March 20, 2024

Fr. John Riccardo

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

We cannot imagine Paul’s world. We have no experience of slavery, at least most of us. In our country, it’s a terribly traumatic memory from the past, something we’ve seen depicted in movies, something we’ve read about. Not for Paul, and not for his audience. The Roman world was clearly divided between free and slave. Even within the “free” there was a rigid hierarchy. At the top was the Emperor, of course, and then patricians, plebeians, and freedmen. After them, finally, came slaves, who made up anywhere between 10-30% of the Roman Empire.

If we have little experience of slavery, we have no experience whatsoever with crucifixion. The cross is a religious symbol that hangs in our churches, a piece of jewelry many of us wear around our necks, or something hanging from our rear view mirrors. Not for Paul, and certainly not for his contemporaries. So, then, if we are to enter into the mysteries that we are rapidly about to celebrate, we need to do everything we can to try to grapple with what Paul is saying and, if possible, try to understand what that world was like. Can any of us even remotely begin to grasp the horror of crucifixion? Jesus – or any crucified man – looked nothing like the images we have in our Churches, around our necks or in our cars. They are far too sterile. And far too modest.

Some years ago, I found myself utterly absorbed in Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. It’s a most worthwhile read, especially at this time of year. One of the chapters is entitled, “The Godlessness of the Cross” and I thought the following excerpts might be helpful for us as we prepare to enter into those days that the Church often simply calls “the great week.”

“To speak of a crucifixion is to speak of a slave’s death. We might think of all the slaves in the American colonies who were killed at the whim of an overseer or owner, not to mention those who died on the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic. No one remembers their names or individual histories; their stories were thrown away with their bodies. This was the destiny chosen by the Creator and Lord of the universe: the death of a nobody. Thus the Son of God entered into solidarity with the lowest and least of all his creation, the nameless and forgotten, ‘the offscouring of all things’ (1 Cor. 4:13).

“What would it have been like, in Palestine and in the wider Roman Empire, to see a crucifixion or to hear it being discussed? How difficult it is for us to grasp this! There is nothing in America today to which we could compare it. We do not even see our family members die natural deaths at home; much less do we view tormented bodies on display around town. We know that in Tudor times the population went out to watch people being tortured to death—scarcely conceivable as public policy today—and we know that hangings and lynchings were at one time social occasions in America, but most of us have no connection to such things, and besides, none of these examples will quite serve as analogues to crucifixion.”

“Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point. …‘Executed publicly, situated at a major crossroads or on a well-trafficked artery, devoid of clothing, left to be eaten by birds and beasts, victims of crucifixion were subject to optimal, unmitigated, vicious ridicule.’”

“Crucifixion…was supposed to be seen by as many people as possible. Debasement resulting from public display was a chief feature of the method, along with the prolonging of agony. It was a form of advertisement, or public announcement—this person is the scum of the earth, not fit to live, more an insect than a human being. The crucified wretch was pinned up like a specimen. Crosses were not placed out in the open for convenience or sanitation, but for maximum public exposure.”

“Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had as its express purpose the elimination of victims from consideration as members of the human race. It cannot be said too strongly: that was its function. It was meant to indicate to all who might be toying with subversive ideas that crucified persons were not of the same species as either the executioners or the spectators and were therefore not only expendable but also deserving of ritualized extermination. Therefore, the mocking and jeering that accompanied crucifixion were not only allowed, they were part of the spectacle and were programmed into it. In a sense, crucifixion was a form of entertainment. Everyone understood that the specific role of the passersby was to exacerbate the dehumanization and degradation of the person who had been thus designated to be a spectacle. Crucifixion was cleverly designed—we might say diabolically designed—to be an almost theatrical enactment of the sadistic and inhumane impulses that lie within human beings. According to the Christian gospel, the Son of God voluntarily and purposefully absorbed all of that, drawing it into himself.”

“The first phase of a Roman execution was scourging. The lictors (Roman legionnaires assigned to this duty) used a whip made of leather cords to which small pieces of metal or bone had been fastened. Paintings of the scourging of Jesus always show him with a loincloth, but in fact the victim would have been naked, tied to a post in a position to expose the back and buttocks to maximum effect. With the first strokes of the scourge, skin would be pulled away and subcutaneous tissue exposed. As the process continued, the lacerations would begin to tear into the underlying skeletal muscles. This would result not only in great pain but also in appreciable blood loss. The idea was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. It was common for taunting and ridicule to accompany the procedure. In the case of Jesus, the New Testament tells us that a crown of thorns, a purple robe, and a mock scepter were added to intensify the mockery. …Those being crucified were then paraded through the streets, exposing them to the full scorn of the population. When the procession reached the site of crucifixion, the victims would see before them the heavy upright wooden posts… permanently in place, to which the patibulum was to be attached. … The person to be crucified would be thrown down on his back, exacerbating the pain of the wounds from the scourging, and introducing dirt into them. His hands would be tied or nailed to the crossbar; nailing seems to have been preferred by the Romans. …The patibulum was then hoisted onto the stipes with the victim dependent from it, and the feet were tied or nailed. At this point the process of crucifixion proper began.

“Passive exhalation, which we all do thousands of times a day without thinking about it, becomes impossible for a person hanging on a cross. The weight of a body hanging by its wrists would depress the muscles required for breathing out. Therefore, each exhaled breath could only be achieved by a tremendous effort. The only way to gain a breath at all would be by pushing oneself up from the legs and feet, or pulling oneself up by the arms, either of which would cause intense agony. Add to this primary factor the following secondary ones: bodily functions uncontrolled, insects feasting on wounds and orifices, unspeakable thirst, muscle cramps, bolts of pain from the severed median nerves in the wrists, scourged back scraping against the wooden stipes. It is more than any of us are capable of fully imagining. The verbal abuse and other actions such as spitting and throwing refuse by the spectators, Roman soldiers, and passersby added the final touch.”

Remember, none of this “happened” to Jesus. Nobody can nail God to a cross. The eternal Son of God, through whom and for whom the universe was made, can only get nailed to a cross one way: He has to want to be there. And He’s there, out of love, for you. To rescue you. By name. To defeat the power of Sin. To defeat the power of Death. To defeat Satan. All for you. Because for some crazy reason I cannot understand we matter to God. That much.

This week, let us take time each day to kneel before our crucifixes, to stare at Love crucified, and to ask Him to help us understand what He has done for us.

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