Most Christians have a basic knowledge of Jesus’ crucifixion as described in the Passion narratives of all four Gospels and envisioned through art, literature and the stage and screen.
Tony Stout, a lay catechist at Columbus St. Cecilia Church, takes understanding of that pivotal event one step further through a detailed presentation of the physical and historical aspects of the crucifixion – a program he has offered for 35 years at his church and elsewhere.
The program combines relevant Scripture passages, music, descriptions of how and why crucifixions occurred in the Roman Empire, a nearly life-size replica of the Shroud of Turin on canvas and props including a crucifix and the type of whip, hammer, nails and thorns that would have been used at the crucifixion of Christ.
Such items could be exhibited in a way designed to shock people, but Stout’s hourlong presentation is done in a reverent manner. “It’s not my intention to be sensational or to offend anyone,” he said. “I want to give people a better understanding of the lengths Christ was willing to go to for us so we can decide what to do for Him.”
The Shroud of Turin plays a key part in Stout’s presentation. “I’m not going to get into the arguments over whether it was the actual burial cloth of Christ,” he said. “The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, but in 1958, Pope Pius XII approved its use in association with devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. Subsequent popes have visited it. In 2013, Pope Francis referred to it as ‘an icon of a man scourged and crucified.’
“Doubt was cast on its authenticity in 1988 when carbon dating said it was from the 1300s. But it turned out the part of the shroud on which the dating was performed came from a patch made in 1532, when a fire burned part of the shroud. More recent testing shows the cloth was from around 50 A.D., plus or minus 200 years, placing its origin firmly within the time Christ lived.”
Stout said pathology evidence found on the shroud, combined with other medical and historical knowledge, attests to the accuracy of the Passion Gospels.
He said the Gospel account of Jesus’ sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane as being “like drops of blood” accurately describes a medical condition known as hematidrosis. This is caused by severe emotional and physiological distress resulting in the bursting of blood-carrying capillaries in the skin. Its effects are pain, bleeding, dehydration and general weakness.
Stout said the shroud reveals that whoever’s face is impressed on it had bruises and contusions about the head and face, broken cartilage around the nose and a swollen eye and was missing pieces of his beard. This is consistent with Isaiah 50:6: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”
Jesus was convicted of blasphemy by the Sanhedrin but could not be sentenced to death by them because Jerusalem was an occupied city, so he had to be sent to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate for a death sentence. Pilate had him whipped, and because Jesus was not a Roman citizen, the usual maximum of 40 lashes did not apply.
Stout said the shroud indicates the person it covered was whipped about 120 times by an object made of three leather strands with metal balls and bone fragments woven into the leather.
“This would have been enough to kill any ordinary human being,” Stout said. “But Jesus wasn’t done. Jesus’ divinity willed His humanity to remain alive because He couldn’t finish His mission of atonement until being crucified.”
Stout also said the shroud shows the person depicted having head wounds caused by thorns, which were woven more like a cap than the crown-shaped arrangement depicted in portraits of the crucifixion done after A.D. 400.
In addition, Stout said the shroud image shows evidence of falls and of nails several inches long placed in the body as described in the Gospels. Some would not have been nailed to the palm, but to the wrist, so they could hold up the weight of the body. This would have pinched the ulnar and median nerves of the hands, resulting in the thumbs being reflexively drawn into the palm of the hand. That is why the shroud image shows no thumbs.
Stout said the shroud image is that of someone standing about 5-foot-10 or 5-11 and weighing 175 to 180 pounds – typical for today but a height that would have made Jesus or someone that tall stand out in a crowd in that era. He said the action of lifting one’s body up to breathe, which would have occurred during a crucifixion, might have lengthened Jesus’ arms as much as 6 inches while He was on the cross.
During that time, His blood would have turned acidic as it became harder to breathe out carbon dioxide. This would make His body feel like it was on fire, causing intense pain and thirst and symptoms that would swell the heart to twice its normal size, filling the area around the heart with a clear fluid. That would make the description of blood and water flowing out of Jesus when He was pierced after His death a medically accurate one.
Stout said crucifixion had been developed by the Romans about 300 B.C. as a particularly brutal way of warning residents of occupied territories not to defy their rulers and was not uncommon in Jesus’ time.
He said the wooden plank Jesus and Simon of Cyrene carried to Jesus’ crucifixion was probably the horizontal arm of a cross, with vertical cross parts being fixed in place for repeated use on Golgotha, the hill where the crucifixion occurred.
The Passion accounts contain several references to Jesus’ death making Old Testament prophecies come to fruition and fulfilling the requirements of the Passover of the Old Testament covenant in a new, complete way.
Stout noted that many details of the crucifixion were prefigured in Psalm 22, written by King David 1,000 years before Christ’s birth. “David couldn’t have known about this 700 years before crucifixion was invented,” he said. “I believe God allowed David to experience a glimpse of Calvary, and it came out onto paper.”
He also noted that like the Passover lambs of old, Jesus, the new Passover lamb, was innocent and perfect in every way, with no bones broken. “What appeared to be a broken nose and broken areas around the knees in the shroud figure are actually cartilage,” he said. “Pilate was surprised Jesus’ legs did not need breaking after He was taken down from the cross because He was already dead, so His body remained intact.”
Stout said that Jesus’ death came at the same time of day as the time Passover lambs were being slaughtered at the Temple in Jerusalem, with the ripping of the Temple curtain at that time symbolizing the end of the Old Law and the beginning of the New Law.
One other key element of the Passover ceremony that occurred in a new way on the cross involved the use of four cups at various points of the ceremony, with the drinking of the fourth cup and the words “It is finished” at the close.
Stout pointed out that in the Passover supper that also was the Last Supper, Jesus drank three cups, but not a fourth. On the cross, he was given a sponge soaked with wine, drank the wine, said, “It is finished” and died. That wine was the fourth cup of the Passover ritual that began in the Upper Room and symbolized the beginning of the New Covenant.
Stout’s first talk on crucifixion was a presentation on the subject in 1987 to a St. Cecilia youth group. After refining it and adding more specifics about Jesus’ hours on the cross, he began offering it to the public in 1990 and has presented it at his parish on Good Friday nearly every year since then, with 2020 being an exception because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the presentation changes every year as he learns more about the crucifixion.
Stout said he’s spoken at Catholic and non-Catholic churches, to youth groups and prayer groups and has been received especially well at prisons, where he has presented regularly since his prison ministry began in 1996.
“This has resulted in a phenomenal impact at prisons,” he said. “We’ll have 200 men show up for the program, and everyone’s silent. We invite all Christians at whatever institution has the program to come, regardless of denomination, and they can bring their families and friends. We’re always invited back, and I’ve had a number of inmates tell me what a big impact this physical representation of Christ’s sacrifice has had on their lives.”
Stout’s Good Friday presentation this year at St. Cecilia was the first time its pastor, Father Nic Ventura, has seen it.
“It made a great impression because it showed the reality of what Christ went through and the sacrifice He offered,” Father Ventura said. “It allowed me to contextualize the event and see what really happened.”
“I’ve seen the program probably 10 times,” said St. Cecilia parishioner Chris Cheatham. “Tony has such good information. Coming back reminds me each year of the seriousness of sin and the depths of Christ’s love for me.”
Joe Reinhard, who said his family has been part of the parish for most of its 140-year history, said this was probably the sixth time he’s attended the presentation. “Every year, something new catches my attention,” he said. “It’s well worth coming to again and again as a way of continuing to remember what Christ did for all of us.”
For more information about the program, call Stout at (614) 738-8446 or email him at tonystablet12@gmail.com.