Jesus gave up his life for us

Jesus cried aloud!

            

"With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last... and the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God." Mark 15: 37 & 39

On Good Friday, we remember how Jesus sacrificed his life for us. But often we forget the fact that it is Jesus who voluntarily gave up his life. Because in our narration, we say often - "Judas betrayed Jesus," "the religious leaders condemned Jesus falsely," "the Roman's crucified him," "they killed him!" etc. Though they describe the reality of what happened on that day, they are not accurate portrayal of the biblical truth. It is true that different people were involved in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. But ultimately, it was Jesus who gave up his life on the cross. 

Mark describes this succinctly when he says, "with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last" (Mk 15: 37). While other evangelists record Jesus' words, Mark is content to say that Jesus breathed his last with a loud cry. Then in verse 39, he talks of how the centurion confesses Jesus to be the Son of God. What is the connection? 

Normally, a crucified man would suffer a painful death. After couple of hours from the time of crucifixion, the legs would give out and he would hang on the support of the hands. When hand supports the whole weight of the body, the lungs would be suffocated by the crushing ribbs, causing asphyxiation (try hanging on to something for few minutes!). During this period, the person should use all his strength to straighten his body up by pushing his tired legs in order to breath. Crucifixion is an excruciating death where the initial cursing and rant turns into a groan of agony and then the voice is slowly stiffled. 

The centurion is familiar with this, because he must have seen many crucifixions. But the death of Jesus was different. He shouted aloud before he died. For Mark, it does not matter what Jesus said but the very fact that he cried aloud shows that he has not gone into the stage of asphyxiation, but he was fully conscious and very much alive. It is he who is giving up his life!

My claim is that the centurion was impressed by the way Jesus died, just like Mark describes. Jesus gave up his life on his own!

That means, the cross did not kill him but he chose to let his life go. He gave it up to the Father after completing the work for which he was sent into the world. 

Let us rejoice in the fact that Jesus is the Lord of everything and he had complete control over his life. It was not Judas, the religious leaders, Pilate, the Romans or the cross that killed him. He gave up his life for us!