What Took Jesus Life

By the time He was crucified. Jesus had been up about 36 hours without any sleep. We know from biblical accounts that Jesus was an early riser. There are several places in the Gospel where He rose early and went and prayed. We have no reason to believe that He did anything other than that the day He had His last meal with His disciples. He likely arose early that morning and spent His day, and subsequently had dinner with the disciples that night, of the Last Supper in the upper room.

He was then taken prisoner at the Garden of Gethsemane, led about the Old City of Jerusalem, and tried at least twice. The next day, about daybreak He was hung on the cross and hung out throughout the day. Between the time He arose, to the time He died on the cross,  a period of about 36 hours had passed with no sleep and no rest.

Maybe you haven't thought about how far Jesus walked about the Old City of Jerusalem. We know He was led about from the Chief Priest's house to Herods, to Pilots during the time He was being tried. And we know He was led about the Old City of Jerusalem. If you add it up, He walked about two and a half miles that last night.

Also as best we can ascertain from historical accounts, Jesus carried his cross about a third of a mile before He collapsed and wasn't able to carry it anymore. These are some physical exertions that would have added up and played stress on a person. Even in our day and time, this would be true.

The next thing I want to talk about is a phenomenon called Hematidrosis. This is a very rare medical phenomenon that has only been reported about 12 to 14 times in world medical literature. And is only seen in people who are under tremendous stress and agony.

In Hematidrosis a person exudes blood from every sweat gland in their body. Each sweat gland has a small capillary that surrounds it. And in Hematidrosis, that small capillary ruptures. As it bursts. the person bleeds into their sweat glands. Instead of perspiring sweat, they perspire blood. The Bible gives us an excellent description of this phenomenon, saying that Jesus' sweat became as drops of blood. Indeed, every pore of Jesus's body oozed and drained blood.

Jesus was a man, just like any one of us but at the same time He had a Spirit living inside of Him that Illuminated Him. This Spirit was of The Father, The Christ. Jesus knew the terrible fate that lay ahead of Him. He knew the task God had given Him to do on this earth and the mission He had to fulfill. The man part of Jesus dreaded this agonizing death and torture that lay a few hours ahead of Him, just as much as any of us would today.

We know He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father, if it'd be your will let this cup pass from me." But He submitted His will to The Father's. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was under as much anxiety and physical stress from an emotional standpoint that a human could experience knowing that in a few hours, He would be delivered into one of the most agonizing and brutal deaths ever recorded in history.

But why didn't Jesus bleed to death if He bled out of every sweat gland of His body? In Israel, this time of year would have had warm days and cold nights. It was this cool night air that probably caused Jesus' damp skin, covered with sweat and blood to chill, causing the capillaries to constrict and stop bleeding. The cold air causes the blood vessels to constrict and causes the blood loss to be minimal. But by the time Jesus was taken by the soldiers from the Garden of Gethsemane, He probably had a mixture of sweat and blood all over His entire body surface. You could imagine, this would have been a sight to behold.

Let's talk about the scourging He went through. Scourging was a horrible form of torture, that Roman citizens were forbidden to be scourged. They only allowed slaves and traders to be scourged. It was one of the worst punishments the Romans had to inflict on a human body. Typically the victim was stripped completely naked and tied by his wrist to a post or a wall with his back exposed. He was then whipped from the back of his arms down to his shoulders and back, across his bare bottom, down the back of his legs and calves, and all the way down to his heels by two Roman Legionnaires, one on either side, alternating blows.