Crucified.


In light of Easter weekend, I wanted to spend the three day weekend reflecting on what Christ did for us. I think so many times it is sugarcoated or we don't spend enough time recognizing and realizing the pain and suffering he went through, while at the same time, the fight that was been won. Good friday was the day Christ was crucified, and I'm sure we all know that he was whipped, and then nailed to the cross, but i know I myself find it difficult to imagine that, so I looked it up, and here's a brief description of how it all went down that day.

Even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus was praying on the Mount of Olives and it says in scripture that he had sweat blood (Luke 22:44). Medically speaking, this is called hemathidrosis. This happens under great emotional stress and it causes capillaries in the sweat glads to break, thus causing blood to flow instead of sweat.

When he was condemned to crucifixion, he was already in a battered state. He had been spat on, he had be struck in the head, he was dehydrated and exhausted to begin with, and that was just the very beginning.

Flogging is the whipping involved. They used a flagrum, which is a whip with several balls of lead at the end, as Christ was whipped, they would first bruise him, but the continual whipping would lead to cuts in the skin, and eventually the tissues, and blood vessels as well.

They mocked our Lord, they threw on a robe, gave him a stick as a staff and placed on his head a crown of thorns. The scalp is known to carry a lot of blood, thus he bled immensely as the thorns pierced through. Im sure they weren't careful with it either, they probably didn't place it on, they had probably pressed it on, and I can already feel how it could have felt. Like an itchy hat but 100x worse if not more. They soon decided to also tear off the robe they gave him, but the cloth had already stuck to his wounds, and when they did, it caused more damage, ripping off whatever had stuck.

The cross was given for him to carry to Golgotha, where was to be crucified, but at that moment, it was already too much for the human body to bear, even with the rough wood scraping into his wounds.

Nails were driven through both his wrists and through the arch of his two feet, and when pulled up into position, his entire weight was on his feet. This was a slow death, it eventually lead to cramps, inability to breathe and lift himself up for air. All the wounds led to serum (proteins in the blood) that filled his chest cavity, applying pressure on the heart. John 19:34 says that they pierced his side to ensure that Christ was dead before taking him off the cross, and because blood and water flowed out his side, it shows out Lord did die, it was a fact, and that it was from heart failure.

While I was reading this, it was difficult to envision and imagine, and I could imagine how painful it could be, but I would never understand the severity of it. Not only was it painful, but it was publicly humiliating in the biggest way, to be stripped of his clothing, to be walking, wet in his blood, and to be hung for everyone to see and watch as he tried to gasp for air. What we have to realize is that he did that for you and me. He died in the most excruciatingly painful way for us, as the perfect, sinless sacrifice for our sins, so that we could have life after death when we didn't deserve it, and that we could be made right, reconciled to God.

Sometimes I think and I have no idea why he did that, why he would do that for me, what did I do to deserve this, but I did nothing, and he followed and obeyed God's will out of complete love for us, held out the gift of salvation freely, for us to take even though we were not worthy. It's difficult to comprehend, but when you do, its the greatest joy and you give nothing but thanks and your life to follow and serve someone who loves you that much.

But the story doesn't end there...

medical analysis from HERE.
more information found HERE.

verse of the day: Philippians 2:8
8
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! 

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