Many Faces of Jesus: Arrest and Execution

I read several of the articles containing descriptions of Jesus' execution as well as some regarding his behavior before execution. Jesus had participated in a large Passover festival in Jerusalem shortly before his death. These events generally caused unrest within the Roman government because when a large population of like minded subjects got together, it was not a far stretch to assume some kind of rebellion was afoot. Later, Jesus began preaching his views and behaving outside the bounds of the social norm throughout the entire area of Judea. This upset a lot Jews and ultimately lead to Jesus being turned in to the Romans (It is not quite clear whether or not someone actually told the Romans that Jesus was "causing problems" or if the Romans just figured he could be a source of unrest within their empire, either way, the end result was the same). So Jesus ended up on the cross. Crucifixion was used, at the time, as a way to publicly humiliate the offenders and set an example for the rest of the population. To crucify someone was actually a carefully planned process which involved contorting a person's body in such a manner that they actually crushed their own lungs and slowly, over the course of a couple of days, asphyxiated whilst the officers whipped and tortured the offender. This is how Jesus was killed.

I think that this violently brutal execution helped to Idolize Jesus as a figure in the christian faith. It serves not as an example of what not to do in order to avoid punishment by the Romans rather serves to make the Jews and Romans look like the bad guys and prove Jesus' love. For if he went through all that suffering for us, he must be truly compassionate. (or so may be the thought process of a believer)