The Physical and Medical Aspects of our Lord's Passion and Death - Part 4: The Carrying of the Cross

Continuing from where I left off during the previous post in this blog series, the next scene during our LORD’s Passion to discuss is the Via Crucis. Following the Scourging at the Pillar and Crowning of Thorns, Pontius Pilate was no doubt thinking that Jesus’ human opponents would be satisfied with the punishment inflicted upon our LORD and agree to release Him from custody rather than condemn Him to Roman crucifixion. But, to Pilate’s astonishment, the Sanhedrin members are not satisfied. Following additional dialogues with Jesus and with the Sanhedrin, Pilate gives in and condemns Jesus to death after Pilate’s political standing with the Roman Emperor is threatened (see Jn 19:12). The Condemnation of Christ appears to have occurred between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on Good Friday. What follows next in the Passion narrative is the Via Crucis (also known as the Carrying of the Cross or the Stations of the Cross.) The information pulled here will be from the Gospels, pious tradition regarding some of the Stations (namely the three traditional falls), private revelation regarding Jesus’ Shoulder Wound given to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and forensic analysis from the Shroud of Turin. To correct a mistake I once made in an earlier talk I gave at my parish a few years ago, the correct distance Jesus would have carried the Cross was 650 meters (or roughly 0.4 miles). This might not seem like a long journey upon first glance, but we must keep in mind that Jesus’ Body is already weakened from His Scourging, plus He is having to carry a crossbeam on His shoulders estimated to weigh around seventy-five to one hundred twenty-five pounds.

The Shroud of Turin does show that Jesus was well-nourished and physically fit (He was, after all, used to hard labor in his pre-Public Ministry profession as a tekton) prior to His Passion and Death, but even someone used to hard labor would find the Via Crucis difficult to endure after being physically beaten and tortured. One unique fact revealed in the Gospels about the death march that the Roman soldiers had Jesus endure as He walked towards the site of His Crucifixion was that they allowed Him to keep His clothes on; this is unique because it was common practice to have criminals sentenced to a Roman crucifixion walk on their death march completely naked for the purpose of shaming them before others. I will also posit as theological speculation, and this is gleamed from historical records on how the process of Roman crucifixion typically worked, that Jesus might have also had the Titulus (the charge Pilate wrote down for why Jesus was being crucified) around His neck while carrying the Cross. Regarding the crossbeam, the Roman soldiers assigned to crucifying Jesus (this group would have included St. Longinus, who pious tradition holds to be a centurion, which possibly could have also made him the Roman commander in charge of our LORD’s Crucifixion) would have put Jesus’ arms in outstretched position before binding them to the crossbeam via rope. According to the Shroud of Turin, the crossbeam appears to have been on His right shoulder at one end and further down His left shoulder blade on the other end. The acute abrasion on our LORD’s right shoulder shown by the Shroud of Turin brings to mind the pious veneration on the Shoulder Wound of Jesus, which pious tradition holds was directly revealed to St. Bernard by our LORD Himself when the saint had asked Jesus which of His physical wounds during His Passion caused Him the most pain. The note from the Gospels stating Jesus was “led away” (see Mt 27:31 and Mk 15:20) suggests the implication that the Roman soldiers dragged Jesus along with a rope tied around His waist while He was bound to the crossbeam. While I am not certain on this other detail, I do know that there is another suggestion which holds Jesus might have also been bound with rope to the two thieves sentenced to be crucified with Him in order for the Roman soldiers to ensure the condemned did not try to escape or revolt. 

