What Was Jesus Thinking?

Crucifixion is a horrible way to die.  Prior to being crucified, Jesus was scourged.  The Romans used a whip called a flagrum.  It consisted of numerous leather straps that held bone and pieces of metal.  During scourging, skin is ripped from the back to expose a bloody mass of tissue and bone. 

After the scourging, Jesus was made to carry His own crossbar to the execution site (Golgotha/Place Of The Skull — pictured above).  The crossbar could have easily exceeded 100 pounds.  Scholars believe the distance Jesus was forced to carry His crossbar to be approximately 200 yards.  Upon arrival at the execution site, the crossbar was laid down and Jesus was made to lie down on the crossbar.  With arms extended, spikes measuring approximately 7″ x 1/2″ were driven thru His wrists and into the crossbar.  The spikes probably hit the area of the median nerve, which would have caused waves of pain up the arms and into the shoulders and neck.

Standing at the crucifixion site was a 7-foot-tall post.  In the center of the post was a crude seat to “support” Jesus.  The crossbar was then lifted on to the post, and Jesus’s body was awkwardly turned on the seat so that the feet could be nailed to the stipes.  At this point, there was tremendous strain put on the wrists, arms and shoulders, which probably caused dislocation of the shoulder and elbow joints.

The position of the nailed body probably held His rib cage in a fixed position, which made it extremely difficult to exhale, and impossible to take a full breath.  Having suffered from the scourging, the beatings, and the walk with the crossbar, Jesus was undoubtedly extremely weak and probably dehydrated.  He was probably losing significant amounts of blood.  As time passed, the loss of blood and lack of oxygen would have caused severe cramps, spasmodic contractions and perhaps even periods of unconsciousness.

The ultimate mechanism of death in crucifixion was suffocation.  To breathe, Jesus would have been forced to push up on His feet to allow for inflation of the lungs.  As the body weakened and pain in the feet and legs became unbearable, He was probably forced to trade breathing for pain and exhaustion.   Due to shallow breathing, it is possible His lungs collapsed, which would have lead to hypoxia.

Due to the loss of blood from the scourging, Jesus may have formed respiratory acidosis, resulting in an increased strain on the heart, which causes the heart to beat faster.  Fluid may have accumulated in His lungs.  Under the stress of hypoxia and acidosis, His heart would eventually fail. 

Regardless of the cause of physical death, the historical record is very clear — Jesus suffered hours of horrible and sustained torture on the cross.  But even with tremendous pain, Jesus thought of others rather than Himself. His first words from the cross were, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He thought of His mother, who stood by the cross weeping, and asked John to take care of her. On either side of Jesus were two thieves executed at the same time.  When one of them accepted Jesus as Lord, Jesus shared with him, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Finally, Jesus expressed his complete surrender to the will of God as He said, “It is finished;” (John 19:30). “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

As the son of God, Jesus could have called upon the angels to save him – but he chose not to.  He could have quenched his own thirst – but he chose not to.  He could have elected to feel no pain — he chose to suffer.  He could have struck his tormentors with unimaginable suffering.  He chose to forgive.

I have often wondered what Jesus thought about while suffering on the cross.  Did He envision the faces of all of those that He was dying for?  Did He see the face of your grandmother?  Did He see the face of your mother?  Did He see the face of your child?  Did He see your face?   There is no biblical account of what Jesus was thinking while on the cross, but I would like to think He thought of you and me.

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