Crucifixion

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Crucifixion

John 19:23-24

23 Then [oun] the soldiers [stratiotes] , when [hote] they had crucified [stauroo] Jesus [Iesous] , took [lambano] his [autos] garments [himation] , and [kai] made [poieo] four [tessares] parts [meros] , to every [hekastos] soldier [stratiotes] a part [meros] ; and also [kai] his coat [chiton] : now [de] the coat [chiton] was [en] without seam [arrhaphos] , woven [huphantos] from [ek] the top [anothen] throughout [dia] [holos] .
24 They said [epo] therefore [oun] among [pros] themselves [allelon] , Let us [schizo] not [me] rend [schizo] it [autos] , but [alla] cast lots [lagchano] for [peri] it [autos] , whose [tis] it shall be [esomai] : that [hina] the scripture [graphe] might be fulfilled [pleroo] , which [ho] saith [lego] , They parted [diamerizo] my [mou] raiment [himation] among them [heautou] , and [kai] for [epi] my [mou] vesture [himatismos] they did cast [ballo] lots [kleros] . These things [tauta] [men] therefore [oun] the soldiers [stratiotes] did [poieo] . KJV-Interlinear

23 The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. 24 They said therefore to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be'; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.' NASB

Matt. 27:35-36
35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots; 36 and sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. NASB

Mark 15:24
24 And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. NASB

Luke 23:34
34 But Jesus was saying, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.' And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. NASB

Jesus Christ is now hanging up on the cross, full of pain, agony, and humiliation, yet these verses do not describe His situation, but the actions of those people who were milling about, around Him.

Yet another prophecy comes to pass as the four Roman soldiers divided up His clothing. The five pieces, one each for each of the four soldiers, and then the fifth piece was won by the casting of lots.

Psa. 22:18
18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. NASB

And then the soldiers sat down to watch over the three prisoners, to see to it that they died in accordance with the order of execution given by Pilate.

Scripture clearly proclaims Jesus as being God. Long before His birth it was divinely predicted that He would be called Immanuel, which means 'God with us,' Matt. 1:23; cf. Isa. 7:14. He was called by many divine names, such as 'the Holy and Righteous One,' Acts 3:14. It declares that to know Jesus is to know God the Father, John 8:19; 14:7 , to hate Him is to hate the Father, 15:23, and to believe in Him is to believe in the Father, Matt. 10:40; John 12:44; 14:1. It affirms that to see Him is to see the Father, John 14:9, to honor Him is to honor the Father, 5:23, and to receive Him is to receive the Father, Mark 9:37. It proclaims that Jesus is omnipotent Matt. 28:18, omnipresent, Matt. 28:20, changeless, Heb. 13:8, creator of the world, John 1:3, able to forgive sin, Mark 2:5-10, and is to be worshiped as God, Phil. 2:9-11; cf. Matt. 28:9, Heb 1:6.

Yet Scripture also declares that Jesus was fully human. He was born into the world just as every other infant was born, He was circumcised, He grew in body and mind, and He experienced hunger, thirst, pain, weariness, temptation, and death.

The Old Testament gave precise details about the coming of the Savior-King. Among many other things, it predicted that in His human life He would be supernaturally conceived, Isa. 7:14, born in Bethlehem, Mic. 5:2, be Semitic in the line of Abraham and of David, Gen. 9:26; 22:18, 2 Sam. 7:13, be of the tribe of Judah, Gen. 49:10, and would perform miracles, Isa. 35:5-6. In His death He would be executed by rulers, Psa. 2:1-2, forsaken by God, Psa. 22:1, betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver, Psa. 41:9, Zech. 11:12, and have His beard plucked out and be spit upon, Isa. 50:6. In His resurrection He would rise in three days, Hos. 6:2, would not experience decay of His flesh, Psa. 16:10, and would conquer death, Isa. 25:8.

In order to conquer death one has to die and then come back from death. These and many, many more passages speak of the Messiah, His entry into the world, His exit, and then His resurrection.

The purpose of all of these events is for our benefit and no one else's. We gain by the actions of God. For were it not for His work, we, none of us, would have any kind of a future. In fact we would have no future whatsoever.

The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, all knew of these prophecies, yet they participated in them and fulfilled them as though they had no knowledge of them. They, the leadership, knew them, but they did not connect all of the dots, and so they acted in ignorance. As we have already seen, many of the priests and scribes came to believe in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God, but their faith and spiritual lives were so weak that they did nothing to speak up for Jesus, nor even make any effort to come to His defense. Of course we are all thankful for that because the Cross had to occur in order to secure our opportunity for eternal life, and life in heaven with God.

Those who believed were more afraid of the power of the High Priest, than they were of God. And that brings us to an interesting place in this study. We all have our lives. Some of us are very well off, and some of us are not so well off. This can be in a financial sense, in a medical sense, or whatever sense that applies to your own personal life.

Our situation is of no account. Sure we all have our wishes. We wish we could amount to something in life. We wish we could accomplish something in life. We wish that we could have this or that kind of a life. We wish for many things. Often they simply do not pan out for us. Wishes are many, but life happens and the two usually do not match up.

We can do one of a couple of things. We can become depressed and wallow in our emotions because our life is little more than a pile of doggie doodoo. Or, we can search out something which will make our life have meaning and purpose.

If we look to this world we will never find it. We have to look someplace else for that answer. And that answer is of course found in our daily Bible study.

The first thing we need to realize is that our life here on earth is not the sum total of our total life. Our life here on earth is just the tip of the needle on the tip of the ice burg. And that ice burg is the size of the galaxy. So we can organize our life for the tip of the needle or we can get ourselves prepared for the galaxy. Which do you figure is more significant?

Sure we all want nice things in this life, but God created us all for eternity, and there is where our real goal and objective of life exists. To attain that goal all we need do is study Gods Word daily, reside in fellowship and just get through this life. Actually God helps us accomplish that too.

So if you have life, a life of any kind, then count yourself blessed, because you have the opportunity to grow up spiritually and thus reach the goal of spiritual maturity. Attainment of that goal will qualify you for blessings which far exceed your imagination. Blessings far and above those that will be given to the 'common' believer in eternity, or believers who do not attain spiritual maturity. Would it be better to receive a bar of gold from God in eternity or a galaxy loaded with gold? Obviously the latter is of greater value - infinitely greater. And yet we studied this huge difference when we studied the first three chapters of Revelation.

Now look at those who are around Jesus. The soldiers are sitting there just waiting for the three to die. They are wasting their lives. The priests and scribes are there ridiculing Jesus. They are wasting their lives. Many who benefited from Jesus' ministry are there crying as though they have lost something that can never be replaced. Very few really understand the whole picture of life. Very few, if any, knelt down and gave thanks to Jesus as He hung there in tremendous agony.

And so where are you in this life? Are you feeling lucky because you have much and therefore feel that you do not need anything further? Are you feeling sorry for yourself because you have nothing that you have wanted in this life?

Or ...

Are you kneeling down everyday, morning and evening, and giving thanks for each and every additional breath you are given, regardless of your situation, so that you continue to have more opportunity to advance to the highest objective that anyone can have in all of history?