Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Easter is for the Nerds!!!

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Nerd – An unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially one devoted to academic or intellectual pursuits.


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I’m a nerd.  This confession won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that has known me for more than, say, 30 seconds.  In high school I lettered in football, baseball, and… orchestra.  I wasn’t invited to my first party that served alcohol until college.

My geekhood didn’t end as an adult either.  You know when you go on a tour and there’s that really annoying guy that’s asking a billion questions to the tour guide?  That’s me.  I love to learn, and I’m not satisfied just taking someone’s word for things – I need to ask questions and come to my own conclusions about things.  Unfortunately, in the 5th grade (or any stage of life, really), it isn’t cool to be a nerd.  As a teacher however, I want to instill a sense of wonderment amongst my students so that they too will open their minds up to learning.  After all, I believe that much of learning stems from the desire to learn.  And, I believe that hearing and learning about things once does not make someone an expert in it.  This is a difficult concept for my students to understand; many times when I’m teaching a lesson, the same dialogue takes place with my students:

Mr. Lin:          Today, we will (insert learning objective here) and demonstrate mastery by (insert assessment objective). 

Students:         Do we have to??  We learned this last year already!

My students often feel like if they’ve learned it once before, they don’t have to try to learn it again.  But, as any teacher will tell you, hearing about it once never makes someone an expert in the matter.  Not that this is big news to any of us; I’d guess most people wouldn’t consider themselves experts on anything if they’ve only heard one perspective or learned about it for a few hours.

I’ve gotten to know the basics of Christianity fairly well, and over the past 5 years I’ve gotten to know my bible pretty well also.  Case in point:  I know that Good Friday is the day that Jesus was crucified and Easter is the day that Jesus was resurrected.  So why do I go to church each week, especially on Easter when I know the basics of what the message will be about?  Well, because I’m a nerd. 

I admit it seems pretty fantastical that a person can die, then be raised from the dead.  If there wasn’t evidence that would lead me to conclude that Jesus was resurrected, I wouldn’t be a Christian.  Unfortunately, since video surveillance of the tomb Jesus was buried in is unavailable, so I needed other kinds of evidence before I could take that essential part of Christianity to heart.  Much of this evidence was found through my study of Roman Centurions, the like of which was guarding Jesus’ tomb some 2,000 years ago.  I recently stumbled on a blog that sums up a lot of what I discovered some time ago.  If you are a big nerd like me, you may find it a fun read as there are several posts on the make-up of the guards at the tomb.  It also looks at different theories at what happened to Jesus’ body – again, pretty fun reading for nerds like me.  Click here if you’re interested in reading more, since the topic of this post isn't Roman Centurions or defending the resurrection of Christ.  Instead, today’s post is focused on a different part of Sunday’s Easter sermon that I nerded out on – a medical look at the death of Jesus. 


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Even the greatest cynics will agree that Jesus was a person that walked the earth around 2,000 years ago.  They will also likely agree that He was put to death by crucifixion.  However, medical professionals will tell you that crucifixion in itself cannot be the cause of death, much like a gunshot wound isn't in itself a cause of death.  Instead, a coroner will determine that death from a bullet was caused by exsanguination, hypoxia caused by pneumothorax, or something of the like.  So… if crucifixion was only the means by which Jesus’ death was facilitated, what was the actual medical cause?

On March 21, 1986, the American Medical Association (AMA) wrote an article looking into answering this very question.  Although there are no Associated Press news reports of the crucifixion on microfiche and no coroner’s reports available, they base their findings on biblical accounts which would be meaningless to fabricate and therefore generally accepted as fact:

2)      Jesus’ death was at approximately 3pm. 
4)      Blood and water flowed from the wound – more blood than water according to the Greek translation.  

What do these accounts point to medically? According to the AMA, death during crucifixion was primarily from exhaustion asphyxia (suffocation) or hypovolemic shock (blood and fluid loss resulting in the heart being unable to pump enough blood into the body).  This is where things get interesting.

I have long dismissed blood and water flowing from Jesus’ side as a mere detail of Jesus’ death.  After hearing about Jesus' death in the sermon, I decided to take a closer look into what this meant and how it pertains to the crucifixion.  In this article and the AMA article referenced earlier, I found that of the two physical effects of crucifixion, hypovolemic shock is the likely cause of Jesus’ death.  This is because the appearance of blood and water flowing from a wound through the heart would be consistent with what would happen with heart failure and heart attacks.  In other words… Jesus died physically from a broken heart while at the same time dying metaphorically from the same cause – as illustrated when he looked upon the city of Jerusalem and wept for those He came to give His life for...

As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes. - Luke 19: 41-42

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As Easter 2013 fades into our memory, I understand that there are many skeptics out there – and perhaps you are one of them.  Maybe the story of Jesus is a collection of legends that grew and was embellished as the years passed.  It could be that it’s a twist of fate - the story of Jesus telling of a loving God whose heart was breaking for mankind so He came down from Heaven… and the cause of His death being a physically broken heart so that mercy could be given to us.  But… what if it’s not a coincidence?   

Be a nerd and dive in.  Maybe you’ll be like me and find you are surprisingly intrigued with what you discover...

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