Blood and Water Came Out

In two days (April 18, 2025), it will be “Good Friday;” the day recognized by all of Christianity as the day that Jesus was crucified.  Being raised in the Church, I have heard about “The Crucifixion.” By any account, it is one of the most cruel capital punishments ever devised by humanity.  The suffering that Jesus endured on the cross (on our behalf) would have been horrible enough, but what He suffered in the hours leading up to the Crucifixion was really unfathomable.  The Cruelty devised by human beings at the inspiration of the being known as Satan is beyond what I can even begin to describe.

However, the one part of it I never understood was the last thing that happened to Jesus while on the cross.  The Apostle John states:

Don't get me wrong, I understood the reasons WHY it happened;

• It was prophesied - Exodus 12:46 (referring to no broken bones of the Passover Lamb) and Zechariah 12:10 (referring to the piercing of the Roman soldier).
• The Jews didn’t want their law to be violated with Jesus still on the cross on their Sabath. So wanted to make sure Jesus was dead and they could get him down.

What I did not understand was the "water" that came out with the blood.  That was until July 4, 2015.

On July 1, 2015, I was in a motorcycle accident.  At the intersection of Carlyle Ave. and Greenmount Rd.  I was heading West on Carlyle when a vehicle pulled out in front of me.  He was in the left lane, and I was in the right lane.  At the last possible second, he decided to turn right at the intersection crossing the right lane into me.  The extent of my injuries was that I have a broken clavicle (collar bone), 6 broken ribs (in my back not far from my spine), a collapsed right lung, and road rash on every bending spot on my body.

Every few hours they would come and take an X-Ray (or whatever they used to take a picture of my insides) and I could see that my collapsed lung was filling with fluid and the definition of the lung was fading from the picture.  They were hoping that my body would get rid of the fluid on its own but saw that wasn't happening.  So, they decided to put a tube into my lung through my side to begin the process of sucking the fluid out.

The doctor said, "I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt."  He then numbed the spot where he was going to go into my chest and began searching for where he was going to pierce the lung with the tube.  My wife was standing on my right, holding my hand, watching the doctor do his thing.  A nurse held my left hand.  I remember consciencely keeping both my hands open and I remember that had I not done so, when the doctor pierced the lung, I would have crushed their hands from the pain.

I was looking to my right at the area where the tube was in my chest.  I can still see the picture in my mind.  At the moment he pierced my lung, I involuntarily screamed (yelled), and I saw blood and water gush from the tube with such pressure that it hit my arm and splashed on the doctor.  In that moment, I immediately recognized the scene when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus and "immediately blood and water came out."

I am certain that from the abuse that Jesus suffered on his way to the cross, he had a collapsed lung that had been building up with fluid pressure, that when the soldier pierced His side, blood and water "Immediately" (with the pressure buildup) came out.

Before that moment, in all the descriptions from pastors, evangelists or anyone else about the Crucifixion of Jesus, I had never heard of a description of why there was water mixed in the blood that really made any true sense to me.  There were all kinds of things that people had come up with to explain the water in the blood, but I don't ever remember a single time anyone ever mentioned a collapsed lung and what happens.

Somewhere in the midst of the beating, punching, slapping, scourging, and whatever else, Jesus suffered a collapsed lung.

In all of the things that happened from the Garden of Gethsemane to Jesus uttering the words "it is finished," I can tell you from experience, he was gasping for breath.  I remember a nurse telling me not to hyperventilate (I was beathing quick short breaths) and I responded with "I'm not hyperventilating, I'm just trying to breathe."

The cross was designed to cause great exertion and according to studies, most people hanging on the cross died from asphyxiation.  They just couldn't push themselves up one more time to get another breath.

I confess that even as I write this, I have been crying.  To understand the LOVE THAT JESUS has for us, to willing go through such torture and humiliation to give us a way out from the destination WE ALL DESERVE, is beyond all comprehension and all we have to do is accept the gift that God the Father gave us through His Son Jesus Christ.  Beyond everything that Jesus suffered and before he uttered His last word on the Cross, "It is Finished", Jesus prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

If Jesus can say that about the very ones who were responsible for this unjustified killing of the Creator of the Universe, He can certainly forgive you.  All you have to do is ask.