailed to a wooden shelf.
Some commentators report that insects would bore into the cuts and wounds and for those victims unlucky enough to endure (some lasted days), birds of prey might rip at the eyes, ears and nose. Ultimately dehydration and respiratory failure would lead to death. For very tough criminals who prevailed too long, executioners would break the victim's leg with a large mallet thus rendering breathing impossible.
Back to those pilgrims who, probably this very hour, are undergoing treatment for pierced palms and feet. As much discomfort as they are experiencing, can it even remotely approximate the sufferings of Christ 2000 years ago? Does it include the sleepless night (OK - maybe!), the interrogations, the betrayals, the beatings? What of the vicious scourging (only partly), the burdensome road to Golgotha, the jeers?
And lastly, what of the utter separation from the Father which prompted the cry "Eloi! Eloi! Lama Sabachtani!"
The Cross: Not how it was
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