Make Your Choice

The other day Tiffany and I stopped at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store. I always seem to make my way to the book section at these stores, looking for good religion or military books. On this day, Tiffany ran across a book titled “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. It had a good review on the back cover so I opened it to page 193….God put me there. In this part of the book Lee is interviewing a doctor by the name of Alexander Metherell. A little background on Mr. Metherell, he has a medical degree from the University of Miami and a doctorate in engineering from the University of Bristol in England and as Lee put it, he speaks with medical precision. Lee is interviewing him on the chilling details of the last day of Jesus’ life on earth. As I read pages 193-195, I was so moved that I closed the book and put it back on the shelf. Tiffany asked if it was a good one and I told her it was way too much for me to handle. We finished up and left the store. The next day we were out getting a few things and we decided to visit another Thrift Store (I don’t want to give you the impression we are junkies….well you can find some good deals there). I had the overwhelming feeling…the “Nudge” as I call it to travel back to the Salvation Army Thrift Store and purchase this book. We made the long trip to the store and it was still there. I brought it home and continued to read past where I had stopped the day before. As I read more into this interview it became very clear that the MAN that came to earth to save US from our sins was given the most horrific death, more than anyone could imagine…I know I was moved and I have read stories on Jesus’ beating and death. Let me provide you with some details. Dr. Metherell describes Jesus’ skin at the time of his initial flogging by roman soldiers. He had been under so much psychological stress that he was bleeding as he was sweating. This is known as hematidrosis. It is a very small amount of blood, but you can start to imagine the stress. This makes our skin very sensitive to anything that touches it…let alone a flogging. So you ask what is flogging like? For Romans this was extremely brutal. They consisted of 39 lashes (Hebrew Law, although the Romans had no limit except they wanted to make sure the victim had enough strength to carry his own cross). The gospels record that Jesus could not carry his cross; this is to suggest he was severely beaten. The whip used was of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them (generally two or three per whip). When the skin is hit by the balls it can cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break the skin wide open, this whip also had sharp bones which would cut the flesh severely. These thongs would literally shred the skin down to the bone of the back. The whipping would continue and sometimes go from the shoulders down the back to the buttocks and the back of the legs. Sometimes the beatings were so bad that the sufferer’s veins were laid bare and their bowels were open to exposure. I will stop here as you have gotten my point. As I read on Dr. Metherell continued to talk of the Agony suffered on the cross……

Let me give you a few facts about what happened to Jesus. It is estimated that he was lashed over 100 times. There were lash marks across the back, front of the upper body, head, shoulders and upper legs. The speed of each lash was equivalent to the energy released by the impact of 9 9mm bullets. From another perspective, this is equivalent to the energy released in the impact of 4 357 magnum rounds.       

So I ask you, would you go through this horrific death to save those you don’t even know, or those yet to come? Can you imagine as a father watching as your son is ruthlessly beaten to the point of being unrecognizable? He went through this to give YOU a HUGE gift…SALVATION and total forgiveness of sins. All he asked in return is a RELATIONSHIP, giving him the glory, following his commands, speak of him in all situations and have faith and trust to follow him all of your days…the choice is yours.