Understanding the Ultimate Sacrifice

So, if you’ve spent any time in a Christian church, you’ve heard the story of how Jesus was crucified on the Cross. It’s the greatest story ever told, but it ended in the Book of John on a strange note. The Bible talks about blood and water flowing from His side after He was pierced with a soldier’s sword.

I thought this was an especially appropriate discussion given that we’re in Holy Week, which culminated in the Crucifixion and Resurrection. I’ve come across some who doubt whether Jesus died. That’s called the “swoon theory.” He didn’t really die. It just looked like it.

I’ve mentioned before that the Bible is NOT a book of fairy tales, and this is no exception. The blood and water flowing from His side was a scientific reaction to everything He had just gone through.

Now, for me to explain this, it’s gonna get a little rough, but we need to know exactly how much pain and torment He went through to get to that point. It started when He was flogged.

Do you know what flogging is? I had to look it up to be sure, but the victim is tied up in a way that he cannot move or raise his arms, leaving his entire body exposed to be whipped mercilessly. Now, when someone says the word “whip,” I’m thinking of the bullwhip used by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies, but it’s so much worse than that.

This is what the whip looked like that they flogged Jesus with. It's positively awful. Jesus went through that to save us from the penalty of our sins!

The Roman flogging that Jesus endured consisted of 39 lashes, but many who endured it didn’t survive. The whip was called a flagrum and consisted of braided leather thongs with metal balls and pieces of sharp bone woven into or intertwined with the braids.

The balls added significant weight to the whip, causing deep bruising as the victim was struck. But it gets even worse. The pieces of bone served to cut deeply into flesh and pull it from the victim’s body. Here’s where it gets truly horrible.

As the whipping continued, the resulting cuts to the body were so severe that skeletal muscles, veins, sinews, and the victim’s bowels could all be exposed. As you can imagine, many of the beatings were so awful that many victims didn’t survive it to go on and be crucified.

Have you heard of a medical term called “hypovolemic shock?” It’s a term that refers to an extremely low volume of blood in the body. In simpler terms, the victim lost so much blood that he would go into shock. Gotquestions.org explains it step by step:

1.        The heart would race to pump blood that wasn’t there.

2.        The victim would collapse or faint because of extremely low blood pressure.

3.        The kidneys would shut down to preserve bodily fluids.

4.        The person would experience extreme thirst as the body wanted to replace the lost fluids.

Evidence in Scripture shows that Jesus experienced hypovolemic shock from the flogging. As He carried His own cross to Golgotha in John 19:17, He collapsed. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say a man named Simon was forced to either carry the cross or help Jesus carry His cross the rest of the way to the hill. This collapse is likely due to extremely low blood pressure (and a whole lot of pain).

There’s even more scientific evidence that Jesus suffered from hypovolemic shock. As He was hanging on the cross and struggling to breathe, remember when He said He was thirsty and asked for something to drink in John 19:28? That indicates His body wanted to replace all the fluids He had lost. After all, Jesus was so thirsty that He drank from a sponge filled with sour wine.

Before His death, the sustained rapid heartbeat from the hypovolemic shock also caused fluids to gather around the heart and lungs. The gathering of fluid in the membrane around the heart called the pericardial sack, is called pericardial effusion. The fluid gathered around the lungs is called pleural effusion. This is a scientific explanation of why, after Jesus breathed His last, a Roman soldier thrust a spear through the side of Jesus, piercing both the lungs and heart. Both blood and water came from His side, just as John recorded in His Gospel (John 19:34).

The Bible is not some magical book of fairy tales from faraway places set way back in the Dark Ages. There are explanations for things like blood and water flowing from the body of Jesus.

This is what Jesus really looked like on the Cross. This is also what He would have looked like if He just "swooned" and showed up later.

What He endured for you and me to be set free from the penalty of our sins was horrifying. And think about this: He KNEW all this was going to happen ahead of time. He knew every last detail about what they would do and how much pain it would cause, and He still chose to go through it for you and me. That still blows my mind, but it’s how much He loves you and me.

John 10:18 – “No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again.”

If you really want to understand this, I'd have to challenge you to watch the Passion of the Christ. It's a pretty accurate visual representation of what Jesus really went through for you and me.