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I had thought the same thing about doubting Thomas.

Back in the 70's our Sunday School teacher was a surgeon. He was also president of the local medical society. He once told the class in detail of the medical results of crucifixion. One thing I remember was that he said the accounts in the gospels were medically accurate.

Something I particularly recall was the part where the soldier stabs him with a spear to see if he were dead and fluid came out. He told us what that indicated although I don't remember exactly what now.

Back in the 70's our Sunday School teacher was a surgeon. He was also president of the local medical society. He once told the class in detail of the medical results of crucifixion. One thing I remember was that he said the accounts in the gospels were medically accurate.

I teach a Bible study class each week, and one of my students is a world-reknown heart surgeon. His research into this shows not only that the Gospel accounts accurately reflect the physiology, but that there is no worse ways to die.

Having said that, those who know Him, know full well that the struggle the night before indicated that the biggest horror for Him was not the method of torture and death - it was the weight of my sin.

When Jesus physically died, the Romans were surprised because he died sooner then they expected. They did not take into account the torture He had endured the night before and the exhaustion caused by carrying the cross-that's why Simon the Cyrene was enlisted to help Jesus carry His cross when He no longer could.

So the guard ran his spear into Jesus' left side to determine if indeed Jesus was dead. What came out was blood mixed with water.

Medically, this mixture of the two fluids indicates that the heart has literally burst. There is a medical term for this, but it escapes me just now.

And so, we can say that Jesus, paying the penalty of a just God on the cross for guilty sinners,like me, died of a broken heart on our behalf.

Being innocent,being unjustly accused, being tortured, being beaten and forced to carry the instrument of His death, being nailed to a cross, being hoisted to shame in front of Jerusalem,being mocked while He was dying an excruciating painful death, having His own Father turn away from Him while the penalty for sin was being paid, and yet He says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

What else did Jesus have to do to prove His love for us?

water issuing from the side = pericardial fluid built up from trauma and struggle to breathe.

Lymph, IIRC looks like water, and could have sprung from a wound.