Jesus' Suffering, Death, Resurrection and Meaning

Suffering and Death

Suffering

"So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.  And the soldiers led Him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed Him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on Him.  And they began to salute Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'  And they were striking His head with a reed and spitting on Him and kneeling down in homage to Him.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him" (Mark 15:15-20).

The word scourged in Greek is φραγελλόω which means to beat with a whip/flog. This verberatio (the worse type of flogging) under Roman law accompanied a capital sentence and usually happened before crucifixion-and this is the one Jesus was delivered too.  It says that "It continued until the flesh hung down in bloody shreds" (Schneider, C., 1964).

According to Josephus, a Jewish historian, "the prisoner was stripped and bound to a post and beaten with a leather whip woven with bits of bone or metal. No maximum number of strokes was prescribed. The scourging lacerated and stripped the flesh, often exposing bones and entrails" (Edwards, J. R., 2002).  This happened to Jesus as well (Edwards, 2002).

Jesus also had a crown of thorns on His head.  The crown of thorns is a painful parody crown woven from spiny stems of an acanthus plant in the Mediterranean region (Edwards, 2002).  They were thorn branches that were "spiky and therefore presumably intended to cause pain as well as mockery"  (France, R., T., 2002).

Jesus was also mocked and beaten.  The word hail in Greek is χαίρω which means to rejoice and be glad.  The soldiers reflected Pilate's view that Jesus was no threat and also laughed at the idea of a Jewish king.  It also parodies the greeting for the emperor Caesar (France, 2002).  

They used a reed, or in Greek, χαίρω, which is tall, woody, and has hollow stems to strike his head (with the crown of thorns on it).  

Crucifixion and Death

"And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry His cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).  And they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.  And they crucified Him and divided His garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take" (Mark 15:20-24).

The word compelled in Greek is ἀγγαρεύω, which means requisition, and it referred to a custom common in the ancient world where soldiers could command the services local citizens to carry baggage (in this case, the cross).  Simon was passing by (παράγω) and helped carried the cross once Jesus was unable to continue to do so.  Mark doesn't specify about how He was hung on the cross, but John does.  He writes, "So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.'  But he said to them, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe'" (John 20:25). 

When Jesus died, the Roman soldiers pierced his side.  John writes, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water" (John 19:34).  This is significant from a physical standpoint because it confirmed that Jesus was dead.  It was likely pierced under His ribs that the ruptured the pericardial sack (an area around the heart).  This means that the crucifixion resulted in death that was a result of hypovolemic shock.  This is caused from a prolonged rapid heartbeat that can cause fluid to gather around the heart (GotQuestions.org, 2021).  

The Reasons

Atonement/Reconciliation

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:24-25). 

In this instance, Peter could be referring to several passages where the prophet Isaiah writes, "yet He bore the sin of many" and "with His wounds we are healed" and "We like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to His own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:12, 5-6).

Before Christ's death, it was necessary for sacrifices to be regularly offered to compensate for sins and atone for the sins which deserved punishment.  The bringing of the animal constituted a confession of guilt on the sinner and the laying on of hands transferred the guilt from the sinner to the victim which was then accepted by the priest.  Leviticus writes that God states, "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him" (Leviticus 1:3-4).  The prophet Isaiah makes an allusion to this when he says that we are like sheep who have gone astray, and Peter refers to this passage.  The iniquity of sinners is transferred to the suffering servant (Jesus) which shows that Jesus' death was to restore harmony and a relationship with Christ (Erickson, M., J., 2013).  

Substitution

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for (ὑπὲρ) all, therefore all have died; and He died for (ὑπὲρ) all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

The word for in Greek is ὑπὲρ in the way Paul uses it indicates that Jesus died in the place of or instead of us.  Paul also uses this form of the word when he states, "For (ὑπὲρ) our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21; Arndt, et., al., 2000).  Paul merges the meaning in place of (ὑπὲρ) with on behalf of in Romans when he states, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers" (Romans 9:3; Arndt, et., al., 2000).  Also, in the place of and instead of (ἀντί) can develop into in behalf of (ὑπὲρ) someone so ἀντί can equal ὑπὲρ.  This is shown in Genesis where it states, "Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers" (Genesis 44:33; Arndt, et., al., 2000).  In this case, the original translation from Hebrew to Greek results in the word instead being the same as ἀντί.  Jesus states, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for (ἀντί) many" (Mark 10:45; Arndt, et., al., 2000).

The Resurrection

The Gospel of Mark states, "And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.  And he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as He told you" (Mark 15:5-7).

When Jesus was walking on the road to Emmaus, He said, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26).  Then Luke states, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).

Paul states, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me" (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).  

So what?

Jesus said in the beginning of John's Gospel, "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16-18).

Then Paul says that without the resurrection, our faith is in vain and we perish.  He states, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Corinthians 15:13-18).

He wants us to "repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  Repent is, in Greek, μετανοέω,  which means that we are to feel remorse and be converted (Arndt, et., al., 2000).  Peter further explains this when he says, "Repent (μετανοέω), therefore, and turn (ἐπιστρέφω) back, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19; Arndt, et., al., 2000).  The word ἐπιστρέφω means to change one's mind or course of action for better.  The word gospel is εὐαγγέλιον means good news (Arndt, et., al., 2000).  What is this good news? That Jesus died to save us from sins with His death and resurrection and conquered death.  

Now, we need Jesus' help in doing this, since Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Therefore, He wants us receive Him.  John writes, "But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).  In this case, the Greek term for receive is λαμβάνω, which means to include Jesus in the experience (Arndt, et., al., 2000).  Paul also writes, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins" (Romans 3:23-25).  In this instance, faith is πίστις which is a belief and trust in the Lord's help (Arndt, et., al., 2000).

References

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 1031). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (p. 464). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.

Erickson, M. J. (2013). Christian Theology (3rd ed., p. 743). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.  

France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.  

GotQuestions.org. (2021). When Jesus was pierced, why did blood and water come out of His side? CompellingTruth.org. https://www.compellingtruth.org/blood-water-Jesus.html.

The Holy Bible: ESV. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 

Schneider, C., (1964). μαστιγόω, μαστίζω, μάστιξ. G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 4, p. 517). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.