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 (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp.
In addition to physical agony, Jesus had to suffer the insults of the beneficiaries of His death. He became the object of ridicule from both passers-by and the religious leaders (Mark 15:29–31; cf. Psalm 22:7). They challenged Him to come down from the cross in order to save himself and prove who He claimed to be.
In the canonical gospels, Jesus is arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin, and then by Pontius Pilate, who sentences him to flagellation and then hands him over to soldiers for crucifixion. Jesus was stripped of his clothing and offered vinegar mixed with myrrh or gall (likely posca), to drink.
Each of the four Gospels records that Jesus suffered excruciating pain in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The lance tip probably also pierced the heart, but by then its effect was inconsequential. Christ had been on the cross for between three and six hours. In all, concluded the Mayo Clinic article, “the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted.
And even as he faced his own suffering and death, Jesus remained faithful to his call, always trusting in the power of God to vindicate him. His resurrection was proof of his vindication.
Pulmonary embolism has been proposed as the mechanism of Jesus' death due to the high prevalence of hereditary thrombophilia (e.g., Factor V Leiden). However, the more widely accepted medical hypotheses for Jesus' death are cardiac rupture, asphyxiation, and shock.
Isaiah 52:14 tells us that His visible appearance was so marred that He was no longer recognizable! Jesus went through so many beatings that His physical appearance was indeed appalling. This was one of the factors that led people to say He was being punished by God. But they had no idea His suffering was for them.
He then went to the tomb and told the people to remove the stone covering it, prayed aloud to his Father, and ordered Lazarus to come out, resuscitated. Luke's gospel also records that Jesus wept as he entered Jerusalem before his trial and death, anticipating the destruction of the Temple.
On Calvary, Christ used suffering as the instrument by which He won for us the grace of redemption. By doing this, He has sanctified human suffering for all time and has given to all our suffering a quasi-sacramental value.
Jesus Christ teaches His Apostles about the sacrament. He prophesies of His death and Resurrection and indicates who will betray Him. Then He walks with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He atones for the sins of all mankind.
Jesus is sometimes referred to as Jesus Christ, and some people assume that Christ is Jesus' last name. But Christ is actually a title, not a last name. So if Christ isn't a last name, what was Jesus' last name? The answer is Jesus didn't have a formal last name or surname like we do today.
The Creed goes on to state Christ's victory in rising to new life, ascending to heaven and resting in eternal triumph at the right hand of God, the Father.
The creed says that Christ descended into hell, but I believe the way to understand this is that Christ experienced all the dimensions of hell on the cross. I deal with this in the book. Everything hell is, Christ experienced for us on the cross as he took our place and became the sacrifice on our behalf.
In 1870, French architect Charles Rohault de Fleury catalogued all known fragments of the true cross. He determined the Jesus cross weighed 165 pounds, was three or four meters high, with a cross beam two meters wide.
I said,"Jenny....that's a great question....and most Bible scholars would say that scripture reveals three times when Jesus cried."
Pope Leo the Great, reflecting on this same passage, is thought to have said: "In his humanity Jesus wept for Lazarus; in his divinity he raised him from the dead." Jesus felt deeply the pain of Lazarus' death.
Jesus cries out as a way of expressing both his sense of anguish but also his faith in God's ultimate victory. And this cry fits within the larger Gospel story that God is present and has come close to creation in Jesus. That is no less true at Jesus' death than in his life.
In English: "O Loving Jesus, Meek Lamb of God, I, a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most sacred wound of thy shoulder on which thou didst bear thy heavy cross, which so tore thy flesh and laid bare thy bones as to inflict on thee an anguish greater than any other wound of thy most blessed body.
According to these accounts, Jesus, accompanied by Peter, John and James, enters the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives where he experiences great anguish and prays to be delivered from his impending suffering, while also accepting God's will.
1 Chronicles 4:9 New International Version (NIV)
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”
During his earthly life, Jesus was very active in his ministry of healing. He cured the blind, opened the ears of the deaf, and brought the dead back to life. The early Church Fathers gave our Lord the title of “the Divine Physician.” However, Jesus did not cure all disease and sickness once and for all.
Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.
Jesus recognised that sick people need doctors. He did not condemn using doctors and 'earthly remedies'. Yes, Jesus performed many healing miracles while he was on Earth. But these were partly to show people that he was the promised Messiah (Luke 4:18).
When we are suffering, God is right beside us. Nothing can separate us from His love. He wants to show us His love through His church, and give us a purpose through His Word!