Easter Week

Hello again. As you know, Easter is the week that we remember all what Jesus went through. According to many scientific studies, the death of Jesus was one of the most painful. Christ it was executed by the method which Cicero described as the most cruel and terrible of all: the crucifixion.

Crucifixion was one of the most terrible ways in which men have been killed by their peers. Crucifixion is not only death but also prolonged torture, pain, agony ... The Crucifixion, as used by the Romans, was the method most terrifying legal murder, and thus acted not only as a method of execution, but as warning to all who think violating the law. So the crucifixion was public and open spaces, so that the bodies remain exposed and everyone could see the punishment.

Thanks to the discovery of the bones of Giv'at ha-Mitvar, unearthed in 1968 north of Jerusalem and belonging to a crucified man (that has nothing to do with the crucifixion of Jesus, eye ...) about 26 years old and 1.67 meters high, can have a complete idea of ​​what this inhumane and despicable punishment.

First, as described by the Gospels, death row prisoners were flogged. The Romans used three degrees of hardness flogging with whip, so the harder it was for death row prisoners.
Then he carried the cross on his back and made him carry it to the place of execution, where the vertical beam was nailed fixedly waiting for his victim. The man was lying on the floor face up and his arms nailed to the cross (they could not clavarles the palms because the weight would tear the flesh easily, so the arms inmate digging below the wrist, between the two bones Forearm: the radius and ulna). Then the bar was set up and the vertical beam. The defendant stood and could rely on a strip of wood that served as a seat.

He climbed the legs and heels dug the tree. Examination of the nails has shown that nail going through before a piece of acacia wood or almond to attach better. In this case, the nail was fixed to the bone of the heel so as to take down the inmate had to cut one foot. The full weight of the body was hanging by the arms, so that the body pulled down and the nails were tearing flesh forearms until the wrist bones slowed the descent and the man started an agony that could last hours hours until they died of asphyxiation from horrible suffering. Above his head a poster realized the crimes committed by the accused were dug. In Jesus' case the sign said in Latin: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iodorum: Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews, whose known abbreviation is INRI.

As a measure of grace, the soldiers who carried out this horrible ceremony, breaking the legs could shock to accelerate his death, as evidenced by the medical examination of these bones where the angle of the fracture is key to determining the exact position of guilty on the cross. The bones of Giv'at ha-Mitvar, probably belonging to a zealot who fought the Romans show atrocious wounds that testify to the complete disregard for life that prevailed then and even now in many nations.

The story of the Gospel reminds us that Jesus came in very poor condition due to the Cross and the suffering endured torture at the hands of the Romans and Jews auxiliary guards and, above all, of the scourging to which he was subjected. Since Pontius Pilate did not believe he was guilty of death as much as possible it is to order him very violently flogged to avoid the greatest possible suffering on the cross. The evangelist John witnessed the crucifixion of Christ and his story is noted that further details on this episode. With Jesus were killed legally two thieves, one of whom he ridiculed Christ, but the other took pity on him and Jesus promised salvation. It is the famous story of the "good thief".
 Remember that everything, absolutely everything that presents the gospel is a message of love and hope and death of Jesus was only the physical, terrible and necessary, for further processing Resurrection.
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Think of all that Jesus went through for you to be clean and free from sin. You gave the best gift we can ask for eternal life. And the worst thing you could do is to reject something that is for your good. God does not want the worse for you, he is our father, and a father wants the best for their children.
Remember, God let his only son die and for you. Let it not be in vain.
Mary is reported and outside