What suffering Christ endured, dying for our sins. The death of Jesus Christ from the point of view of medicine

The theme of suffering, in Slavic "passion" of Christ, is one of the defining themes of the Gospels and divine services of the Orthodox Church. Such an exceptional position, of course, is not accidental. The suffering that our Lord Jesus Christ endured is connected with the tragic situation in which mankind found itself after the fall of Adam and Eve.
Man was created by God for the infinite happiness of communion with God, but by his disobedience he cut himself off from his Creator. God, the Treasury of all blessings and the Giver of Life, has ceased to be the goal and center of human life. Man and with him the whole creation found themselves outside Paradise, in a world in which a series of suffering ends with death. But God, Love Itself, could not leave His creation in that terrible state of discord. God arranges our salvation in a completely unusual way: the Only Begotten Son of God Himself voluntarily plunged Himself into a suffering world in order to reconcile and unite creation with Himself. The Lord God Himself entered the world where suffering and death exist, for our salvation he entered suffering, freely accepted it. God Himself became judged by people and suffered on the Cross for our sins.

Prayerful remembrance of the Passion of Christ is of great importance in our Orthodox worship. This is not a simple recollection of the events of two thousand years ago. Remembering the passions of Christ, we try to see in their history something that is directly related to our life. Holy Scripture also points us to this, in the words of the Apostle Peter admonishing us: "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in His footsteps" (1 Pet. 2:21).

Indeed, suffering is known to every person, and there is not one among us who does not know the taste of suffering. We are afraid of suffering and try to avoid pain. This is quite natural, because suffering is not the norm of human life, but rather the destruction of the norm. Man was created by God for the happiness and joy of communion with God. Our rejection of suffering is completely understandable: we seem to cry out that we should not suffer and die. But often in our spiritual blindness we begin to blame God, to lay responsibility for our pain on Him. He, as it seems to us in such cases, from a distant sky looks indifferently at how hard it is for us. But is God so indifferent to our suffering? How can we blame Him for this, Who, together with us, was tired, hungry, thirsty, was in anguish, wept, suffered voluntarily for our life and salvation? How can we accuse God of indifference to our suffering? Every mouth is blocked. No, He is not the observer of our suffering, He is the One who willingly gives up Himself for us. This His Divine compassion has no measure. Christ, in the words of one bishop, "suffers in us, for us, and with us." How can one blame God for His good deed? “Will someone blame a doctor for bending over wounds and enduring stench, just to give health to the sick? Will he blame the one who, out of compassion, leaned into the pit to save the cattle that fell into it?” - exclaims St. Gregory the Theologian. When we carefully penetrate these most important gospel truths, we begin to see that it is not God who is responsible for our suffering: on the contrary, God longs for man not to suffer, the Lord wants man to be saved.

Outside the Church, a person often hears a simple answer to his questioning about suffering: "Don't think about it, forget about pleasures, eat, drink, be merry. Everything will be fine." But our experience inexorably destroys such unreasonable optimism: we try not to think about suffering, but we inevitably encounter it again and again. The advice of the "leaders of the blind" does not save us. There is no one who could get away from suffering and death just by stopping thinking about it. The illusion dissipates when the first failures, disappointments and illnesses appear. But perhaps there is some other way out, another means? Sometimes it seems to us that it lies in the fact that we will give ourselves over to any business: our work, family, hobbies. But our experience is inexorable: nothing saves us from suffering.

And so we find ourselves in a hopeless, as it seems to us, situation, and, not knowing what to do, we cross the threshold of the Church. It seems to us that everything here should serve to deliver us from sorrow. Indeed, the Savior Himself says to us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). We come, we begin to live the Church life, we read the Holy Scriptures, we begin to pray, we proceed to Divine Communion, and we become more and more convinced: indeed, the Church gives us peace. But... suddenly the meaning of suffering and the attitude towards it change. We find that suffering must be accepted with Christ. We suddenly see in Holy Scripture an extraordinary call to the bold acceptance of suffering:

“As you participate in Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, and at the manifestation of His glory you will rejoice and exult ... If only none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or a villain, or as an encroachment on someone else’s; and if as a Christian, then not be ashamed, but glorify God for such a fate" (1 Pet. 4, 13, 15-16).

"Therefore endure suffering like a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2, 3).

And if quite recently the joy with which the ancient Christian martyrs accepted suffering and martyrdom seemed completely incomprehensible to us, now the meaning of their joy is gradually being revealed to us. The unexpected words of our Russian saint of recent times, St. Luke (Voino-Yasensky) - "I fell in love with suffering" - begin to sound completely different. We begin to understand that it is not the purpose of the church to use God in our own interests, but, on the contrary, our service to God is the true content of church life. From here comes a new experience of the depths of faith: "Let us commit ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ our God." This is no longer an escape from difficulties, this is a humble acceptance of life, with all its labors and pain, the acceptance of our cross. In this acceptance of suffering, commanded to us by the apostles themselves, there is not and cannot be masochism. It is not a search for suffering for the sake of suffering itself. Rather, it is an extraordinary humility... Perhaps we will not accept physical torment for Christ, like Christian martyrs, but our daily life will flourish into Eternal Life if it becomes a free sacrifice to God.

Of course, accepting and bearing your cross takes courage. Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh writes: “If we initially believe that life should be easy, that suffering has no place in it, that the main thing is to live and receive from life everything that it can give pleasant, then it is very difficult to face suffering. We can show courage for a short time, but are not able to make it their permanent position in life.But if ... for me there are values ​​greater than myself, things more significant for me than what happens to me, I have a support, and I can face suffering."

For those who believe in Christ, this support, which allows them to boldly accept suffering, is God Himself. We may not immediately, but we will surely find that God is infinitely precious to us. Our love for Him lights up brightly, and we forget about ourselves. As Rev. Isaac the Syrian, “the heart of one who has felt this love cannot contain and endure it ... The apostles and martyrs once reveled in this spiritual rapture; and some went around the whole world, laboring and enduring reproach, while others from their severed members poured out blood like water; into In severe sufferings they did not faint of heart, but endured them with valor, and being wise, they were recognized as insane. Others wandered in the deserts, in the mountains ... and in disorder were the most comfortable. May God grant us to achieve this! " This call of the divine Isaac is addressed to every Christian. After all, we all carry our own cross, and this way of the cross, freely accepted by us at the call of Christ: "If anyone wants to follow Me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24), inevitably makes us martyrs.

Christian martyrdom is a special phenomenon, nowhere and never again. This is not death for an idea, but the realization of truth itself. In this sense, the Christian concept of "martyr" goes beyond the physical endure of torment and death for the Truth. Martyrdom is repentance, self-denial and self-sacrifice, it is active asceticism. This significance of martyrdom in the understanding of Christian life is also reflected in our worship: for example, in the fact that in the nine-tiered prosphora, from which nine particles are taken out, symbolizing the ranks of the saints, the central one, as if gathering all the ranks around itself, is precisely the martyr particle.

The Monk Theodore the Studite, in his sermon on the Sunday of All Saints, writes: “Are those only witnesses of the truth who shed blood? - No; such are all those who have lived the Divine life, about whom the holy Apostle says that they “wandered in sheepskins and goatskins, enduring shortcomings, sorrows, bitterness ... Therefore, we too ... with patience will walk the race that is set before us, looking at the leader and perfecter of the faith of Jesus, who, instead of the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God " (Heb. 11:37-38; 12:1-2) You see how he calls martyrs also all lovers of reverence, who lead a sorrowful life with patience. that we love and patiently walk the much-sorrowful path of the Crucifixion... that we must give an account before the terrible Judgment Seat of Christ about how we lived in opposition to the devil... What is the fruit of such a martyr's testimony, you know; know that the witnesses of Christ, who testified of Him to all and for the true testimony, they suffered incredible torments, in the next century they will be declared joint heirs with Him ... "

Thus, each of us is called by Christ, by the whole structure of our church life, to martyrdom: not in the sense that we must be physically killed for Christ, but in that we have a special inner mood of co-crucifixion with Christ. Such an attitude of life is, of course, absolutely unthinkable and even "crazy" for the world. Crucifying with Christ, we accept our suffering not with stoic courage, but humbly bringing our pain to our compassionate Savior and our Lord.

In these days of Great Lent, we again and again stop in our church prayers on the Gospel lines about the Passion of Christ. Again and again the Holy Orthodox Church teaches us to accept the cross and to humblely follow Christ the Suffering and Risen. This path will certainly lead to the Bright Resurrection. The Apostle Paul admonishes us about this: “Buried with Him in baptism, in Him you also rose with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead, and you who were dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, forgiving us all our sins" (Col. 2:12-13). Let us, dear ones, always remember this our highest calling and not be ungrateful to Christ, who endured suffering and death for our salvation, and who gave us Eternal Life by His Resurrection.

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Glory to your passion, Lord,
Glory to Thee!

Father Oleg Molenko

REFLECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST

†

God, strengthen me the passions of Christ's words!

The culmination of Christ's suffering was the day of His crucifixion on the Cross - Friday.

On the night after the Last Supper, the Lord took Peter and the sons of Zebedee with him to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He strengthened Himself through prayer and prepared Himself for the coming tortures and death on the cross.

Man always needs God. Man needs a connection with God. This connection is best established during a person's prayer to God. This is especially important and necessary for a person on the day of the approach of sorrows and the death of his physical nature.

Christ was God - the Son of God - and a perfect sinless Man. He took upon Himself all human nature, except for its fall and sin. Christ was a sinless Man, not because he could sin, but did not sin, but because he could not sin in any way. He did not descend to that level of resistance to God, to which Adam descended, from which sin begins. Christ was an amazing, God-loving, whole and perfect Man. He had not even a shadow or a hint of self or pride. He was the embodiment of humility and meekness! What a marvelous and flawless obedience - an obedience out of boundless love - He showed to His Father. It was Christ the Man who said of the Father that He is greater than Him. Christ God said that He and the Father are one and they are equal.

In his readiness to become an innocent victim, Christ became like a lamb and began to be called the Lamb of God.

That is how he was first called by the blessed Forerunner John, moved by the Holy Spirit. Then another blessed John, the Theologian, wrote down his wondrous revelation, in which Jesus Christ is called the Lamb more than once. How much the sacrificial humility and wondrous meekness of our Lord Jesus is manifested in Him, that the image of this meekness and sacrificial humility - the Lamb - has become one of His glorious names! On Good Friday, Christ the Lamb showed His sacrifice, meekness and humility in all its fullness and beauty!

