Can we even imagine what Jesus went through when he was crucified? Can we comprehend the pain? The suffering? The courage it took to go through with it?

Death by crucifixion was, perhaps, the most horrible, painful death ever conceived by man. Spikes were nailed between the bones in the wrist, not in the hands as we would normally suspect, because if they were nailed through their hands, the weight of the hanging body would cause the spikes to tear the flesh, thus freeing the victim. Spikes were also nailed through their feet, or their heels. Death did not occur through loss of blood, but by suffocation. In order to breath, the victim had to push up on the nails in the feet, releasing the pressure on his diaphragm. This caused terrible pain in their feet. Fatigue would eventually cause the victim to slump back down. The nails in the wrists tear into a concentrated section of nerves, causing severe pain, once more. As the victim sags back down, he can't breathe, until finally again, he pushes up on his feet. Eventually fatigue will take its toll again, the victim will sag back down once more, suffocate, because of the pressure put on his diaphram, and die. If a victim survived several days, the Roman soldiers would sometimes break their legs to hasten death.

Can you picture your Savior suffering? Crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus may have been the Son of God, but he was a man, too. He felt the pain. The agony. It scared him. He begged God in the garden: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” But Jesus knew what he had to do and he did it. I am eternally grateful.