“Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” – John 19:18-19
In 1968, explorers found the skeletal remains of a crucified man in a burial cave at Giva'at ha-Mitvar, near the Nablus road outside of Jerusalem. It was a momentous discovery: while the Romans were known to have crucified thousands of alleged traitors, rebels, and deserters in the two centuries straddling the turn of the era, never before had the remains of a crucifixion victim been recovered. The condition of the remains unearthed at the necropolis dramatically corroborated the Bible's description of the horrendous Roman method of execution.
The bones were preserved in a stone burial box called an ossuary that was etched with the name Yhohnn Yehohanan. The remains appeared to be those of a man who was about five feet five inches tall and between twenty-four and twenty-eight years old. His open arms had been nailed to the crossbar, in the manner typically shown in crucifixion paintings. The knees had been doubled up and turned sideways, and a single large iron nail had been driven through both heels. The nail---still lodged in the heel bone of one foot, though the executioners had removed the body from the cross after death--was found bent, apparently having hit a knot in the wood. The shin bones appeared to have been broken, corroborating what the gospel of John seems to suggest was the normal practice in Roman crucifixions: "Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs" (19:32-33). In other respects, too, the physical evidence from the bones of Yehohanan matches the type of execution described by the writers of the gospels.
Christ’s execution was one of the most painful deaths one could imagine. Today in prayer, thank Jesus for dying for your sins on the Cross.
“The cross is proof of both the immense love of God and the profound wickedness of sin.” - John MacArthur
God’s Word: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” – Romans 5:9
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