Nobody saw it then! The outer outline of His sufferings - arrest, trial, interrogations, beatings, execution - attracted all the attention of people, and no one then saw or appreciated the spiritual beauty revealed by Christ in His sufferings and death on the Cross. For the crowd it was an outlandish spectacle, for the enemies it was the fulfillment of their evil dreams and desires, revenge that satisfied their malice, envy and fierce hatred of Christ. For the disciples, the sufferings of Christ were a collapse and bewilderment. They fled in fear, leaving their Master alone with His suffering and death. Only John the Theologian remained with Christ until His end. He, like the Most Pure Mother of Christ, was spiritually crucified with Him, and therefore both of them are rightly called Christ's companions. The Most Pure Mother of Christ saw only His torments and sufferings, which were unbearable for Her. Experiencing them, she suffered terrible pain - as if a weapon had passed through Her soul! Thus, the prophecy of St. Simeon the God-Receiver, which he said to Her on the day of the Churching of the Infant Jesus, came true. For thirty-three years the Blessed Virgin waited for this mournful prophecy to come true - and now this mournful day for Her has come. Suppressed by the weight of incredible grief, She also could not then see the beauty of the sacrificial feat of Her Divine Son.

And all around life went on as usual. The Jews were preparing for their Passover. There was an intense struggle for Christ. The chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and Jewish elders did not initially accept Christ. He, with His otherworldliness, meekness and humility, did not fit into their ideas and aspirations. They looked forward to a completely different Messiah.

Alas, it happens even among the faithful people that long centuries of expectations lead people to distort their religious concepts, aspirations and feelings. The Babylonian captivity and exposure to the demonic beliefs of the Chaldeans greatly influenced the Jews. After this captivity, there was a strong distortion in their faith. Formally, it remained under the veil of the Mosaic law, but in the minds and hearts of the Jews, especially the top ones, the influence of the Chaldean teachings was noticeably affected. Some Jews from the top and the nobility experienced a terrible substitution of the main object of faith - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was secretly replaced by Satan. The Sadducees especially suffered from this, who did not believe in an afterlife, in angels, and for whom God was only some kind of Supreme Power that favored the Jews and protected them. The formalism of faith and internal division corrupted the Jews, nurturing terrible hypocrisy. This was especially true of the Pharisees and scribes, who believed in an afterlife and boasted of knowledge of the law and continuity from Moses. It was a paradox that the Sadducees seized the High Priestly Throne. That is why the High Priests Anna and Caiaphas, the Pharisees and scribes fiercely hated Christ, who not only drew the attention of the people to Himself with His Divine teachings, with power and authority, not only by the charm of His extraordinary and Divine Personality, but also by the evidence of His Divine origin, revealed in the form amazing and supernatural miracles!

By His miracles, Christ greatly frightened the ruling Jewish elite and thus signed His own death sentence. They could not forgive Him for His superiority so clearly manifested over them. A simple Galilean every day attracted more and more people to Himself. The influence of the High Priests, Pharisees and scribes among the people began to decrease. That is why, saving their position, this Jewish elite decided on the most heinous crime in the history of mankind - the murder of their Messiah and God, along with the murder of an innocent Man in the Person of Jesus Christ alone. They decided to kill Him after the miraculous resurrection by Christ of His friend Lazarus: John 11:"53 From that day on they decided to kill him".

If we look at the situation in the religious sphere in our day, we can see an amazing similarity between modern Christians and the Jews of that time. For two thousand years, Christianity on the human side has changed beyond recognition. What kind of delusions, heresies and even absurdities can not be found among those who today call themselves Christians. Such terrible hypocrisy, damage in faith, in concepts, in expectations and aspirations! Spiritual life is perverted, the Spirit of salvation has withdrawn from contemporary Christians, leaving them to the mercy of demons and sinful passions. Ritualism, pompous and feigned piety, unction, pretense, terrible hypocrisy, cunning, groundedness, false belief, false love of love, demonic charm have corroded the church environment like a cancerous tumor! It is not surprising that the ancient Apostolic Church of Christ was lost and diminished to the extreme among the multitude of heresies, schisms, self-organized assemblies, currents, interpretations, accords, parties and other groups that shook her, united only by the Christian name. In fact, they all apostatized from Christ and the right faith in Him and instead of His Church created that same satanic ecumenical gathering, covered for greater deception by the name of Christ and traditional church attributes, which is written in the book of Revelation of John the Theologian. It is no coincidence that God calls Christians Jews in this book: Rev.2:"9 who say of themselves that they are Jews, but they are not, but are a congregation of Satan".

But let us return to the sufferings of our Lord and the Lamb. These sufferings began with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, whom the Lord sent from the Last Supper to carry out his villainous intention. The real misfortune for this unfortunate parricide and lover of money was the possession of Satan:

John 13:
26 Jesus answered, He to whom I will give after dipping a piece of bread. And, having dipped a piece, he gave it to Judas Simonov Iscariot.
27 And after this piece, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him: whatever you do, do it quickly.”

Satan, who fiercely hated Christ, closely watched Him, looking for a convenient moment for revenge for the defeat inflicted on him by Christ during the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. He not only expected, but turned against Christ the people subject to him, wielding them through their passions as his own tools to set a trap for Christ. Many of his attempts failed, because without the permission of God, nothing bad could happen to Christ. But being in deception, this ardent adversary and violent enemy of God - the head of deception and the father of lies - believed in his imaginary power and ability to catch God through the humanity of Christ. He not only believed in this himself, but also inspired this belief in the Jewish leaders. It also seemed to them that God, who had come to earth and so interfering with their earthly well-being, could be killed through the human nature of Christ. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They called the return of dead people to life by Christ the magical actions of the demonic prince Beelzebub. But Christ defeated Satan and these unfortunate blind men precisely by His Resurrection, and not by avoiding death.

The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees argued among themselves something like this: “If He really is God, He can protect Himself and escape our hands and death. And if he does not escape and is executed, then it will become clear to everyone that He is not God and not the Messiah.. And on the basis of such super-cunning, they decided on Deicide, which they carried out by the permission of God. God allowed His Son to be humiliated and killed on the Cross in the forms of His economy and providence, unknown to the Jews. The scribes, who knew Scripture by heart, did not understand the prophecies in it about the suffering and humiliation of the Messiah. Amazing blindness was revealed by them. So, when Judas offered to betray Christ, they, completely forgetting about the prophecy of Jeremiah, gave him the price of betrayal in 30 pieces of silver, and when out of despair he threw the unrighteous pieces of silver in the temple, they unconsciously acted exactly according to the prophecy, having bought land for burial for them wanderers.

So, Satan entered Judas and from within controlled all his actions - evil deeds. He led him to the enemies of Christ and led him to make a criminal deal. Then he used it to extradite Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and even with the help of a vile and sophisticated mockery in the form of a hypocritical kiss of Christ. Pretend "their" to the very end, to the last moment, and to use this pretense to fulfill betrayal - this is the pinnacle of hypocritical art! This art is now fully mastered by representatives of the apostate clergy.

Let's look at the situation of betrayal and bandit custom-made capture of Christ. The enemies chose night time. Under the cover of night and darkness, the greatest atrocity in the history of mankind was committed! Oh, how active were these enemies of Christ. They did not sleep all night and tried to solve their evil deed as soon as possible until morning.

Having endured the incomprehensible mental torment in the Gethsemane struggle and prayer to the Father, Christ nobly and steadfastly met the attack of His enemies. His every action, every word and even glance led to the necessary consequences for Him. We see how an angry mob of armed people set on by the High Priests, led by the ill-fated Judas, entered the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord was expecting their coming and, showing this His knowledge in advance before His Apostles, He tells them about it:

Matthew 26:
45 Then he comes to his disciples and says to them, Do you still sleep and rest? behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners;
46 Get up, let's go: behold, he who betrays me has come near.

See how gracefully our Lord leads His enemies and people drawn into His humiliation and suffering!

The Lord gives Judas a chance for repentance by His question, in which he deliberately calls the traitor a friend: Matthew 26: 50 And Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come?

Then He addresses the high priestly messengers:

John 18:
4 But Jesus, knowing all that would be with him, went out and said to them, Whom are you looking for?
5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them: It is I. And Judas, his betrayer, also stood with them.
6 And when I said to them, It is I, they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them: whom are you looking for? They said: Jesus of Nazareth.
8 Jesus answered: I told you that it was I; so if you are looking for me, leave them, let them go,
9 May the word which He spoke be fulfilled: Of those whom You have given Me, I have not destroyed any.”

He did this in order to show everyone that He voluntarily gives himself into the hands of sinners and villains, and also in order to save His disciples in fulfillment of prophecy. But even these people, dependent on their superiors, involved in their evil deed, the Lord gave a chance for conversion, saying: Matthew 26:“55 In that hour Jesus said to the people, You have come out as if against a robber with swords and clubs to take me; every day I sat with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not take Me.”.

Then we see how the Lord heals the ear cut off by Peter at the bishop's servant Malchus. He humbles Peter, stopping him from rash actions and unconscious opposition to God's providence. By these actions, the Lord once again confirms him and us that He voluntarily takes upon Himself all subsequent torments, although He could protect Himself by begging the Father to send more than 12 legions of Angels! Convinced of the safety of His disciples, Jesus allowed the messengers to seize Himself and take Him to the bishops.

How wonderfully our Lord behaved when He appeared before the High Priests who hated Him! He, philanthropic, gave these rabid people a chance for conversion and repentance. For this He said to them:

John 18:
19 And the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.
20 Jesus answered him: I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where the Jews always converge, and secretly did not say anything.
21 What are you asking me? ask those who heard what I said to them; Behold, they know what I have said."

When one of the servants of the bishop, out of his false jealousy, slapped Jesus on the cheek for allegedly disrespecting the bishop, our Lord humbly but authoritatively answered him: John 18:“23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, show me that it is evil; and if it's good that you beat me?" And with this word the Lord healed this unfortunate servant, giving him a chance for repentance!

Then the Lord completes the healing of the Apostle Peter with His one glance, who, according to His word, denied Him three times before the cock crowed. Peter, knowing his weakness, leaves to indulge in repentance and bitter lamentation.

