The Central Message of Christianity - The Resurrection .
The crucifixion was a barbaric, inhumane form of today's capital punishment. Although this was a horrible way to die, the crucifixion was necessary for Christianity. Without the resurrection of Christ, there is no basis for which Christianity to stand. The crucifixion and resurrection are essential for the understanding of Jesus as Christ.
The lifestyle of Jesus led up to his crucifixion. On almost every important issue that arose in the time of Jesus, His opinion contradicted that of the government. His message made the outcasts of society, the central focus. The aspect that most obviously led to his death on the cross was his claim to be Christ, the Son of God. Because of Jesus" messages, he was led to the cross on which he died (Moltmann 73).
Crucifixion was a method of capital punishment used by the non-Roman people. Crucifixion was surprisingly common during the life of Jesus. When Jesus was crucified in Golgotha, he was on a cross next to two criminals. Because Jesus was crucified on a Saturday, the guards had to ensure the death of the three men, before Sabbath. Some men were on the cross for days before they actually died, but Jesus died within six hours (Murchland 17). According to John's gospel, one of the guards stabbed Jesus to ensure his death before Sunday came and from the wound poured water and wine, which symbolized the outpouring of the spirit.
The amazing part of the death of Jesus was not the crucifixion, but instead the resurrection. Simply, the resurrection is Jesus being raised from the dead by God. All of the Gospels give different accounts of who the resurrected Jesus appeared to and when. The concepts similar between all of the gospels are, Jesus did rise from the dead and he first appearing to women. Although all of the Gospels have different accounts of the resurrection, none of them deny it (Herbert 7).
