Suffering and Salvation

It was now approaching noon. Jesus had been on the Cross for about three hours; Arm's outstretched - just hanging there.

Utterly exhausted, he sagged down with more of his weight on the nails in his wrists putting pressure on the median nerve. Excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He had to place His full weight on the nail through His feet. More searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.

At this point, as his tired arms grew weaker great waves of cramps ripped through the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. The cramps eliminated any strength he did have to pull himself up for breath. Hanging by the arms, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, are unable to act. Jesus could just about breathe in, but breathing out was tough. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.

And yet, despite the total, unbearable, physical agony, he had the grace to forgive those who had scarred him; the ones who had caused this trauma; the ones who had set his execution in motion. Forgiveness.

He didn't retaliate against those who hurled abused.

He didn't condemn the criminal crucified next to him who heaped insult after insult on him.

But he did have time to reassure one man; a condemned law-breaker crucified near him. They may never have met before this day. They may never have talked together or ate together. But now they were dying together and in a moment of revelation the criminal sees Jesus for who he is.

In the midst of his own personal agonising trauma, the man turns his head towards Jesus, pulls against his own piercing nails to draw a short breath or two, and tries to get Jesus' attention.

"Jesus. Hey, Jesus." Jesus turns his face towards him.

"When you enter your kingdom... please, remember me. Please"

The first hint of the first smile of the day lights up the beaten and bloodied face of the Messiah and he replies back.

"Don't worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise."

Salvation during Crucifixion: What a wonderful mysterious combination.