Bishops use false witnesses to the fullest, but they cannot find a suitable one for their purpose. And these non-humans had one goal - to kill Christ under the guise of legal condemnation and execution. For this purpose, they played a whole night performance, in which each participant was assigned his own role, but things did not go well with the accusers, and the morning was drawing near. Then Bishop Caiaphas assumed the role of chief accuser. He found a crafty move to achieve his insidious goal - he directly asked Christ if He was the Son of God. This crafty servant of Satan knew that Christ is God, and will certainly testify to this truth. Christ testified to the truth, and the crafty bishop immediately used this testimony against Christ, turning it into "blasphemy."

Now there was at last some reason to put Christ to death. The bishop so entered into his role that he artistically tore his robes, showing the alleged indignation that had seized him at the “blasphemy” he had heard from Christ. The performance with the trial of Christ ended with a verdict: guilty of death. Now it was up to the enforcement of this sentence, for this the bishops and others like them used the Romans and, in particular, the procurator in Palestine, Pontius Pilate.

Pilate was not hostile to Christ and generally did not want to get into the religious disassembly of the Jews, but the Jewish elite forced him to do this.

The more Pilate delved into this matter, the more he became convinced of the innocence of Christ. He realized that the Jews were looking to kill Christ out of envy, and therefore he tried in spite of them to free Christ. This desire of his increased after he learned from the Jews that Christ is the Son of God. And then his wife came and testified that she suffered a lot in a dream for Christ and asked Pilate not to do Him any harm. Pilate tried to free Christ, using the custom of releasing one criminal on the Jewish Passover. By this, he was forced to put Christ on the same level with the real criminal - the robber Barabbas. He suggested that the Jews let go of one of the two - Christ or Barabbas, believing that they would let Christ go. But the cunning Jews clung to this proposal from the other side - they incited the people to ask them to release the robber Barabbas, and Pilate had to yield to them. Then, in his search for the deliverance of Christ, Pilate makes another mistake. He betrays an innocent Man to be beaten by his soldiers, believing that this will quench the thirst for His blood of the bishops and His other enemies from among the Jews.

But Pilate miscalculated in this too, underestimating the malice and hatred of the Jewish elite towards Christ. He failed to free Christ, but he only caused Him additional humiliation and torment on the part of his rude soldiers. The Roman soldiers in the Person of Christ saw only the opportunity that presented itself for them to unwind with mockery of a Jew who was alien to them in their boring service in a distant and alien province. That is why they not only fulfilled the order of their boss Pilate, but played a whole performance, subjecting Christ to terrible physical tortures, beatings and mockeries. They were especially fed up with the news of the royal origin of Christ, over which they deliberately mocked, dressing Christ in purple, crowning Him instead of a crown with a crown woven from thorny thorns, pretending to bow to Him and saying: John 19:"3 Hail King of the Jews".

Pilate then tried to take advantage of the presence of King Herod in Jerusalem. By sending Christ to him, he thought by doing so to shift the burden of responsibility from himself onto Herod, but here, too, nothing came of it. Having mocked Christ, Herod sent Him back to Pilate. Then Pilate began to directly declare to the bishops that he did not see any guilt in Christ, but they insisted on the crucifixion. They really wanted not only to kill Christ, but to humiliate Him by betraying the shameful execution - crucifixion - used for slaves and criminals not from among the Romans. Pilate tried to escape the execution by telling the Jews to execute Him themselves. But the Jews slyly reminded Pilate that supposedly they had no right to kill anyone (which was a lie), but only him, as a representative of the legitimate authority. Seeing Pilate's intractability and resistance, the Jews took their last cunning step. They got hooked on the fact that Christ is the king and began to blackmail Pilate with a denunciation to the Roman emperor.

Pilate could not allow this. Concern for personal well-being and career interest outweighed in him an honest executor of Roman laws, and he, having made an acquittal maneuver with washing his hands, betrays an innocent Man to a shameful execution. Satan and the Jews rejoice. Their long-awaited dream came true! Goal achieved! A "victory" over the "defenseless" God has been won! But their malice towards Christ remains unquenched, they continue to aggravate the fate of Christ unjustly condemned to death in every possible way. When the question arose about the material for the cross of Christ, the Jews immediately remembered the stained log that had been lying in the source for hundreds of years. They forced the Romans to build a cross for Christ from this stained wood, because. they knew the custom of the Romans, according to which the criminal himself must carry his cross to the place of execution, and therefore they offered stained wood, which is several times heavier than stained wood. Thus, the cross of Christ, which did not differ in appearance, was much heavier than the crosses of the two thieves who were crucified next to Christ.

That is why the Lord fell under the weight of the Cross he was carrying, and the Romans had to turn to the passerby peasant Simon to help Christ carry the Cross to Golgotha.

The Jews also insisted that Christ be nailed to the Cross with four huge nails. According to legend, they were made by one gypsy hired for this purpose. After that, the curse fell on the entire gypsy family, which still leads a nomadic lifestyle with theft, gambling, fortune-telling, cheating and other things like that.

But the bishops and elders did not leave Christ nailed to the Cross and hanging on it. They continued to revile Him, scold and mock Him. In these mocking mockery of Christ, they sought justification for themselves and their heinous lawless crime. That is why they reproached Christ for calling Himself the Savior of people, demanding from Him to come down from the cross by the power of God. According to their sick logic, it turned out that if He could come down from His Cross and save Himself from death by the power of God, then this would prove that He is from God, and then they would allegedly believe in Him.

They did not understand that Satan was using them, and God was allowing all this to happen for the sake of the redemption of all people. The Jews tried to put pressure on Pilate in the case of the tablet with the inscription. Here Pilate did not yield. He decided at least in this small way to take revenge on the Jews for his defeat in the battle for Christ. He himself chose the material for the tablet, sat down and wrote on it in beautiful clerical handwriting in three languages ​​- Roman, Greek and Jewish - John 19:"19 Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews"! This inscription annoyed and angered the Jews, they began to demand from Pilate that he correct the inscription to "This is the one who called himself the King of the Jews." But Pilate was adamant, and they did not find any leverage to influence him. Thus, by the providence of God on the Cross of Christ there was a genuine inscription, clearly saying Who was crucified!

But the Jews, having heard rumors about the possible resurrection of Christ, thought in their cunning that the disciples of Christ would be cunning and, having stolen His Body from the tomb, they would spread a rumor about His resurrection. For the sake of this, they asked Pilate to prevent such a course of action. Pilate refused to intervene, saying that you have your own guard (custodia) - use it. The Jews diligently sealed the tomb with the Body of Christ with their seal and posted guards at the tomb. Thus, the providence of God arranged for Christians a convincing proof of the fact of the resurrection of Christ. After the resurrection of Christ, the Jews realized that they were mistaken and regretted that they unwittingly served the cause of proving the resurrection of Christ. They had to pay money to the guards so that they would lie against the fact of the resurrection of Christ - that, they say, His disciples stole His Body. But with such false evidence, the guards put themselves in the position of violators. The Jews had to fork out so that Pilate would not punish the guards. Thus began the spending of the Jews to support lies and fight against the resurrected Christ God.

Neither an unreasonable (not astronomical) eclipse of the sun and darkness in the middle of the day, nor a strong earthquake that occurred immediately after the death of Christ, nor the rupture of the Veil in their temple from this earthquake and the exposure of the Holy of Holies, nor the confession of Christ as the Son of God from a robber dying on the cross and a Roman centurion had no effect on the hard-nosed and malicious Jews. God left them and their temple, and they became part of Satan.

Our Lord, having redeemed the human race with His incredible suffering and death on the Cross, resurrected on the third day, defeating all His enemies with His glorious Resurrection! He descended from the Cross, but not in the way the Jews suggested, but through death, lying in the tomb and Resurrection, with the manifestation of His human nature in an eternal new quality! He descended from His Cross as the Conqueror of death, hell, Satan and his demons, sin, and removed from humanity the curse of God that had hung on it since the day of the fall of people!

Glory to our Lord Lamb, Conqueror, Redeemer and Savior!

Death was a turning point in human history. Probably there are almost no people on earth who have not heard about Jesus Christ and his life. But at the same time, not many realize what Christ really did for every person on earth. We invite you to read the article by S. Truman Davis, who writes about the physical aspects of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross - in the last hours of His earthly life.

The death of Jesus Christ - a view from the point of view of medicine

Almost all the inhabitants of the earth have heard about Jesus Christ. Many people have houses. Some tried to read it. And very few try to live according to what is written in it. In this article, the author describes the death of Jesus Christ from the point of view of medicine. Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross - He died the death that was usually used to execute criminals. He died for each of us. Read this article and you will never forget what happened that day...

In this article, I want to discuss some of the physical aspects of the passion or suffering of Jesus Christ. We will trace His path from the Garden of Gethsemane to judgment, then, after His scourging, the procession to Golgotha ​​and, in the end, His last hours on the cross ...

I began by studying how the act of crucifixion was practically carried out, that is, the torture and deprivation of human life when they were nailed to the cross. Apparently, the first known crucifixion in history was made by the Persians. Alexander the Great and his generals resumed this practice in the countries of the Mediterranean: from Egypt to Carthage. The Romans adopted this from the Carthaginians and quickly, like everything else they did, turned it into an effective method of execution. Famous Roman authors (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus) write about it. Some innovations and changes are described in ancient historical literature. I will mention only a part of them that is relevant to our topic. The vertical part of the cross, otherwise the leg, may have a horizontal part, otherwise the tree, located 0.5 - 1 meter below the top - just such a form of the cross we usually consider today to be classical (later it was called the Latin cross). However, in those days when our Lord lived on Earth, the shape of the cross was different (like the Greek letter "tau" or our letter "t"). On this cross, the horizontal part was located in a recess at the top of the leg. There is quite a lot of archaeological evidence that Jesus Christ was crucified on just such a cross.

The vertical part was usually constantly at the place of execution, and the condemned person had to carry the tree of the cross, which weighed about 50 kilograms, from prison to the place of execution. Without any historical or biblical evidence, the artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance depicted Christ carrying the entire cross. Many of these artists and most sculptors today depict the palms of Christ with nails driven into them. Roman historical records and experimental evidence suggest that the nails were driven between the bones of the wrist rather than in the palm of the hand. A nail driven into the palm will tear it through the fingers under the influence of the weight of the convict's body. This erroneous opinion, perhaps, was the result of a misunderstanding of the words of Christ addressed to Thomas: "Look at my hands." Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist to be part of the hand. A small tablet with an inscription about the crime of the condemned was usually carried at the front of the procession, and then nailed to the cross above his head. This tablet, together with the shaft attached to the top of the cross, may have given the impression of a shape characteristic of the Latin cross.

