The Paradox of the Cross
The Cross (symbolic for Jesus' crucifixion) was by far the most painful experience that God and man has ever and will ever have. However, it was also the most glorious and rewarding. Jesus, as the bearer of the cross, was both God and man here on earth when He went through the extraordinary ordeal of the cross. As man, the cross was by far the most dreadful ordeal any man has ever and will ever experience. It was torture in the highest order. Jesus experienced excruciating pain during the crucifixion. He felt pain from the strokes of cane (which was one short of what was required to kill a man according to bible commentary), the public ridicule and embarrassment, the spitting, insults, abandonment by His disciples, the mockery of the people He was saving, even the irony of being mocked by a thief (who deserved to be crucified when He wasn't), the brutality of the soldiers, the fact that His mother was witness to this sorrowful ordeal, the thirst, and above all, the rejec...