At that time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. It was even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion Jesus had done nothing wrong but was still nailed to the cross by His hands and feet rather than tied to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist, not into His palms as commonly portrayed. There is a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that the tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support Himself so that He could breathe.
Both of His feet were nailed together, thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support Himself with His legs for long because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and using His legs just to continue to breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, and the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours. Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding; He was simply pouring water from His wounds.
From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side... But do we remember the many wounds made to his body? A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and a nail through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. Before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and beaten. The beating was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body and face, His beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp. Normal men would not have survived this torture.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 5 liters (just over a gallon) of blood. Jesus poured out all 5 liters of his blood; He had 3 nails hammered into His body; a crown of thorns on His head; and a Roman soldier stabbed a spear into His side... All these without mentioning the humiliation He endured. He carried His own cross for almost 2 kilometers (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight) while the crowd spat in His face, threw stones at Him, and laughed at Him.
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The above is the scientific death of Jesus Christ; this was an email that I received.
Do you know why Jesus went through all of this? He did this for you and me because of His love for us. He had to endure all of this so that we would have free access to God. So that yours and my sins can be "washed" away, if we only believe in Him. John 3:16; "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".
JESUS CHRIST
DIED FOR YOU AND ME!
May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord!
2 comments:
FANTASTIC post! I cried as I read it. What a great picture of what Jesus endured for each one of us! And to know that if I were the only human being on the planet, He would have done it still...just for me! What kind of love is this!
Thank you for this beautiful post!
Love you, Mama!
LOVE this! It is so hard to think of all He went through. And He did it for me!? Wow.
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