The only good thing about this goo Friday is that we fasted along with people from around the world to ask for the people who are affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. We have been inside our home now for three weeks and it looks like it will continue for another month.
Going back on that first Good Friday, Christ was crucified for our sins. He began to atone for our sins in the Garden, but that was not where His pain ended. Let’s talk about the crucification process for a few minutes. We know He was nailed to the cross, but do we realize what that meant?
The Romans were the masters of crucification...they had been doing it for a long time. Normally, they would tie the person to the cross, but when they wanted it to hurt, they used nails strategically placed to do it. One nail was placed in each wrist, driven through a nerve that runs from the hand all the way up to the shoulder.
The arms were not stretched straight out...they were slightly bent at the elbows. This allowed the person to pull themselves up to be able to breathe after the diaphragm had been stretched so tight they couldn’t get air out of their lungs. However, this only lasted a short time, as the person’s joints would start to separate from the body’s weight pulling down on the arms. This could add an additional number of feet to the length of your arms as your shoulders, elbows, and wrists dislocated.
To counter the inability of being able to pull yourself up with your arms to breathe, the Romans would put a small stand under the feet of the person. Their feet would be nailed, one over the other, at about a 45° angle over this shelf, as well as allowing a bend in their knees. As they eventually couldn’t lift them selves to breathe with their arms, this allowed them to push themselves up with their legs...until such time as lack of oxygen caused the leg muscles to cramp so bad, they couldn’t even do this.
For this reason, along with the loss of blood Jesus had already suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, from being whipped by the Romans, from having a crown of thorns literally pushed into his head, and from dehydration, because of His inability to get oxygen.
Christ only uttered 7 short sentences while on the cross.
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said, “Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.”
The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”
The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.”
The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.” His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.
With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
Now, in order to speed the crucification process up, as it was possible for a person tied to a cross to live for days, pushing themselves up with their feet to breathe, the Romans, after a while, would break the legs of the person hanging there so they couldn’t use their legs to push themselves up, causing them to hang there and suffocate, but what about Christ?
In prophecy, it was written that He would be whole, that no bones would be broken. Think about previous sacrifices. People were told that the lamb had to be the first of the year. It couldn’t have blemishes. It had to be whole, with no broken bones. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was to replace the practice of animal sacrifice, and so he could have no blemishes or broken bones. When the Soldier went to break Jesus’ legs, he discovered that Christ was already dead. To verify this, the Soldier thrust a spear into His side, up into his chest cavity.
“But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” Let’s look at this Scripture from John and what it means. When a persons heart is stressed because of lack of oxygen, blood can leak into the pericardial sac. As it sits there, the plasma separates from the blood, creating a clear, water like fluid. As the pericardial sac fills, it can cause the heart to rupture. So e medical experts have surmised that, because of this verse, it was determined that Christ didn’t die of asphyxiation...he literally died of a broken heart.
Christ atoned for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, but we sometimes forget that the pain He felt in the Garden actually continued on as he hung on the cross. What love must He have had to endure this for every one of us. I hope one day, I will get a chance to thank him in person.
Con amor,
Vero
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