Lesson 5: God’s Compassion is Revealed in that He Died for Those who Wanted Him Dead

 Luke 23:32-34 "Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with Him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on His right and one on His left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide His garments."

 Jesus was not only killed on the cross between two criminals, but He was put there because people considered Him one. Can you imagine the sinfulness of that? Here we have God Himself coming to the earth to save the lost, but they rejected Him and placed Him on the cross! He came to bring us all life, but people wanted to take His life. They wanted Him dead!

Believe it or not, many churches that claim to follow Him have committed an even bigger sin! They have become numb to this amazing act of the love of God. Many have long forgotten the true meaning of the cross!

Remember, the cross is not just a Christian religious symbol to hang around your neck! It was a horrible instrument of suffering and death! The cross was the firing squad, the hangman's noose, the gas chamber of the day.

It was the means by which to execute the worst of criminals. Yet Jesus was not a criminal! He was the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

He who knew no sin voluntarily died to take away our sin. Even the sin of putting Him up on the cross! Why? Out of pity, out of compassion, to keep us from getting what we deserve. And lest we think this was an easy thing to do, look at Jesus' last minutes on the cross from a medical perspective:

 As Jesus slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots through His fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.

 Therefore, as He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places the full weight on the nail through His feet. But this causes a searing agony as the nail tears through the nerves between the bones of His feet.

Then His arms get fatigued, cramps sweep through His muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. And with these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled.

So Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one small breath. In spasms He is able to push himself upward to exhale and get more oxygen but each time it is less and less.

He experiences hours of horrible pain, as the tissue is torn from his lacerated back trying to move up and down against the rough timber just so He can breathe.

But then another agony arrives. A deep crushing pain in the chest begins as the area around His heart slowly fills with serum and begins to compress His heart.

 It is almost over. The loss of fluids has reached a critical level. The heart is struggling to pump blood as the tortured lungs make a frantic effort to gasp small gulps of air.

He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. And finally, Jesus can allow His body to die but not before saying this: ‘Father forgive them! For they know not what they do!'

Thought to Consider: He suffered this because of His great love for us.