I received a message titled: The Scientific Death of Jesus which I want to share with you today, Good Friday. I am not the author and I do not know who the author is to give credit. Read, reflect and embrace what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went through for our sakes.
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to death.
At the time, crucifixion was the worst death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified, yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus. Unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was six to eight inches long.
The nails were driven into His wrist, not His palms as is commonly portrayed. There is a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that the tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support Himself so He could breath.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support Himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using His legs just to continue to breath.
Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over three hours.
Yes – Three hours! Can you imagine that kind of suffering?
A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from His wounds. From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side. But do we realise the wounds were also made in His body? Before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. the whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and His beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 litres of blood. Jesus poured all 3.5 litres of His blood. He had three nails hammered into His body; a crown of thorns on His head and beyond that, a Roman soldier stabbed a spear into His side.
All these without mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own cross for almost two kilometres while the crowd spat in His face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30kg of weight for the top part alone).
Jesus had to endure this experience to open the gates of heaven so that you and I can have access to God. So that our sins could be washed away – all of them, with no exception!
The first time I read this, I cried. What my Saviour went through – the agony, the suffering, the shame – just so that I could have access and you could have access to the Father.
It seems ironic to call today Good Friday when Jesus went through all that which was so far from being good.
But it was a good Friday – it was a great Friday. Jesus Christ was victorious over death, hell and the grave and because of that day, we can live in that victory today.
I hope today you can spend some time reflecting on the price Christ paid for us. Walk in victory, no matter what you’re facing today because He already won the battle for us.
Love and blessings
Ana x
Steadfast Love 