Bible and Human Physiology (Part 1 - How Did Jesus Die?)

Ok guys, take out a book on Biology and read up on ...

Breathing
Gas Exchange
Anatomy of elbow (Ulna, Radius)
Brain and behaviour
Heart
Blood

Look at Luke 22:39-44. Basically there's blood in Jesus' sweat.

Hmm...How will there be blood in His sweat? You wonder why...

Jesus knew He was going to die and suffer soon. He was in a period of great stress, hence the sympathetic nervous system got activated to send signals to the heart to beat faster. When the heart beats faster, there is increasing blood pressure. Now, you know capillaries are only one cell think...And when blood of high pressure goes through them, they burst. From anatomy, you'll know that capillaries are in very close proximity to the sweat glands, thus the blood may mix with the sweat. Hence, blood in the sweat.

Now, you may all ask,"Hey, isnt Jesus God? Why will He get stressed?". Lemme tell you that when Jesus came down to earth to live amongst us, he is subject to the same conditions our human body goes through. Yes, including the way the nervous system works. If you found out ur gonna die tomorrow, you'll feel stressed too right?

Anyway, we have felt stress before, but not of that level. Have you ever felt so stressed that blood came out with your sweat? Remember that God has gone through more stress than us. We should be able to handle all stress that comes our way.

Now lets go onto "How did Jesus suffer?" and "What led to His death?"

You know, people usually take 40 floggings before they die. Jesus got 40 - 1 floggings. Nowadays we have the rotan, but ever heard of the cat with 9 tails? Go search it on the net.

Imagine how much damage it does, each time skin and flesh gets pulled off with every stroke on the back. Now, the spine has nerve fibres lined there. If someone hits your back really hard, it already hurts. Imagine the cat with 9 tails hitting the nerve fibres directly. Ouch.

Next, there was a crown of thorns forced onto Jesus' head. The thorns pierced through the skull and into the cerebral cortex. Yes, the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that receives and processes information from the senses, including pain. Imagine if hitting nerve fibres arent enough, you get your main pain receptor being poked. Double ouch.

Now Jesus had to carry a cross on His back. Now, do you think it's some polished nice metallic cross? No...it's a wooden cross with lots of splinters...and the cross is placed on His back. And His back was already literally torn apart by the flogging. Oh, and He had to carry the cross up a hill too...and each step He walks up, the cross will slide a bit, adding more hurt onto the back. Owww...

When Jesus was crucified, the nails were pierced in between the ulna and the radius...as well as onto the feet. The brunt of Jesus' weight rested on the nails pierced in between the ulna and the radius, and he was hanging from there. Do you know the process of breathing? External intercostal muscles contract and internal intercostal muscles relax to shift the rib cage up while the diaghragm moves downwards for air to come in? Yea basically you sort of have to shift your shoulders up too...Ever tried breathing while you hold onto a pull up bar for a long time? Ever tried breathing while jumping? It does get tiring after a while. Each time Jesus had to breathe, he had to push himself up using his legs, causing the nails on the feet to press against the wound. He was more or less doing pull ups using the nails pierced in between the ulna and the radius. It's a slow death where people just suffocate to death, they usually die after 72 hours...

But Jesus died in about 6 hours. WHY? He was a carpenter when He was young, so I suppose He should be pretty healthy. Since He was the Son of God, He mustve probably knew how to take care of His body. So He should be fitter than the average man. But why?

Notice the last words He said was "My God, why did you forsake me?".

That was when all the sins of the world were being transferred to Jesus. God is holy and could not look at Jesus anymore.

Have you heard of people dying of grief after their loved ones have died? Same here. Jesus did NOT die of physical pain, but of grief. Imagine, the Father and the Son were together since the beginning of time and before. Imagine the pain felt by Jesus...

Now the soldiers decided to hasten the process of death, so they went to break the legs of those being crucified. This means they could not use their legs to help push themselves up to breathe. So they die...

And when Jesus' leg got pierced...blood and water came out...Why blood and water?

Remember the constituents of blood - Red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma, etc...

When someone dies, heart stops beating, blood stops being transported around, heavier particles sediment at the bottom while lighter particles stay at the top. That means all the red blood cells will be sedimented at the bottom...by gravity, the red blood cells will all move down to the lower parts of the body...so yea, blood and water came out when Jesus' side was pierced...Scientifically accurate...

Amazing, how someone will go through all that to die for those who disobeyed...

We truly have an amazing God!