I've been in John 19 this week. We spent a good bit of time in my Bible study discussion group talking about verse 1. "So Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him." You know, it wasn't until I saw The Passion of the Christ that I began to grasp what that meant. Only one verse is given to the beating that Jesus endured, but I had never really understood the brutality of such a beating until I saw what it likely looked like. Pure torture. A scourge is a whip or lash with metal balls, bones and metal spikes on the ends. Imagine that wrapping around your body, only to then be snatched away from your body, ripping and tearing flesh away with it. Not once, not twice . . . but no telling how many times. Over and over and over again. A Jewish flogging was limited to 40 blows (Deuteronomy 25:3), but Jesus was flogged by the Romans. The Bible doesn't tell us how many times the whip wrapped around His body. One time was too many.
And then Jesus was adorned with a crown of thorns and purple robe. Mocked. Struck. Spat upon. Struck upon the head with a reed. Paraded around in front of a crowed jeering, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" What utter humiliation.
Even after watching it on the big screen, it's nearly incomprehensible to me what happened to Jesus that Good Friday.
This morning I spent some time with John 19:17-18.
"And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center."
Jesus carried His own cross. He had already been beaten and bruised, flesh ripped open and head pierced by thorns. What agony as He ten carries the weight of a tree on His back and my sin on His shoulders. It seems like the physical weight of the cross would be crushing and impossible to bear, but it was my sin that was even heavier for Him to bear. He carried the weight of the cross so I wouldn't have to carry the weight of my sin. He bored the full weight of sin, guilt, shame and evil that day. No one else was worthy. Only Jesus.
Why did it have to be that way? I think 2 Corinthians 6:21 answers that question.
"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
That brutal beating is what sin deserves. Isaiah 53:7 says "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter." Slaughter. Jesus was slaughtered that day. Sin was slaughtered that day. Holy God is serious about getting rid of sin. How serious am I about getting rid of the sin in my life?
How does one respond to what Jesus endured and suffered on the cross? I deserve His punishment, not His forgiveness. I deserve His beating, not His mercy. I deserve God's wrath, not His love. I owe Him my life, and yet He is the One who has given me life. There is absolutely I could've done, nothing I could contribute for my salvation. Nothing. He did everything. Why? Why did He do it?
"God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all." -1 Timothy 2:4-6
I guess it's just part of human nature to think I have to deserve something or earn something. Nothing about salvation is deserved or earned. It's all grace, all love lavished and freely given. Jesus bore His cross. Now I am called to bare mine. I am called to a life of surrender, to love, worship and obey Him. That is my cross.
"And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of Me." -Matthew 10:38
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." -Matthew 16:24
The last words Jesus spoke as He hung on the cross . . .
"It is finished." -John 19:30
Tetelestai.