|
Sin is ugly. In fact, God
hates it! God’s church (His
Body on earth) hates sin too,
but there is such a fine line
for us that we sometimes end up
hating the sinner instead of his
sin. God doesn’t have that
problem. He loved the sinner so
much that He allowed His Son to
die in their place because of
ugly sin in their lives.
God allowed the ugly scene at
Calvary to take place motivated
by His love for us in spite of
our sin. The beauty of it is
that we who have accepted God’s
Love Gift have been separated
from our sin, washed clean by
the blood that Jesus shed at
that ugly scene while bearing
our sins upon Himself.
Every Christian knows that,
but do we really consider what
took place there on that cross?
What Jesus, as fully man while
fully God, endured – for us!
A poignant report came out in
the March 21, 1986 issue of The
Journal of the American Medical
Association that gives us a
painful picture of the
sufferings of Jesus. I find it
difficult to read, because of
the pain it portrays; but we
need to know this. We need to
remind ourselves of the price
Jesus paid to spare us the awful
sin-debt.
They began the article
authored by William D. Edwards,
MD; J. Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv;
Floyd E. Hosmer, MS, AMI with
this: “…It is our intent to
present not a theological
treatise but rather a medically
and historically accurate
account of the physical death of
the one called Jesus Christ.”
They draw the information in the
article from a number of
different credible sources.
They list more than 30
references, so this was not a
frivolous article. It was a
lengthy informative treatise.
I’ve chosen the parts that will
help us see the human suffering
of our Lord as He took our
place. This should have been
our penalty!
The Passover was observed in
the upper room of a home in
southwest Jerusalem after which
Jesus and His disciples walked
to the Mount of Olives,
northeast of the city. In the
Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus
sought His Father as He faced
the greatest challenge of His
life on earth. Luke (a
physician) recorded that His
sweat became like “great drops
of blood” (Luke 22:44) because
of His anguish over the coming
events.
The article notes that
“Although this is a very rare
phenomenon, blood sweat (hematidrosis
or hemohidrosis) may occur in
highly emotional states…As a
result of hemorrhage into the
sweat glands, the skin becomes
fragile and tender…Jesus’ actual
blood loss probably was
minimal. However, in the cold
night air, it may have produced
chills.”
Not long after midnight,
Jesus was arrested by temple
officials as His betrayer Judas
(with a kiss!) identified Him to
the officers. Jesus was taken
to the special-called night
court of the political Sanhedrin
before Caiaphas, the Jewish high
priest, and found guilty of the
serious crime of blasphemy.
The guards blindfolded Jesus,
spat on Him and even struck Him
in the face with their fists.
Then Jesus was tried before the
religious Sanhedrin (with the
Pharisees and the Sadducees) and
was again found guilty of
blasphemy, a crime punishable by
death.
The Jews could not carry out
the execution without permission
from the governing Romans, so
Jesus was taken early in the
morning to the governor, Pontius
Pilate, in order to procure
permission to carry out their
conspiratorial plan to kill
Jesus. Their charges against
Jesus changed to appeal to
Pilate; Jesus was accused of
insurrection because He claimed
to be a king who would undermine
the rule of Rome. Pilate made
no charges and send them on to
the tetrarch of Judea, Herod
Antipas.
Herod as well made no
official charges and returned
them to Pilate who knew there
were no legal charges worthy of
the death the temple officials
were demanding. It was at the
urging of the mob that had
gathered and been stirred by the
temple gang that Pilate gave
Jesus over to them to be
scourged and crucified. He
symbolically washed his hands of
the verdict and punishment, but
it was his consent that allowed
it to happen.
Looking at the scene from
where Jesus was, we see that for
the past twelve hours, he had
been betrayed, arrested, abused
by the arresting officers,
suffered great emotional stress
in the Garden, abandoned by his
closest friends and was beaten
after the first trial. Remember
too that He had had no sleep, no
food and had been forced to walk
more than two and a half miles
to the various trials.
Let’s look at the scourging
that Pilate ordered, which was
typical procedure before a Roman
crucifixion. The instrument
used was a short whip with
several single or braided
leather thongs of variable
lengths, in which small iron
balls or sharp pieces of sheep
bones were tied at intervals.
Sometimes staves were used.
Jesus was stripped of His
clothes, His hands tied behind
His back and then He was tied to
a post.
The Journal reports it this
way: “The back, buttocks and
legs were flogged either by two
soldiers or by one who
alternated positions. The
severity of the scourging…was
intended to weaken the victim to
a state just short of collapse
or death.” After the scourging,
Jesus was humiliated and taunted
by the soldiers. The report
continues with this: “As the
Roman soldiers repeatedly struck
the victim’s back with full
force, the iron balls would
cause deep contusions, and the
leather thongs and sheep bones
would cut into the skin and
subcutaneous tissues…as the
flogging continued, the
lacerations would tear into the
underlying skeletal muscles and
produce quivering ribbons of
bleeding flesh. Pain and blood
loss generally set the stage for
circulatory shock.”
