What Happened at the Death of Jesus?
We are carrying on from our last meditation on the very emotional account of the suffering and death of Jesus and what took place at the cross. At midday, until He gave up His Spirit, darkness came over all the land (Matthew 27:45). Some of the early church fathers wrote about this darkness, that it was not only over the land of Israel but also over the whole world. The early Church father and author, Tertullian, mentioned this event in his Apologeticum—a defense of Christianity written to unbelievers in the Roman Empire at the time: “At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.”[1]
There were some hopeful hearts among those who were watching the crucifixion that death would not occur. It was just unbelievable to those close to Jesus that He could die. They thought that in some miraculous way Christ would down from the cross and confound His critics and enemies, but at that time they did not understand the reason why His death was necessary. True life could only come to the people of God through the death of Jesus, the Christ. God’s love and justice demanded that sin must be paid for—Jesus had to die as the sin-bearer instead of us.
The special Sabbath of Passover was drawing near, so I am sure their hearts were broken as the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves with a heavy mallet. Breaking the legs brought death quickly. No longer could the crucified push up on their legs to breathe. Death came quickly due to asphyxiation (depriving of air). When they came to Jesus, He was already dead, so they did not need to break His legs. This was all seen by the prophets ahead of time: “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken” (Psalm 34:19-20). It was also spoken of the Passover lamb that in the eating of the lamb, “Do not break any of the bones” (Exodus 12:46). Through hundreds of years, the Jewish people ate the lamb on Passover night, never thinking that there would be an embodiment of this symbolic lamb, a Person who would come to literally fulfill the prophecies to the letter. At the same time as Jesus was being crucified, conservative calculations of at least 200,000 lambs were slaughtered in preparation for the Passover meal to be eaten in homes all over Jerusalem. Jerusalem at Passover swelled to at least 2 million people. A minimum of ten people was required to eat the Passover because God commanded that the Lamb was to be ingested completely. None of the lamb was to remain (Exodus 12:10). The Lamb of God must be received internally.
In God’s foreknowledge, He knew that some would say that Jesus never really died. He just swooned on the cross, they would say. The Father allowed the Roman soldier to pierce Jesus’ side with his spear. John testifies that out of His side came blood and water (John 19:34). This is medical evidence that today would explain that death had occurred. There were two primary causes of death by crucifixion: hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. The legs of the two thieves were broken to bring on exhaustion, making them unable to breathe.
Hypovolemic shock is a term doctor's give to low blood volume. The brutal beating of Christ caused Him to lose so much blood that He could not carry His cross. With a hypovolemic shock, a victim collapses due to low blood pressure. The kidneys also shut down to preserve body fluids causing great thirst, and water would collect around the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart. Before death, the rapid heartbeat due to low blood volume causes fluid to gather in the sac around the heart and lungs. Others say the appearance of water and blood is indicative of death by the separation of the clot from serum. Just as the Lord created a wife from the side of the first man, Adam (Genesis 2:22), so too, the Bride of Christ was born again from the side of the Last Adam, Jesus, as the Roman soldier made sure that death had taken place, piercing Christ’s side with his spear.
Thank you, Lord, for being our substitute. Truly, You are Yeshua, the Lord Our Salvation. Keith
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