Was Jesus' Crucifixion Ordinary?

     For a while I thought of Jesus' death as being like all the other people's that were crucified. I thought yes, it is a terrible way to die. Our Pastor Hap Prough used to describe death by Crucifixion quite vividly. He would take us through how the cat o nine tails, that was used for the scourging of Jesus by the Romans, was made. It was a whip with nine strands and in each strand it had bits of metal tied in to pierce and tear the skin. He also would point out that the one that administered the blows would flick their wrist in just such a way to cause the whip to tear in the most painful way possible. Then Pastor Hap would describe how the person on the cross would have the spikes driven through their feet and through their wrist just below the joint. Next he described the torture of pushing up with your legs against the dropping weight of your body, to be able to allow your lungs to expand for one more breath. He told us that the position of the body on the cross would not allow the lungs to capture a breath without the physical move of raising yourself up, pulling with your arms and pressing with your legs against the spike through the feet. That's why the Roman soldiers broke the legs of those on the cross when they wanted to finish the torture. With their legs broken they could no longer press up for another breath and died of suffocation. Jesus did not allow His legs to be broken, instead He freely gave His own life, He released it and had no broken bones, as prophecy had predicted.
     But the Spirit has shown me recently that it wasn't just like the others. The others were carrying only the guilt for the things they had done. Have you ever felt guilt and remorse? You know it can haunt you and make you feel inferior, a failure, undeserving~ the emotions that guilt provokes goes on and on and can suck us into a dark hole. As a mother I have felt guilt that I didn't give to my children in the way I should have. I should of paid more attention, been more loving, more supportive, more understanding, not so strict or sometimes I think I should of said and taught things that I neglected. These feelings can bring me to tears! Other's have guilt over life choices also, divorces, alcohol or drug abuse, abortions, absent fathers, words said or unsaid, the things that we let guilt enter into our life through are unlimited! I wrote before about forgiving ourselves and this is where that thought first developed. We need to admit that yes, we may have stumbled, but we did the best we could at that time. Then forgive ourselves and let it go!
     However, when Jesus was on the cross, all of the guilt of the world was crushing down on Him, and not just the guilt of that day, but the guilt of all of time! He didn't just feel guilt for Himself(He had no guilt!), or for me or for you, but the guilt of the WHOLE world! For ALL of time! I have felt my own guilt and it can be overwhelming for me, but I can not even begin to imagine the guilt carried for the collective world of all of time. And then at the time He was carrying this guilt, God-Abba had to look away, He would not be able to see all of that unrighteousness resting on His Son. He had to look away and Jesus cried out, Father, why have You forsaken Me? Many say that Hell will be separation from God, that is what Jesus experienced on the cross. He wasn't even dieing for His own sin, but for ours and then to be forsaken by His Father at that crucial point and surrounded by those who had brought about His Crucifixion, the enemies of His soul. Yes, that is a death beyond comprehension! But love for you and for me brought Jesus to it and through it. At any moment He could have called it off, He could have spoken a word and been released from the torture but love kept Him there hanging on the cross.
     I no longer think that Jesus' death on the cross was like the death on the cross suffered by any other person. I cannot even begin to fathom the "dark night of the soul" that He went through. Yes it was the worst punishment imaginable. What a man! and what a loving God He is! (He was man and He was God!) And now He is ALIVE, seated at the right hand of God, preparing to return for His bride that He paid such a high price for and His own suffering paid to cleanse! Maranatha!