The Bungee Cord. 7-22-25

Hello,

It’s been a hot summer in Western Pennsylvania. Upper 80’s and 90’s with thick humidity. I guess that we complained too much about the cold winter. Anyway, I was playing pickleball outside last week when it was really hot. I am sure that the hard, dark surface on which we were playing didn’t help things out. Combining my age, my being out of shape to some degree, and the heat …the pickleball games came to an end in about an hour. Tired and worn out, heading for shade and something to drink, ready to go home and take a shower.

So, it got me to thinking, “How hot was it in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified?” I looked it up and found out that the average high temperature on April 15th (around the date when Jesus was crucified), Jerusalem’s average high is 74 degrees. Of course, as one ventures into the summer months, the high raises up to nearly 100 degrees. 74 degrees is a pretty nice temperature, but when you remember that crucifixions took place in the middle of the day, in a shadeless place, with the crucified one completely naked, and could last from three hours to a couple of days, the agony of the nails met the pain of the scorching sun to augment the torture of being crucified. And with your hands nailed to the cross, bugs could crawl on you and bite you, and birds could land on you, defecate on you , and peck at your eyes without being disturbed.

Crucifixion was designed to bring fear to the people, that is why it was done out in the open for people to see and remember that this could happen to them. The humiliation, the pain, and the helpless struggle could be theirs, too. “Come down from the cross if you are the Messiah,” the people mockingly shouted at him, and I am sure that it was they on a cross who had the ability to remove themselves from the cross, they would have done so in an instant. Like running off the pickleball court on a blazing hot day, anyone hanging on a crucifixion cross would have dashed off to find some shade, something to drink, and a pool of water to cool themselves down…..if they could have.

But Jesus, who could have, did not. Jesus stayed on the cross until he died so that every sin and evil of the world that he had taken to the cross with him also died. When it comes to all people, such things as hatred, greed, murder, false witness, coveting, dishonor and the like lost their breath to call anyone’s name and stake their claim on them. It was only Jesus who walked out of the tomb on Easter Sunday morning with breath in his lungs, and the names of all people on his lips pronouncing his claim to all, “You are forgiven. You are mine.”

Although there are some who will tell you that the next time you find yourself swelteringly hot on a sunbaked day that you should remind yourself of the heat of hell that awaits to swallow you up, lest you change your ways….today, in this sweltering heat, I am telling you to remember the one who willingly faced up to the heat so that no matter what you say, or think, or do the heat of hell will not be yours, but the refreshing steams of heaven are yours to splash around in….forever!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger