“It’s all Your fault”
The Garden: Gethsemane – derived from two Hebrew words
1) Gat = a place fro pressing oil or wine.
2) Shemanim = oil or seed.
The Agony: In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, the seed of woman was pressed. Luke, a physician, tells us of the agony that Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 says “and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This is called “Hemohydrosis” Hemohydrosis is a rare and highly uncommon medical phenomenon that is produced by extreme stress, anxiety, fear, and depression. The process of Hemohydrosis is as follows: Sweat Glands, which are minute structures deep within the skin that produce sweat, are made up of a coil tube were sweat is secreted. A narrow passage way carries water & minute quantities of dissolved substances including salt to the skin surface. Usually these glands are stimulated to produce sweat to cool the body, in which case sweating is heaviest in the forehead, upper lip, neck, and chest. Sweating caused from fear, grief, depression, anxiety will produce heavy sweating to appear on the palms, armpits, and sole of the feet, face, and back. Matthew 26:38 “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful.” Isaiah 53:3 “A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief.”
Hemohydrosis is the hemorrhage of blood into the sweat glands. The highly emotional state, the sorrow, the grief, the deep mental anguish in which Jesus was in caused the “Automatic Nervous System to activate.
Automatic Nervous System controls the involuntary, seemingly automatic, activities of organs, blood vessels, glands, and a variety of other tissues in the body. When heightened it causes an accelerated heartbeat, heavy breathing, dilating blood vessels in muscles and constricting those in the skin causing Hemohydrosis. Doctors say that Hemohydrosis is worse than the wore case of sunburn, what happens in Hemohydrosis is blood which is thicker than water gets into the sweat glands and is brought to the surface of the skin. Because the coils are designed to carry water and the pours of the skins are designed to release the water, the blood being thicker than water cause the skin to stretch making it extremely tender and extremely sensitive to the even the slightest breeze.
Realize that Jesus here is suffering mentally and physically, the cold air is hurting His skin, the mental anguish of what lies ahead is plaguing His mind, the flesh doesn’t want to go through what lies ahead. He needed strengthening, not for the God part of Him, but for the man part of Him. An angel was sent to strengthen Him, yet His body still suffered from the Hemohydrosis, His mind was still dealing with what was ahead and He looks and sees Judas and a band of soldiers coming after Him.
The Arrest: The arrest was ILLEGAL according to the Hebrew code which forbidded any arrest at night. (John 18:3). It was also illegal in that it was brought about through a traitor. Judas had broken the commandment of the Law. Leviticus 19:17 “thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin pon him.”
The arrest, Eventhough Jesus didn’t resist, followed the cruel and harsh manor by which the Roman soldiers were trained.
A soldier grabbed the right wrist, twisted his arm behind his back, and lifting until his knuckles touched between his shoulder blades, at the same time ramming their heel down of the right instep, their knee into the back of his leg causing Jesus to buckle and fall to the ground. Another soldier would grab his left arm and twist it behind his back until it was even with his shoulder blades. Yet another soldier would tie his hands behind him tightly with a rope. Another soldier would at this point place a noose around his neck and begin to pull on the noose until it was tight, causing Jesus to become short of breath struggling with near strangulation. They would begin to poke him with staves, pull of the noose, causing him to stumble and fall, dragging him by the neck until he was able to get back on his feet. The route back to Jerusalem from the Garden of Gethsemane was approximately 3 – 5 miles. Imagine the torture of this relentless journey. What happen to Rodney King can’t even compare.
Here Jesus is suffering mentally from what lies ahead, his followers had left him, Judas had betrayed him, Hemohydrosis had stretched his skin, the air was sending the most excruciating pain through his body, his feet were tender, yet he had to travel walking on rocks, his arms were twisted in the most un-natural position possible. He was being pulled by his neck, being hit with staves, tripping and falling down to the ground, being dragged until he was able to get to his feet. He was being beat and kicked because this was the custom of the Roman soldiers to handle a criminal, which is what they treated Him as.
The Trial: They bring Jesus to Caiphas the High Priest and before the Sanhedrin court and accused Him of blasphemy. He begins to question him and when he doesn’t answer commands the guard to begin to hit him trying to make him answer the questions, This type of cruel and unusual punishment lasted all through the night. Ciaphas and the Sanhedrin court could not put anyone to death so they him to Pilate, the Governor of Rome, in the Fortress of Antonia 1 ½ miles away, once again pulling him by the neck, dragging him when he fell, kicking and poking him with the staves, prodding him until they got to Pilate. Now Pilate, the Governor of Rome, the second highest political figure in command, second only to Ceasar the Emperor, and leader of the military began to question Jesus, and now that the Roman soldiers are in front of their leader they become even more fierce. This questioning lasted a while until Pilate realized that Jesus was a Galilean and said what have I to do with this man and sent him to Herod who had jurisdiction over Galilee and was in Jerusalem at this time for the feast. So Jesus once again was dragged another 1 ½ miles to Herod.
