Jesus Christ’s death on the cross has been a talk of the town for around 2000 years now. He was crucified at a place called ‘Golgotha’ in the nation of Israel. Some groups meditate on it deeply, counting 40 days before the arrival of the day called as “Good Friday”, remembered as Jesus’ death day, while others keep on wondering what went so wrong for Jesus to die on the cross with no one to save him, even though history reveals him to be a loving and compassionate person ever lived. He was such a just person that it required two false witnesses for him to be sent to the cross, as they couldn’t find any true witnesses to testify against Him. A notorious prisoner was released in Jesus’ place as it was the custom of the governor to set free any prisoner whom the people chose during festival times. 

 Before being crucified on the cross, a day before, Jesus was arrested by the authorities, interrogated, and was proved falsely that He has committed a crime and then the governor handed Him over to be crucified. The soldiers severely whipped Him 39 times, put a crown of thorns on His head, ridiculed Him, spat on Him, and struck Him repeatedly on His head with a reed. After they finished ridiculing Him, they led Him away to crucify Him. Crucifixion is a form of slow, gruesome, humiliating, public, torturous, most painful death ever invented by humans and practiced during Roman rule. The process of crucifixion is as follows: They tie the victim to a large wooden beam (2 pieces of wood attached in the shape of a cross), the hands and the feet is fixed to the cross using nails (which is about 15cm long and 1cm thick) and then is left to hang on the cross till death. Death on the cross usually happens because of suffocation, difficulty breathing, loss of body fluids, multiple organ failures, physical and mental exhaustion.

The sufferings of crucifixion are extremely cruel. It results in the victim developing hatred towards his life before dying on the cross. The increase in the intensity of the punishment is a lesson for others who commit a similar crime. But the question arises, why does God, who has manifested Himself as Jesus Christ have to die this death of the criminals? Why does someone who mended others’ lives by performing great miraculous signs and wonders need to receive a criminal’s punishment? Why would God take the form of a man only to die on this earth? The explanation that has been given to us for His death on the cross and His sufferings before that is, He died as a sacrifice for human beings, which remains a mystery till today for many of us. How can His sacrifice relate with saving humans? Why do human beings need His sacrifice? What is the logic behind this incident that happened 2000 years ago?

If we dissect this incident, we learn that Jesus died on the cross on account of the punishment inflicted upon Him by the Romans. What is punishment? Punishment is what the person has to pay back when He has done something wrong. It is just like, when someone takes a loan, it must be repaid. After paying back, it can be counted as the mistake never happened, and it also reminds the person to never commit that same mistake again. Hence, paying back has some benefits. This act is introduced in a person’s life from a very young age. A child is taught that for every lie they speak, every little thing they steal, and for every wrong behavior they are a part of, there is a paying back. Wrongs or mistakes comes with a cost. The cost is less for small faults and is more for big faults. The cost of paying back is painful and tough, irrespective of whether the mistake is small or big. But the reality of the world is every person in this world, in his lifetime, has done something either small or big, which requires a paying back, which is painful and unpleasant. If we don't pay back at that exact time, the result would be paying back double fold in the future. So there are responsible people around us who make sure that we settle the cost at the correct time. 

But have you ever thought how pleasant it would be if we never had to pay back for the wrongs we ever did? How good if we don’t have to face the consequences of our mistakes? There was one man in history who was privileged in this case, who, for His great crime, did not have to pay anything back, but the advantage that He got was someone else paid the price in His place. So the story goes like this, a criminal was already in prison for the accusation of insurrection and murder at that time when Jesus was arrested for an accusation of a crime. The governor, after an investigation, found out that the rulers arrested Jesus out of jealousy and that He had not committed any crime. So the governor wanting to release Jesus, took the opinion of the crowd as to whom should He release, the actual criminal or the falsely accused Jesus. But the crowd ended up supporting the actual criminal, and as it was the custom of the governor to release one prisoner during festival times, the cruel prisoner was released even though he committed a serious crime and Jesus was punished in his place. Jesus, innocent of a crime, replaced the criminal & suffered punishment, whereas the criminal was set free.

