The Via De La Rosa

IX.THE VIA DE LA ROSA (THE WAY OF THE CROSS)

The soldiers of the governor then take Jesus into the praetorium. The praetorium is like an arena/jail/torture chamber readying building for prisoners preparing to be executed. The soldiers gather the rest of the “cohorts” against Jesus to be in attendance as well to let them do what they want to do against Him as well there. This is taken right from Matthew 27:27-31.

What they do is utter cruelty. They strip Jesus naked and place a purple magenta cloth on Him, to portray royalty in what He wears, as that color of purple at that time, taken from mollusks was highly sought after and traded by the Phonecians, and was usually only worn by royalty.

They then twist around a bunch of a large species of a hard and sharp grouping of branching of thorns equivacable to industrial strength barbed wire, into the shape of a crown, and jam it down deep into the flesh of the brown of Jesus' head. They then take a large, thick reed branch and place it in his hand like a scepter and all bow at the knee and mock him saying, “All hail Jesus, King of the Jews!”

The priests and the Romans then spit in his face and grab the reed and beat him over the head with it hard, driving the crown of thorns even deeper into his flesh and skull, and causing head injuries, bruising, concussions, lacerations, and cracked skull.

Also during this time, preparing him for crucifixion, they cut his long hair short, they rip out his beard and mustache by the roots, and the beat him so severely, he is no longer recognizable as a man, having shattered facial bones including jaw, nose, and cheeks and brow. The Romans do most of the work, known for their cruelty to want to humiliate their execution victims to the utmost, they purposely remove all facial hair and cut the long hair of the Jewish men short, knowing how traumatic it is for their beliefs it is.

This is why the Shroud of Turin is a fake. It does not fall in line with historical or scriptural documentation of what happened to Jesus at death. The Shroud of Turin is supposedly a burned image of Jesus' dead body on funeral wrapping cloth before he was resurrected. It is supposedly a holy artifact and evidence of his death and resurrection.

The problems with it are several. First, the Shroud shows Jesus having full head and facial hair, and at his crucifixion and burial, he had NONE, according to scripture and historical documentation. Secondly, the image on the shroud was made with masterfully done red ochre paint. Thirdly, Christ himself asks, “Why seek ye the Living among the dead?”

Jesus' clothes were then put on him and he was given the patibulum – the cross beam of the cross to carry down the Via de la Rosa – the Way of the Cross, splinters digging into his back of a very heavy hewn wooden beam of about 50-70 pounds at about 10-12 feet long.

Unfortunately, Jesus is so weakened from all the abuse, dehydration, lack of food, and blood loss already, he is unable to carry his own load already. So the Roman guards force a nearby Cyrenian coming from off a field, a black man known as Simon, father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry Christ's cross for him to the hill top crucifixion site that faces the Temple named Golgotha, or “The Skull” because of it's hillside features.

As Jesus travels the Way, he is accompanied by two criminals, brazen robbers also sentenced to crucifixion alongside him on the hill. And As Jesus walks his way to his execution site, scores of people follow him along the way, with scores of women, young and old, wailing and lamenting Him as He goes. He takes time to address them, telling them not to weep for Him, but for themselves, saying that they will will wish that they were barren and had never suckled someday, and if they do this on the “trees of the garden” what will they do on the “dry trees?”