The "unlucky tree" - the offense of the cross

Galatians 5:11

1 Peter 2:8

Doug McLachlan's "unlucky tree" quote: "to the Romans the word 'crux' was so offensive that they referred to it euphemistically as 'suspended from the unlucky tree'"

The "unlucky tree"

From: Roman public life, A. H. J Greenidge

Cited in his message here

On the #cross #GoodFriday #Resurrection

What It Means to Worship a Man Crucified as a Criminalhttps://t.co/b9PVLpvv7n pic.twitter.com/dxM9gxLmYu

— James Peet (@jrpeet) April 20, 2019

Excruciating

Excruciating

Have you every experienced really intense pain? I'm sure all of us have. Perhaps slamming your finger in a car door, falling hard on the payment (I can't count the number of times this has happened to me!), experiencing a cut, or a bad scrape. Several times in life I have stepped on a nail. Once I stepped on a broken sea shell that embedded itself in my foot and sent me to to the hospital. One of the worst pains I experienced was shots in my back. I was on my stomach on a table while the Doctor injected shots near my vertebrae. I gripped the edge of the table and tears welled up in my eyes. Sometimes we call pain "excruciating". Surely you can identify with that!

Every wonder what "excruciate" means? Origin: 1560-70; < Latin excruciātus, past participle of excruciāre to torment, torture, crucify (derivative of crux cross).

See that "cross"! Jesus experienced the cross for sinners. He experienced "excruciating" pain at the hands of wicked men.

This Easter weekend ignore the Peeps, the bunnies, the eggs and the candy and think about this:

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Comment: See On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ. Image source.

Crucifixion Saudi style

Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling

Excerpt:

A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The convict was arrested earlier this year after a seven-year old boy helped police in their investigation. The child left in the desert after the rape was three years old, Okaz newspaper said.

International rights groups have accused the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, of applying draconian justice, beheading murderers, rapists and drug traffickers in public. So far this year about 40 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, crucifixion means tying the body of the convict to wooden beams to be displayed to the public after beheading.

Comment: Not the death by crucifixion our Lord suffered! (read any of the Gospels)