ravel as far or farther, while an ever-increasing multitude of
spectators gathered round the advancing procession.

One special indignity connected with the punishment of crucifixion was
that the condemned man had to carry on his back through the streets the
cross upon which he was about to suffer. In pictures the cross of
Jesus is generally represented as a lofty structure, such as a number
of men would have been needed to carry; but the reality was something
totally different: it was not much above the height of a man,[2] and
there was just enough of wood to support the body. But the weight was
considerable, and to carry it on the back which had been torn with
scourging must have been excessively painful.

Another source of intense pain was the crown of thorns, if, indeed, He
still wore it. We are told that before the procession set out towards
Golgotha the robes of mockery were taken off and His own garments put
on; but it is not said that the crown of thorns was removed.

Most cruel of all, however, was the shame. There was a kind of savage
irony in making the man carry the implement on which he was to suffer;
and, in point of fact, throughout classical literature this mode of
punishment is a constant theme of savage banter and derision.[3]

There is evidence that the imagination of Jesus had occupied itself
specially beforehand with this portion of His sufferings. Long before
the end He had predicted the kind of death He should die; but even
before these predictions had commenced He had described the sacrifices
which would have to be made by those who became His disciples as
cross-bearing--as if this were the last extreme of suffering and
indignity. Did He so call it simply because His knowledge of the world
informed Him of this as one of the greatest indignities of human life?
or was it the foreknowledge that He Himself was to be one day in this
position which coloured His language? We can hardly doubt that the
latter was the case. And now the hour on which His imagination had
dwelt was come, and in weakness and helplessness He had to bear the
cross in the sight of thousands who regarded Him with scorn. To a
noble spirit there is no trial more severe than shame--to be the object
of cruel mirth and insolent triumph. Jesus had the lofty and refined
self-consciousness of one who never once had needed to cringe or stoop.
He loved and honoured men too much not to wish to be loved and honoured
by them; He h