5. Besides the excruciating pain, the major effect occurs in the body trying for normal breathing. The weight of the body, pulling down on the arms and shoulders, would tend to fix the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state, and hinder exhalation. The lack of adequate respiration would result in severe muscle cramps, which would hinder breathing even further. To get a good breath, one would have to push against the feet, and flex the elbows, pulling from the shoulders. Putting the weight of the body on the feet would produce searing pain, and flexing of the elbows would twist the hands hanging on the nails. Lifting the body for a breath would make the back to scape against rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper breath would be agonizing, exhausting, and lead to a sooner death.
6. At that stage, insects would quickly smell and try to burrow the open wounds or the eyes, ears, and nose of the dying and helpless victim, and birds of prey would flock to tear the bleeding body. Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals.” (Edwards)
7. Death from crucifixion could come from many sources:
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- Acute shock from blood loss
- Being too exhausted to breathe any longer
- Dehydration
- Stress-induced heart attack.
- Congestive heart failure leading to a cardiac rupture.
8. If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs would be broken, and the victim would soon be unable to breathe.
Normally we do not speak about the physical sufferings of Lord Jesus to make us feel sorry for Jesus, as if He needed our pity. Jesus said: save your pity for those who reject the complete work of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. That’s why Paul said “we preach the Christ Crucified” (1:23).
So Jesus died and was buried and rose again which is according to the Scriptures. He was buried according to them speaks that He was in hell, in “sheol” in the grave and His making His grave with the wicked in His death (Ps.16:10). We also see in Scriptures that Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man who begged the body of Jesus, had wrapped in linen, and laid it in his own new tomb. Jesus rose again from grave (Resurrected from the grave) on the 3rd day.
The Third-day has a great significance for the believers.
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- On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” (Gen. 22:4-5)
- On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God:19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households.(Gen. 42:18)
- So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.16 She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.” (Jos. 2:15-16)
- Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.” On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (Ex. 19:16-18)
- Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.(Jon. 1:17)
- I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there. (Ezra 8:15)
- After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. (Hos.6:2).
What is the significance of Jesus’ death?
The prophet Isaiah puts it powerfully: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in lowsteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa.53:3-6)
“Reader! one drop of this cup would bear down thy soul to endless ruin; and these agonies would annihilate the universe. He suffered alone: for the people there was none with him; because his sufferings were to make an atonement for the sins of the world: and in the work of redemption he had no helper.” (Clarke)
Yes Jesus did not die for a political cause, or as an enemy of the state, or for someone’s envy. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus did not die as a mere martyr for a cause. When it was accomplished (who knows how long it could have taken), there was no reason for Jesus to “hang around” on the cross – His work was done, He could go on now. He has accomplished His greatest plan of universal salvation. The sinners of the world can just come to Him in faith and ask for forgiveness of their sins and can receive the Salvation by His grace.