I found it difficult to believe
the Roman soldiers could have acted in the
way they were portrayed which was totally chaotic and out of order,
drinking
on the job, laughing, and whipping him all the way up this steep hill to
Golgotha
with him bloody, staggering, and constantly falling; it was plainly
sadistic
=======================================================
Hey Judy:
Sorry you could not take all the violence. As for myself. I watched it
all, as horrible as it was, all the time thinking, "This is what I
deserved! Jesus took my punishment for me. He loved me that
much!"
As for the soldiers; according to history, they were every bit as bad as
they were portrayed, probably worse. Nero himself had Christians tied to
a stake, covered with pitch, and burned alive. With leadership like that, why
would the soldiers be different? As for drinking on the job, where the
KJV says they put vinegar on a sponge, the original word used was
"Oxos". It did not mean vinegar, it meant cheap wine, the kind the
soldiers could afford, about as close to vinegar as you can get and still call
it wine. They were drinking on the job, or it would not have been
available at the cross.
A former pastor of mine, Steve Brown, said often, that "without the
leading of the Holy Spirit, any human is capable of committing the most
terrible crimes ever committed, given the right circumstances." I
believe that. I worked in a prison for the criminally insane for years
when I was younger. I know that there are people who enjoy inflicting
pain. Some of them actually have an orgasm while torturing the
innocent. That is the type of person who would have enjoyed beating
Christ. They loved their job.
Jesus paid a far more terrible price than we imagine when we simply read
the account.
Terry
