Thank You Jesus....
As I sat in church tonight for Good Friday services my mind wandered and took me back to imagine what it would have been like for Jesus those days and hours before He was crucified. I'm sure we can't even come close to trying to comprehend it all, but I sat there with tears in my eyes just thinking about what all He suffered through and all the love He had for me just so I even me, a poor, wretched, disgusting, sinner could spent an eternity with Him in heaven. He could have called ten thousand angles to save Him, He had the power to do that....But He didn't. He died. alone. for. you. and me.
But God, He had it all planned, way even before He created the world. He knew Adam would sin and that we would need a Redeemer, so He sent His Son. His one and only perfect boy to do this work, to save us from our sinful state. That we could have a hope and a future...a home in heaven, if we choose to turn from the darkness and come to the light. You know, we often say, it should have been us hanging there on the cross, we should have died for our sin, and really it should have been us. But even us, we couldn't have done that, God needed someone perfect to do that, and we, or at least I am far from perfect.
But we now have free access to His never ending grace and mercy, and what ever trail or temptation we may be goin through, Jesus will look down upon us and will always be there for us, even before we ask Him for help. What a wonderful wonderful Savior!
And so I end this by saying Thank You Jesus! Thank You for being who You are! I have no other words.
**I ran across this article some Dr. wrote up, about what it probably would have been like for Jesus on his last hours, it really brought it alive to me as I read it. Its incredibly crazy! I just can't imagine the pain.
* Hopefully I'll update in a few days and have a more *happy* story to share when Jesus triumphantly rose from the grave! :) Have a wonderful weekend ya'll, and I challenge each of you to reflect back on this and realize what great a price paid our debt.
Humbly in Christ,
Leigha
But God, He had it all planned, way even before He created the world. He knew Adam would sin and that we would need a Redeemer, so He sent His Son. His one and only perfect boy to do this work, to save us from our sinful state. That we could have a hope and a future...a home in heaven, if we choose to turn from the darkness and come to the light. You know, we often say, it should have been us hanging there on the cross, we should have died for our sin, and really it should have been us. But even us, we couldn't have done that, God needed someone perfect to do that, and we, or at least I am far from perfect.
But we now have free access to His never ending grace and mercy, and what ever trail or temptation we may be goin through, Jesus will look down upon us and will always be there for us, even before we ask Him for help. What a wonderful wonderful Savior!
And so I end this by saying Thank You Jesus! Thank You for being who You are! I have no other words.
**I ran across this article some Dr. wrote up, about what it probably would have been like for Jesus on his last hours, it really brought it alive to me as I read it. Its incredibly crazy! I just can't imagine the pain.
Gethsemane
The physical passion of Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the
many aspects of His initial suffering, the one which is of particular
physiological interest is the bloody sweat. Interestingly enough, the physician,
St. Luke, is the only evangelist to mention this occurrence. He says, "And being
in an agony, he prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood,
trickling down upon the ground" (Luke 22:44 KJV).
Every attempt imaginable has been used by modern scholars
to explain away the phenomenon of bloody sweat, apparently under the mistaken
impression that it simply does not occur. A great deal of effort could be saved
by consulting the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of
hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress,
tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat.
This process alone could have produced marked weakness and possible shock.
Although Jesus' betrayal and arrest are important portions
of the passion story, the next event in the account which is significant from a
medical perspective is His trial before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High
Priest. Here the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus
across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace
guards then blindfolded Him, mockingly taunted Him to identify them as each
passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face.
Before Pilate
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and
worn out from a sleepless night, Jesus was taken across Jerusalem to the
Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of
Judea, Pontius Pilate. We are familiar with Pilate's action in attempting to
shift responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently
suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to
Pilate. It was then, in response to the outcry of the mob, that Pilate ordered
Barabbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.
Preparations for Jesus' scourging were carried out at
Caesar's orders. The prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to
a post above His head. The Roman legionnaire stepped forward with the flagrum,
or flagellum, in his hand. This was a short whip consisting of several heavy,
leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The
heavy whip was brought down with full force again and again across Jesus'
shoulders, back, and legs. At first the weighted thongs cut through the skin
only. Then, as the blows continued, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous
tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of
the skin and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying
muscles.
The small balls of lead first produced large deep bruises
that were broken open by subsequent blows. Finally, the skin of the back was
hanging in long ribbons, and the entire area was an unrecognizable mass of torn,
bleeding tissue. When it was determined by the centurion in charge that the
prisoner was near death, the beating was finally stopped.
Mockery
The half-fainting Jesus was then untied and allowed to
slump to the stone pavement, wet with his own blood. The Roman soldiers saw a
great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They threw a robe
across His shoulders and placed a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still
needed a crown to make their travesty complete. Small flexible branches covered
with long thorns, commonly used for kindling fires in the charcoal braziers in
the courtyard, were plaited into the shape of a crude crown. The crown was
pressed into his scalp and again there was copious bleeding as the thorns
pierced the very vascular tissue. After mocking Him and striking Him across the
face, the soldiers took the stick from His hand and struck Him across the head,
driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tired of their sadistic
sport and tore the robe from His back. The robe had already become adherent to
the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal, just as in the
careless removal of a surgical bandage, caused excruciating pain. The wounds
again began to bleed.
