The 5th century BC historian Herodotus tells us that crucifixion was a form of execution practiced by the Persian King Darius during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Darius had 3,000 Babylonians crucified. The Greek King Alexander the Great crucified 2,000 people from Tyre. While other nations, including the Hasmonean Kingdom of Judaea, practiced some form of crucifixion, the Romans excelled at the form of execution and employed it for close to 500 years. Execution by crucifixion was an excruciatingly painful and disgracefully humiliating way to die, especially under the Romans.
The most notable example of their cruel use of crucifixion was practiced upon Jesus. There was so much more that Jesus endured, prior to the pain and humiliation that He suffered on the cross. He was abandoned by those who called Him Lord. He was slandered, mocked, abused, beaten, and tortured before one nail was driven into Him on the cross.
When it came time for Him to be crucified, His defamation was complete as He hung struggling for breath between two criminals. After crying out with a loud voice, Jesus breathed His last.
Why did Jesus die such a horrible death? He died to save you and me from our sins. He loved us and knew the joy it would bring you and me to be in heaven. We’re told in Hebrews 12:2 that “the author and finisher of our faith (Jesus), who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Jesus took upon the shame of the cross and died so that you and me could live.
The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. Those who believe in Jesus “Repent and [are] baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and [. . .] receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).”
Knowing all that Jesus went through, despising the shame of the cross, how is it that some Christians can be ashamed of Jesus? When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, one of the first things he reminds them is to not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16). When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:8, he needs to remind Timothy to “not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.”
Reading about all that Paul did to further the advancement of the Gospel at the expense of his own torture, imprisonment, and personal shame, he was clearly not ashamed of the Gospel. He writes in 2 Timothy 2:12, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”
Sadly, Jesus knew that there would be those who, rather than boast in the crucified Christ, would be ashamed of Him. And so, in Mark 8:34-38, “34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”” When Christians recall the shame of the cross and how Jesus willfully took it up for you and me, how can we ever be ashamed of Him or His Gospel?