The suffering of Christ begins already in the Garden of Gethsemane. Of the many aspects, I will consider only one of physiological interest: bloody sweat. Interestingly, Luke, who was the doctor among the students, is the only one who mentions this. He writes: “And in torment He is even more diligent. And like drops of blood, His sweat fell to the ground. Modern scholars have used every conceivable effort to find an explanation for this phrase, apparently in the false belief that this cannot be. Much futile effort could have been avoided by consulting the medical literature. The description of the phenomenon of hematidrosis, or blood sweat, although very rare, is found in the literature. During times of great emotional stress, the tiny capillaries in the sweat glands break, causing blood and sweat to mix. This alone could cause a person to experience a state of extreme weakness and possibly shock.

We omit here the passages connected with betrayal and arrest. I must emphasize that important points of Christ's suffering are missing from this article. This may upset you, but in order to achieve our goal of considering only the physical aspects of suffering, this is necessary. After the arrest, at night Christ was brought to the Sanhedrin to the high priest Caiaphas. Here He is given the first physical injury, hitting His face for being silent and not answering the high priest's question. After that, the palace guards put a blindfold on Him and mocked Him, demanding to know which of them spat on Him and hit Him in the face.

In the morning, Christ, beaten, thirsty and exhausted from a sleepless night, is led through Jerusalem to the praetorium of the fortress of Anthony, the place where the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, was located. You, of course, know that Pilate tried to shift the responsibility for making the decision to the tetrarch of Judea, Herod Antipas. It is clear that Herod did not inflict physical suffering on Christ and was brought back to Pilate.

And then, yielding to the cries of the crowd, Pilate ordered the release of the rebel Barabbas and condemned Christ to scourging and crucifixion. There is much disagreement among established scholars as to whether scourging served as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers of the time do not link these two types of punishment together. Many researchers believe that initially Pilate ordered the scourging of Christ and limited himself to this, and the decision on the death penalty by crucifixion was made under pressure from the crowd, who claimed that the procurator did not protect the Caesar in this way from a man who calls himself the King of the Jews.

And now comes the preparation for the scourging. The prisoner's clothes are torn off, and his hands are tied above his head to a post. It is not completely clear whether the Romans tried to keep the Jewish law regarding scourging. The Jews had an ancient law that prohibited more than forty strokes. The Pharisees, who always followed the strict observance of the law, insisted that the number of strokes be thirty-nine, that is, in the event of an error in counting, the law, however, would not be violated. A Roman legionary proceeds to scourging. In his hands is a whip, which is a short whip consisting of several heavy leather straps with two small lead balls at the ends.

A heavy lash with all its force falls again and again on the shoulders, back and legs of Christ. At first, heavy straps cut only the skin. They then cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissue, causing bleeding from the capillaries and saphenous veins, and finally leading to rupture of blood vessels in the muscle tissue.

Small lead balls first form large and deep bruises, which rupture on repeated impacts. At the end of this torture, the skin on the back hangs in long shreds and the whole place turns into a continuous bloody mess. When the centurion leading this execution sees that the prisoner is close to death, the scourging finally stops.

Christ, who was in a semi-conscious state, is untied hands, and He falls on the stones, covered with His blood. The Roman soldiers now decide to have fun with a provincial Jew who claims that He is the King. They throw a robe over His shoulders and put a stick in His hands as a scepter. But you still need a crown to complete this fun. They take a small bunch of flexible branches covered with long thorns (usually used for a fire) and weave a wreath, which they put on His head. And again there is profuse bleeding, because there is a dense network of blood vessels on the head. Having scoffed to their heart's content and smashed His face, the legionnaires take the cane from Him and beat Him on the head so that the thorn thorns cut even deeper into the skin. Finally tired of this sadistic game, they tear off His clothes. It has already stuck to the blood clots on the wounds, and its tearing off, as well as the careless removal of the surgical bandage, causes excruciating pain, almost the same as if He was whipped again, and His wounds begin to bleed again.

Out of respect for Jewish tradition, the Romans return His clothes to Him. The heavy tree of the cross is tied to His shoulders, and the procession, consisting of the condemned Christ, two robbers and a detachment of Roman legionnaires, led by a centurion, begins its slow procession to Golgotha. Despite all Christ's efforts to walk straight, He fails, and He stumbles and falls, because the wooden cross is too heavy and much blood has been lost.

Jesus tries to get up, but his strength fails him. The centurion, showing impatience, forces a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was walking from the field, to take and carry the cross instead of Jesus, Who, in a cold sweat and losing a lot of blood, tries to go Himself. The path, about 600 meters long, from the Antonia fortress to Golgotha ​​is finally completed. The prisoner's clothes are again torn off, leaving only a loincloth, which was allowed for the Jews.

The crucifixion begins and Christ is offered to drink wine mixed with myrrh, a mildly anesthetic mixture. He refuses her. Simon is ordered to put the cross on the ground and then they quickly put Christ back on the cross. The legionary shows some confusion before he drives a heavy square hammered nail into his wrist and nailing it to the cross. He quickly does the same with the other hand, being careful not to pull too hard to give him some freedom of movement. The tree of the cross is then lifted up and planted on top of the stem, after which a tablet is nailed with the inscription: JESUS ​​OF NAZAREH, KING OF THE JEWS.

The left foot is pressed from above to the right with the fingers down and the nail is driven into the instep of the feet, leaving the knees slightly bent. The crucifixion of the victim is complete. His body hangs on nails driven into his wrist, which causes excruciating, unbearable pain that radiates to the fingers and pierces the entire arm and brain: a nail driven into the wrist presses on the median nerve. Trying to reduce the unbearable pain, He rises, transferring the weight of His body to His feet, nailed to the cross. And again, burning pain pierces the nerve endings located between the metatarsal bones of the foot.

At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As fatigue builds up in the arms, waves of spasms travel through the muscles, leaving knots of relentless, throbbing pain in their wake. And these convulsions make it impossible for Him to lift His body. Due to the fact that the body is completely hanging on the hands, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed, and the intercostal muscles cannot contract. Air can be inhaled, but not exhaled. Jesus struggles to pull himself up on his hands to take even a small breath of air. As a result of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the lungs and blood, convulsions partially weaken and it becomes possible to rise and exhale, in order to then receive a saving breath of air. Undoubtedly, it is during this period of time that He speaks the seven short phrases that are given in Holy Scripture.

He utters the first phrase when he looks at the Roman soldiers who divided His clothes, casting lots: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

The second, when he addresses the repentant thief: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The third, when he sees in the crowd his mother and the grief-stricken young apostle John: "Here is your son, woman" and "Here is your mother."

The fourth, which is the first stanza of Psalm 21: “My God! My God! Why did you leave me?"

Hours of unceasing torment come, convulsions pierce His body, there are attacks of suffocation, every movement is given with burning pain when He tries to rise, as the wounds on His back are again torn against the surface of the cross. This is followed by another agony: severe squeezing pain occurs in the chest due to the fact that the blood serum slowly fills the space around the heart, squeezing the heart.

Let us recall the words from Psalm 21 (verse 15): “I have been poured out like water, all my bones have been scattered, my heart has become like wax, it has melted in the midst of my insides.” It's almost over. The loss of fluid in the body has reached a critical point, the constricted heart is still trying to pump thick and viscous blood through the vessels, the exhausted lungs are making a desperate attempt to draw in at least a little air. Excessive dehydration of tissues brings excruciating suffering.

Jesus lets out a cry, "I'm thirsty!" This is His fifth sentence. Let us recall another stanza from the prophetic 21st Psalm: “My strength dried up like a shard, my tongue clung to my throat, and You reduced me to the dust of death.”

A sponge dipped in the cheap sour wine Posca, which was in use among the Roman legionnaires, is brought to His lips. He apparently didn't drink anything. The suffering of Christ reaches its extreme point, He feels the cold breath of death. And He utters His sixth phrase, which is not just a lament in death throes: "Now that's it."

His mission to atone for the sins of men is completed, and He can accept death. With one last effort, He again rests on his broken feet, straightens up, takes a breath and utters His seventh and last phrase: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."

The rest is known. Not wanting to darken the Sabbath before Easter, the Jews asked that the executed be removed from the crosses. The common method used to complete an execution by crucifixion was to break the bones of the lower leg. Then the victim will no longer be able to rise on his feet, and due to the great tension in the muscles of the chest, rapid suffocation occurs. The legs of the two robbers were broken, but when the soldiers approached Jesus, they saw that this was not necessary, and thus the Scripture came true: “Let not His bone be broken.” One of the soldiers, wanting to make sure that Christ died, pierced His body in the area of ​​the fifth intercostal space towards the heart. John 19:34 says, “and at once blood and water gushed out of the wound.” This suggests that the water came out of the volume around the heart, and the blood - from the pierced heart. Thus, we have quite convincing post-mortem evidence that our Lord did not die the usual death of crucifixion from asphyxiation, but from heart failure due to shock and compression of the heart by fluid in the pericardial region.

So, we have seen the evil that a person is capable of in relation to another person and to God. This is a very ugly picture that makes a depressing impression. How grateful we should be to God for His mercy to man - this is the miracle of the redemption of sins and the expectation of Easter morning!

S. Truman Davis
Reprinted from Arizona Madisin magazine. March, 1965

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After Jesus Christ was condemned to be crucified, He was handed over to the soldiers. The soldiers, having taken him, again beat him with insults and mockery. When they mocked Him, they took off the purple robe from Him and put on His own garments. Those condemned to be crucified were supposed to carry their cross, so the soldiers laid His cross on the shoulders of the Savior and led him to the place appointed for the crucifixion. The place was a hill called Golgotha, or place of execution, i.e. sublime. Golgotha ​​was located west of Jerusalem, not far from the city gates, called Judgment.

A great multitude of people followed Jesus Christ. The road was mountainous. Exhausted by beatings and scourgings, exhausted by mental suffering, Jesus Christ could barely walk, falling several times under the weight of the cross. When they reached the city gates, where the road went uphill, Jesus Christ was completely exhausted. At this time, the soldiers saw a man close by who looked at Christ with compassion. It was Simon of Cyrene, returning after work from the field. The soldiers seized him and forced him to carry the cross of Christ.

Carrying the Cross by the Savior

Among the people who followed Christ there were many women who wept and sobbed for Him.

Jesus Christ, turning to them, said: “Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children. Because the days will soon come when they will say: happy are those wives who have no children. Then people will say to the mountains fall on us, and on the hills: cover us."

