Hi everyone, just doing a bit of a bonus post seeing as it's Easter and I'm bored!
Now, try to think of Easter, and what comes to mind? If it's the crucifixion, great, but what sort of image do you see when thinking about that? Most of us get shown images like the one on the left here, but after being whipped, flogged, and nailed to a cross; I really don't think you would look anything like that. You're skin would have been red with blood, and Jesus would have probably whipped so badly that that bones in his back were showing. (More like the other picture above.) I think sometimes we can focus only on the crucifixion itself and forget that Jesus suffered a whipping/beating so bad it would have killed any normal man! He was probably whipped with a Cat o' nine tails, a whip with nine cords that might well have even had flint or nails attached to the end. Think how much one hit from that would hurt, let alone thirty-nine! He was also flogged, and the crown of thorns on his head would probably have been driven almost into his skull. So he suffered all that, was probably half-dead, and then he still had to carry his extremely heavy cross up the hill. (He kept falling over so someone else had to carry it the second half of the way)
So he did all that, and then he was crucified. That must have been the most painful experience ever, and it actually happened, it's a historical event. And if you were this earth's sole inhabitant, Jesus would still have gone through every single part of that, just so you could have the option of living on the perfect new earth, rather than going to hell were we all deserve to go. Doesn't that make you realize how much you are worth to God?