Herod expected to see a miracle and when he didn’t, put a robe on the back of Jesus as a joke and sent him back another 1 ½ miles to Pilate. Yet in still this tortuios journey continues. Back in front of Pilate, Pilate says he finds no fault in this man and wanted to release him, but Caiphas convinced him that if he let him go that he was not a friend of Ceasar, so Pilate asked the crowd what they wanted done with this man, they said crucify him and his blood be upon are heads.
**The Phohecians invented crucifixion, but the Romans perfected it**
Pilate said he washed his hands of Jesus’ blood and said do with him what you will.
The Beating: They took Jesus from the Petorium, the place in Pilate’s palace used for court into the court yard. They took him and stripped him tied his hands above his head to a post, then two Roman soldiers, one on each side, began to beat him with a flaggelum, this is called scouragging. A flaggelum is a whip with 3 braided leather straps, at the end of the strap were pieces of metal, half way up the strap were pieces of bone, they began to beat him, everytime this flaggelum hit him it took chucks of flesh from his body. The Jewish tradition of a flogging was limited to 39 stripes, but the Roman had no limit they would beat someone until they passed out, that is why this is called the half way death, because a person would literally pass out from this beating, but Jesus was strengthened by the angel in the Garden of Gethsemane, don’t you know that he didn’t pass out, but he keep on taking evey bloy that the soldiers gave him for you and I. As they beat him the metal dug into his back, the bone ripped open his flesh, blood ran all over the place, he had flesh ribbons of blood hanging all over his body. After whipping him until he was a mass of mangled, bloody, flesh they cut him from the post, he fell to the ground nearly dead, they picked him up, put a rob on his bacl, the blood from his back began to saok the robe causing the robe to cling to him, they put a reed in his hand and a crown of thorns on his head. The crown of thorns were made from a bush called a “Zizyphus Spina” and the thorns were 1 – 3 inches long. These thorns dug into his head causing blood to run down His face into his eyes. The soldiers then take a blind fold and place it over his face, they spit on him and pull his beard out, and even punch him in the face a began to say prophecy tell us who did this to you. The they took a stave and hit him over the head causing the crown of thorns to be pushed deeper into his skull. After tyhis they pulled the robe, which hab clung to his body off of him, pulling flesh from the bloody mangled back our our Lord and savior, they wrapped in in a cloth around his waist. Then the gave him a cross beam (Not the cross as in pictures). The Romans had a piece in the ground called the stipe, it’s the long part of the cross, this part was permanently in the ground. The cross section was called a Patibulium and weighed about 80 pounds and was about 8’ long. They placed this patibulium at the nape of his neck across his shoulders and tied his arms at the biceps and wrist, then stood him to his feet and began to march him to Golgatha, which was some 600 yards away, down the Via Dela Rosa. Along the way he fell, a man by the name of Simon made to carry the cross for him. Top of Golgatha’s hill Simon is made to drop the Patibulium, at this point Jesus is offered a drink of wine mixed with myrrh as a anastetic, it is called a stupyfing drink, causing one to become unaware of the pain they were about to feel. Jesus refused this drink, by him refusing this drink he is saying I want to feel everything, I want to feel what it feels like when one is far from God, when they feel they have no power, when one of my children feel hopeless, suicidal, when all their friends have turned their backs upon them, when they are discourage, depressed, unloved, forsaken, lonely, in dispair, and about to loose their minds. He did that just for you and me.
The Crucifixion: They grab him, pull him to the ground, the dirt from the ground enters the bloody mangled open mass of his back. 4 soldiers, 2 on the left and 2 on the right, pin his arms to the patibulium by smashing their knee at the elbow and holding his hands to the crossbeam, the other 2 woul drive the spikes into his hands, the spikes were 6” long & 1” thick.
There is in the entire length of the arm to the tips of the fingers a sensory & motor nerve called the median nerve. This nerve is what causes us to move our fingers and feel what we have hold of. These spikes cut that median nerve sending fire through his body his hand began to draw up like a claw.
They lifted him to the top of the stipe dragging his body over the ground and up along the wood of the stipe. At the top of the stipe they drop him into the section that was cut out, the weight of his body began to pull on the spikes in his hands, just imagine the pain. In the leg there is a nerve just like in the arm, which is a motor and sensory nerve, they nail his feet to the cross cutting the peronial nerve, his feet begin to draw up, he has fire running all through his body, he didn’t have to go to hell he had hell in his body.
He hung there on the cross for 3 long hours every time he took a breath it caused his back to rub against the cross, his hands to move on the spikes, his feet to move on the spike causing fire to run through his body, the pain was immense, yet in still he hung there for you and me.
The Death: Jesus finally said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Ever since that time scientist and doctors have said that the cause of his death was Hypobalemic shock, or Congestive Heart Failure, Dehydration, or Stress Induced Arrhythmias;however, I want you to know that these things didn’t kill Jesus, but he died from our attitudes, our tempers, malice, strife, envy, wickedness. Adultery, fornication, drugs, alcohol, immoral lifestyles. He died because he love you and me. He died and it’s all your fault
You have been tried and found guilty of murder in the first degree, but he has already paid the price.
Elder Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr
Boanerge Ministries
