Like I said before, it is impossible to act what Jesus actually went through for us. Yes, no one can and this article justifies it.
Crucifixion is a method of slow and
painful fatal execution in which a victim is tied or nailed to a large
wooden beam and
left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation.
The following details about
crucifixion were assembled Dr. C. Truman Davis, and published previously in New Wine Magazine.
1. It is the most painful death ever
invented by man and is where we get our term "excruciating."
2. It was reserved primarily for the
most vicious of male criminals.
3. Jesus was stripped naked and His
clothing divided by the Roman guards.
4. The Crucifixion of Jesus
guaranteed a horrific, slow, painful death. Having been nailed the Cross, Jesus
now had an impossible anatomical position to maintain.
5. Jesus' knees were flexed at about
45 degrees, and He was forced to bear His weight with the muscles of His thigh,
which is not an anatomical position which is possible to maintain for more than
a few minutes without severe cramp in the muscles of the thigh and calf.
6. Jesus' weight was borne on His
feet, with nails driven through them. As the strength of the muscles of Jesus'
lower limbs tired, the weight of His body had to be transferred to His wrists,
His arms, and His shoulders.
7. Within a few minutes of being
placed on the Cross, Jesus' shoulders were dislocated. Minutes later Jesus'
elbows and wrists became dislocated.
8. The result of these upper limb
dislocations is that His arms were 9 inches longer than normal, as shown on the
Shroud.
9. In addition prophecy was
fulfilled in Psalm 22:14, "I am poured out like water, and all My bones
are out of joint."
10. After Jesus' wrists, elbows and
shoulders were dislocated, the weight of His body on his upper limbs caused
traction forces on the Pectoralis Major muscles of His chest wall.
11. These traction forces caused His
rib cage to be pulled upwards and outwards, in a most unnatural state. His
chest wall was permanently in a position of maximal respiratory inspiration. To
exhale, Jesus was physiologically required to force His body.
12. To breathe out, Jesus had to
push down on the nails in His feet to raise His body, and allow His rib cage to
move downwards and inwards to expire air from His lungs.
13. His lungs were in a resting
position of constant maximum inspiration. Crucifixion is a medical catastrophe.
14. The problem was that Jesus could
not easily push down on the nails in His feet because the muscles of His legs, bent
at 45 degrees, were extremely fatigued, in severe cramp, and in an anatomically
compromised position.
15. Unlike all Hollywood movies
about the Crucifixion, the victim was extremely active. The crucified victim
was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross, a distance of about
12 inches, in order to breathe.
16. The process of respiration
caused excruciating pain, mixed with the absolute terror of asphyxiation.
17. As the six hours of the
Crucifixion wore on, Jesus was less and less able to bear His weight on His
legs, as His thigh and calf muscles became increasingly exhausted.
There was
increasing dislocation of His wrists, elbows and shoulders, and further
elevation of His chest wall, making His breathing more and more difficult
Within minutes of crucifixion Jesus became severely dyspnoeic (short of
breath).
18. His movements up and down the
Cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in His wrist, His feet, and His
dislocated elbows and shoulders.
19. The movements became less
frequent as Jesus became increasingly exhausted, but the terror of imminent
death by asphyxiation forced Him to continue in His efforts to breathe.
20. Jesus' lower limb muscles
developed excruciating cramp from the effort of pushing down on His legs, to
raise His body, so that He could breathe out, in their anatomically compromised
position.
21. The pain from His two shattered
median nerves in His wrists exploded with every movement.
22. Jesus was covered in blood and
sweat.
23. The blood was a result of the
Scourging that nearly killed Him, and the sweat as a result of His violent
involuntary attempts to effort to expire air from His lungs.
Throughout all
this, He was completely naked, and the leaders of the Jews, the crowds, and the
thieves on both sides of Him were jeering, swearing and laughing at Him. In
addition, Jesus' own mother was watching.
24. Physiologically, Jesus' body was
undergoing a series of catastrophic and terminal events.
25. Because Jesus could not maintain
adequate ventilation of His lungs, He was now in a state of hypoventilation
(inadequate ventilation).
26. His blood oxygen level began to
fall, and He developed Hypoxia (low blood oxygen). In addition, because of His
restricted respiratory movements, His blood carbon dioxide (CO2) level began to
rise, a condition known as Hypercapnia.
27. This rising CO2 level stimulated
His heart to beat faster to increase the delivery of oxygen, and the removal of
CO2.
28. The respiratory center in Jesus'
brain sent urgent messages to his lungs to breathe faster, and Jesus began to
pant.
29. Jesus' physiological reflexes
demanded that He took deeper breaths, and He involuntarily moved up and down
the Cross much faster, despite the excruciating pain.
The agonizing movements
spontaneously started several times a minute, to the delight of the crowd who jeered
Him, the Roman soldiers, and the Sanhedrin.
30. However, due to the nailing of
Jesus to the Cross and His increasing exhaustion, He was unable to provide more
oxygen to His oxygen-starved body.
31. The twin forces of Hypoxia (too
little oxygen) and Hypercapnia (too much CO2) caused His heart to beat faster
and faster, and Jesus developed Tachycardia.
32. Jesus' heart beat faster and
faster, and His pulse rate was probably about 220 beats/ minute, the maximum
normally sustainable.
33. Jesus had drunk nothing for 15
hours, since 6 p.m. the previous evening. Jesus had endured a scourging, which
nearly killed Him.
34. He was bleeding from all over
His body following the scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in His wrists
and feet, and the lacerations following His beatings and falls.
35. Jesus was already very
dehydrated, and His blood pressure fell alarmingly.
36. His blood pressure was probably
about 80/50.
37. He was in First Degree Shock,
with Hypovolaemia (low blood volume), Tachycardia (excessively fast Heart
Rate), Tachypnoea (excessively fast Respiratory Rate), and Hyperhidrosis
(excessive sweating).
38. By about noon, Jesus' heart
probably began to fail.
39. Jesus' lungs probably began to
fill up with Pulmonary Oedema.
40. This only served to exacerbate
His breathing, which was already severely compromised.
41. Jesus was in Heart Failure and
Respiratory Failure.
42. Jesus said, "I thirst"
because His body was crying out for fluids.
43. Jesus was in desperate need of
an intravenous infusion of blood and plasma to save His life.
44. Jesus could not breathe properly
and was slowly suffocating to death.
45. At
this stage, Jesus probably developed a Haemopericardium.
46. Plasma and blood gathered in the
space around His heart, called the Pericardium.
47. This fluid around His heart
caused Cardiac Tamponade (fluid around His heart, which prevented Jesus' heart
from beating properly).
48. Because of the increasing
physiological demands on Jesus' heart, and the advanced state of
Haemopericardium, Jesus probably eventually sustained Cardiac Rupture. His
heart literally burst. This was probably the cause of His death.
49. To slow the process of death the
soldiers put a small wooden seat on the Cross, which would allow Jesus the
"privilege" of bearing His weight on his sacrum.
50. The effect of this was that it
could take up to nine days to die on a Cross.
51. When the Romans wanted to
expedite death they would simply break the legs of the victim, causing the
victim to suffocate in a matter of minutes. This was called Crucifragrum.
52. At three o'clock in the
afternoon Jesus said, "Tetelastai," meaning, "It is
finished." At that moment, He gave up His Spirit, and He died.
53. When the soldiers came to Jesus
to break His legs, He was already dead. Not a bone of His body was broken, in
fulfillment of prophecy.
54. Jesus died after six hours of
the most excruciating and terrifying torture ever invented.
Culled
*If Jesus loves me this much to go through this for me, what won't He do for me?
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