So the Lord foretold those terrible calamities that were to break out over Jerusalem and the Jewish people soon after His earthly life.

NOTE: See in the Gospel: Matt., ch. 27 , 27-32; from Mark, ch. 15 , 16-21; from Luke, ch. 23 , 26-32; from John, ch. 19 , 16-17.

Crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ

The execution of crucifixion on the cross was the most shameful, the most painful and the most cruel. In those days, only the most notorious villains were executed with such a death: robbers, murderers, rebels and criminal slaves. The suffering of a crucified man is indescribable. In addition to unbearable pain in all parts of the body and suffering, the crucified one experienced terrible thirst and mortal spiritual anguish. Death was so slow that many were tormented on the cross for several days. Even the executioners - usually cruel people - could not coolly look at the suffering of the crucified. They prepared a drink with which they tried either to quench their unbearable thirst, or, by the admixture of various substances, to temporarily dull their consciousness and alleviate their torment. According to Jewish law, a person hung from a tree was considered cursed. The leaders of the Jews wanted to disgrace Jesus Christ forever by condemning Him to such a death.

When they brought Jesus Christ to Golgotha, the soldiers served Him to drink sour wine mixed with bitter substances in order to alleviate suffering. But the Lord, having tasted it, did not want to drink it. He did not want to use any remedy to relieve suffering. He voluntarily accepted these sufferings upon Himself for the sins of people; That's why I wanted to endure them.

When everything was ready, the soldiers crucified Jesus Christ. It was about noon, in Hebrew, at the 6th hour of the day. When they were crucifying Him, He prayed for His tormentors, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing."

Two villains (thieves) were crucified next to Jesus Christ, one on the right and the other on the left side of Him. Thus, the prediction of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled, who said: "And he was counted among the evildoers" (Is. 53 , 12).

By order of Pilate, an inscription was nailed to the cross over the head of Jesus Christ, signifying His guilt. On it was written in Hebrew, Greek and Roman: Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews", and many read it. The enemies of Christ did not like such an inscription. Therefore, the high priests came to Pilate and said: "Do not write: King of the Jews, but write that He said: I am the King of the Jews."

But Pilate answered: "What I have written, I have written."

Meanwhile, the soldiers who crucified Jesus Christ took His clothes and began to divide among themselves. They tore the outer garment into four pieces, one piece for each warrior. The chiton (underwear) was not sewn, but all woven from top to bottom. Then they said to each other: "We will not tear it apart, but we will cast lots for it, whoever gets it." And casting lots, the soldiers sitting guarded the place of execution. So, here, too, the ancient prophecy of King David came true: “They divided My garments among themselves, and they cast lots for My garments” (Psalm. 21 , 19).

Enemies did not stop insulting Jesus Christ on the cross. As they passed, they slandered and, nodding their heads, said: "Hey! Destroying the temple and building up in three days! Save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."

Also, the chief priests, scribes, elders and Pharisees, mockingly, said: “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. now let God deliver him, if he pleases him; for he said, I am the Son of God.

Following their example, the pagan warriors, who sat at the crosses and guarded the crucified, mockingly said: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself."

Even one of the crucified robbers, who was to the left of the Savior, slandered Him and said: "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us."

The other robber, on the contrary, calmed him and said: “Or are you not afraid of God, when you yourself are condemned to the same (i.e., to the same torment and death)? and He did nothing wrong." Having said this, he turned to Jesus Christ with a prayer: " remember me(remember me) Lord, when you come into your kingdom!"

The merciful Savior accepted the heartfelt repentance of this sinner, who showed such wondrous faith in Him, and answered the prudent thief: " I tell you truly, today you will be with me in paradise".

At the cross of the Savior stood His Mother, the Apostle John, Mary Magdalene and several other women who revered Him. It is impossible to describe the sorrow of the Mother of God, who saw the unbearable torment of Her Son!

Jesus Christ, seeing His Mother and John standing here, whom He especially loved, says to His Mother: " Geno! behold, thy son"Then he says to John:" here, your mother"From that time on, John took the Mother of God to his house and took care of Her until the end of Her life.

Meanwhile, during the suffering of the Savior on Calvary, a great sign occurred. From the hour the Savior was crucified, that is, from the sixth hour (and according to our account from the twelfth hour of the day), the sun darkened and darkness fell over all the earth, and lasted until the ninth hour (according to our account until the third hour of the day) , i.e. until the death of the Savior.

This extraordinary, worldwide darkness was noted by pagan historian writers: the Roman astronomer Phlegont, Phallus and Junius Africanus. The famous philosopher from Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite, was at that time in Egypt, in the city of Heliopolis; observing the sudden darkness, he said: "Either the Creator suffers, or the world is destroyed." Subsequently, Dionysius the Areopagite converted to Christianity and was the first Bishop of Athens.

About the ninth hour, Jesus Christ loudly exclaimed: Or or! lima savahfani!" that is, "My God, My God! Why did you leave me?" These were the opening words from the 21st Psalm of King David, in which David clearly predicted the suffering on the Savior's cross. With these words, the Lord reminded people for the last time that He is the true Christ, the Savior of the world.

Some of those standing on Golgotha, hearing these words spoken by the Lord, said: "Behold, He is calling Elijah." And others said, "Let's see if Elijah comes to save Him."

The Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that everything had already happened, said: "I thirst."

Then one of the soldiers ran, took a sponge, soaked it with vinegar, put it on a cane and brought it to the withered lips of the Savior.

Having tasted the vinegar, the Savior said: Done", that is, the promise of God was fulfilled, the salvation of the human race was completed.

And behold, the veil in the temple, which covered the holy of holies, was torn in two, from the top to the bottom, and the earth shook, and the stones split; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into Jerusalem and appeared to many.

Centurion confesses Jesus Christ as the Son of God

The centurion, (the head of the soldiers) and the soldiers with him, who guarded the crucified Savior, seeing the earthquake and everything that happened before them, were frightened and said: " Truly this man was the Son of God". And the people, who were at the crucifixion and saw everything, began to disperse in fear, striking themselves in the chest.

Friday evening came. Easter was to be eaten that evening. The Jews did not want to leave the bodies of those crucified on the crosses until Saturday, because Easter Saturday was considered a great day. Therefore, they asked Pilate for permission to kill the legs of the crucified, so that they would die sooner and could be removed from the crosses. Pilate allowed. The soldiers came and broke the shins of the robbers. When they approached Jesus Christ, they saw that He had already died, and therefore they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers, so that there would be no doubt about His death, pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed from the wound.

Rib perforation

27 , 33-56; from Mark, ch. 15 , 22-41; from Luke, ch. 23 , 33-49; from John, ch. 19 , 18-37.

The Holy Cross of Christ is the Holy Altar on which the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Descent from the Cross and Burial of the Savior

On the same evening, shortly after all that had happened, a famous member of the Sanhedrin, a rich man, came to Pilate. Joseph of Arimathea(from the city of Arimathea). Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus Christ, secret - out of fear of the Jews. He was a kind and righteous man, who did not participate in the council, in the condemnation of the Savior. He asked Pilate for permission to remove the body of Christ from the cross and bury it.

Pilate was surprised that Jesus Christ died so soon. He called the centurion who guarded the crucified, learned from him when Jesus Christ died, and allowed Joseph to take the body of Christ for burial.

Burial of the Body of Christ the Savior

Joseph, having bought a shroud (a linen for burial), came to Golgotha. Another secret disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, also came. He brought with him for burial a precious fragrant ointment - a composition of myrrh and aloes.

They removed the body of the Savior from the Cross, anointed Him with incense, wrapped Him in a shroud, and laid Him in a new tomb, in a garden near Golgotha. This coffin was a cave that Joseph of Arimathea carved into the rock for his burial, and in which no one had yet been laid. There they laid the body of Christ, because this tomb was close to Golgotha, and there was little time, since the great feast of Easter was coming. Then they rolled a huge stone to the door of the coffin and left.

Mary Magdalene, Mary Josieva and other women were there and watched how the body of Christ was laid down. Returning home, they bought precious ointment, so that later they could anoint the body of Christ with this ointment, as soon as the first, great day of the feast had passed, on which, according to the law, everyone should be at rest.

Position in the coffin. (Lamentation of the Mother of God.)

But the enemies of Christ did not rest, despite their great feast. The next day, on Saturday, the chief priests and Pharisees (disturbing the peace of the Sabbath and the holiday) gathered, came to Pilate and began to ask him: "Sir, we remembered that this deceiver (as they dared to call Jesus Christ), while still alive, He said, “After three days I will rise again.” Therefore command that the tomb be guarded until the third day, lest His disciples come at night and steal Him away and tell the people that He has risen from the dead, and then the last deception will be worse than the first.”

Pilate said to them, "You have guards; go and guard as you know."

Then the high priests with the Pharisees went to the tomb of Jesus Christ and, having carefully examined the cave, applied their (Sanhedrin's) seal to the stone; and set up a military guard at the tomb of the Lord.

When the body of the Savior lay in the tomb, with His soul He descended into hell to the souls of people who died before His suffering and death. And all the souls of righteous people who were waiting for the coming of the Savior, He freed from hell.

The return of the Mother of God and the Apostle Paul from the burial

NOTE: See in the Gospel: from Matt., ch. 27 , 57-66; from Mark, ch. 15 , 42-47; from Luke, ch. 23 , 50-56; from John, ch. 19 , 38-42.

The sufferings of Christ are remembered by the Holy Orthodox Church on the week before Easter. This week is called Passionate. Christians should spend this entire week in fasting and prayer.

Pharisees and Jewish High Priests
seal the tomb of the Lord

IN Great Wednesday Holy Week remembers the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot.

IN Maundy Thursday In the evening, after the Vespers (which is Good Friday Matins), the twelve parts of the gospel of the sufferings of Jesus Christ are read.

IN Good Friday at Vespers(which is served at 2 or 3 p.m.) is taken out of the altar and placed in the middle of the temple shroud, i.e., the sacred image of the Savior lying in the tomb; this is done in remembrance of the removal from the cross of the body of Christ and His burial.

IN Great Saturday on matins, with the funeral ringing of bells and while singing the song "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" - the shroud is wrapped around the temple in remembrance of the descent of Jesus Christ into hell, when His body was in the tomb, and His victory over hell and death .

Military guards at the Holy Sepulcher

For Holy Week and the feast of Easter, we prepare ourselves with fasting. This fast lasts forty days and is called Holy forty days or Great Lent.

