R.C. Sproul

They did it by stoning.

But the Romans do it by crucifixion.

And so the method of Jesus' death is by what?

Hanging upon a tree.

The Bible doesn't say, cursed be everyone who is stoned.

Cursed is everyone who hangs upon the tree.

Then,

Where is the site of the actual execution?

Outside of Jerusalem.

So that Jesus is first of all delivered to the Gentiles for judgment, and once he is judged, condemned to be executed, then he is physically led out of the fortress onto the Via Dolorosa

outside of the walls of the city.

And like the scapegoat is driven outside the camp, outside of Zion, outside of the holy city where the presence of God is concentrated.

He is sent into the outer darkness.

And think again of the imagery of the cross itself.

When Jesus is put on the cross, we have an astronomical perturbation that takes place.

In the middle of the afternoon, it becomes dark, literally, physically dark.

darkness descends upon the land.

And in the midst of the intensity of this darkness, which involves some kind of blotting out, obscuring, or perhaps even an eclipse of the sun, in the midst of that physical, literal darkness, Jesus cries.

And what does he cry?

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?