Look Carefully at the Crucified Jesus - Part 1

If you visit Jerusalem today to trace the footsteps of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, it is difficult to ignore the physical and psychological torture that Jesus endured before He was nailed to the cross.

One such place is the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu, just outside the Old City. The Latin word ‘Gallicantu’ means ‘cock crowing’, and immediately brings to mind Peter’s cowardly dissociation from Jesus at the time of the painful trial.

This church is built over what is believed to be the stately house of Caiaphas, the high priest. Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and then brought to trial by him. This was the house where the small-minded men of the Sanhedrin gathered, eager to get rid of their perceived competitor.

If you climb down the steps in the church, you arrive at an ancient dungeon where it is believed Jesus was held in prison until His adversaries made up their minds concerning how to get rid of Him. There are some depressions in an overhead rock where Jesus’ hands may well have been locked into metal rings so that the guards could beat Him.

The descriptions in the Bible jolt our imagination: “Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him …”, “The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him… they blindfolded him … they said many other insulting things to him” (Matthew 26:67; Luke 22:63-65).

Imagine the Lord being forced to stand up the whole night, His bruised hands held in the metal rings, His face and back bleeding, His eyes swollen – all alone in the dark dungeon, without food and water, while His tormentors went to sleep. The Creator of the universe bloodied and imprisoned in an ungrateful and violent world.

Anyone who takes time to stand in that deplorable dungeon cannot escape the pain and the humiliation, the suffering and the sheer injustice the Lord endured.

Who can stand there and not be amazed and tongue-tied in the face of such deep mystery and profound love, at the sight of the Creator stomped on by the boots of those He had created, slapped by the hands of those He had fed, beaten cruelly by those He had carefully and lovingly crafted in their mothers’ wombs?

Discussion Questions:

What is the danger of treating Jesus as a distant historical figure,

whose life, death and Resurrection are no more than concepts or

faith statements? How does learning to look at the crucified Jesus

help us avoid this?