And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. (Matthew 27:33-34)

He Felt The Full Weight Of Sin

The Roman military had perfected the art of crucifixion to a fine point of human torture beyond any other means of killing a condemned man. It is unknown who first invented crucifixion, but the Persians used it, and Alexander the Great brought it to Egypt and Carthage, where the Romans learned of it from the Carthaginians. They perfected nailing a man to the cross as a form of torture to produce a slow death with the maximum effect of pain and suffering. Crucifixion was not only physical torture but also one of the most disgraceful and cruel means of killing a human being. Under Roman law, slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries, and the worst of criminals were subjected to crucifixion.

Before a man was crucified, he was stripped and beaten with a short whip (flagellum or flagellum) with several single or braided leather thongs with small balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones tied at intervals. Scourging would not kill a man but weaken him as the back, buttocks, and legs were flogged by the soldiers. The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lictors and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. After the

scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim. Jesus was scourged and, according to Peter’s testimony, received a severe beating from the soldiers. After the scourging, the soldiers placed the cross-piece (patibulum) weighing as much as 75-125 lbs. on the back of the condemned man.

Jesus fell under the weight of the cross, and the soldiers compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry the patibulum the remaining way to the place of crucifixion. When the soldiers arrived at the site, in an act of ironic mercy, they offered the condemned a bitter drink of wine mixed with myrrh (gall) as a pain reliever. When Jesus tasted the wine and realized it was myrrh, He refused it. The divinity of Jesus could have warned him of what the soldiers were giving him, but Jesus bore the cross fully as a human. He refused to take of the myrrh as it would deaden some of His pain and bring some small measure of relief to His suffering. It was probably welcomed by the other two victims who were crucified with Jesus, but they wanted the pain to go away. Jesus wanted to feel the full measure of pain because that was the price for the sins of the world.

God watched His Son die on the cross, fully human. He could have sent 172,000 of his mighty angels to deliver His Son or to give some relief to His beloved, but the Father stayed His hand, watching Jesus fully accept every ounce of incredible pain. The suffering of Jesus was immense, and He took nothing to deaden its pain. No one would have blamed Jesus for taking the myrrh to help Him endure the results of His scourging and the long hours of torture that lay ahead. The Son of God refused to accept one ounce of pain relief because He must feel all the pain to be the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. There was no pain relief for Jesus – He bore it all.

The reason Jesus died on the cross is because of my sin. Everything about crucifixion was about my sin. The soldiers beat Jesus without mercy in the scourging because of my sin. Jesus fell under the weight of the cross because of my sin. When the soldiers offered Him myrrh to give Him some relief from the excruciating pain, Jesus refused because of my sin. The Son of God endured incredible suffering for six hours on a Roman cross because of my sin. Relief did not come from myrrh – it came when Jesus said, “It is finished,” and died. Then, and only then, did the Son of God find relief from the burden of my sin. The glory of the Father came on the first day of the week when Jesus rose from the dead. All of the suffering of Jesus gives me life and hope of my own resurrection. He suffered so that I would not suffer. His pain was real and intense, so my joy is true and confident. Thank you, Jesus, for not taking the myrrh.