I think its very powerful. It makes me feel like Jesus is reminding us of the sanctity of life. That we are killing one of his own. Its a reminder of the brutality of capital punishment and how that has not changed.

And yes there is the question of could the same have happened to him in modern times. What if he was one of the the poor, uneducated, marginised men with no funds to pay for a decent attorney who are frequently convicted to die on little if any evidence.