This event happened 2000 years ago in the nation of Israel at a place called Golgotha. Jesus was hanging on the cross supported by 3 nails, 2 on His hands and 1 on his both legs. The people standing below the cross shed some light on why this event has become a matter of discussion. They are classified into two groups. The first were the happy group who wanted to get rid of Jesus somehow, & the second were the unhappy group who left everything to follow Jesus. The common expectation among them was to see whether Jesus could come down from the cross or not. Jesus got to the cross according to the punishment given to the criminals during Roman rule. The governor knew that it was because of jealousy that the rulers had handed Jesus over to Him & He has not committed any crime that deserves punishment. But because of the pressure of the rulers & the people, the governor saw that he was getting nowhere, but rather that a riot was breaking out, so he had to hand over Jesus to be crucified.

The happy group is named so because they were the ones who felt offended by the works of Jesus on the earth and wanted Him to stop from continuing those works. They had another job to do at Jesus' crucifixion, and that was to ridicule Him and taunt Him at His helpless situation on the cross. Their words exactly were, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him and acknowledge Him.” The words that the spectators spoke tauntingly had a deeper meaning behind them. Jesus' work on the earth included depicting His power which made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the leper to be clean, the deaf to hear, & the dead to live again. So the spectators now suggested Jesus use His power to come down from the cross. Coming down from the cross means saving Himself from death & remaining alive. According to them, Jesus’ coming down from the cross would prove that He is powerful to defeat death and remain alive. This expectation of the spectators towards Jesus would not have happened before or with anyone after Him because no one who hung on the cross performed any miraculous wonders that Jesus did during His life on earth. It is one of the reasons they anticipated Jesus to help Himself and stop His death.

Many events happened before Jesus was crucified on the cross. There were times when Jesus was arrested, questioned, attacked, and crucified, but the strange thing is, the spectators didn’t expect Him to save Himself at those times, but only when He was on the cross, closer to death. This is because, at other times, someone stronger or wiser could have helped Him and stopped His crucifixion. But now on the cross, when He is so close to death, hardly anyone could save Him & stop His death. That’s why the people were eager to know whether He could save Himself and come down from the cross, as He cannot get help from anyone else in this situation, when He is so close to death.

Here are a few things for us to understand. When someone is closer to death, even a stronger or wiser person cannot give a helping hand to stop his death. To stop death or to stop an end to life, one must continue to live i.e., to be alive and not die because death puts an end to life. If one dies then it means that they couldn’t defeat death. According to them, if Jesus is powerful and if He is God, He should defeat death and not die. The reason they asked him to come down from the cross at that moment was that that was the last moment where He can save Himself from dying. The last moment before death is the final moment to defeat death and stay alive. This expectation from the spectators seems very logical because if ‘Jesus is God’ which He claimed to be then he must have the power to defeat death.

Now the question arises did Jesus come down from the cross to show His power and defeat death? Was He successful in living without facing the end of life? Was He able to fulfill the expectations of the people? Was He able to bring a new revolution of continuing to live forever without dying? When the people thought that to defeat death, one must stay alive and never die, and dying stops life, Jesus had other plans to defeat death. His idea of defeating death was to face it. This is the learning given to us whenever we face any problem on this earth, that is to not run away from a problem but to face it and win. He didn’t choose to come down from the cross to defeat death, but He chose to face the cruelty of the cross i.e. he chose to die to defeat death. But how can someone defeat death by dying? Death is so cruel. The peculiarity of death is that it is an end to life. Life cannot start again after death. So the new concept of defeating death which Jesus performed, was to live again after death. The age-old concept to be only able to live till death has to be defeated. Therefore Jesus chose to die to defeat the power of death. He lived again after death & this concept would not have come to pass if He didn’t die. So to live again after death, He had to face it. He introduced living again after death and that too, a better life than the one lived before death, thereby bringing hope to humans on the earth.

When the onlookers thought that Jesus’ death was His end, it was a new beginning of living again after facing an end to life. This was proved when Jesus rose back to life on the third day after death and showed Himself to many people on the earth. The tomb where He was placed after death is kept open even today, stating, “ He is not here, He has risen.” His rising back to life after death is the reason why He didn’t come down from the cross but instead chose to die on the cross. He would have come down from the cross if He wanted to save Himself, but then He would have lost the opportunity to help humans from the fear of an end to life. Humans live under the fear of death. Jesus died and rose again to deliver humans and set people free whose lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. By living again after death, He provided an open offer to everyone who desires to live again after their end on the earth. He couldn’t have achieved this if He chose to come down from the cross and didn’t die.

If Jesus didn’t die on the cross but instead used His power to come down from the cross, the power of death would not have lost its power. The fear of death would have stayed with the people, and His task of overcoming the ‘full-stop’ to life would be incomplete. So coming down from the cross would have been a foolish decision than a helpless decision. Jesus not coming down from the cross is not His failure, but it is a victory over death that made death fail and lose its power over life.

He didn’t continue to stay on this earth after rising back from death, but when He had met some people on earth, He went to be in a better place than earth to prepare better homes for humans than found on earth. This beautiful place of abode has an absence of death, pain, sorrow, fear, anxiety, worry and is named ‘Heaven’. So this concept creates a possibility for humans to live in heaven, who face death with fear thinking that it is the end of life. This opportunity is an open offer to those who repent from their evil deeds and believe in Him, as this is the requirement for a continuing life after the one lived on earth. This place does not consist of anything evil or wrong in it. Therefore we require a pure mind and clean heart to live in this place. Jesus will offer these attributes freely if we only choose to come out of our unproductive lifestyles and believe in His work of sacrifice on the cross.

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