Faith Works 4-3-2026
Jeff Gill
Jesus was dead on Good Friday
___
Jesus was dead.
As they took him down off the cross, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that day. He was dead.
For three hours he had been subjected to the harshest punishment the Roman Empire or almost any earthly authority could hand down. Crucifixion was not like a hanging or beheading, which while humiliating and fear inducing would be a moment in time once imposed. To be nailed to a cross was to be killed in as slow a fashion as human ingenuity could devise, to inflict as much pain as possible without quite killing the victim.
There are some traditions suggesting a member of the nobility might be executed by archers; Roman hierarchies had long had their own rules, from being flung off a height near the Forum (a spot tourists still visit), or other forms of regal dispatch. Crucifixion was largely for slaves, or criminals in occupied provinces like Judea or Galilee.
Your death would be a relief, but it would not come soon enough. Some of the crucified would survive for days, especially when Romans were making an example of a population, nailing dozens, even hundreds to roadside crosses after an uprising. During the childhood of Jesus one such display happened in Galilee. Everyone knew what crucifixion entailed.
With Passover at hand, and Roman feasts planned, the victims were considered lucky in a way: they would not hang on their crosses past sundown, after being nailed up at noon. The thieves with Jesus had their legs broken, a gratuitous infliction of a last indignity which meant along with the pain and shock they could not hold themselves up enough to breathe, past the fluid-filled lungs of the dying in that fashion.
All the traditions agree that when the soldiers came to Jesus, he was dead. To be certain, they drove a spear into his ribcage, piercing his heart. No doubt. Blood and water poured out, but the heart no longer beat. Jesus was dead.
Friends may have taken him down from the cross, but Roman soldiers supervised. If there was the faintest flicker of life in that scarred and savaged body, they would have seen it, and stepped in, short sword in hand. But they turned the corpse over to the Jewish leader who offered his assistance, in closing out this grim scene before day's end by offering up his nearby vacant tomb. Joseph of Arimathea and what others were able and willing, likely including Nicodemus, took him down, cleaned the body off, wrapped it up (the body now an it, not a him), and carried him the short distance.
It is said "Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James" and even other women, including his mother Mary, had seen where the burial happened, perhaps helped at some stage of the preparation of the body.
Some of them would come back, not because they expected to find him alive, but to finish the decency of what should be done to the dead body of someone you cared about, whom you loved. Not at once, but after things calmed down.
For now, Jesus was dead. They all knew it. It was now one of the few things they were certain of. Jesus had spoken of the kingdom of heaven, the realm of God, his Father's house, but the disciples and followers and friends of Jesus knew that was somewhere else, sometime yet to come. This day, Jesus was dead. As we would be. The goal now was simply to not make that dread day come too soon, as it had for Jesus.
The one they had come to know as the fulfillment of God's plan, of divine purpose on earth as it is in heaven, was dead. The future was dark, and empty of hope, even as the tomb was now filled. What else was there?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's got a bit more to say on Easter day, but this is not that, yet. Tell him why you have hope at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Jesus was dead on Good Friday
___
Jesus was dead.
As they took him down off the cross, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that day. He was dead.
For three hours he had been subjected to the harshest punishment the Roman Empire or almost any earthly authority could hand down. Crucifixion was not like a hanging or beheading, which while humiliating and fear inducing would be a moment in time once imposed. To be nailed to a cross was to be killed in as slow a fashion as human ingenuity could devise, to inflict as much pain as possible without quite killing the victim.
There are some traditions suggesting a member of the nobility might be executed by archers; Roman hierarchies had long had their own rules, from being flung off a height near the Forum (a spot tourists still visit), or other forms of regal dispatch. Crucifixion was largely for slaves, or criminals in occupied provinces like Judea or Galilee.
Your death would be a relief, but it would not come soon enough. Some of the crucified would survive for days, especially when Romans were making an example of a population, nailing dozens, even hundreds to roadside crosses after an uprising. During the childhood of Jesus one such display happened in Galilee. Everyone knew what crucifixion entailed.
With Passover at hand, and Roman feasts planned, the victims were considered lucky in a way: they would not hang on their crosses past sundown, after being nailed up at noon. The thieves with Jesus had their legs broken, a gratuitous infliction of a last indignity which meant along with the pain and shock they could not hold themselves up enough to breathe, past the fluid-filled lungs of the dying in that fashion.
All the traditions agree that when the soldiers came to Jesus, he was dead. To be certain, they drove a spear into his ribcage, piercing his heart. No doubt. Blood and water poured out, but the heart no longer beat. Jesus was dead.
Friends may have taken him down from the cross, but Roman soldiers supervised. If there was the faintest flicker of life in that scarred and savaged body, they would have seen it, and stepped in, short sword in hand. But they turned the corpse over to the Jewish leader who offered his assistance, in closing out this grim scene before day's end by offering up his nearby vacant tomb. Joseph of Arimathea and what others were able and willing, likely including Nicodemus, took him down, cleaned the body off, wrapped it up (the body now an it, not a him), and carried him the short distance.
It is said "Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James" and even other women, including his mother Mary, had seen where the burial happened, perhaps helped at some stage of the preparation of the body.
Some of them would come back, not because they expected to find him alive, but to finish the decency of what should be done to the dead body of someone you cared about, whom you loved. Not at once, but after things calmed down.
For now, Jesus was dead. They all knew it. It was now one of the few things they were certain of. Jesus had spoken of the kingdom of heaven, the realm of God, his Father's house, but the disciples and followers and friends of Jesus knew that was somewhere else, sometime yet to come. This day, Jesus was dead. As we would be. The goal now was simply to not make that dread day come too soon, as it had for Jesus.
The one they had come to know as the fulfillment of God's plan, of divine purpose on earth as it is in heaven, was dead. The future was dark, and empty of hope, even as the tomb was now filled. What else was there?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's got a bit more to say on Easter day, but this is not that, yet. Tell him why you have hope at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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