The First Word

From the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23, verse 34. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. So these words were powerful words, were spoken by Jesus very soon after having been rejected, disowned, abandoned by friends, family, and his closest, the disciples.

He had been through intense trauma and still seems to intercede for us, for those who are crucifying him, and for even the ones who sentenced him, his own Jewish people, God's people.

So in light of that powerful reality, there's an exploring that I found into what he was feeling and who he was at that very moment.

And so it goes into rejection, abandonment, and just his closest friends abandoned him and betrayed him. For example, Simon Peter, the disciple who Jesus loved a lot and who followed Jesus through many things, through walking on water, which nobody else can do.

And he fell, but he still tried to follow, and he tried to follow Jesus to the cross, but he couldn't because he was only human. And so in the end, Simon Peter, who seemed to have the most heart for him, abandoned him.

The Jewish nation abandoned him, rejected him. The Sanhedrin tried to kill him. And on the cross, even God the Father rejected him, disowned him.

The process of crucifixion was meant to be open, a humiliating death. They would crucify the prisoners on the edge of busy roads, the Romans.

They would laugh and insult them while people walked by. They would laugh and insult these people who were crucified. Who is he asking?

Who is Jesus on the cross asking for forgiveness on behalf? Who? He's being crucified by the chosen people who he chose for all eternity.

And he's being betrayed by his own. So the Romans were somehow experts on executing people and at torturing people.

And this is a grim reality, but it seems to lead to a depth into understanding what really happened.

So they had something called a phlegm. It's a whip. And it had pieces of metal or bone or porcelain attached to it.

And they would whip these prisoners until the Jews, the Jewish prisoners, they only wanted them to go up to 39 lashes because they wanted to go one less than the 40 lashes, which was allowed in their law.

But sometimes the Romans would go way past that and just go to like 120, which is the estimated blows that Jesus survived, according to certain people who have researched this.

So the crown of thorns had thorns which were about one and a half to two inches long, apparently. They were, he was beaten with a rod.

So these would have been driven down into his scalp and they would have, some experts say that people could have died just by this crown alone of thorns. They were like spikes.

Carrying the cross was, the Romans made prisoners carry a crossbar, which understood that they carried the crossbar, which weighed about 80 to 110 pounds.

Falling over with the crossbar would lead you to fall over on your chest, which could have caused some kind of trauma. And so he fell over and somebody else carried it. The nails, the nails were most likely placed between the ulna and the radius and right, right just below the, just above the wrist.

And that's right about the medial nerve. This is a very painful nerve. Getting your nail driven through there is about the same as striking your funny bone really, really intensely, but like way more than that.

So the spear really is, could be a lethal blow in itself. It's a devastating spear to the side.

So the word excruciating is derived from a crucifixion death from the Romans. And this is really the excruciating pain that he felt.

So I ask you, who has hurt you beyond understanding? Who has beyond, who has abandoned you? Jesus leads the way.

He understands it all and continues to intercede for us all. Those who are able, I invite you to stand for a minute of silence.

Father, many of us who are here today deal with abandonment issues. Father, many of us have been abandoned by parents.

We're one of our parents. Many of us have been abandoned by friends. Many of us, Father, feel we've been abandoned by other types of institutions.

And, Father, some of us are very conscious of the pain of abandonment. And some of us, Father, aren't aware of it. But it sort of operates in our lives underneath.

Father, we ask that you would draw us to Jesus. That you would draw us to Jesus. And that as we draw close to him and he draws close to us, Father, may his wisdom and his touch help us to deal with our issues of abandonment.

And we ask, Father, for the great grace of being able to forgive so that we might live in freedom. This we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.