As maintained by pious tradition and supported by the Shroud of Turin, Jesus appears to have sustained multiple falls while enduring the Via Crucis. These falls caused Him severe injury and likely forced the accompanying Roman soldiers to force St. Simon of Cyrene (who likely received the shock of his life as the Gospels indicated that at this point he just arrived in Jerusalem on a 1,102 mile-long journey from Cyrene) to carry the crossbeam in Jesus’ place with our LORD following close behind Him. What was the damage caused to Jesus’ Body with the traditional three falls? And with this question we can finally summarize the full extent of the injuries present on our LORD’s Face as evidenced by the Shroud of Turin. The damage from the multiple falls (which would have been unprotected since our LORD’s hands were bound), as seen from the Shroud, include severe swelling and lacerations on both knees (especially on the left knee as the left leg appeared to have been tied to the lower end of the crossbeam) and a swollen, displaced, and bleeding nose (His nose also shows signs of being twisted due to repeated injury.) Other injuries from previous beatings delivered to Jesus’ Face include a large swelling below His right eye (with His right eye being nearly swollen shut), swelling of both eyebrows, swelling on His left cheek, swelling on the left side of His chin, a torn right eyelid, and a triangular-shaped wound on His right cheek with the tip pointing to His nose. Because of the multiple falls on the Via Crucis, Jesus also appeared to have had a concentration of dirt around His eye sockets and bridge of His dislocated nose. Another unique detail seen on the Shroud of Turin is that part of Jesus’ beard was plucked out (likely from when He was repeatedly beaten on His Face before the Via Crucis and considered a sign of disrespect within Jewish society in the first century), which, while not mentioned in the canonical Gospel accounts, was prophesied about Jesus centuries before in the Book of Isaiah (see Isa 50:6)! And, as a reminder, the falls to the face Jesus suffered while on the Via Crucis occurred while still wearing the Crown of Thorns. With this visceral image in mind, can we honestly say we would love our LORD’s marred countenance during His Passion and Death without the required assistance of God’s Grace? How would the women recorded in the Gospel of Luke as mourning and lamenting Jesus have reacted when He physically turned to speak to them (Lk 23:27-31)? What were the thoughts and reactions of the two thieves tied to Jesus, or that of St. Simon of Cyrene, while they walked the Via Crucis? Exactly how much blood, spit, sweat, and dirt was wiped off of Jesus' Face by St. Veronica, as attested in pious tradition despite not being recorded in the canonical Gospels? I think this can lead to an interesting and fruitful contemplation. 

Eventually, Jesus is standing on Golgotha, the site of His scheduled execution. Everything in His Passion has been leading up to this moment. As was common in a Roman crucifixion, Jesus would have been stripped completely naked by the Roman soldiers assigned to execute Him. The loincloth typically shown on Jesus in artistic representations of the Crucifixion is not historically accurate and is more of an anachronistic sense of Christian modesty being painted onto the scene of our LORD’s Death. An interesting detail shown in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark is that right before the Crucifixion took place, the Roman soldiers offered Jesus wine drugged with myrrh (St. Matthew the Evangelist notes it being wine mixed with gall), but that Jesus refused to drink it once He was forced (I do not think the soldiers would have asked our LORD for permission beforehand) to taste it (see Mt 27:34 and Mk 15:23). While this would not detract from the horror of the Crucifixion, it does reveal something about the character of both the Roman soldiers and our LORD Jesus Christ. What Jesus was being offered was an ancient narcotic designed to dull the pain He was about to experience on the Cross. Perhaps the Roman soldiers, already seeing what Christ had been through, thought He would feel that crucifixion would be too much for His Body to handle. They were, after all, familiar with and experts on the crucifixion process and what it does to the human body. And yet, this unexpected act of humane treatment from His executors was refused by Jesus, not because our LORD was somehow a sadomasochist (an idiotically false charge against Christ I remember seeing online more than a decade ago), but because it was His Divine Mission to endure the fullness of human suffering for our salvation. Jesus’ refusal to receive the narcotic was a virtuous act of fortitude, not an act of mental insanity. 

And with that, I have reached the end of the fourth part of this series. For the next and final blog post, I will discuss the long-awaited Crucifixion and Death of our LORD as well as the events leading up to His burial in the Holy Sepulchre.