Objection: Nothing in Scripture Even Hints That Jesus Was Sick on the Cross

On the contrary, Scripture doesn’t just hint it – it comes right out and SAYS it when you look at the original Hebrew!

Isaiah 53:4 tells us that Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains.  This was talking about the punishment He bore for us.

Isaiah 53:10 tells us that God made Jesus sick.  This is also part of the same chapter that describes Jesus’ atonement.

For a demonstration that these are the proper Hebrew translations, see Isaiah’s Prophecy of Redemption.

Also, Jesus’ body was in such bad shape before He was hung on the cross that He could not carry His own cross the whole way to His execution site.  That is NOT a picture of health!  His body was a WRECK when it was hung on the cross.  He had already been beaten more than anyone else (Isaiah 52:14).  If that wouldn’t make your body sick, I don’t know what would.

Part of the problem has been our “sanitized” depictions of Jesus on the cross in paintings and movies.  If you REALLY saw what He looked like after being so completely disfigured, you would be like the crowds and look away, too.  No one would WANT a gory picture on the wall showing what He REALLY must have looked like on the cross.  One movie finally did a better job of showing at least some of the gore, and when I went to see it, people in the theater looked the other way because they couldn’t stand to watch.  That showed that the movie was more accurate than similar movies, because in REAL LIFE, people hid their faces from Him (Isaiah 53:3) after His body had been brutally disfigured.

Psalm 22:14-17 was a prophecy about Jesus’ crucifixion, and it certainly portrayed a sick, suffering Savior:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.