In addition, the Holy Orthodox Church instituted fasting for Wednesdays And Fridays every week (except for some, very few, weeks of the year), on Wednesdays - in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas, and on Fridays - in remembrance of the suffering of Jesus Christ.

We express faith in the power of the suffering on the cross for us Jesus Christ sign of the cross during our prayers.

The Descent of Jesus Christ into Hell

Resurrection of Jesus Christ

After the Sabbath, at night, on the third day after His suffering and death, The Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of His divinity, came to life, i.e. rose from the dead. His human body was transformed. He emerged from the tomb without breaking the stone, without breaking the Sanhedrin seal, and invisible to the guards. From that moment on, the soldiers, without knowing it, guarded the empty coffin.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake; an angel of the Lord descended from heaven. He, approaching, rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb of the Lord and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow. The warriors who stood guard at the tomb trembled and became like the dead, and then, waking up from fear, fled.

On this day (the first day of the week), as soon as the Sabbath rest ended, very early, at dawn, Mary Magdalene, Mary Jacobleva, John, Salome and other women, taking the prepared fragrant myrrh, went to the tomb of Jesus Christ to anoint His body, because they did not have time to do this at the burial. (The Church calls these women myrrh-bearers). They did not yet know that guards were assigned to the tomb of Christ, and the entrance to the cave was sealed. Therefore, they did not expect to meet anyone there, and they said among themselves: "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?" The stone was very large.

The angel of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb

Mary Magdalene, ahead of the rest of the myrrh-bearing women, was the first to come to the tomb. It was not yet dawn, it was dark. Mary, seeing that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, immediately ran to Peter and John and said: "They took the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they put Him." Hearing these words, Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb. Mary Magdalene followed them.

At this time, the rest of the women, walking with Mary Magdalene, approached the tomb. They saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. And when they stopped, suddenly, they saw a luminous angel sitting on a stone. The angel, turning to them, said: “Do not be afraid: for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified. He is not here; He is risen as I said while still with you. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead."

They went inside the tomb (cave) and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, looking, they saw an angel in a white robe sitting on the right side of the place where the Lord was laid; they were terrified.

The angel says to them: “Do not be horrified; you are looking for Jesus, the crucified Nazarene; He is risen; He is not here. Here's the place where He was laid. But go and tell His disciples and Peter (who by his renunciation fell away from the number of disciples) that He will meet you in Galilee, where you will see Him, as He told you."

When the women stood in perplexity, suddenly, again, two angels in shining clothes appeared before them. The women bowed their faces to the ground in fear.

The angels said to them: "Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here: He is risen; remember how He told you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful people, and be crucified, and rise on the third day."

Then the women remembered the words of the Lord. And having gone out, they fled from the tomb in trembling and fear. And then, with fear and great joy, they went to tell His disciples. They didn't say anything to anyone on the way, because they were afraid.

Having come to the disciples, the women told about everything they had seen and heard. But their words seemed empty to the disciples, and they did not believe them.

Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Holy Sepulcher

Meanwhile, Peter and John come running to the tomb of the Lord. John ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first, but he did not enter the tomb, but bending down, he saw the sheets lying. Peter runs after him, enters the tomb and sees only the linens lying, and the kerchief (bandage) that was on the head of Jesus Christ, not lying with the sheets, but rolled up in another place separately from the sheets. Then John came in after Peter, saw everything, this and believed in the resurrection of Christ. Peter marveled at what had happened in himself. After that, Peter and John returned to their homes.

When Peter and John left, Mary Magdalene, who came running with them, remained at the tomb. She stood and wept at the entrance to the cave. And when she was crying, she bent down and looked into the cave (into the tomb), and saw two angels in a white robe, sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of the Savior lay.

The angels said to her: "wife! Why are you crying?"

Mary Magdalene answered them: "They have carried away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."

Having said this, she looked back and saw the standing Jesus Christ, but from great sadness, from tears and from her confidence that the dead do not rise, she did not recognize the Lord.

Jesus Christ says to her: "Woman! why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?"

Mary Magdalene, thinking that this is the gardener of this garden, says to Him: "Lord! If you carried Him out, tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him."

Then Jesus Christ says to her: Maria!"

Appearance of the Risen Christ to Mary Magdalene

The well-known voice made her come to her senses from her sadness, and she saw that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was standing before her. She exclaimed: " Teacher!" - and with indescribable joy she threw herself at the feet of the Savior; and from joy she did not imagine the whole greatness of the moment.

But Jesus Christ, pointing her to the holy and great mystery of His resurrection, says to her: “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brothers (i.e., disciples) and tell them: I ascend to My Father, and to your Father, and to my God and your God."

Then Mary Magdalene hastened to His disciples with the news that she had seen the Lord and that He had told her. This was the first appearance of Christ after the resurrection..

Appearance of the Risen Christ to the Myrrhbearers

On the way, Mary Magdalene caught up with Mary Iakovleva, who was also returning from the tomb of the Lord. When they went to tell the disciples, suddenly, Jesus Christ Himself met them and said to them: " rejoice!".

They came up, took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him.

Then Jesus Christ said to them: "Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

So the resurrected Christ appeared a second time.

Mary Magdalene with Mary Iakovleva, entering the eleven disciples and all the others, weeping and weeping, announced great joy. But when they heard from them that Jesus Christ is alive and they saw Him, they did not believe.

After that, Jesus Christ appeared separately to Peter and assured him of His resurrection. ( Third phenomenon). Only then did many cease to doubt the reality of the resurrection of Christ, although there were still non-believers among them.

But before

All, as evidenced by the antiquity of St. Church, Jesus Christ delighted His Blessed Mother telling her through an angel of his resurrection.

The Holy Church sings about this in this way:

Glorify, glorify the Christian Church, because the glory of the Lord has shone over you: now triumph and rejoice! But you, Pure Mother of God, rejoice in the resurrection of the one born by you.

Meanwhile, the soldiers who were guarding the tomb of the Lord and fled from fear, came to Jerusalem. Some of them went to the high priests and they were told everything that happened at the tomb of Jesus Christ. The high priests, having gathered with the elders, held a conference. Due to their evil stubbornness, the enemies of Jesus Christ did not want to believe His resurrection and decided to hide this event from the people. To do this, they bribed the soldiers. Having given a lot of money, they said: "Tell everyone that His disciples, having come at night, stole Him when you were sleeping. And if the rumor about this reaches the ruler (Pilate), then we will clap for you in front of him and save you from trouble" . The warriors took the money and did as they were taught. This rumor spread among the Jews, so that many of them believe it to this day.

The deception and lies of this rumor are visible to everyone. If the soldiers were sleeping, they could not see, and if they saw, then they were not sleeping and would have detained the kidnappers. The guard must watch and watch. It is impossible to imagine that the guard, which consisted of several persons, could fall asleep. And if all the soldiers fell asleep, then they were subject to severe punishment. Why were they not punished, but left alone (and even rewarded)? And the frightened disciples, who locked themselves in their homes from fear, could they possibly decide, without weapons against the armed Roman soldiers, on such a brave deed? And besides, why would they do it when they themselves lost faith in their Savior. Besides, could they roll off a huge rock without waking anyone up? All this is impossible. On the contrary, the disciples themselves thought that someone had carried away the body of the Savior, but when they saw the empty coffin, they realized that this did not happen after the abduction. And, finally, why didn't the leaders of the Jews search for the body of Christ and punish the disciples? Thus, the enemies of Christ tried to obscure the cause of God with a crude interweaving of lies and deceit, but proved powerless against the truth.

28 , 1-15; from Mark, ch. 16 , 1-11; from Luke, ch. 24 , 1-12; from John, ch. 20 , 1-18. See also 1st Epistle of St. app. Paul to the Corinthians: ch. 15 , 3-5.

Appearance of the resurrected Jesus Christ to two disciples on the way to Emmaus

By the evening of the day when Jesus Christ was resurrected and appeared to Mary Magdalene, Mary of Jacob and Peter, two of Christ's disciples (out of 70), Cleopas and Luke, were walking from Jerusalem to the village Emmaus. Emmaus was ten versts from Jerusalem.

On the way, they talked among themselves about all the events that took place in the last days in Jerusalem - about the suffering and death of the Savior. When they were talking about everything that had happened, Jesus Christ Himself approached them and walked beside them. But something seemed to hold their eyes, so that they did not recognize Him.

Jesus Christ said to them: "What are you talking about as you walk, and why are you so sad?"

One of them, Cleopas, said to Him in response: “Are you one of those who came to Jerusalem, do you not know about what happened in it these days?”

Jesus Christ said to them: "About what?"

They answered Him: “about what happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet in deed and word before God and all the people; how the chief priests and our leaders betrayed Him for condemnation to death and crucified Him. But we hoped that He He is the one who is to redeem Israel, and it is the third day today that this happened, but some of our women amazed us: they were early at the tomb and did not find his body, and returning, they told that they saw angels who say, that He is alive. Then some of us went to the tomb and found everything as the women said, but they did not see Him."

Then Jesus Christ said to them: "Oh, foolish ones, and slow (not sensitive) in heart to believe everything that the prophets foretold! Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory?" And He began, beginning from Moses, to explain to them from all the prophets what was said about Him in all Scripture. The students marveled. Everything became clear to them. So in conversation they approached Emmaus. Jesus Christ showed the appearance that he wants to go further. But they held Him back, saying, "Stay with us, for the day has already turned to evening." Jesus Christ stayed with them and entered the house. And when He was at table with them, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus Christ. But He became invisible to them. This was the fourth appearance of the resurrected Christ. Cleopas and Luke, in great joy, began to say to each other: “Did not our hearts burn with joy when He spoke to us on the road and when He opened the Scriptures to us?” After that, they immediately got up from the table and, despite the late hour, went back to Jerusalem to the disciples. Returning to Jerusalem, they entered the house, where all the apostles and others who were with them were gathered, except for the Apostle Thomas. All of them joyfully met Cleopas and Luke and said that the Lord had truly risen and appeared to Simon Peter. And Cleopas and Luke, in turn, told about what happened to them on the way to Emmaus, how the Lord Himself walked with them and talked, and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of bread.

They recognized Jesus Christ. But He became invisible to them

16 , 12-13; from Luke, ch. 24 , 18-35.

