Alive - by Dave Smith

to the fact he was about to suffer and rise again ‘on the third day’
(Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19). 6
If we put this together – Jesus’ extraordinary character, his
unparalleled teaching, his miraculous ministry, his fulfilment of
prophecy, his ‘predictions’ concerning his forthcoming sufferings and
resurrection, it’s evident we’re not talking about any first-century
Jewish man, but someone who was truly remarkable – someone who
was a most ‘likely candidate’ for something as unusual as being
raised from the dead!
FACT 2: JESUS DIED BY CRUCIFIXION
Many years ago, I watched Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the
Christ and found myself shaken by the brutality of his depiction of
Jesus’ sufferings and death on the cross. While criticised by some for
sensationalising the violence of those events, The Passion did at
least succeed in conveying to a modern audience something of the
real horror of this ancient method of execution. Significantly, our
English word ‘excruciating’ comes from the Latin ‘crux’, which means
cross. All the Gospel writers record in some detail the events
surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion. Perfected as a deterrent by the
Romans, crucifixion was an extremely cruel and painful form of death.
It was often preceded by torture – in Jesus’ case, he was brutally
scourged. To accentuate the shame, he was stripped naked. Once at
the site of crucifixion, his arms were held out wide, while large nails
were hammered through the wrists to attach him to a crossbeam,
which was then raised and slotted into a vertical post. His feet were
then nailed to the upright where he hung in agony for six hours before
dying, probably through asphyxiation. His body was then taken down
from the cross, wrapped in burial cloths and placed in a newly cut
tomb. The entrance was then closed by a one- to two-tonne stone