Spirit-Digest

At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails were driven into His wrist. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's 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 tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.

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 breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours. Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this 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 realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even large nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But 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 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.

Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest. All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed out after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed). Jesus had to endure this experience, so that we can have free access to God. So that our sins could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! --Thx JC

This was no ordinary crucifixion
Impalement of the wrists AND feet is not survivable for 3 days. Most of the time victims were tied to the cross beam and ankles or feet nailed. Nails through the wrist would have transfixed the radial nerve and would have been a catastrophic injury to the hands rendering them permanently unusable. The thumbs would have pointed down for the rest of the person's life. Uninterrupted bursts of searing, breath-taking-pain assault the brain whenever a major nerve is touched, much less transfixed. I don't think Pilate realized that the high priest would have Christ impaled, not tied to the cross. This explains his surprise at the early death.

Ropes were not used for Christ. Firstly, he gave no resistance and secondly such would have made the torture easier to bear, if that is possible since he would not be suspended by nails transfixing major nerves. Christ hung totally suspended by his wounds on shoulders torn from their sockets. Moreover, his shoulders and hips were deliberately dislocated by an enraged crucifiers prompted by Satan hoping to make him suffer at much as possible. Psalm 22 clearly describes joints being dislocated. This cruelty is unimaginable. So unimaginable that no one thought any man, much less a god, would submit to it. It is only by his will alone and desire to save us that he endured for 3 hours.

Crucifixion victims WERE NOT normally scourged as even the Romans considered it to brutal and it would reduce time on the cross. The gospels clearly imply that this befell Jesus as a last ditch effort by Pilate to punish the Savior to appease the savage crowd and perhaps avoid capital punishment. In the Gospel of Luke Christ states to the apostles that he would be crucified AND scourged. He would not have separated these tortures if scourging was understood to be part of the horrifying punishment. Scourging would cut short the life of anyone surviving it to be crucified. The stripes which covered him from head to toe remind of the pattern on quickly baked unleavened bread.

The crown of thorns a was unique, unheard of cruelty. His sacred head was slammed against wood during the nailing, driving thorns deeper. On the cross he could not even put his head back. Thorns represents the punishment due original sin that came into the world due to pride. In the Bible there is a prophecy of the thorn bush boasting it is fit to rule over the other trees. Thorns are mentioned in the Bible the first time when God informs Adam that he will contend with them to earn his bread. The pride in the thorn is permanently defeated on the cross

I think it was his will to die for us that kept him alive for the crucifixion ritual. From head to toe there was not one inch of his body that was not screaming in agony. Hanging on dislocated shoulder, shooting cramps in the lower back and leg muscles but he continued for three hours. The blood loss surely dehydrated him, yet he refused anesthetic drink when it was offered. He only mentions his towering thirst just before death. The scourging and thorns would have killed most men. I do not see how he lasted 3 hours and even managed to console the thief and his holy mother.

As violent as "Passion of The Christ Was", and that was enough to earn a "R" rating and cause undiscerning Catholic Bishops around the world to condemn the movie, even this movie's barbarity pales compared to what actually too place. I don't see how the Blessed Mother survived the trauma, shock and grief.

May all of humanity see his sign in the sky and come to understand the nature of a loving, merciful God who altered the course of humanity on this special day, and may that time come quickly --Judy Gassett

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