The appearance of Jesus Christ to all the apostles and other disciples, except for the Apostle Thomas

When the apostles were talking with the disciples of Christ, Cleopas and Luke, who had returned from Emmaus, and the doors of the house where they were were locked out of fear from the Jews, suddenly Jesus Christ Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them: peace to you".

They were confused and frightened, thinking they were seeing a spirit.

But Jesus Christ said to them: "Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Look at My hands and at My feet, it is I Myself; touch (touch) Me and consider; indeed, the spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see with me."

Having said this, He showed them His hands, and His feet, and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. For joy they still did not believe and marveled.

To strengthen them in their faith, Jesus Christ said to them, "Do you have any food here?"

The disciples gave Him a piece of baked fish and honeycomb.

Jesus Christ took it all and ate in front of them. Then he said to them: “Behold, now that which I spoke to you about, even when I was with you, must be fulfilled, that everything that is written about me in the law of Moses, both in the prophets and in the psalms, must be fulfilled.”

Then the Lord opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, that is, gave them the ability to understand the Holy Scriptures. Finishing His conversation with the disciples, Jesus Christ said to them a second time: peace to you! As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you"Having said this, the Savior breathed on them, and said to them:" receive the Holy Spirit. To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven(from God); on whom leave(sins unforgiven) will remain on that".

This was the fifth appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ on the first day of His glorious resurrection.

Bringing all His disciples great inexpressible joy. Only Thomas, of the twelve apostles, called Gemini, was not at this apparition. When the disciples began to tell him that they had seen the resurrected Lord, Thomas said to them: “If I do not see the wounds from the nails on His hands, and put my finger (finger) into these wounds, and put my hand into His side, I won't believe it."

NOTE: See the Gospel: Mark, ch. 16 , 14; from Luke, ch. 24 , 36-45; from John, ch. 20 , 19-25.

Appearance of Jesus Christ to the Apostle Thomas and other Apostles

A week later, on the eighth day after the Resurrection of Christ, the disciples again gathered all together in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, just like the first time. Jesus Christ entered the house, behind closed doors, stood among the disciples and said: Peace to you!"

Then, turning to Thomas, he says to him: "Give your finger here and see My hands, put your hand here and put it in My side; and do not be unbelievers, but believers."

Then the Apostle Thomas exclaimed: my Lord and my God!"

Jesus Christ said to him: you believed because you saw me, but blessed are those who have not seen and believed".

20 , 26-29.

The Appearance of Jesus Christ to the Disciples at the Sea of ​​Tiberias and the Restoration of the Denied Peter in the Apostleship

According to the command of Jesus Christ, His disciples went to Galilee. There the eyes went about their daily business. Once Peter, Thomas, Nathanael (Bartholomew), the sons of Zebedee (James and John) and two other of His disciples were fishing all night in the Sea of ​​Tiberias (Lake of Gennesaret) and did not catch anything. And when morning had already come, Jesus Christ was standing on the shore. But the disciples did not recognize Him.

View of the Tiberias (Galilee) Sea
from Capernaum

Jesus Christ said to them, "Children! Do you have any food?"

They answered "no".

Then Jesus Christ said to them: "throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will catch it."

The disciples threw the net on the right side of the boat and could no longer pull it out of the water because of the many fish.

Then John says to Peter, "This is the Lord."

Peter, having heard that it was the Lord, girded himself with his clothes, because he was undressed, and threw himself into the sea, and swam to the shore, to Jesus Christ. And the other disciples sailed in a boat, dragging a net with fish behind them, since they were not far from the shore. When they came ashore, they saw a fire laid out and fish and bread lying on it.

Jesus Christ tells the disciples: "Bring the fish that you have now caught."

Peter went and dragged out to the ground a net filled with large fish, of which there were one hundred and fifty-three; and with such a multitude, the network did not break.

After that, Jesus Christ says to them: "Come, dine."

And none of the disciples dared to ask Him: "Who are You?" knowing that it is the Lord.

Jesus Christ took the bread and gave them, also the fish.

During the dinner, Jesus Christ showed Peter that He forgives his denial and raises him again to the title of His apostle. By his denial, Peter sinned more than the other disciples, so the Lord asks him: "Simon Jonas! Do you love me more than they (the other disciples)?"

Peter answered Him, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You."

Jesus Christ says to him, "feed my lambs."

Then again, for the second time, Jesus Christ said to Peter: “Simon Jonas, do you love Me?”

Peter again answered, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You."

Jesus Christ says to him: "feed my sheep."

And finally, for the third time, the Lord says to Peter: "Simon of Jonas! Do you love Me?"

Peter was saddened that the Lord asked him for the third time: "Do you love Me?" and said to Him: "Lord! You know everything; You know that I love You."

Jesus Christ also says to him: "feed my sheep."

Thus the Lord helped Peter to make amends for his threefold renunciation of Christ three times and testify of his love for Him. After each answer, Jesus Christ returns to him, along with the other apostles, the title of apostle (he makes His sheep a shepherd).

After that, Jesus Christ says to Peter: “Truly, truly, I say to you: when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, then stretch out your hands and another will gird you, and lead you where you don't want to." With these words, the Savior made it clear to Peter what kind of death he would glorify God - he would be martyred for Christ (crucifixion). Having said all this, Jesus Christ says to him: "follow me."

Peter, turning around, saw John walking behind him. Pointing to him, Peter asked: "Lord! and what is he?"

Jesus Christ told him: "If I want him to be until I come, then what is it to you? You follow Me."

Then a rumor spread among the disciples that John would not die, although Jesus Christ did not say so.

NOTE: See the Gospel of John, ch. 21.

The appearance of Jesus Christ to the apostles and more than five hundred disciples

Then, at the command of Jesus Christ, the eleven apostles gathered on a mountain in Galilee. More than five hundred disciples came to them there. There Jesus Christ appeared before everyone. Seeing Him, they bowed down; and some doubted.

Jesus Christ approached and said: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So go and teach all nations (my doctrine), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; teach them to keep all that I have commanded you. And behold, I will be with you all the days until the end of the age. Amen".

Then, separately, Jesus Christ appeared again Jacob.

So in continued forty days after His resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples, with many faithful proofs of His resurrection, and talked with them about the Kingdom of God.

NOTE: See in the Gospel: Matthew, ch. 28 , 16-20; from Mark, ch. 16 , 15-16; see in the 1st epistle of Ap. Paul to Corinth., Ch. 15 , 6-8; see Acts of Sts. Apostles ch. 1 , 3.

Christ is Risen!

Great event - Holy Christ's Resurrection celebrated by the Holy Orthodox Church, as the greatest of all holidays. This is the feast of the Feast and the Celebration of the festivities. This holiday is also called Easter, that is, the Day on which our passage from death to life and from earth to heaven. The feast of the Resurrection of Christ lasts a whole week (7 days) and the service in the temple is special, more solemn than on all other holidays and days. On the first day of the Feast, Matins begins at midnight. Before the start of Matins, the clergy, dressed in bright clothes, together with the faithful, with bells ringing, with lit candles, a cross and icons, go around the temple (perform a procession), in imitation of the myrrh-bearing women who walked early in the morning to the tomb of the Savior. During the procession, everyone sings: Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven: and make us on earth worthy of glorifying Thee with a pure heart. The initial cry of Matins is made in front of the closed doors of the temple, and the troparion is sung many times: Christ is Risen..., and with the singing of the troparion they enter the temple. Divine services are celebrated throughout the week with the Royal Doors open, as a sign that now, with the Resurrection of Christ, the gates of the Kingdom of God are open to all. On all days of this great holiday, we greet each other with a fraternal kiss with the words: " Christ is Risen!" and in response: " Truly Risen!" We Christenise and exchange colored (red) eggs, which serve as a symbol of the new, blessed life that opened from the tomb of the Savior. All the bells ring all week. supposed to.

On the Tuesday after Paschal Week, the Holy Church, sharing the joy of the Resurrection of Christ with the dead in the hope of a general resurrection, makes a special commemoration of the dead, which is why this day is called " Radonitsa". A funeral Liturgy and an ecumenical memorial service are performed. It has long been customary on this day to visit the graves of one's close relatives.

In addition, the day of the Resurrection of Christ is remembered by us every week - on Sunday.

Troparion for the feast of Easter.

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life on those in the tombs.

Christ rose from the dead, having conquered death by death and giving life to those in the tombs, i.e. the dead.

Sunday

Resurrected, revived; amending- having won; living in tombs- located in coffins, dead people; bestowing a belly- giving life.

Kontakion of Easter.

Songs of the feast of Easter.

The angel exclaimed to the blessed (Mother of God): Pure Virgin, rejoice! and again I say: rejoice! Your Son rose from the tomb on the third day after death and raised the dead: people, rejoice!

Glorify, glorify the Christian Church, because the glory of the Lord has shone over you: now triumph and rejoice! But you, Pure Mother of God, rejoice in the resurrection of the one born by you.

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THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS ​​CHRIST How the Savior Died Two thousand years have already passed, and man is still guessing: how, for what and why He was crucified. Some say: out of envy, others - by a fatal coincidence, others generally believe that He Himself is to blame for everything: if he had come down from the cross, there would have been no torment. Or maybe it's all - the fruit of someone's imagination, so to speak, a sick imagination?

Dear friend! This is not an invention. This is a fact confirmed by scientists, historians, archaeologists and even, as we shall see, physicians. This is the bitter, cruel truth, the fulfillment of God's prophecies about us. For we have all sinned. And for this reason, they had to die a cruel death. Christ saved us by protecting us with His body. People with a conscience will be horrified to read this study; shameless - chuckle. But they, too, will probably have something in their hearts, and will respond with pain when they find the strength and courage to read the truth about how He died ... *** In this article I want to consider some of the physical aspects of the Passion of the Lord - the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. We will follow Him from the Garden of Gethsemane, through judgment and scourging, along the way of the cross to Golgotha, to the last tortures of the cross... For this work, I first had to study the history of crucifixion - the torture and execution of a man nailed to the cross. Obviously, the Persians were the first to practice crucifixion. Alexander the Great and his commanders brought this execution to the Mediterranean regions - to Egypt and Carthage. The Romans apparently adopted the practice of crucifixion from the Carthaginians and (like almost everything the Romans did) quickly "brought it to perfection". The sophistication of the crucifixion is evidenced by various ancient Roman authors (Titus Livy, Cicero, Tacitus). A number of innovations and improvements to the Roman crucifixion are described in ancient literature; I will focus only on those that are important for the topic of this study. The vertical part of the cross (staipes) had a crossbar (patibulum) located half a meter below the top. This is what we perceive today as the classical form of the cross (the one that was later called the Latin cross). However, in the days of our Lord, the cross in the form of the Greek letter "tau" or our "T" was more common. In this cross, the crossbar was attached almost at the very top of the vertical part. Numerous archaeological finds suggest that it was on such a cross that Jesus was crucified.

