It really doesn't seem right that Jesus was crucified upon the cross, but indeed He was. One way to understand this from a different perspective is to recognize the incredible strength of character that is necessitated by sacrificial love; as well as the true liberty of being released from human ego and embracing instead the correct concept that there is an Eternal Justice that ultimately rules all things with impartiality. This would therefore indicate that those that demonstrate mercy and compassion in their actions are closer to understanding what true justice represents than those that believe only in the letter of the law and never the spirit of the law that stands behind it.
In one way, the basic reason why so much of the Old Testament involves sacrificial animals in religious rites is for mankind to try to make peace with its Maker for their mistakes and missteps; so that the whole point of physical sacrifice of animals is to be a representation as well as the precursor of the actual physical/spiritual sacrifice, done so dramatically through Jesus the Christ. This should not though be interpreted so as to believe that it follows that each one of us needs to literally be crucified in service to their fellow mankind, but instead that each us must follow Christ by figuratively crucifying our own ego and selfish desires and thereby becoming reborn into expressing love, joy, kindness, goodness, steadfastness, and self-control in all our interactions with our fellow brethren.
The old law of an eye-for-an-eye may sound like justice to some people; even some people feel this exact way at the present time, but ultimately this is very much a zero sum game that resolves nothing of valued substance. In point of fact, in order to get beyond tit-for-tat philosophies, necessitates that one of the parties so involved, must relinquish its right for like-for-like, and replace such instead, by the virtue of love and mercy for the other, for nothing else will provide the necessary closure that allows mankind to advance to a higher level, rather than remaining grounded in the mud and mire of a lower life form.
If we truly see Christ as the exemplar of our faith, then we must learn our lessons well, and because Christ did not take revenge or vengeance upon those that wronged Him, obviously, this demonstrates in action, that there is a pathway that we need to follow that is over and above our normal perception, which is that the law of mercy and forgiveness trumps the foibles and errors of human injustice, so often masking itself on some level as justice, when it clearly is not.
Again and again, so many people get so caught up in their physicality that they fail to recognize that more than anything our earthly lives are in actuality, a proving ground. If more people were to recognize implicitly as well as explicitly that the real tests in life are actually a test of our true character, they would soon learn to see things and situations in a manner, of which that correct perspective would keep them in focus, and therefore would they be just in their actions, merciful in their treatment, and sacrificial for their people.