When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Matthew 27:35 NIV
Without a doubt, at least for the Christian, the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most significant events in history. Rivaled in importance only by his resurrection a couple of days later. Through faith in what he did, I can experience forgiveness of sin and experience a relationship with my creator. The gospels look forward to this event, and the epistles look back at it. Removing the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus from the Scriptures would gut them. They would be no more than one of a myriad of other ethical & moral guides.
And so it strikes me as strange how simply the crucifixion of Jesus is described; “they crucified him“. All of the gospel writers give us details leading up to the crucifixion. And some details of his time on the cross. But that simple statement of his crucifixion is one that, if you blink while reading the account, you would miss. Yet, as much as I would like this passage to be bolded and underlined for emphasis, it does tell us what we need to know.
And it is well worth our time to stop at this expression when we come across it and meditate on what it is saying. That the creator of our universe, who had taken on human form, allowed himself to be executed by those he had created. When I stop to consider just what those few words say, I am amazed and humbled.
