Despising the Shame
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Jesus goes before Pilate
Found not guilty but Chief Priests and the crowd push Pilate to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus saying, “His blood will be on us and on our children.”
Today, As we prepare to learn from God’s word today I find it only fitting that it is today, the day of the month that we will do communion and remember Christ’s sacrifice that we will study the crucifixion. Not only the physical sacrifice but also the spiritual.
Last week the passage ended with them chanting for Jesus to be crucified and this week He is led away, first to be scourged and then to be crucified. In my study of this event, like many of you, I know the story well. The details that I will cover today may seem a bit gruesome and may be a bit too much detail, but I just don’t think we have any Idea what Jesus really went through physically.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
The Scourging
The Scourging
26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
The blows came from a whip with many leather strands, each having sharp pieces of bone or metal at the ends. It reduced the back to raw flesh, and it was not unusual for a criminal to die from a scourging, even before crucifixion.
“On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ” Journal of the American Medical Association, 3/21/86 Dr. William Edwards.
“Scourging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution, and only women and Roman senators or soldiers (except in cases of desertion) were exempt.” (Dr. William Edwards in the article “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ” from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 3/21/86)
The goal of the scourging was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse and death. “As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous (Fatty tissues) tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive the cross.” (Edwards)
“The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a pre-shock state. Moreover, hematidrosis (Sweating Blood) had rendered his skin particularly tender. The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state. Therefore, even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus’ physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical.” (Edwards)
Hematidrosis is a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
Entire garrison - really only needed 4 soldiers.
Enduring Mocking by:
“Hail, King of the Jews!” - Sarcastic, Taunting
They Stripped Him: crucifixion - no loin cloth around his waist, he was naked, completely humiliated.
Clothed him in scarlet robes - again mocking him as a so called King.
Mock crown that was actually a form of torture.The specific thorn-bushes of this region have long, hard, sharp thorns.
Reed instead of a scepter - then beat him with it
All this to mock him and taunt him, the furthest thing from true worship.
“Oh, that we were half as inventive in devising honor for our King as these soldiers were in planning his dishonor! Let us offer to Christ the real homage that these men pretended to offer him.” (Spurgeon)
Led him away to be crucified:
Long route where everyone could see the whipped and beaten person, as a warning.
Entire cross was around 300 lbs, cross beam was what was carried, weighed 75 - 125 lbs.
Up right was usually fixed in place.
32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.
A man of Cyrene, Simon: Syrene in North Africa (800 miles away)
Place of a Skull: There was a specific place outside the city walls of Jerusalem, yet still very close, where people were crucified.
Wine with Gall: It was customary to give those about to be crucified a pain-numbing and mind-numbing drink, to lessen their awareness of the agony awaiting them. But Jesus refused any numbing drug. He chose to face the spiritual and physical terror with His senses awake.
“The wine would be the sour wine or posca used by Roman soldiers. In Mark Jesus declines the drink, apparently without tasting, desiring to suffer with a clear mind.” (Bruce)
The Bible spares us the gory descriptions of Jesus’ physical agony, simply stating “then they crucified Him.” This is because everyone in Matthew’s day was well acquainted with the terror of crucifixion, but especially because the greater aspect of Jesus’ suffering was spiritual, not physical.
The victim’s back was first torn open by the scourging, then opened again as the congealing, clotting blood came off with the clothing that was removed at the place of crucifixion. When thrown on the ground to nail the hands to the crossbeam, the wounds were again opened, deepened, and contaminated with dirt. While attached to the upright cross, each breath would cause the painful wounds on the back to scrape against the rough wood of the upright beam and were further aggravated.
Driving the nail through the wrist severed the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve caused bolts of fiery pain in both arms, and often resulted in a claw-like grip in the victim’s hands.
Death from crucifixion could come from many sources: acute shock from blood loss; being too exhausted to breathe any longer; dehydration; stress-induced heart attack; or congestive heart failure leading to a cardiac rupture. If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs were broken, and the victim was soon unable to breathe.
