He Was Crucified

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He Was Crucified
(C) 2003, Don Mize

In San Pedro Cutud in the Philippines, volunteers are nailed to crosses on Good
Friday while others march in processions in which bamboo whips cut their
backs open. In fact, self-flagellation and crucifixions are familiar scenes on
Good Friday in the Philippines according to the 29 March 2002 article by
Associated Press writer Tini Tran carried by AP Worldstream. The article,
“Faith, crucifixions mark Good Friday celebrations in the Philippines,” points
out that while the Roman Catholic Church officially frowns on these rituals,
nothing is done to stop them.

One may wonder about such practices, yet the underlying fact remains that
Jesus was crucified (Matthew 26-28), and Christian theology has been dealing
with that fact ever since. In addition, the ancient story about a man dying on a
cross makes us wonder: others died on Roman crosses. In fact, tens of
thousands died on Roman crosses. In a 4 April 2001 article entitled
“Crucifixion: ‘the most wretched of deaths’” by Reuters writer Megan Goldin,
the details of this usually prolonged, agonizing death are described. The article
goes on to cite that during the Jewish revolt of 70 AD, the Romans crucified
500 people a day on the Mount of Olives, running out of wood and space.
Josephus, the Jewish historian of the period, wrote that the Romans crucified
half the population of Jerusalem.

In an article entitled “Christ and The Art of Agony” we find an interesting
insight. Nigel Spivey wrote in the 1 August 1999 edition of History Today that
early examples of Christian art show the death of martyrs (individuals dying for
their faith), but none show Jesus Christ crucified. He believes the absence of a
crucified Jesus is probably because crucifixion disgraced the person: only the
dregs of humanity merited crucifixion in the Roman Empire. Usually unburied,
wild dogs disposed of the bodies. Given the stigma of crucifixion, the fact that
the earliest documents in the New Testament (the letters of the apostle Paul)
insist on preaching Christ crucified is astounding.

In fact, Spivey goes on to point out that it was not until the fifth or sixth
centuries that Christian art pictured a crucified Jesus. Earlier Christian art
favored the victorious Roman Christ, depicting Jesus as either the Good
Shepherd or as a youthful and amiable Bringer of Joy rather than a Man of
Sorrows. Christian art showing Jesus crucified only appeared after
Constantine, the first “Christianized” emperor, came to power. Constantine not
only made Christian worship legal but he also discontinued crucifixion in 312
AD. As hundreds of years passed, the collective memory of the low status of
crucifixion faded. Nevertheless, only in 692 AD in Constantinople did a Synod
give official sanction for the Cross to be deployed as a Christian symbol and
officially encouraged Christian artist to portray Christ crucified.

The crucifixion of Jesus is different not because he was crucified but because
the early church encountered a living Christ. Crucifixion had meaning because
of who Jesus was, not because he was crucified. Leslie Scrivener writes about
areas where crucifixion is still practiced. In a 2 April 1999 article in the
Toronto Star entitled “Scholars agree Christ suffered ‘the most wretched of
deaths,’” she tells of two Roman Catholic priests in the Sudan who have been
threatened with crucifixion along with 18 others under medieval Islamic law.
She also cites Amnesty International reports that reveal that crucifixion as a
means of execution is still practiced in several African countries as well as
Yemen. The crucifixion of Jesus would be a sad but not unusual event if that
were the end of the story.