THE CROSS
This is the day we call Good Friday because on this day
we celebrate that our Lord went to the cross
to die for us so that we could have eternal life.
We have jewelry in the form of crosses,
pictures of crosses on our walls,
many reminders of the cross on which our Saviour died.
Christians today frequently talk about the cross.
We understand the real meaning of the cross.
But sometimes we forget the cruelty of the cross.
The price our Saviour paid on the cross.
Jesus paid for OUR sins on that cross.
He didn't just die there,
He suffered more than we can imagine.
Here is an article written by a physician about the crucifixion:
AND THEY CRUCIFIED HIM
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 backward 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, and 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 subsided.
Spasmodically, he is able to
push himself upward
to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-renting
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 allows his body to die.
All this the Bible records with the simple words, "and
they crucified Him" (Mark 15:24).
-- C. Truman Davis, M.D., M.S., Arizona Medicine, Vol. 22 No. 3 March 1965
We must never forget the price Christ willingly paid for our sins.
We must never forget the love of the Father who allowed Him to die
that we sinners could be cleansed by the blood of the
innocent Lamb and be made ready to live with Him for eternity.
We should daily thank Him for the sacrifice He made for us.
