He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken. (Isaiah 53:8)

Many people of faith have denied the death of Jesus. The notion that God, or God's son, or even God's true prophet would be allowed public humiliation, torture, and death is too repugnant to accept.

Several early Christians explained away this scandal by teaching that the physical nature of Jesus was an illusion. There were several arguments. One of the more influential was that ultimate reality is spiritual, not physical. Our sense perception is always limited to mere shadows of the ideal. The true Jesus, the Son of the God, was purely spiritual. Therefore the pain and death of the crucifixion is only a symbolic tableau that - however real it seemed - was more an instructional drama than a bloody, agonizing, and frightening death.

This is a very Greek - specifically Socratic/Platonic point-of-view - that any good Jew of the first century - including Jesus - would find troubling.

The material world and our physical condition is a gift of God, according to Jewish tradition. We share both physical and spiritual characteristics of our Creator. The material world is of God. We share the same universe as God. The Jewish tradition perceives that God is still creating, still perfecting, and that we can choose to be partners in this creation. For some there is even a sense that God is depending on us to play our role in the creating and we do so each minute of everyday in how we deal with our relationships in this material reality.

Jesus was in great pain. Pain is common to the human condition. Jesus died. We will each die. This is very real. It is not the only reality.

The Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields performs the Messiah, including this very brief soprano solo, in an excerpt that also includes Thy Rebuke, Behold and See, and Thou did not Leave his Soul in Hell. Handel and Jennes were apparently uncomfortable giving much attention to the actual death.

Above is the Crucifixion by Matthias Grunewald.