Golgotha
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans apparently
returned His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross was tied across His
shoulders. The procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the
execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion began its slow journey
along the route which we know today as the Via Dolorosa.
In spite of Jesus' efforts to walk erect, the weight of the
heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious loss of blood,
was too much. He stumbled and fell. The rough wood of the beam gouged into the
lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tried to rise, but human muscles
had been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to proceed with
the crucifixion, selected a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to
carry the cross. Jesus followed, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy
sweat of shock. The 650-yard journey from the Fortress Antonia to Golgotha was
finally completed. The prisoner was again stripped of His clothing except for a
loin cloth which was allowed the Jews.
The crucifixion began. Jesus was offered wine mixed with
myrrh, a mild analgesic, pain-reliving mixture. He refused the drink. Simon was
ordered to place the patibulum on the ground, and Jesus was quickly thrown
backward, with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire felt for the
depression at the front of the wrist. He drove a heavy, square wrought-iron nail
through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moved to the other side
and repeated the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to
allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum was then lifted into place at the
top of the stipes, and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews"
was nailed into place.
The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot.
With both feet extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each,
leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim was now crucified.
On the Cross
As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails
in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms
to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the
median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse the mid-wrist and hand. As He
pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full
weight on the nail through His feet. Again there was searing agony as the nail
tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.
At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms
fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep
relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself
upward. Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the
chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the
ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be
exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath.
Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood
stream, and the cramps partially subsided.
The Last Words
Spasmodically, He was able to push Himself upward to exhale
and bring in life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He
uttered the seven short sentences that are recorded.
The first - looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing
dice6 for His seamless garment: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what
they do."
The second - to the penitent thief: "Today, thou shalt be
with me in Paradise."
The third - looking down at Mary His mother, He said:
"Woman, behold your son." Then turning to the terrified, grief-stricken
adolescent John , the beloved apostle, He said: "Behold your mother."
The fourth cry is from the beginning of Psalm 22: "My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
He suffered hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting,
joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as
tissue was torn from His lacerated back from His movement up and down against
the rough timbers of the cross. Then another agony began: a deep crushing pain
in the chest as the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, slowly filled
with serum and began to compress the heart.
The prophecy in Psalm 22:14 was being fulfilled: "I am
poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax;
it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
The end was rapidly approaching. The loss of tissue fluids
had reached a critical level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy,
thick, sluggish blood to the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a
frantic effort to inhale small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues
sent their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasped His fifth cry: "I
thirst." Again we read in the prophetic psalm: "My strength is dried up like a
potsherd; my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust
of death" (Psalm 22:15 KJV).
A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine that was the
staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, was lifted to Jesus' lips. His body was
now in extremis, and He could feel the chill of death creeping through His
tissues. This realization brought forth His sixth word, possibly little more
than a tortured whisper: "It is finished." His mission of atonement had been
completed. Finally, He could allow His body to die. With one last surge of
strength, He once again pressed His torn feet against the nail, straightened His
legs, took a deeper breath, and uttered His seventh and last cry: "Father, into
Your hands I commit My spirit."
Death
The common method of ending a crucifixion was by
crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the leg. This prevented the victim
from pushing himself upward; the tension could not be relieved from the muscles
of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were
broken, but when the soldiers approached Jesus, they saw that this was
unnecessary.
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire
drove his lance between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the
heart. John 19:34 states, "And immediately there came out blood and water." Thus
there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the
blood of the interior of the heart. This is rather conclusive post-mortem
evidence that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of
heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the
pericardium.
Resurrection
In these events, we have seen a glimpse of the epitome of
evil that man can exhibit toward his fellow man and toward God. This is an ugly
sight and is likely to leave us despondent and depressed.
But the crucifixion was not the end of the story. How
grateful we can be that we have a sequel: a glimpse of the infinite mercy of God
toward man--the gift of atonement, the miracle of the resurrection, and the
expectation of Easter morning.
* Hopefully I'll update in a few days and have a more *happy* story to share when Jesus triumphantly rose from the grave! :) Have a wonderful weekend ya'll, and I challenge each of you to reflect back on this and realize what great a price paid our debt.
Humbly in Christ,
Leigha
Wow. I don't even know what to say. Thanks for the eye opener. You know...when I think of Jesus suffering for me, I usually only picture Him up on the cross, dying the terrible death of crucifixion. But what He suffered before being nailed to the cross was probably just as terrible. I can't even begin to understand how much pain and agony He went through on that day...and He did it for ME. Praise Jesus!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Leigha. Very insightful and good to read. Humbling for sure!
ReplyDelete