The Bible does not go into great detail concerning what Jesus felt during His crucifixion. 

However, since He died for the sins of all mankind, we should be very interested in exactly what He had to endure for us. 

The following is a medical doctor’s physical description of what Jesus must have gone through when He hung on the cross: 

“The cross was placed on the ground and Jesus, beaten and exhausted, was quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. 

He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Then he quickly moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. 

The crossbeam is then lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. Then the cross is raised and the bottom is dropped into a hole in the ground to stabilize it.

Jesus is now crucified… hanging between Heaven and Earth. 

“As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers, up the arms and explodes in the brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. 

As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again, he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet. 

“As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, and throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. 

Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. 

 “He endures six hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-renting cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against rough timber.

Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with cerium and begins to compress the heart.

It is now almost over. 

The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level. 

The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making frantic efforts to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his body. 

Finally, he says, ‘It is finished,’ and He allows His body to die.” 

But the story doesn’t end there.

Three days later, a group of women came to the tomb and found the stone rolled away.

An angel appeared to them and declared, “Christ has risen from the dead!”

You see, Easter is more than just children and candy… it’s about the power of God’s love for mankind.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead can give you hope for today.

I pray you’ll find out more about Jesus this Sunday at a church near you and celebrate the real meaning of Easter.

Rev. Doug Johnson is the senior pastor at Raven Assembly of God in Raven, Virginia.