This account from a medical doctor details the physical suffering of crucifixion: “The legionnaire … drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. … With both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. … Excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms … the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. … Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. … Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded” (C. Truman Davis, “A Physician’s View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ,” CBN, accessed December 13, 2017, http://www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-jesus-christ). Jesus prayed in his hardest moment. At the time of his greatest physical and emotional pain, Jesus called out to the Father. This means that we, too, can pray to God in our most painful situations. When we call out to God, he will hear us.
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