Holy Week is both a time of great sorrow, but also of great joy. As we approach Easter, it behooves Christians to give deep and meaningful thought to the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us all.
Today is Good Friday, which is the most solemn day in all of Christendom. On this day, the Son of God gave up his earthly life, so that we may have everlasting life in paradise. Jesus quite literally, died for every single man, woman and child on earth. However, as Hollywood tends to do with the Christian faith, it basically sanitized the magnitude of Christ’s suffering — it took the truth and prettied it up, and by doing so, it may have unintentionally altered the truth.
The reality of it is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, endured great humiliation and severe pain for us — His experience leading up the to the actual Crucifixion was horrendous and his pain when nailed to the Cross, was horrendous.
Please take a few minutes to read this piece and please, let it really sink in, making sure to fully realize just how much of a sacrifice Jesus Christ made for each of us:
Scientific Death of Jesus, take the 1 min to read, if you don’t cry, you may not understand who He really is. I pray the Holy Spirit awaken in each soul that reads, in Jesus Name! Amen!
For the next 60 seconds, set aside whatever you’re doing and take this opportunity! Let’s see if Satan can stop this.
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to death.
At the time, crucifixion was the “worst” death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus. Unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.
The nails were driven into His wrist, not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There’s a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support Himself so that He could breathe.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support Himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using His legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.
Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side… but do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even larger nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But 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 cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.
Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest.
All these without mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 60 lbs. of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed).
Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the gates of Heaven, so that you can have free access to God.
So that your sins could be “washed” away. All of them, with no exception! Don’t ignore this situation.
Jesus Christ died for all of us.
He died for you! It is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos by e-mail, but when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward to others because you are worried of what they may think about you.
God has plans for you, show all your friends what He experienced to save you. Now think about this! May God bless your life!
If you are not ashamed to do this, please, follow Jesus’ instructions. In Matthew 10:32 & 33, He said “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven; but whosoever denies Me before others, I will deny before My Father in heaven.”
Thank you Jesus I could never repay you for carrying the cross to Calvary for me. Thank you Lord!
Many people feel that the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” is one of the most realistic representations of Christ’s sacrifice. The above passage is emotional and hard to fathom because to realize what Christ did for us, is to acknowledge that the very people He saved — mankind — are the very ones who caused his suffering and death.
As we reflect on the sorrow of Good Friday with anticipation of the glory and miracle of Easter, Christians should affirm their commitment to living as Christ taught: with love, compassion, kindness, peace, calm and generosity. It is after all, the very least we can do.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” – Matthew 7:1–3
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” – Matthew 7:15–16
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15
