Jesus Christ’s execution on a cross is of fundamental significance to the billions of Christians around the world
JESUS Christ’s execution on a cross – the Crucifixion – is of fundamental significance to the billions of Christians around the world.
It symbolises the sacrifice of God’s son to atone for the sins of mankind. The cross itself is the icon of the faith.
Christ had increasingly been seen as a threat by the Jewish religious leaders known as the Pharisees, especially after ecstatic crowds greeted his arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey during Passover Week.
Jesus ate a last supper with his disciples and said one would betray him. He urged them to eat bread and wine, symbolising his body and blood. This is the Eucharist, the central Christian ritual.
One disciple, Judas Iscariot, had by now agreed with the Pharisees to hand over Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As Jesus and the disciples walked later in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas betrayed him by identifying him to soldiers with a kiss.
Jesus was tried by the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, and sentenced to death for blasphemy after insisting he was God’s son.
The local Roman governor Pontius Pilate tried to save him, but then confirmed his sentence.
Jesus was flogged and mocked by Roman soldiers as “King of the Jews”. A crown made of thorns was put on his head. According to some gospels he was made to walk to the site of his crucifixion carrying his own cross.
Jesus was nailed hand and foot to the cross, with a convicted robber crucified on either side, and left for hours to die on what is now marked as Good Friday.
Mark’s gospel says a Roman centurion, impressed with how he met his fate, said: “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”
After his death Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross and buried in a stone tomb.
Within two days it was empty and Jesus was back from the dead – resurrected. Over the next 40 days he appeared several times to the disciples, urging them to spread God’s word and perform their own miracles. The Resurrection is a central plank of Christian belief as it gives humanity hope of life after death.
Luke’s gospel says the disciples saw Jesus ascend into heaven.
The followers of Christ might have remained a minor sect rather than a major world religion were it not for St Paul and his remarkable conversion to Christianity.
Once known as Saul, he was violently opposed to the faith and was travelling to Damascus with the sole purpose of persecuting Christians when he was overcome by the Holy Spirit and blinded for three days.
At the end of that he startled his friends by preaching Christianity and devoting his life to setting up churches throughout the Roman Empire, including in Europe and Africa.
Christians were still persecuted for another 250 or so years under various Roman Emperors until Constantine took power in 272AD and converted to Christianity. It became the official religion of the Roman Empire and is now the world’s largest.
