The Life of Jesus of Nazareth eBook

Rush Rhees
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 308 pages of information about The Life of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth eBook

Rush Rhees
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 308 pages of information about The Life of Jesus of Nazareth.
release him if he could do it without risk of personal popularity, and who yet, in order to avoid accusation at Rome, gave sentence according to the people’s will.  The fickle populace crying “crucify him,” the disciples who forsook him, the rock-apostle who denied even so much as knowledge of the man, show how all the currents of life about him were stirred and full of tumult.  In all this, of which he was the occasion and centre, he stands the supreme example of dignity, self-mastery, and quietness.  This is seen in his silence in the presence of Annas and Caiaphas, and later before Pilate; in his frank avowal of his Messianic claim in reply to the high-priest’s challenge, and of his kingly rank in answer to the governor’s question; and in the look of reproof which he turned upon Peter.  Not that he was without feeling.  There is strong sense of outrage in his words, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if well, why smitest thou me?” It was not the quietness of stoic indifference, but of perfect self-devotion to the Father’s will.  He maintained it from the time of his arrest to the last cry of trust with which he committed his spirit to his Father.

203.  The scourging over, the mock homage of the soldiers done, he was led out beyond the city wall to be crucified.  The exact place of the crucifixion can be determined as little as that of Gethsemane, though there is a tradition from the fourth century, and in addition there are many conjectures.  Jesus was led, apparently, to the ordinary place of criminal execution, and with two others, probably insurrectionary robbers like those with whom Barabbas had been associated, he was crucified.  Two episodes in the journey to the place of crucifixion are recorded,—­the help which Simon of Cyrene was compelled to give to Jesus in carrying his cross (Mark xv. 21), and the word of Jesus to those who, following him, bewailed his fate (Luke xxiii. 27-31).

204.  Of the cruelty and torture of crucifixion much has been written and often.  It would be difficult to exaggerate it.  The death by the cross was a death by hunger and exhaustion in ordinary cases; it was thus torture prolonged for many hours.  It is noticeable, however, that it is not the suffering but the disgrace and shame of the cross that occupied the thought of the apostolic days.  Indeed, were physical suffering chiefly to be considered, it would have to be owned that the fact that Jesus died within a few hours released him from the most excruciating pains incident to this barbarous form of execution.  The later ascetic thought loved, and still loves, to dwell on the physical torments of the Lord’s death.  They were severe enough to give us awe; but the biblical writers show a much healthier mind, and their thought does not invite comparison between the pains endured by the Master and those which some of his martyred followers bore with great fortitude.  The disgrace of the cross was the uttermost; for the

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The Life of Jesus of Nazareth from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.