Jesus did not suffer as the victim of circumstances. He was in control. It is terrible to be forced to endure such torture, but to freely choose it out of love is remarkable.
Can we ever rightly doubt God’s love for us again?
Has He not gone to the most extreme length to demonstrate that love?
36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
They kept watch over him because some men had been taken down before they were actually dead. They only thought they were dead and then they regained consciousness afterward, so, they kept watch over him.
Two Robbers
Two Robbers
38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Significantly, they mocked Jesus for who He really was and is.
They mocked Him as a Savior.
They mocked Him as a King.
They mocked Him as a believer who trusted in God.
They mocked Him as the Son of God.
Jesus had to suffer this alone, outside the gate. He was cut off from the community; both so we could be joined to His community, and also so that our experiences of isolation can be redeemed and made into opportunities of fellowship with Him. (GUZIK)
It is Finished
It is Finished
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
R.C. Sproul: When Jesus took the curse on Himself and so identified with our sin that He became a curse, God cut Him off, and justly so. At the moment when Christ took on Himself the sin of the world, His figure on the cross was the most grotesque, most obscene mass of concentrated sin in the history of the world. God is too holy to look on iniquity, so when Christ hung on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned His back. He averted His face and He cut off His Son. Jesus, Who, touching His human nature, had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now bore the sin of God’s people, and so He was forsaken by God.
Imagine how agonizing that was for Christ. Thomas Aquinas argued that throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus remained in a constant state of intimate communion with His Father. Aquinas speculated that the Beatific Vision, the vision of the unveiled glory of God, was something Jesus had enjoyed every minute of His life until the cross, when the light was turned off. The world was plunged into darkness, and Christ was exposed to the curse of the wrath of God. To experience the curse, according to Jewish categories, was to experience what it means to be forsaken.
I’ve heard sermons about the nails and the thorns. Granted, the physical agony of crucifixion is a ghastly thing. But thousands of people have died on crosses, and others have had even more painful, excruciating deaths than that. But only One received the full measure of the curse of God while on a cross. Because of that, I wonder whether Jesus was even aware of the nails and the thorns. He was overwhelmed by the outer darkness. On the cross, He was in hell, totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we one day will be able to see the face of God. God turned His back on His Son so that the light of His countenance will fall on us. It’s no wonder Jesus screamed from the depths of His soul.
“I even venture to say that, if it had been possible for God’s love towards his Son to be increased, he would have delighted in him more when he was standing as the suffering Representative of his chosen people than ever he had delighted in him before.” (Spurgeon)
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
John 19:30b (ESV)
30 he said, “It is finished,”
And yielded up His spirit: No one took Jesus’ life from Him. Jesus, in a manner unlike any other man, yielded up His spirit. Death had no righteous hold over the sinless Son of God. He stood in the place of sinners, but never was or became a sinner Himself. Therefore He could not die unless He yielded up His spirit.
R.C. Sproul: The hard reality is this: if Jesus was not forsaken on the cross, we are still in our sins. We have no redemption, no salvation. The whole point of the cross was for Jesus to bear our sins and bear the sanctions of the covenant. In order to do that, He had to be forsaken. Jesus submitted Himself to His Father’s will and endured the curse, that we, His people, might experience the ultimate blessedness.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
The veil was what separated the holy place from the most holy place in the temple. It was a vivid demonstration of the separation between God and man. The veil was torn from top to bottom, and it was God who did the tearing.
We no longer have to ask a high priest to enter into the holy of holies on our behalf and make atonement for our sins after he made atonement for his own. We have a great high priest who offered his own body as the ultimate sacrifice for us.
Truly this was the Son of God! The scene at the crucifixion of Jesus was so striking that even a hardened Roman centurion confessed that this was the Son of God. This man had supervised the death of perhaps hundreds of other men by crucifixion, but he knew there was something absolutely unique about Jesus.
That is the true sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Let us remember that today and every day and honor His sacrifice with our lives.
Communion