When Jesus was in this world, He was smart enough to win all His verbal battles with His opposition, but when He was about to be punished He chose to be quiet, agreeing to the crime He didn’t commit. It is quite surprising how Jesus couldn’t save Himself from punishment, even though He had wisdom, immense knowledge, logical words, and power to do miracles, which He used, to defend Himself at other times. He was even powerful enough to escape from that place and run away from the punishment, but He didn’t do that, instead, He chose to surrender. From this, we understand that His punishment was not forced upon Him without His will, but that He agreed to pay the cost for something that He didn’t do because if otherwise, He would have saved Himself. He chose to pay back for someone else. Now the question arises, was Jesus punished just for that prisoner? Was He born on this earth just to get punished in place of that one prisoner? Well, Jesus paying the price for the prisoner is just a sign of what He came to do on this earth. He introduced the concept of paying the price of humans’ wrongdoing all by Himself and setting them free from the cruelty of punishment. Why would He do that? Imagine a boy who wants to drive a car, and he is not well versed in it, but when he still drives the car, it results in an accident, his car collides with another vehicle, and when he was asked to pay the price for the damage, he could not, so his father would pay the price for the son’s mistake, just for one reason, and that is out of his great love for his son. This is exactly how God, out of His great love for humans came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ to pay the price for humans’ mistakes.

How can His paying back relate and benefit every human being? This is true that there is a paying back for every human being, either for small or big faults they are a part of, while they are still on this earth. Some get punished for their faults, while others use their powers or authority to escape punishment, and some faults stay hidden, never being exposed before the people. But the common thing about them is the judge sitting in the minds of every human, called the ‘conscience’, which keeps a record of all wrongs a person does. Even when a person tries his best to forget the mistakes he committed, regrets them, and wants to leave them behind and move forward and be a better person, his conscience won’t allow him to do so until the person pays back for the same. When a person’s evil record grows, it increases the guilt inside a person, taking away the complete peace and restful state of mind of a person. To clear out this record of wrongs inside a person and provide relief from guilt resulting in clear conscience, people often follow many ways to get rid of evil, but all in vain. Even after so many efforts to destroy the evil from inside and around, it does not fade, as without the right paying back, nothing works. 

What is the appropriate paying back required for humans? The life of the flesh is in the blood. So the appropriate paying back requires the pouring out of blood to completely wipe out the records of wrongs of a person, as almost everything is purified by blood, and all wrongs are cleared only if blood is poured out. In agreement with this fact, people of ancient times were advised to put all their wrongdoings on a flawless and spotless animal and identify themselves with the animal, and the animal must shed its blood and die as a punishment for the wrongs humans commit. The individual has to lay his hands on the head of the animal, putting all his wrongdoing upon the animal. An animal especially a lamb, becomes a carrier for the wrongs humans did and becomes the bearer for their punishment. Here, the animal pays the price for humans’ wrongdoing and dies, as the wages of evil is death and someone has to die and pay back the wages for evil. 

  Now we get an idea of why Jesus, who didn’t commit any crime, who was blameless and faultless, was crucified on the cross. He paid the price for humans’ evil, wrongdoing, injustice, and guilt because, without the shedding of blood, there is no release from evil records and guilt, nor cancellation of the deserved punishment. He was put to death for the sins of our people, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie. To save humans from the never-ending punishment that they were about to face, Jesus chose to become the lamb or the animal who would do the paying back for humans. Christ was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many, an offering that is effective forever. With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin.

How can anyone use Jesus’ punishment to free them from the records of wrongs? We need to follow the technique of ancient times. When anyone is guilty of wrongdoing and regrets it and wants to forget and move forward, they would confess it and put that mistakes on an animal, identify themselves with the animal and through the animal’s death, their wrongs are paid back. So, in the same way, today, humans can put all their wrongdoings on Jesus and confess it and accept the fact that Jesus has already paid the price for them by shedding blood and dying, then their wrongdoings and guilt will get cancelled. Jesus’ blood purifies our conscience from all guilt and records of wrongs. By this, people can regain a clear conscience that is free from all evil records. Our hearts will overflow with real tangible joy when our conscience is purified and evil records get deleted. This can be done because there has been a death that sets people free from the wrongs they did.

If the records of wrongs of a person are not deleted, they will stay and continue and will grow along with the person, making them be a part of more evil in the future. Just like how there is a paying back for every wrong we do on this earth, there is an eternal paying back for all the evil that we performed on this earth, which is called never-ending punishment for our soul. If humans are not in this great danger, Jesus would not have suffered such horrible sufferings and had to shed all His blood on the cross to save them from it. This is the reason why humans need permanent relief from evil while they are still on the earth. This permanent relief is before us as a free choice.

So Good Friday is observed every year to help people know that the creator has offered us a free gift, of not counting the wrongdoings, but freely releasing us from its cruelty, by the punishment He suffered on our behalf. Now it is in our hands whether to accept this free gift and get released from the punishment, to lead a happy and peaceful life without guilt on this earth, and after our life on earth or reject this free gift, and stay with the evil and guilt and face the adverse effects that comes along with it.

THE CHOICE IS OURS !!!

All human beings on Earth can make use of this, as Jesus died for every human being on this earth, and all can benefit from Jesus’ death.

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