It's not a sacrifice and the crucifixtion story is just ridiculous on every level.
Maybe you should try it before you decide that its not a sacrifice. This is what you will go through: You'll be taken at night, brought before a kangaroo court in the middle of the night where they will find you guilty with no evidence whatsoever. You will be spit on, stripped naked, beaten until your face is unrecognizable, whipped until the flesh falls from your back and then you'll get a crown with 2 inch thorns jammed down onto your head. After that, you get to carry a few hundred pounds on your raw back. And this is all before you receive the actual penalty for the "crime" that you are actually innocent of.....
WARNING: DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO HANDLE GRAPHIC DETAILS
You can gather from the secular accounts of crucifixion in Jesus' time to figure out the details about how the victims died: He would have been nailed to the cross as it lay flat on the ground. The nails were long iron spikes. The nails were actually driven through the wrist, not the palms, because the tendons and the bone structure of the hand cannot support the weight of the body. All that would happen is that the flesh between the bones would rip and the person would fall off. Feel the bones in your own hands....you will see the truth in this. But the wrist is strong enough to support the weight, even though the carpal bones would be shattered, causing extreme pain radiating up the entire arm, not to mention the nerves that would have been affected. Then a single nail was driven through both feet, causing the same kind of pain radiating up through both legs. After that, the soldiers would raise the cross and place it into a deep posthole. it would drop with a jarring blow causing the full weight of the person to fall on their already intensely painful wounds. You see, the Romans perfected the art of crucifixion in order to maximize the pain. They knew how to draw out the most suffering without the person being able to lose consciousness. There was no way of escaping the pain. One of the emperors of the time (Tiberius) preferred crucifixion because it prolonged the agony without the chance of relief by unconsciousness or death. He believed death was an escape so a quick death was not really a punishment unless the person felt as much pain as humanly possible
before they died. Death came from slow suffocation. The body would hang in such a way that the diaphragm was severely constricted. In order to exhale, the person would have to push himself up with the feet so the diaphragm would have room to move. Ultimately, fatigue, intense pain or muscle atrophy would make it impossible for the victim to do this, and he would finally die from the lack of oxygen.
Here is the comments of a medical doctor (Truman Davis) who studied the physical effects of Jesus' crucifixion:
As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in His lungs and into the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the oxygen....
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber; then another agony begins. A deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
it is now almost over--the loss of tissue fluid has reached a critical level--the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues--the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain....
you can read more of the account from
here
This is why the Romans sometimes broke the legs below the knees on those who were crucified (something that they didnt do for Jesus, which happens to be a fulifllment of prophecy) breaking the legs hurried the process along and brought a quicker death (see John 19:31).
It may not seem like much of a sacrifice to you.....but i'd like to see you or anyone else willingly go through it to pay for someone else's crimes.
