Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ

"And to think He went through all this just for us ... "

The physical trauma of Christ begins in Gethsemane

with one of the initial aspects of His suffering ... the bloody

sweat.  It is interesting that the physician of the group,

St. Luke, 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."

Though very rare, the phenomenon of hemathidrosis, or

bloody sweat, is well documented.  Under great

emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can

break, thus mixing blood with sweat.  This process

alone could have produced marked

weakness and possible shock.

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was

brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High

Priest.  A soldier struck Jesus across the face for

remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas.  The

 palace guards then blindfolded Him and mockingly taunted

Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat on

 Him, and struck Him in the face.

In the early morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated,

 and exhausted from a sleepless night, is taken across

Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia.  It

was there, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate

 ordered Barabbas released and condemned

Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

Preparations for the scourging are carried out.  The prisoner is

 stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above

His head.  The Roman legionnaire steps forward with

the flagrum in his hand.  This is a short whip consisting of severa

l heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached

 to 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 heavy thongs cut through the skin only.  Then,

as the blows continue, they cut deeper into 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 and

bleeding tissue.  When it is determined by the centurion in

charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is 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 a king.  They throw a robe across His

shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. 

A small bundle of flexible branches covered with

long thorns is pressed into His scalp.

Again there is copious bleeding (the scalp being one of the

 most vascular areas in 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.  This had

already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the

wounds, and its removal, just as in the careless removal of

 a surgical bandage, cause excruciating pain ... almost as

though He were again being whipped, and the

wounds again begin to bleed.

The heavy beam of the cross is then tied across His shoulders,

and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves

and the execution detail, begins its slow journey.  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.

At Golgotha, the beam is placed on the ground and Jesus

is 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 in the wood.   Quickly,

he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful

 not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion

and movement.  The beam is then lifted in place at the

 top of the posts and the titulus reading "Jesus of

Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place.

The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and

with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through

the arch of each.  As he pushes Himself upward to avoid

the stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail

through His feet.  Again there is the searing agony of the nail

through His feet.  Again there is the searing agony of

the nail tearing through the nerves between the

metatarsal bones through the feet.

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

 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.

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending

cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as

 tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves

up and down against the rough timber.  Then another

 agony begins.  A deep crushing pain deep in the chest

as the pericardium slowly fills with serum

and begins to compress the heart.

The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick,

sluggish blood into the tissues.  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, "I thirst."

He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. 

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."

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. 

Immediately there came out blood and water.  We therefore

 have rather conclusive postmortem evidence that Our

 Lord died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but

of heart failure due to shock and constriction

of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

Author Truman Davis

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