The air was hot, and putridly florid. The smell of rot and decay. Each gasping breath seemed only to draw in more of the sickening stench of death. The man to His left had freely pissed himself, and was still jabbering on with insults and taunts, despite his own obvious lack of composure and shame. The man on His right also joined in, depraved even in agony and hopelessness.
In His mouth was the iron and copper taste of blood, mixed with sour wine and dust. He was thirsty, though it seemed strange that He should even register this through His blinding pain: pain that seemed to radiate from His feet, His hands, His head, His back, and fill His heart and mind to bursting. That of Him which was human was crying for release, to end this now, to give up His ghost and be gone from this eternity of torment that had found its way into every waking moment.
Still, this was not the appointed time; there were still hours ahead.
This thought, coupled with the intense effort that it took to draw in each new breath, would have simply broken any other man. He looked through one bruised and swollen eye and saw the people He was dying for, reveling in the collective madness that seems to come so easily to any mob. He is then overcome. He is pain – He is more than pain, He is agony. His is the purest sensation ever felt, extending over every inch, into every synapse in His brain, into every nerve and sensory ending.
In the sixth hour then Darkness overcomes the land; panic and dread reign. All is chaos, and even the Romans know something is very wrong.
In the ninth hour, the Man, in an act of supreme and divine will, screams: a terrible, mighty voice, a voice that pierces into the souls of all who hear it. No one there that day ever forgets that voice.
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
He cried out once more and yielded his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Thoughts? Leave a comment or send us an e-mail at thedemoscritic@gmail.com.
Author: Matt Murdock