The Roman soldiers amused
themselves by mocking Jesus as
they placed a robe on His
bleeding shoulders and pressed a
crown made of thorns on His
head. They placed a staff in
His hand as a scepter and then
they spat on Him and hit Him on
the head with the staff.
Imagine the pain when they
ripped the robe from His torn
shoulders reopening the wounds
made by the scourging!
In His weakened condition,
Jesus was compelled to carry the
crossbar (patibulum) of His own
cross. The 75-125 pound
crossbar was placed across the
nape of His neck; His arms were
stretched out, pulling at the
torn flesh on His shoulders, and
His hands were tied to the bar.
Naked, He was forced to walk
toward the hillside where the
permanent upright part of the
cross (stipes) awaited the final
act of crucifixion. The Bible
records that Jesus was so weak
from the scourging and abuse by
the soldiers that a man named
Simon was compelled to carry the
patibulum for Him to the place
of the crucifixion.
Jesus was thrown on the
ground on His aching, bleeding
back again tearing open the
wounds now contaminated with
dirt as they prepared Him for
the final act of the
crucifixion. With His arms
outstretched, His wrists were
nailed to the patibulum. From
the article: “Although a nail
in either location in the wrist
might pass between the bony
elements and thereby produce no
fractures, the likelihood of
painful periosteal injury would
seem great…the driven nail would
crush or sever the rather large
sensorimotor median nerve…would
produce excruciating bolts of
fiery pain in both arms.”
His feet were “fixed to the
front of the stipes by an iron
five- to seven-inch square-shank
spike driven through the first
or second intermetartarsal
space…It is likely that the deep
peroneal nerve and branches of
the medial and lateral plantar
nerves would have been injured
by the nails.”
The article mentions
something that I never even
imagined to increase the horror
that Jesus suffered—the buzzing
insects that attempted to light
upon or burrow into the open
wounds or even His eyes, ears
and nose; the birds of prey
tearing at the wounds.
Beyond all the excruciating
pain of the crucifixion was the
interference to Jesus’
breathing, especially when He
exhaled. From the article:
“…the weight of the body,
pulling down on the outstretched
arms and shoulders, would tend
to fix the intercostal muscles
in an inhalation state and
thereby hinder passive
exhalation…breathing was
shallow...muscle cramps or
titanic contractions, due to
fatigue and hypercarbia, would
hinder respiration even
further. Adequate exhalation
required lifting the body by
pushing up on the feet and by
flexing the elbows and adducting
the shoulders….would place the
entire weight of the body on the
tarsals and would produce
searing pain.”
“Lifting of the body would
also painfully scrape the
scourged back against the rough
wood…each respiratory effort
would become agonizing, tiring
and lead eventually to
asphyxia.”
The article went on to say
“Other possible contributing
factors…dehydration,
arrhythmias, congestive heart
failure.” While physically this
was an accurate account, we know
that it was our sins that killed
Him! All that the “ugly
picture” portrays was to have
been ours had He not freely
subjected Himself to the cruel
punishment and shame of the
cross in our place.
How can anyone ignore such
Love? How can we not increase
our efforts to let others know
what Jesus did for them? It
would require more pages here to
tell the rest of the story and
fill in the physical, mental and
emotional agonies and
excruciating pain that He bore –
for us! But let us concentrate
on just this much and be ever so
thankful for what we have
because of what Jesus did.
The depth of Jesus’ physical,
mental and emotional suffering
is hard, painful to think on;
but it wasn’t the worse part of
what He bore. Penalty for sin
is separation from God. To me
that would be the greatest
horror I could imagine.
Remember what Jesus cried from
the cross, “My God, My God, why
hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew
27:46). In His heart, He knew;
but in His flesh as a man, He
experienced the vacuum without
God. I find that
breathtaking—to be in that
vacuum! Whatever hell will be
like, that surely must be the
worse part of it, being
separated from the presence of
God!
The suffering is the “ugly”
part. It’s also the necessary
part, but the story doesn’t end
there. The beautiful part is
that we don’t have to go through
the “ugly” phase; it’s behind us
because of what Jesus did. You
see, the beauty is that the
cross was not the end of the
story.
After Jesus was placed in the
tomb, filling their hearts with
the sorrow of His death, His
followers retreated to mourn.
The “Son” whose light they had
walked in and given their lives
to had set, and now it was
midnight for them. It was all
over; their hopes and dreams
dashed to pieces.
Ah! But it was not over! On
that glorious resurrection
morning, the “Son” again rose!
The brightest day in the history
of the world had dawned.
Redemption had been purchased
with a price that none of us
could ever have paid, and we
were handed a document “Sin Debt
Canceled”! All the suffering
was over; the enemy conquered;
we were free and Jesus reigned
over death, hell and the
grave—forever!
Hallelujah! Rejoice and
share the good news!
The “Son” has risen!
Delores Adams
Copyrighted. All rights
reserved.
|
