"And bearing the cross for himself he went forth to the place called the Skull" (John 19:17). The contemporaries of the Evangelist understood without further explanation what it was that Christ carried. Historical sources indicate that it was not the complete cross that He was carrying, as is invariably depicted in art, but rather the crossbeam only, to which the outstretched arms were bound with a rope. "They led Him out to be crucified" (Mark 15:20). All four Evangelists say that the executioners led Him to be crucified.
There is a reference to the practice of leading the condemned by a rope which was tied from the crossbeam to the ankle of the prisoner. This would have given the soldier complete control of the prisoner, because by a simple pull of the rope he could have forced the prisoner to stumble and fall. Jesus was given the crossbeam which was tide to His outstretched arms. The other two to be crucified with Jesus were also given their crossbeam and in the same manner as in the case of Jesus they too had the beam tied on their outstretched arms with a rope tied at their ankles and most likely, they were in turn tied to one another.
The journey began in haste. The crowd wanted to see the execution, and wanted to make sure that all was over by the time their Sabbath began with the sunset.
Again the Shroud tells us a lot about what happened and how it happened on the way to Calvary. First of all, if Christ had carried the whole cross, as art would like to make us think, there would have been some traces of injuries on top of one or both shoulders, such as would be caused by the carrying of a complete cross. On top of the shoulders there are the stripes of the scourging, but the flesh is otherwise intact. But we see that on the right shoulder blade there is a large black area., And another black area, but smaller, is also on the left shoulder blade.
Jesus falls under the cross
which was tied on his shoulders
According to physicians the two black areas are two excoriations. They are superimposed on the numerous wounds of the flagellation. It would appear that some weighty body, and one with a furrowed surface, which was badly fastened, must have laid on this shoulder and bruised, reopened, and widened the wounds of the scourging through the tunic. Further down, but on the left side, there is another area of excoriations of the same type, in the left scapular region.The Holy Shroud proves to us that Jesus did not carry the full cross. The cross was made up of two pieces of wood: the upright piece, called "stipes," and the crossbeam, called the "patibulum." The person to be crucified carried only the crossbeam. The expression from the Gospel "to carry the cross" meant only the crossbeam. The reason is that execution by crucifixion is nothing else than execution by suspension. A man suspended to a tree, to a beam, or to a wall, has basically the same torture, which eventually causes the person to die of asphyxia.
Our Lord therefore carried only the crossbeam tied on his outstretched arms; that is why the shoulder has been excoriated so badly. When Jesus fell, (tradition tells us that He fell three times under the cross), He may have also scratched the shoulder and the shoulder blade by hitting the beam on the ground first causing the beam to rub against the shoulder..
The crossbeam weighed approximately 125 pounds, while the complete cross may have weighed about 325 pounds, much too heavy for a man to carry.
The soldiers tied a rope to the criminal to prevent him from running away and led him away to the place of execution, like a dog. The tying of the prisoners with a rope had a double reason: one was that the prisoner had no freedom of movement, to change direction or even to attempt to escape; the other would have been that the soldiers had such control of the victim that they could make them stumble and fall. Jesus had been scourged., the scourging had been carried on almost to the point of death, so he was very weak; so must have been the other two who must have also suffered some form of scourging as part of preparation for crucifixion. What would happen to the other prisoners if one of them had refused to move on or maybe had fallen to the ground? The Gospels just say that at a certain point the soldiers forced a passerby to carry the crossbeam for Jesus. From this we may infer that Jesus had become so weak that it had become impossible for Him to continue to carry the cross. He therefore must have stumbled and fallen at different times.
The time and the place is important. It was not during the night, it was not early in the morning when the streets of Jerusalem were empty. It was about 12:00 noon when the streets of Jerusalem were over crowded with thousands of pilgrims coming for the passover. Our Lord had to pass through the crowd. The crowd may have been so much that two or three soldiers had go in front to make room for our Lord to go by. Our Lord was passing by with the hands tight to the crossbeam, with a rope around his chest, led like a dog or a lamb, to his execution. The place also is important. It did not happen in Galilee or in the country, it happened in the holy city of Jerusalem. The message of the Holy Shroud is a gruesome story for some; for others it might be a "love letter."
For people who only consider the physical suffering, it is a gruesome story. For people who are able to look beyond the suffering and consider the motivation, for them it is a love letter, a solicitation of love. Jesus offered Himself to suffer that He might enjoy our company in Heaven. Indeed we know that there is no greater love than to lay down one's own life for his friend. Jesus willingly, freely, accepted to suffer, even to die. because He loves us He wants to enjoy our company in Heaven.
Parents enjoy the company of children. If a son runs away from the family, the parents will miss him to the point of crying. So God will miss us if we do not go to Heaven.
