Eloi Eloi

Although I wholly believe that Christ died for our sins, was hoisted up upon the tree in vicarious atonement, I began to wonder: "How is it that a shorter crucixion (a few hours, as opposed to the many days that some took) than most could possibly be a sufficient sacrifice for our sins that are infinite and ongoing?"

To put the length of time that Jesus was on the cross into perspective, the Gospel of Mark notes in chapter 15 that Pilate himself was surprised to find out that He was already dead when Joseph of Aramathea came and asked for the body. And this was Pilate, the guy who knew that Jesus was pretty much dead by the time he was put on the cross.

Crucifixion was meant to be an arduous, excrutiating, and symbolic death. It was supposed to kill the person in the public sector, on a hill (like Calvary), and allow the person to stay there for hours or even days, as opposed to the guillotine or a hanging which are generally instantaneous. But it seems like Christ, our final atonement, almost got off easy on the cross. It definitely could have been that, because He was beaten and whipped so severely beforehand, that the death was quicker than most. But our sins weren't forgiven via the Cat of Ninetails, our sins were up on that cross.

And shouldn't a crucifixion that forgives an infinite number of sins take longer and not shorter, whether or not Jesus was beaten beforehand?

Well, it should have, but God doesn't really work that way. In 2 Peter, Chapter 3, verse 8, when he is talking about the second coming and the end of times, it is mentioned that "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day," so it could have been that, to the Christ within Jesus, it could have felt like six days on the cross.

And so I conjecture that, though Jesus himself was only on the cross for a short period of time, Christ was on the cross for such a period of time that our all our sins are being born into him. Jesus gives up his spirit, according to Matthew 27, when he dies, at around the ninth hour, after crying out "Eloi! Eloi! lama Sabachthani!" Jesus had begun to wonder why God had forsaken him. Perhaps this was the moment that Jesus left the Christ.

If Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God, then he can be in two places at once. Or three. or four. I sincerely think that Christ stayed on that cross for days or even months while our infinite sins were transmuted into his body. Jesus, for a time, feels all of this pain, feels all of our sin and our blackness and our vortex of antagonism, and then croaks while the Christ is still in those nine hours, sucking up our sins. The Christ will stay there until his second coming, when he will, without pain but to us, begin his vengeance.

And it's a vengeance we deserve if this is the case.