By Joan Miller

Almost certainly, none of us in this nation have any true idea what Christ went through physically at the end of His earthly life for us.  I recommend Christians take time to research the physiology of crucifixion.  Be aware that what you read will be graphic in nature and it most likely shall bring you to tears to learn, even in purely clinical terminology, what Jesus suffered willingly for you and me.

In the above scripture verses, Jesus had become so exhausted and weak, probably by blood loss, that He was deemed no longer able to bear the weight of the cross. Little is known about the man himself named Simon who was conscripted to help bear the cross, only that his home, Cyrene (currently part of Libya), was a Greek colonial city in north Africa. (Matthew 27:32) We're not told exactly why the sour wine laced with gall was offered to Christ, whether as some act of mercy or so He could withstand an even longer torturous death. Here are some excerpts and comments from Easton's Bible Dictionary defining gall:

"Gall (1.) Heb. mererah , meaning "bitterness"... This word is also used of the poison of asps...and of the vitals, the seat of life .... (2.) ... The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to Mark 15:23, "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father..."

The soldiers then proceeded to attach Jesus' body to the cross by pounding nails through His hands and feet. That grisly job completed they "rolled the dice", gambling for His garments and then sat down to keep watch over Him. Above His head had been posted, by Pilate, the reason for putting the Messiah to death by the most diabolical means known. The Jews wanted Pilate to rewrite the accusation but he refused. What irony to have the Son of God put to death for claiming to be exactly what He was, is, and always will be: the true Son of God.

God could have chosen to annihilate any or all of those sinning souls and not let Jesus suffer as He did.  Instead, Christ obeyed the Father's will that there be a perfect sacrifice once and for all so we could be offered a way to be adopted into God's family and spend eternity with Him.

Christ was fully aware of God's omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. As the Son of God, though, He knew what awaited Him when He had endured to the end. Out of love for His Father, He obeyed even to physical death. The reward for Christ's perfect sacrifice is that His Father put all authority in heaven and on earth into Jesus' hands. He is truly our eternal omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent KING.