The staipes, the vertical part of the cross, was, as a rule, dug into the ground, and the condemned was forced to carry a crossbar weighing about 50 kg - patibulum - from the place of imprisonment to the place of execution. (On the canvases of artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Christ bears the entire cross. This image has neither historical nor biblical evidence.)

Most modern painters and sculptors depicting the pains of the cross believe that nails were driven into the palms of their hands. However, both ancient Roman sources and data from modern research show that in fact, it was not the palms that were pierced with nails, but the wrists - the palms would not have been able to withstand the sagging body. The mistake is most likely caused by a misunderstanding of the words of Jesus addressed to Thomas: "... put your finger here and see my hands" (John 20:27). Anatomists, both ancient and modern, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.

The title (a tablet telling what kind of crime the unfortunate person had committed) was usually carried at the front of the procession and then nailed to the cross above the victim's head. This tablet, located in the upper part of the cross, partly gave it the characteristic shape of a Latin cross. The physical suffering of Christ begins in the Garden of Gethsemane. We will consider only that aspect of His torment that is important for us from the point of view of physiology: bloody sweat. Note that the only one of the evangelists who mentioned this is the doctor, the apostle Luke. He says: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Modern theologians offer a wide variety of figurative interpretations of this phrase, each time proceeding from the fact that this simply could not be. In fact, it was not worth working so hard - just turning to the medical literature is enough. Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is an extremely rare phenomenon, but it has been repeatedly documented. Under severe emotional stress, the tiny capillaries of the sweat glands can burst, and then the blood mixes with sweat. This process causes severe weakness, and sometimes shock. It will probably upset you that we will not focus on betrayal and arrest. We are forced to omit this integral and extremely important part of the story in order to focus on the purely physical aspects of the crucifixion. At night, Jesus was seized and dragged to the high priest Caiaphas, where He appeared before the Sanhedrin. It was there that He suffered the first physical injury: a soldier hit Jesus in the face because He was silent in response to Caiaphas' questions. Then the guards blindfolded Him and began to sneer, demanding that He blindly recognize each of them; They spat on Him, hit Him in the face... In the morning, Jesus, beaten, bruised, exhausted by thirst and sleepless at night, is led through Jerusalem to the fortress of Anthony, where the praetorium was located - the palace of the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You, of course, know the act of Pilate, who tried to shift the responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Without apparently undergoing any physical abuse at the hands of Herod, Jesus was returned to Pilate. It was then that, indulging the angry crowd, Pilate ordered the release of Barabbas and sentenced Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. Scholars disagree about whether the crucifixion was always preceded by scourging. Ancient Roman authors for the most part did not connect one with the other. Many theologians believe that Pilate initially sentenced Jesus to scourging, and nothing else. But the crowd began to taunt the procurator, saying that he was not able to protect the Caesar from the impostor, who calls himself the King of the Jews; It was then that Pilate sentenced Him to death by crucifixion. Preparations for the scourging begin. The prisoner's clothes are torn off and his hands are tied to a pole above his head. It is doubtful that the Romans followed the Jewish rules regarding scourging. Ancient Jewish law forbade more than forty lashes from being whipped. The Pharisees, who always monitored the steady observance of the laws, insisted that there should be no more than thirty-nine blows (in this case, even if you lost count, you can be sure that the law was not violated). The Roman legionnaire takes a step forward. In his hands is a scourge - a flagrum (flagellum). This is a short whip, consisting of several heavy leather lashes, to the end of each of which are attached two small balls, either lead or bone.

The whistle of the whip - and fierce blows fall on the shoulders, back, legs of Jesus. At first, the whips cut only the skin, then they penetrate deeper into the subcutaneous tissues. Blood oozes from the capillaries and veins, then begins to spurt from the muscular arteries. Lead (bone) balls form extensive bruises, which quickly turn into open wounds. Very soon, the back turns into a continuous bloody mess, from which long strips of skin hang down. Seeing that the one being beaten is close to death, the centurion orders an end to the scourging.

Jesus, almost unconscious, is untied, and He falls on the stone slabs, bleeding. Roman soldiers make fun of a Jew from a provincial town who imagines himself to be the King! They throw a purple robe over His shoulders and thrust a reed into His hand; for complete fun, only the crown is missing. The soldiers construct a kind of wreath of thorny branches, which are usually used for kindling, and put on His head, pressing the thorns deep into the skin.

There are especially many vessels on the head, and therefore Jesus begins to bleed again. The soldiers taunt Him, hitting Him in the face, then snatching the cane from His hands and striking His head, causing the thorns to dig even deeper. Having scoffed enough and tired, finally, from their bloody amusements, they tear off the purple robe from Him, which has already managed to soak in blood and stick to the back. This causes Jesus unspeakable pain - as if the scourging had resumed; and the wounds begin to bleed again...

Unlike the Jewish custom, the Romans return Jesus to His clothes. Then a heavy bar of the cross - the patibulum - is placed on His shoulders, and the procession, consisting of Christ sentenced to crucifixion, two criminals and executioners - Roman soldiers with a centurion at the head, slowly moves to Golgotha. No matter how hard Jesus tries to walk straight, after the shock caused by blood loss, the weight of the cross is unbearable for Him. He stumbles and falls; rough wood cuts into open wounds on his shoulders ... He tries to get up - but there is no strength left. Then the centurion, anxious that the execution take place on time, chooses a hefty Simon of Cyrene from the passers-by and orders him to carry the cross. Jesus follows him, drenched in a cold, clammy sweat, the aftermath of shock.

Finally, the path of 600 meters from the fortress of Anthony to Golgotha ​​is completed. Jesus' clothes are again torn off, leaving only a bandage allowed for the Jews, covering the loins. Before the execution begins, Jesus is offered wine with myrrh - a weak painkiller - but He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to put the crossbar on the ground. Jesus is pressed against her and his hands are spread apart. The legionary fumbles for an indentation in his wrist and quickly pierces it with a huge iron nail, driving it deeper into the wood, then quickly moves to the other side and does the same with the second wrist. At the same time, the arms sag slightly, and they can be moved. The crossbar with Jesus hanging on it is placed on the base of the cross and the title is nailed over it. The inscription reads: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37).

Then His legs are crossed, leaving them slightly bent at the knees, and, stretching down the feet, they pierce the instep of each with a long nail. Now the victim is crucified.

Due to the fact that He slowly settles, transferring the weight to the nails in His hands, an excruciating fiery pain pierces the fingers, then the hands, and breaks in the brain - the nails in the wrists press on the median nerves. He pulls himself up to relieve the growing pain and transfers His entire weight to His pierced legs. There is a new attack of burning pain from the rupture of the nerves between the bones of the tarsus of the leg. Further, the arms weaken, and the muscles are held down by severe convulsions, accompanied by continuous throbbing pain. Now He can no longer pull himself up: the muscles of the chest are paralyzed, because of this, the intercostal muscles are also unable to act. He can inhale air, but he cannot exhale. Jesus is trying with all his strength to rise to take at least one short breath. Eventually, carbon dioxide accumulates in the lungs and bloodstream, and the convulsions partially subside. From time to time, at the cost of incredible effort, He manages to pull himself up and breathe in life-giving oxygen. Undoubtedly, it was at such moments that He spoke those seven short sentences that are recorded in the Gospels. The first was addressed to the Roman soldiers, who were dividing His garments by casting lots: “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The second - to the repentant villain: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). The third - to the horrified and grief-stricken John, the beloved apostle: "Behold, thy Mother!" and to Mary, His Mother: “Woman! behold, thy son” (John 19:26-27). The fourth is a cry of despair, the beginning of the 21st Psalm: “My God, My God! why did you leave me?" (Matthew 27:46). Long hours of this unceasing torment, cramps from which the joints are about to burst, influxes of suffocation, burning pain in the slashed back when moving up and down the rough wooden cross ...

But that's not all. A new torment begins: crushing pain in the chest, increasing as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and compresses the heart. Let us turn again to the 21st Psalm: “I have poured out like water; all my bones crumbled; my heart has become like wax; it has melted in the midst of my inward parts” (Ps. 21:15). Everything is almost over - the loss of fluid in the tissues has reached a critical level: the squeezed heart sends thick slow blood into the tissues with the last heavy shocks, the tormented lungs are desperately trying to grab a breath of air; dehydrated tissues send a stream of signals to the brain... “After that, Jesus, knowing that everything was already finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst” (John 19:28). This is the fifth thing He spoke on the cross. And again, let us recall the prophetic 21st Psalm: “My strength has dried up like a shard; my tongue clings to my throat, and you bring me down to the dust of death” (Ps. 21:16). A sponge dipped in cheap sour wine, the drink of the Roman legionnaires, is brought to His lips. But He, apparently, can no longer drink; His body is about to say goodbye to life. Feeling the coldness of death, He says, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Yes, THE ADEMPTION HAS HAPPENED. Now He can let His body die. With a last, unimaginable effort, He straightens His legs, takes a deep breath, and speaks His last words: “Father! into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). You know the rest. The Jews asked to remove the bodies of those crucified from the crosses so that their appearance would not desecrate the Sabbath. Usually the crucifixion ended with the victims breaking their shins. After that, the person could no longer pull himself up on the cross, the whole weight fell on the pectoral muscles, and therefore suffocation quickly set in. The soldiers did this with both robbers, but, having approached Jesus, they saw that this could no longer be done ... Apparently, in order to make sure of His death, one of the legionnaires poked a spear into the fifth gap between the ribs, right into the heart by piercing the pericardium. According to John, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). "Water" here refers to the fluid from the pericardial sac; blood flowed from the very heart. Thus we have very convincing post-mortem evidence that our Lord died not of the usual crucifixion death of asphyxiation, but of acute heart failure caused by shock and pressure on the heart by fluid from the pericardium. This report is just a glimpse of the evil that man is capable of doing to man... and to God. What we saw left us dejected and depressed. But how happy and grateful we are for what followed this - for the infinite mercy of God to man, for the miracle of redemption, for the expectation of the bright morning of the Resurrection! S. Truman Davis, M.D., M.Sc. Orthodox newspaper ETERNAL CALL