At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty. At the time crucifixion was the
"worst" death. Only the worst
criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet
it was even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to
death by crucifixion, Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and feet,
rather than tied...
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 for long because of
the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and using his
legs just to continue to breath.
Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, and 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 remember the many wounds made to his body. A hammer driving large nails through the
wrists, the feet overlapped and a nail hammered through the arches, then a
Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
And... 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 was so
horrific that His Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face.
The Crown of thorns (two to three inch 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 after
carrying His own Cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his Face
and threw stones (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight, to which His hands
were nailed).
Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you may have free
access to God and that your sins can be "washed" away.
BUT WAIT! There is Good News! On the 3rd day just as He predicted,
Jesus arose from the dead. We celebrate
His resurrection by calling it Easter.
Jesus walked on the earth which was witnessed by skeptics, the disciples
and more than 500 people over a period of 40 days. Then He ascended into heaven, but He sent His
Spirit to live in us and empower us to live an abundant life. For Him to be your Savior, you must believe
in Him and ask Him into your life to be your Lord and Savior.
Accept the reality, the truth, that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION
FOR THE WORLD.
God has special plans for YOU !
Hope to
see you here for our next study.
__________________________________________
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