Remember on Good Friday the immensity of Christ’s physical and spiritual suffering for our salvation

We all know that Jesus suffered tremendously in the hours leading up to His crucifixion, but it may take a physician to help us realize just how much.

Jesus was “probably physiologically almost dead” and in critical condition by the time He arrived at Calvary, says Dr. Mark Marinella, author of Died He for Me: A Physician’s View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ ($13.95, 120 pages, Nordskog Publishing, 2008).

Add to that condition the horrors of crucifixion, and you have suffering almost beyond belief. Take into consideration that the Man suffering didn’t in the least bit deserve any of it, and it makes it that much more horrifying.

And, hopefully, helps us appreciate that much more what He did for us on Good Friday.

Dr. Marinella, an oncologist and blood disorders specialist in Ohio, says that his study should prove beyond a doubt that when Jesus was taken down from the cross, He was dead. Not unconscious, not in a “swoon,” as some conspiracy theorists have claimed, but dead.

In an approximate span of 18 hours, the Christian physician writes in his book, Christ suffered:

• Hematidrosis, or sweating of blood.
• Stress.
• Lack of adequate food and water.
• Sleep deprivation.
• Chills.
• Physical and verbal abuse.
• Hemorrhaging from scourging, as well as damage to the back muscles, rib fractures and severe kidney damage. “After the scourging, Jesus would be considered in critical physical condition if He were admitted to any modern hospital. … He was not far from death.”
• A possible bruised heart from falling forward on His way to Golgotha.
• Reopening of His back wounds as His garment was taken off and later as He was placed on the rough, splintery wood of the cross.
• A possible concussion when He was thrown to the ground in preparation for being nailed to the cross.
• Paralysis of His hands as spikes were driven through his wrists in the carpal tunnel region.
• Hyperextension of His feet so another spike could be driven through them.
• Heatstroke.
• Insect bites.
• Reflex vomiting.
• Aspiration of blood.

Dr. Marinella gives many more medical details in Died He for Me than are presented here, and also discusses how all of those problems compounded one another, leading to yet more suffering. He also points out that because of the unique nature of Jesus’s case and situation, the Savior probably endured more physically than the typical crucifixion victim endured.

But all of that may pale next to what He had to endure emotionally and spiritually as He was ridiculed by spectators and cut off from His relationship with the Father, Dr. Marinella says. But there was no other way, not if prophecy was to be fulfilled.

“I’m certainly not a theologian or anything,” Dr. Marinella says. “I haven’t been to Bible college. But Jesus maybe could have come and saved the world in a different way, painlessly, with flowers, and made it pretty if He wanted to. He could do whatever He wants. But Hebrews 9:22 says that without shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness. Yes, the physical part for Him was bad, but if you also read when God turned His back on Him, when it got dark and the ground split … I’ve heard some say that was more painful for Jesus than the wounds, when the Father turned His back on Him. So yeah, He absolutely had to do it that way, and He knew it.”

Dr. Marinella says that Christians need to look at the Crucifixion and Christ’s suffering openly and honestly. This happened somewhat with the release of The Passion of the Christ in 2004. The Mel Gibson movie is noted for its violent imagery when depicting the scourging and crucifixion. But some Christians didn’t want to see it, Dr. Marinella recalls.

“I think people shy away from it because it’s violent, it’s ugly, it’s bloody and, perhaps because we see that all the time in our culture,” he says. “Sometimes I think that we as believers—myself included—just want to block that kind of stuff out and maybe look at Christianity in a sugar-coated fashion, which it really isn’t. There was nothing sugar-coated about the crucifixion at all.”

Instead, it was coated in blood—and grace.