the physical torture of Jesus

Easter Sunday is only about a week away. Even more than Christmas, this day is the highlight of the Christian calendar. It is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ—what a phenomenal event! Nothing else in history can even hold a candle to that day. It has forever changed this entire world and my life in particular. Thank You, Jesus!

Before we can get to the resurrection, though, we must go through the cross. Isn’t it amazing how often the most glorious moments follow the most painful moments. I’ve been a Christian my entire life, heard hundreds of sermons on the cross, seen scores of dramatic retellings of the crucifixion and even studied it academically in college and seminary. Nothing can adequately explain it, however. What Jesus endured in preparation for Easter Sunday was horrific.

I am certainly not a medical doctor, but I have the utmost respect for them. Over the past decade or so, several Christian MDs have taken it upon themselves to research and explain what happened to Jesus on the cross from a medical perspective. The following descriptions are quite graphic, but even they don’t come close to accurately depicting what our Savior went through. My thanks go to Dr. Frederick T. Zugibe whose book first brought this idea to my attention. And thank you to Dr. C. Truman David who did most of the following research and explanation.

The physical torment of Jesus, typically called “the passion” began in the garden of Gethsemane on Thursday night. Jesus, under extreme duress, is praying to the Father. He exhibits symptoms of a condition called Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat. This very rare, yet well documented, phenomenon would have induced shock and great weakness in itself.

One can only assume that Jesus’ arrest was not a mild event. Although we’re not explicitly told in Scripture that He was assaulted in any way, Jesus was well known and despised. When He arrives for questioning the physical abuse is more overt. He was blindfolded, mocked, spat upon and struck in the face repeatedly. And let us keep in mind that these soldiers were no weaklings. They were the brutal Roman guard whose responsibility it was to enforce the rule of a ruthless Caesar hundreds of miles away. They were well trained fighters.

Sometime in the early Friday morning light, Jesus is taken to the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. It is under his command that our Lord is released into the hands of those who hate Him most. They joyfully seize Jesus, strip off His clothes and bind His hands to a post. The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagellum in hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near 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 the 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, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.

Finally, 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 the provincial Jew claiming to be a King. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns, (commonly used for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding (the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of 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, causes excruciating pain—almost as though He were again being whipped—and the wounds again begin to bleed.

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum (horizontal cross-arm) of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves and the execution detail of Roman soldiers, headed by a centurion begin a slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, 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 endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. The 650 yard journey from the Fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. The Prisoner is again stripped of His clothes, except for a loin cloth which is allowed the Jews.

Now the crucifixion begins. Jesus is offered wine mixed with Myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture, but He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. (While some have traditionally thought of Jesus’ hands being the location of the nails, it is highly unlikely. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when they attempted to support the weight of a human body. The misconception may have come through a misunderstanding of Jesus' words to Thomas, "Behold My hands." Anatomist, however, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.) 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 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 flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted into place at the top of the stipes (vertical arm of the cross) and the titulus (sign) 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, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrist, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain—the nails in the wrist are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again, there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurs. 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 paralyzed and the intercostal 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 one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It was, undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences which are recorded.

The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers casting lots for His garments, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

The second, to the penitent thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken, John, (the beloved Apostle), He said, "Behold your mother," and looking to Mary, His mother, "Woman, behold your son."

The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"

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. 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 a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.

Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst.”

A sponge soaked in Posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman Legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn't take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues.

This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper. "It is finished."

His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow His body to die.

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."

In order that the Sabbath be not profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurufracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward, the tension could not be relieved from the muscle of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary.

Apparently to make sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. John 19:34 says that caused a "sudden flow of blood and water." Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and blood from the interior of the heart. 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. Jesus quite literally died of a broken heart.

It was my sins that put Jesus through this. Your sins did too. He did all of this for us. Yes, Easter is coming. Absolutely, the approaching celebration and joy is infinitely greater than the suffering and pain. But what He endured, for our sake, is real. So, this week, may we all be humbled and broken by the cross of Jesus Christ.