An ancient legend tells of a monk who found the crown of thorns which had pressed on the Master. On Good Friday morning he set the crown on a side altar of the cathedral. It was a cruel-looking, ghastly thing, covered with blood. The people glanced at it for a moment and then turned away. It reminded them too keenly of the ugliness and cruelty of their sins.

There the crown remained until Easter morning when, with the sunrise, the monk made his way into the sanctuary. He thought that this bloody reminder of Good Friday would be out of place, and he should remove it. As he approached the altar, he detected a strange fragrance. The sun was so bright he could not at first notice what had happened. The sun had centered its rays upon the crown, and had changed the sharp thorns and the cruel twigs into roses of the rarest beauty and the most pleasing fragrance. 

– Unknown

Crucifixion - part 1 of 3

Crucifixion was used by many nations of the ancient world. Crucifixion was in use among the Egyptians (Gen. 40:19), the Carthaginians, the Persians (Esther 7:10), the Assyrians, Scythians, Indians, Germans, and from the earliest times among Romans. Crucifixion on a stake or cross was not normally practiced by the Greeks. One notable exception was Alexander the Great, who hung 2,000 people on crosses when the city of Tyre was destroyed.

The Romans adopted crucifixion and used it often throughout their empire. Crucifixion was the Romans’ most severe form of execution, so death on the cross was used for rebellious slaves and bandits but Roman citizens were rarely subjected to it. Crucifixion was intended to reduce crime by the public display of the shame and horror attached to the cross. During Jesus' youth, a massive Jewish riot, protesting the king's policies, heavily damaged Sepphoris, Herod Antipas' capitol, four miles from Nazareth. In the king's wrathful retaliation, thousands of Jews were crucified along the roadways leading to the ruined city.

Crucifixion was the method of torture and execution used by the Romans to put Christ to death. The practice continued well beyond the New Testament period as one of the supreme punishments for military and political crimes such as desertion, spying, revealing secrets, rebellion, and sedition. Crucifixion was abolished in Europe when Constantine became a Christian in about 314 A. D.. Following the conversion of Constantine, the cross became a sacred symbol.

The origin of crucifixion as capital punishment is not exactly known. The idea may have originated from the practice of hanging up the bodies of executed persons on stakes for public display (Nah. 3:1). This practice discouraged civil disobedience and mocked defeated military foes (Gen. 40:19; 1 Sam. 31:8-13).

Ancient texts do not reveal much about when or how execution on a stake or cross first came about, or how it was carried out. The Assyrians are known to have executed captured enemies by forcing their living bodies down onto pointed stakes. This barbaric cruelty was not actually crucifixion but impalement. Ezra 6:11 provides clear evidence that the Persians continued to use impalement as a method of execution. No one knows when the crossbeam was added to the pole and impalement became crucifixion. The references to "hanging" in Esther 2:23 and 5:14 probably refer to either impalement or crucifixion. Rope hangings were not used in Persia during the biblical period. The word translated "gallows" refers not to a scaffold but to a pole or stake.

Whether this mode of execution was known to the ancient Jews is a matter of dispute. It appears that the Jews borrowed it from the Romans. During the period between Greek and Roman control of Palestine, the Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Pharisees who opposed him. But such executions were condemned as detestable and abnormal even in that day as well as by the later Jewish historian Josephus. To the Israelites, impalement was the most disgusting form of death: "He who is hanged is accursed of God" (Deut. 21:23). Yet the Jewish Sanhedrin sought and obtained Roman authorization to have Jesus crucified (Mark 15:13-15). As was the custom, the charge against Jesus was attached to the cross.

Sources: The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, William Gentz | The Bible Almanac, White
| Easter a Pictorial Pilgrimage - Pierre Benoit |

Easter Quotations

Golgotha is dreadfully real: as real as suffering, as real as hard work and sacrifice, as real as failure, as real as persecution.

       —   A. Kraft
   

Come, ye saints, look here and wonder,
See the place where Jesus lay;
He has burst His bands asunder;
He has borne our sins away;
Joyful tidings,
Yes, the Lord has risen to-day.  

Thomas Kelley, Come, Ye Saints

Faith cannot long keep death in view. Resurrection is that which fills the vision of faith; and in the power thereof, it can rise up from the dead.

Charles Mackintosh