Gospels Part 005
Have you ever considered whether you’d want to know when, where and how you would die? Many have wondered about that over the years. For some, the thought of knowing when they might leave this life could be comforting. For others it might bring great anxiety. Uniquely among human beings, Jesus of Nazareth knew exactly when, where and how He would die. And His death would not come peacefully. It would come through brutal, violent, premeditated murder.
Only a few months into His ministry Jesus told the Jewish religious leader Nicodemus,
“As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15, New Living Translation).
Here Jesus was comparing Himself to the bronze serpent Moses erected on a pole which, when people looked to it, spared them from death (Numbers 21:8-9). Christ’s use of “lifted up” was a reference to His coming crucifixion, when He would be “lifted up” above the ground in this public execution.
Several days before His death, Jesus used the same expression when He told a group of people,
“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
The apostle John then adds parenthetically, “He said this to indicate how He was going to die” (John 12:32-33, NLT, see also John 8:28).
Can you imagine what it would be like to live with that knowledge? How would it impact your life to know that, in a few short years, on a particular day of the year, you would suffer a horrible and bloody death? And to know that you would face that fate abandoned by your closest friends?
Yet in spite of this knowledge, Jesus unhesitatingly carried out His mission. Luke 9:51 tells us,
"As the time drew near . . . Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (NLT).
He was determined to finish the mission for which He had come to earth.
As He traveled the roads of Judea and Galilee, He no doubt had seen men crucified. Crucifixion was meant to be a public spectacle, a warning to potential wrongdoers. He knew exactly what awaited Him. He knew He would suffer the same horrible fate.
The excruciating pain of scourging and crucifixion
Crucifixion may well be the most horrible form of execution ever devised. An early form of it was practiced among the ancient Assyrians, who impaled defeated enemies on wooden poles. From there it passed to other ancient cultures, and eventually to the Greeks and finally the Romans, where it gained widespread use.
This form of execution was bloody, ugly and humiliating—exactly as it was intended to be. Victims were often crucified naked, the more to add to their humiliation and shame. These public executions were typically carried out along the main roads or outside city gates to send a very public message: Defy the might and power of Rome and this is what will happen to you.
Ironically, Jesus had never defied Rome. The Roman governor of Judea at the time, Pontius Pilate, could find “no fault” in Him, no crime deserving of death (Luke 23:4, Luke 23:14; John 18:38; John 19:4-6). The Jewish religious establishment that demanded Jesus be crucified had to change the charges. They initially accused Him of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65), but since that wasn’t a capital offense under Roman law, they changed the charges to sedition, rebellion and treason (Luke 23:2), crimes for which the punishment was execution by crucifixion.
They also weren’t above blackmailing Pilate into carrying out an underserved death sentence against this innocent man (John 19:12). Pilate bowed to the pressure and approved punishment by scourging, then a sentence of crucifixion.
Scourging involved lashing the victim with a whip formed of multiple leather strips in which pieces of metal or bone were imbedded. These literally ripped the victim’s flesh to shreds. Many scourging victims died from this punishment before they could be crucified.
A prophecy in Isaiah 52:14 described what Jesus’ ravaged body would be like after His bloody scourging:
“His face was so disfigured He seemed hardly human, and from His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man” (NLT).
Let that sink in. He was so badly maimed that He was barely recognizable as a human being.
After this, Jesus was taken away to be crucified. Victims of crucifixion hung by nails or ropes for hours—and often for several days—before succumbing to the release of death.
The agony of crucifixion was so horrible that the Romans invented a new Latin term to describe it, giving us the word excruciating, the roots of which literally mean “from the cross.” The word continues in our English language today to describe pain that brings near-unbearable torment.
How did Jesus die?
The process of scourging and crucifixion could result in painful death from several causes—blood loss from scourging, shock due to the overall massive trauma to the body, suffocation from the victim no longer having the strength to raise himself up on his nail-pierced wrists and feet to breathe, or any combination of these.
In the case of Jesus Christ, His death had been foreshadowed by the sacrifice of literally millions of sheep, goats, lambs, birds and cattle that had been previously offered over the centuries in Israel, including millions of Passover lambs. The apostle Paul, writing that “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), knew this is what those pointed to.
Hebrews 10:4 similarly tells us that it was impossible for the blood of those sacrificed animals to take away sins; that can only be accomplished by what they all ultimately represented—Christ’s sacrificial death in our place (Hebrews 10:5-10; Hebrews 9:11-14).
How did those many sacrificial animals die? They all died by shedding of blood. Their throats were slit, meaning they died quickly and relatively painlessly. Jesus Christ also died by shedding His blood, but His death was anything but quick and painless. After being scourged, He hung painfully from about 9:00 a.m. until His death at about 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon (Mark 15:25; Mark 15:34-37).
The final blow ensuring Christ’s death came from the spear of a Roman soldier (John 19:34). The prophecy from Zechariah 12:10 was fulfilled, that “they will look on [the one] they pierced” (John 19:37).
With His death, this part of His mission was ended. In His dying breath He could rightly exclaim, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek here is tetelestai, which was written on receipts of that time to indicate “paid in full.”
His sacrifice was complete. This part of His mission, which He had previously described as “to give his life as a ransom for many,” was over. His bloody, lifeless body was lowered to the ground and taken to a nearby tomb, where it would lay for the next three days and three nights until His resurrection (Matthew 20:28; Matthew 12:40).
Soon Christians all over the world will gather to commemorate this sacrifice, the greatest sacrifice ever. We’re dedicating these installments of Know Your Sword to help you better understand the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us and how that should impact your life. If you’d like to know more, you can read, download or request a printed copy of Jesus Christ: The Real Story.
© Scott Ashley, 2025. All rights reserved.
Course Content
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
