By the time our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, the Romans had already been putting people on the cross for a while. But the Romans were hardly the first ones to use crucifixion to punish the hardest criminals. Studies show there were crucifixions dating back to as early as 500 B.C. when King Darius I of Persia crucified 3,000 of his enemies in Babylon. Some may have been even earlier. Even though the Romans did not come up with the concept of crucifixion, they were the ones who “perfected” it, if I may say it this way, as the ultimate form of execution. No question about it, in the days of the Romans, there were no punishment harsher than the punishment by crucifixion.
Today in the 21st century in America, the most serious crimes one may commit are called felonies. Felonies are further classified into five different degrees, with first-degree felonies being the most serious. Some first-degree felonies include terrorism, treason, arson, murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and kidnapping. Some convicted of these crimes are given the harshest penalties in the land, including life sentence without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.
What about in the days of Christ? What were the most serious crimes one may commit in 1st century Palestine? What type of crimes must one commit in order to be given the crucifixion sentence? How evil does one have to be? According to some sources, the most serious crimes in the 1st century were murder, theft, piracy, and rebellion of a slave against his master, to mention a few. Inciting riots and sedition against Caesar were also part of this list. Spartacus and his insurgent army were crucified for rebelling against the Romans. Then shortly after Christ’s death, refusal to honor or worship Roman gods was also added to the list. We often forget the many tens of thousands of Christians who were crucified and died for this reason.
Jesus did not commit any of the crimes mentioned on that list. As a matter of fact, he did not commit any crime.
Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”
John 19:4
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
1 Peter 2:22
Yet, Christ was led to carry his cross to a place called the Skull, and there he died on Calvary. We were the ones who rebelled against God. We didn’t want to have anything to do with God. We were the ones who deserved the cross. But Christ took our place instead. He paid the full penalty for our sin.
We know that on the day Jesus was crucified, at least two others were also crucified, and maybe there were more. It remains largely unknown how many criminals the Roman Empire crucified in total. The estimates range from 2,000 to a mind-boggling 8,000, or even more. I sense the Romans executed so many crucifixions over many years they lost count. But on that day when they crucified Jesus, they didn’t crucify just anybody. Little did they know, they crucified the Christ, the Savior of the World, God’s Son, the Passover Lamb of God, the Darling of Heaven.
For this reason, we crown our Christ, now with many crowns. You reign victorious. High and lifted up, Jesus Son of God, the Darling of Heaven, crucified. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb.