Watching At The Cross

I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

The gospels explain how various family and friends watched and witnessed
what happened to Jesus on the cross.

I don’t think I could have done that, I can’t even watch The Passion
of the Christ without getting upset.

How awful to watch someone you love and care about, suffer in such an awful
way.

But yet it was important for the witnesses to be there and record the
events for us all! So I think God must have given them the strength to
watch and bare it.

I did wonder if there might have been long term effects like PTSD etc
But then they had the wonderful opportunity to see the empty tomb later and
see the risen Jesus, so maybe the wonderful ending cancelled out all the
terrible sights witnessed by them.


Still it would have been a really difficult thing to watch.

I dont think I could have done it.

Your there to let the person know they are loved and not alone. You would find the strength out of your love for them.

Or - out of the love one has for the person He will respond and give us strength.

The flesh wants ALL the attention and likewise the Spirit also wants ALL the attention,JESUS said that the words HE speaks,they are SPIRIT and they are life,at the cross I know HIS family understood that the things JESUS spoke of were spiritual and had great meaning for all mankinds salvation, although they grieved for JESUS horrible suffering,they knew that real JESUS was not the flesh but the SPIRIT.

I witnessed many horrible things-including murder-prior to salvation. I also learned-as a young child-the importance of keeping my mouth shut upon penalty of death. Looking back on the horrible life I lived before Jesus, I can see that GOD gave me strength to endure all, and survive all. I'm sure HE's done the same for all of us.

This topic reminds me of when my cat died. She was a sweet cat, very affectionate, very obedient. I never could get her to roughhouse with me (though she was blue murder on the local wildlife.) She seemed to look to me for everything.

Then one day she took a nap under a car hood and got caught in the motor's serpentine belt.

That was the only time I ever cried over losing a pet, but what tore me up was not that her little body was mangled, or that she would die, or even that she was in pain. It was that she started meowing as soon as she saw me coming to get her, and as soon as I got to her she stopped because she thought I was going to make everything all better, but I couldn't. All I could do was sit with her and wait for Aunt Diane to get the shotgun and put an end to her suffering. I couldn't put her shattered legs back together, I couldn't make her keep living, I couldn't even do anything for her pain. But she was confidently expecting me to, because I was The Human - not just a human, The Human, the one that she ran to meet every time I came outside, the one who fed her and petted her and sat outside with her. And there wasn't one thing I could do to help her.

Sometimes it's hard to sit and watch. But it would have been a lot harder to walk away.

dear Lynx, I believe we will be reunited someday, perhaps also with the pets we have loved.

The men left (except John), not the women. The women watched and were strong enough to witness the death of their much loved son, brother, teacher, and guide. I think women have this in them. It is women who traditionally prepared the dead for burial- the mysteries of birth and death are in women. Since you are a woman, you would not have fled. You would have stayed.

I think they might have had PTSD, but the risen Saviour appeared to them, so I think the sadness around the brutality of His death was healed. Remember, He saw Mary Magdalene first and spoke to her in the garden. Who knows what He said? Perhaps He assured her that He did not remember the pain of His torture.

Yes, He is omniscient- but I do not know if He remembered the agony of the cross. In our resurrected bodies, we will not remember the pain of life. I think perhaps He does not remember the agony, while retaining the memory of the event because knowing He remembers the agony would bring sorrow to those who love Him, and there is no sorrow in Heaven.

My opinions only, of course. I think He was comforting Mary Magdalene in some way.

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a very loving and sensitive post Miri, it set you apart from many people...

of all the many times that I have read the Bible, when I begin the NT once again,
I already know that once again, my heart will be broken when I read about my Saviours' sacrifices,,.

Hard for us to know now as it was before the atoning work was completed allowing Pentecost and we now are walking with Christ.

Thanks Lynn,

I think it would have been different with Jesus though.
Its different being there for someone who is sick and being there
watching while someone is tortured and executed.

I couldn’t do that.

Ages ago I saw a fight break out between some drinks, they were all as
bad as each other. But was was getting a good beating and I could hardly
watch. I rang the police.

By the time the police arrived, it was over and they had gone.

So to watch someone tortured, beaten, whipped, them finished off of the cross,
i just couldn’t....

I would probably be foolish enough to try to stop it!

I think as well for some people, the crowds, they might have been watching to
see if Jesus was miraculously rescued.

I have often asked myself if animals have spirits. Wouldn't it be really cool if seraphim (what we call angels) took to life as our pets. Once in God's kingdom they then would be assigned to us forever. I have had pets that seem to have the same characteristics as former pets I had. Just a thought.

Yes, I believe many of the people who had seen His miracles thought He would save Himself.

It is incomprehensible how wonderful Heaven will be. We won’t recall pain, but yet retain ourselves. I’m not sure how that works. Thanks for sharing your experiences about suffering, it is brave to bare your heart to us all.

I agree, and I think what kept them there was their resolve to not abandon their loved one in their time of suffering and death. Just like being by the bedside of someone dying. Their sense of compassion and personal obligation outweighed the gut-wrenching act of witnessing something so inhumane...