THE CROSS
Garden of Gethsemane
Jesus knew the amount of suffering he was going to have to
endure
He was quite naturally experiencing a great deal of
psychological stress
Sweating Blood
A medical condition called hematidosis. Severe anxiety causes
the release of chemicals that break down the capillaries in the
sweat glands. As a result, there is a small amount of bleeding
into these glands. This would cause the skin to be extremely
fragile so that when Jesus was flogged by the Roman soldiers,
the next day, His skin would be very, very sensitive.
Flogging
This usually consisted of thirty-nine lashes, but could be more
depending on the mood of the soldier applying the blows. The
soldiers would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal
balls woven into them, as well as pieces of sharp bone. The
whip would bruise and cut so severely, that the back of Jesus
would become so shredded that, as happened in some cases,
part of His spine could be exposed. The whipping went from
the shoulder, down the back, the buttocks and the back of the
legs. The lacerations would have torn into the underlying
skeletal muscle and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding
flesh. Many people would die from this kind of beating even
before they could be crucified. Jesus would have experienced
tremendous pain and gone into hypovolemic shock.
1
Hypo means low (blood pressure) and emic means blood.
Hypovolemic shock meant that Jesus would be suffering the
effects of losing a large amount of blood. This meant four
things:
1. The heart races to try to pump blood that just isn’t
there.
2. The blood pressure drops, causing fainting or collapse.
3. The kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what
volume is left.
4. The person becomes very thirsty.
Jesus was already in serious to critical condition even before
the nails were driven through His hands and feet.
The Crucifixion
The Romans used spikes five to seven inches long (150 cm) and
tapered to a sharp point, and drove them through the wrist
passing through and crushing the medial nerve. The pain would
be absolutely unbearable beyond words to describe. A new
word was invented, excruciating, which literally means out of
the cross.
Jesus would have been nailed to the crossbar on the ground
and then hoisted up and attached to the vertical pole. Then
nails were driven through His feet. Again, the nerve in His
foot would have been crushed with resulting excruciating pain.
First His arms would have been immediately stretched,
probably about six inches in length, and both shoulders would
have become dislocated.
Psalm 22 “My bones are out of joint.”
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Once Jesus was hanging in the vertical position, crucifixion was
essentially an agonizing slow death by asphyxiation. The
stresses on His muscles and diaphragm would have put His
chest into the inhaled position. In order to exhale, Jesus
would have to push up on His feet so the tension on His
muscles could be eased for a moment. In doing so, the nails
would tear through His foot, eventually locking up against His
tarsal bones. After managing to exhale, Jesus would be able
to relax and take another breath. Every time He raised
Himself up He would scrape His bloodied body against the
coarse wood of the cross. With time His body would undergo
severe cramps and spasmodic contractions. Eventually
complete exhaustion would take over until He could not push up
to breathe. The hypovolemic shock would have caused a
sustained rapid heart rate that would have contributed to
heart failure, resulting in the collection of fluids in the
membrane around the heart and lungs. When the soldier
thrust his spear into the side of Jesus, this fluid came out
with the blood.
There was absolutely no doubt that Jesus was dead.
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