The Father's Love

I've been semi-reading books I was assigned to read for class at Rockford Master's Commission, but never really read. Oops!

One of these books is The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. The whole premise of the book is Lee Strobel, a former atheist, investigates Jesus' life, death and resurrection and asks professionals in different fields (doctors, science, Hebrew scholars, etc.) to give evidence that proves everything we've read about Christ is true and really happened.

I skimmed through much of the book, then I hit this part in the 11th chapter of the book. It's under the heading of "The Torture Before the Cross".

Strobel at this point is interviewing Alexander Metherell, M.D., PH.D. Metherell has the medical and scientific credentials to tell how the crucifixion really went down.

At this point in the interview, Strobel asks Metherell to paint a picture of what happened to Jesus before the crucifixion.

Here are some experts that just blow my mind:

I raised my hand to stop him. "Whoa- here's where the skeptics have a field day," I told him. "The gospels tell us he began to sweat blood at this point. Now, c'mon, isn't that just a product of some overactive imaginations? Doesn't that call into question the accuracy of the gospel writers?"

Unfazed, Metherell shook his head. "Not at all," he replied. "This is a known medical condition called hematidrosis. It's not very common, but it is assocciated with a high degree of psychological stress.

What happens is that sever anxiety cause the release of chemicals that break down the capillaries in the sweat glands. As a result, there's a small amount of bleeding into these glands, and the sweat comes out tinged with blood. We're not talking about a lot of blood; its just a very, very small amount."

Though a bit chastened, I pressed on. "Did this have any other effect on the body?"

"What this did was set up the skin to be extremely fragile so that when Jesus was flogged by the Roman soldier the next day, his sin would be very, very sensitive." 

.....

"Tell me," I said. "what was the flogging like?"

Metherell's eyes never left me. "Roman floggings were known to be terrible brutal. They usually consisted of thirty-nine lashes but frequently were a lot more than that, depending on the mood of the soldier applying the blows.

The soldier would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. And the whip had pieces of sharp bone as well, which would cut the flesh severely.

The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed by the deep, deep cuts. The whipping would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs. It was just terrible.

One physician who has studied Roman beatings said, 'As the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.' A third-century historian by the name of Eusebius described a flogging by saying, 'The sufferer's veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victimwere open to exposure.'

We know that many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. At the least, the victim would experience tremendous pain and go into hypovolemic shock."

 (Strobel then asks Metherell to explain hypovolemic shock)

"Hypo means 'low,' vol refers to volume, and emic means 'blood,' so hypovolemic shock means the person is suffering the effects of losing a large amount of blood, " the doctor explained. "This does four things. First, the heart races to try to pump blood that isn't there; second, the blood pressure drops, causing fainting or collapse third, the kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what volume is left; and fourth, the person becomes very thirsty as the body craves fluids to replace the lost blood volume."

......

"Because of the terrible effects of this beating, there's no question that Jesus was already in serious to critical conditions even before the nails were driven through is hands and feet."

This left me shaken. My Saviour had endured far more pain than what I thought. Far more pain than what our mind thinks of when reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus's crucifixion; more than what we see in movies depicting the life of Jesus (The Passion included). And for what? Me? You? Sinners. Take a moment now. Think about who would endure such suffering for you. Who would TRULY endure such suffering. If this isn't enough to see the amount of love Jesus has for us, how passionate our God is for us, I really don't know what will display that.

There of course, is the crucifixion left. The next section explains that.

I began to unpack these issues. "What happened when he arrived at the site of the Crucifixion? I asked.

"He would have been laid down, and his hands would have been nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam. This crossbar was called the patibulum, and at this stage it was separate from the vertical beam, which was permanently set in the ground."

I was having difficulty visualizing this; I needed more details. "Nailed with what?" I asked. "Nailed where?"

"The Romans used spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to a sharp point. They were driven through the wrists," Metherell said, pointing about an inch or so below his left palm.

"Hold it," I interrupted. "I thought the nails pierced his palms. That's what all the paintings show. In fact, it's become a standard symbol representing the Crucifixion."

"Through the wrists," Metherell repeated. "This was a solid position that would lock the hand; if the nails had been driven through the palms, his weight would have caused the skin to tear and he would have fallen off the cross. So the nails went through the wrists, although this was considered part of the hand in the language of the day.

And it's important to understand that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs. This is the largest nerve going out to the hand, and it would be crushed by the nail that was being pounded in."

Since I have only a rudimentary knowledge of the human anatomy, I wasn't sure what this meant. "What sort of pain would that have produced?" I asked.

"Let me put it this way," he replied. "Do you know the kind of pain you feel when you bang your elbow and hit your funny bone? That's actually another nerve, called the ulna nerve. It's extremely painful when you accidentally hit it.

Well, picture taking a pair of pliers and squeezing and crushing that nerve," he said, emphasizing the word squeezing as he twisted an imaginary pair of pliers. "That effect would be similar to what Jesus experienced.

.....

"The pain was absolutely unbearable," he continued. "In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means 'out of the cross.' Think of that: they needed to create a new word, because there was nothing in the language that could describe the intense anguish caused during the crucifixion.

At this point Jesus was hoisted as the crossbar was attached to the vertical stake, and then nails were driven through Jesus' feet. Again, the nerves in his feet would have been crushed, and there would have been a similar type of pain."

"What stresses would this have put on his body?"

Metherell answered, "First of all, his arms would have immediately been stretched, probably about six inches in length, and both shoulders would have become dislocated--you can determine this with simple mathematical equations."

OK. The next part goes on to describe what Jesus would have died of- cardiac arrest.

This paints a picture in my mind of the Lord in flesh's heart being broken for His people before He died.

I'm sorry that I posted a lot out of a book, but this just shows a great deal of who our Father is. How much love there is for us that He would let his Son go through such excruciating pain for us to be redeemed.

Realistically, Jesus could have not been so beaten, shed some blood, and we'd be fine. He wouldn't have even had to die. But as an act to show how much love He has for us, God sacrificed His own Son.

You can't tell me that this doesn't blow your mind.

I'll post a regular blog with strictly my thoughts later.

Until then.

Your Father loves you. The proof of that cannot ever be disproved.

(This blog was fueled by obviously the book The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel and the album Silence by Blindside)