What Is Crucifixion
Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>
A medical doctor provides a physical description: The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards 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 deep into 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 flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backwards against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain- the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small 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 life-giving oxygen. Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against 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. 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 tissues-the tortured lungs are making frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues...Finally, he can allow his body to die... All this the Bible records with the simple words, "and they crucified Him" (Mark 15:24). What wondrous love is this? Many people don't know that pain and suffering our Lord, Jesus Christ went through for us...because of the brutality, crucifixion was given a sentence to only its worst offenders of the law. Thieves, murderers, and rapists would be the types of creeps who got crucified. Yet, here Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals...What did Jesus do? Did he murder anyone? Did he steal anything? The answer as we all know is NO!! Jesus did nothing to deserve this type of death, yet he went willing to die, in between 2 thieves, so that we might be saved. And there, in between the sinners, was our savior slain for our sins.
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He could hear the crowds screaming "crucify, crucify" . . .
He could hear the hatred in their voices,
These were his chosen people.
He loved them,
And they were going to crucify him.
He was beaten, bleeding and weakened . . . His heart was broken,
But still He walked.
He could see the crowd as he came from the palace.
He knew each of the faces so well.
He had created them.
He knew every smile, laugh, and shed tear,
But they were contorted with rage and anger . . .
His heart broken,
But still He walked.
Was He scared?
You and I would have been
So his humanness would have mandated that He was.
He felt alone.
His disciples had left, denied, and even betrayed Him.
He searched the crowd for a loving face and he saw very few.
Then he turned His eyes to the only one that mattered.
And he knew that He would never be alone.
He looked back at the crowd, at the people who were spitting
at Him, throwing rocks at Him and mocking Him and He knew
that because of Him, they would never be alone.
So for them, He walked.
The sounds of the hammer striking the spikes echoed through
the crowd. The sounds of his cries echoed even louder,
the cheers of the crowd, as His hands and feet
were nailed to the cross, intensified with each blow.
Loudest of all was the still small voice inside His heart
that whispered "I am with you, my Son."
And God's heart broke.
He had let His Son walk.
Jesus could have asked God to end his suffering,
but instead He asked God to forgive.
Not to forgive Him, but to forgive the ones who were persecuting Him
as He hung on that cross, dying an unimaginable death.
He looked out and saw, not only the faces in the crowd,
but also, the face of every person yet to be,
and His heart filled with love.
As His body was dying, His heart was alive.
Alive with the limitless, unconditional love He feels for each of us.
That is why He walked.
When I forget how much My God loves me,
I remember His walk.
When I wonder if I can be forgiven,
I remember His walk.
When I need reminded of how to live like Christ,
I think of His walk.
And to show him how much I love him,
I wake up each morning, turn my eyes to Him,
And I walk.
Have a Blessed Day
Dave and Barbara
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