The Cross

We have just finished Easter and with that, we have finished our series on why we should go back to church regardless of past hurts, trauma or disappointments. We are leaving all of that in the past. We nailed all past offences and unforgiveness to the cross and we choose to come out of the grave with Jesus. Not as better versions of ourselves, no. We leave our old selves nailed to the cross. We come out new in Christ.

So we are going to be talking about the cross of Jesus and what it means for us as believers. We know Jesus died on the cross for our sins but we sometimes do not go further than that. If we are to model our lives after Jesus, that is, if we allow Holy Spirit to transform our lives in the likeness of Jesus, we need to understand the cross of Jesus.

The cross was suffering.  What Jesus faced on the cross and on the way to the cross was horrific and traumatic. The Bible says He was beaten beyond recognition. They whipped Him with whips laced with sharp bones, metal and broken glass. So each time the whips made contact with His skin, it cut through or tore pieces of His flesh out. This is before they even hung Him.

After they whipped Him, they made Him carry His cross. This was a sign of public humiliation. Some historians say this was just the cross beam of the cross as the upright beam was affixed to the ground. However, Jesus, was so badly beaten He could barely carry the cross and the soldiers made an African man by the name of Simon, help Jesus carry His cross, Luke 23:26. Once up the hill, Jesus was stripped and thrown to the ground so He could be nailed to the cross. There is evidence to suggest that they hung Him naked to further mock Him and humiliate Him.

To nail the cross into His hands, it is likely the nails were driven through His wrists not the palms of His hands as the weight of the arms and upper body would have caused the nails to rip through His hands. With the nails in His wrists, the bones in His hands supported the weight of His upper body. The nails were each said to be about 7 – 9 inches long and they were strategically placed so as to inflict damage and tear through nerves and tissue in the hands which would cause unrelenting agonizing pain in both of Jesus’ arms.  

Once Jesus’ hands were nailed to the cross, the guards lifted the cross section of the cross. Remember the upright part was affixed to the ground, so that means all His weight was supported by the nails in His wrists as they brought Him up. As this was happening, it likely dislocated both His shoulders and elbows and His arms would have been stretched out wide, see Psalm 22:14.  Can you just imagine for a second how painful that must have been for Jesus.

Then once upright, Jesus’  feet were nailed together through the top of the feet, to the vertical part of the cross. If you can imagine how painful it is when you stub your tore, let alone having a 9 inch nail hammered through your feet causing nerve and tissue damage. Let alone the amount of blood loss through the wrists and now feet.

As though that were not enough torture, because of the position of the body of the cross, it created difficulty with breathing. When we inhale, our external intercostal muscles and diaphragm work together by contracting to help move the chest up and out and the diaphragm moves down creating more volume in the lungs so air can enter in. When we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and returns to its original shape which takes up more space and the internal intercostal muscles contract to bring the chest back down and thus pushes the air out of our lungs. This is super simplified.

But point of mentioning this is that when one is hanging in the position Jesus was in on the cross, the diaphragm is elongated and pushed downwards meaning it was difficult for the diaphragm to move up to its original position and push air up and out of the lungs as is in the normal course of breathing. That means the air that enters into the lungs remains there causing difficulty breathing and build-up of carbon dioxide. So to exhale, Jesus had to push down on the nail in His feet to hold Himself up, which would have been extremely painful. But in all that pain Jesus still chose to speak and minister to the people around Him, pray for those around Him and still be kind. Some of us find it difficult to pray when we have a bad day at work…

Jesus was slowly suffocating on the cross. The decreased oxygen caused by the difficulty in breathing, caused damage to tissues and in turn caused blood vessels to leak watery fluid into surrounding tissue. Yet, while dying, Jesus was still being kind and remained faithful right up to His final breath on the cross. To confirm He was dead, the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear water came out of His side, John 19:34.

I pray that this week, you take some time to reflect on what Jesus did for you on the cross. If no one else sinned except for you, Jesus would have still gone to the cross just for you. That’s how much He loves you.

We will continue this next week.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.