This month's FREE illustration is a physician's look at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I have read this manuscript for numerous student messages about the power of the cross. I typically read the text over a soundtrack from the movie, The Passion of the Christ.
THE POWER OF THE CROSS
But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many
aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody
sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He
says, "And being in Agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of
blood, trickling down upon the ground."
Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this
description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn't happen. A
great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical
literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well
documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny
capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process
might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin
and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A
soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus.
The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them
as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless
night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of
government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with
Pilate's action in attempting to pass 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 in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered
Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.
There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a
prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two.
Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full
punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the
taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this
pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews.
Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His
clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would
have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an
ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.
The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is
a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead
attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again
and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin
only. Then, as the blows continue, 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 produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by
subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire
area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the
centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet
with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming
to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a
scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches
covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the
shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the
scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from
His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp.
Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already
having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes
excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as
though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum
of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ,
two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins
its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight
of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is
too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the
lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have
been pushed beyond their endurance.
The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African
onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating
the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia
to Golgotha is finally completed.
Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink.
Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown
backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression
at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist
and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action
being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement.
The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet
extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees
moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more
weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the
arms to explode in the brain -- the nails in the writs are putting pressure on the
median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He
places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of
the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles,
knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability
to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and
the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot
be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally,
carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially
subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the
life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven
short sentences recorded:
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?"
Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial
asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up
and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins...A terrible crushing
pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to
compress the heart.
One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: "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."
It is now almost over. 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."
One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: "My strength is dried
up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into
the dust of death."
A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman
legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn't take any of the liquid. 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."
The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the
condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method
of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This
prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus 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 came to Jesus they saw that this was
unnecessary.
Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the
fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart.
The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: "And
immediately there came out blood and water." That is, there was an escape of water
fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord
died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart)
due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
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