Watching the CBS evening news a few nights ago, a quote caught my attention and stopped me in my tracks. A wearied doctor desperate for more ventilators said of Covid victims, “they just get tired of breathing”. This is how most are dying. The deadly byproduct of the virus is an inflammation of the lungs so extreme one becomes too tired to breathe. Those nailed and strung to Roman crosses in the 1st Century died like this as well. They became too tired to breathe and suffocated.
In the book of Philippians and in the writings of Isaiah it says that God’s Son, the Savior who came to take on the penalty for our sin, knew our sufferings. He was titled a suffering servant. Hebrews said Jesus was tempted and suffered in every way and yet did not sin. It’s why he can be a savior. The results of what the Corona Virus is doing to others and the similarities of what Jesus faced on this darkest of days in history make me pause.
1) The virus kills innocent people. It is no respecter of persons. Although it seems to not be affecting our younger children, it is taking our healthy and our sick. It is killing relatively young people as well as old. Heads of state are affected. Celebrities and people only known to a few. Crucifixion was relegated to criminals in Jesus’ day. Jesus had been rendered “not guilty” by Pilate but the mob of the day won. Crucifixion was no respecter of persons on that day. An innocent and good man was executed and died.
2) Dying alone. One of the hardest parts of the virus is dying alone and no closure. People are dying only with medical staff around them and even then, skin to skin touch is not allowed. Traditional funerals are prohibited while make-shift morgues hold the bodies of the deceased. It may be months before proper burials and memorials are conducted. While Jesus hung on the cross, the Roman soldiers did not permit anyone to come near. Most of the crowd tossed ridicules at the condemned. Criminals who died on crosses did not get burials and funerals. Once they died and were removed from the cross, they were tossed into a mass grave like house garbage. Funerals were prohibited. Jesus was unique in that Pilate allowed his body to be taken down and put into a tomb. We don’t know much about that part except that two men wrapped his body in spices and linen, the custom of the day, and put him in a new tomb. But, knowing Jesus died alone and scourged shows the depth of pain he and others were feeling.
3) Finally, how he died. This is what made me think the hardest. “They just get too tired to breath”. Crucifixion was a painful, slow, agonizing death where the person became too tired to breathe. Arms stretched wide with wrists nailed and strapped to the horizontal beam. The knees were slightly bent with the feet nailed to the vertical beam. A small platform was propped under their feet. The victim would have to raise themselves just a little opening up their diaphragm to suck in air and then collapse to force air out. No water, exposed to the elements, exhausted. Their lungs and legs finally gave out. Unable to take in another breath, too tired to breathe, they suffocated and were asphyxiated.
This virus is peaking in the United States during Holy Week. Today we reflect on the death of the Savior of the World. Crucifixion took Jesus’ life although he was innocent. Like the virus, it was no respecter of him as a person or his ultimate role. Jesus died alone and was buried quietly with only two people near him. He was not allowed to be touched or consoled while on the cross. Thirsty and forsaken, Jesus took in his last breath, and too tired to breathe anymore, he gave up his spirit. On this day.
Jesus knows what we go through and what we are going to go through. A massive price to take away all that is wrong, evil, self- centered and apart from the plan of the God and Lord of the universe and our Creator. Also known as “sin”. He suffocated on a cross. He got tired of breathing. And because he did, he became a living sacrifice to take away the penalty of our sin. A horrible but Good Friday.
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