The Blood Before The Cross
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I said last week we would be taking the next two weeks to lead us to the heart of Christian truth, and that is the cross.
We will be taking the next two weeks to look at all the times Christ bled from the Garden to the cross.
I would like to start off with a quote that honestly should stir something inside every Christian and frighten every non believer.
On the back of Satan’s neck is a nail scarred footprint.
C.S. Lewis
Every fifth Sunday, we partake of the Lord’s Supper. In it we remember the blood that Christ shed for us.
We will look at the seven times Christ bled for us and the significance of each one.
Last week, we talked about Christ feeling the pressure and crushing of all of humanities sin and how He sweat blood as he prayed to His father to take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done.
Today, we will look at three more times Christ bled all of them before He even reached the Cross.
Again, I will be pulling from the other Gospels to get a complete story of this significant time in history.
I will say, no other messages has touched me the way these three sermons have. As I was studying them, I caught myself so immersed in them that my heart felt ten times heavier. It has stirred up anger, humility, gratefulness and sorrow.
It is my prayer that these next two messages, along with last weeks, will bring you along, not only to make you hear these moments, but to also feel and see what Christ did for you and for me.
No words I will be able to say will give us the full understanding of what Christ did for us, this side of glory.
Let’s pray for this series inside a series and that we will be able to know better when we take in the juice on that fifth Sunday, what it really means.
Let’s start with our verses for today
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face.
There are actually four times Christ bled before the cross. The first again was in the Garden
The others are as follows.
The Blood Before The Cross
The Whipping Post
The Crown of Thorns
The Internal Bleeding
As we look into each of the times Christ bled, we will look at the historical meaning, medically what is happening, and spiritually the significance of it all.
A fair warning, this will not be for the faint of heart. I ask that you really pay attention, because this will not be a children’s Sunday school version.
I feel that we have had such a toned down version of what Christ went through and we need to really face what horrors he had to face so that we could have salvation, mercy and grace.
All of these three is free to us, but a dreadful price had to be paid for them.
So let’s start with :
The Whipping Post
Some of you may have heard it called the Flagellation of Christ, or possible as Christ at the column, or even the scourging at the pillar.
Either way Christ was beaten to the near point of death. 39 lashes with what was know as a cat of nine tails. why 39? because they knew 40 would kill someone.
Insert picture of Cat of nine tails
A cat of nine tails consist of nine knotted cords that strike the victim simultaneously. Each blow causes deep, parallel gashes in the skin and underlying soft tissues, often on the back, but the tails can wrap around and injure the chest and underarms as well. History tells us that these whips were treated with tar and the knots could be tipped with metal or bone.
It is believed that the majority of people that went through this would die from shock or later from sepsis.
The blood shed on the whipping post represents the shedding of blood for our physical healing. Jesus is taking on all sickness and disease so that we as believers can be made whole. Christ took on all the iniquities of humanity giving us freedom from physical and spiritual ailments.
This is to fulfill the prophecy stated in...
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
After Christ was beaten, the soldiers made Christ
2. The Crown of Thorns
In the Gospel of John we see that the soldiers were trying to mock Jesus, but ironically they highlighted his royalty and majesty.
Medically, this is extremely hard to imagine.
This is a representation of the crown of thorns.
The scalp has a rich supply of blood vessels. Doesn’t it seem when you get a cut on your head, it never wants to stop bleeding.
Not only that, the head and scalp is covered by a very sensitive network of nerves. The pressure from the crown would have pressed the thorns deep into the skin, causing something comparable to an electric shock.
This crown was most likely made from the date palm that is known to have 2 to 3 inch barbs.
This crown would have caused substantial blood loss.
There is something called the Shroud of Turin.
Insert picture of shroud
It is the artifact that is believed to be the burial shroud of Christ.
Analysis of this shroud suggest that there were at least 50 puncture wounds that came from the crown. It would have cut through arteries and veins in the head which would have caused hypovolemic shock.
Now Spiritually, it has so much more meaning.
By wearing this crown , Christ took upon himself the full curse of sin that was placed on the first Adam.
And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
So the blood Christ shed with the crown saved humanity from this curse that was brought about by Adam and Eve.
So the beatings at the whipping post and the crown and the beatings Christ endured during the trials gives us our next point
3. The Internal Bleeding
Let’s take a moment to look at some of the beating Christ took during His trials.
Then they spat in his face and beat him; others slapped him
Then some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to beat him, saying, “Prophesy!” The temple servants also took him and slapped him.
The men who were holding Jesus started mocking and beating him. After blindfolding him, they kept asking, “Prophesy! Who was it that hit you?”
When he had said these things, one of the officials standing by slapped Jesus, saying, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
The internal bleeding Christ suffered carries such profound theological meaning and shows us the basis in medical and historical context. The suffering is Christ sharing in our humanity and points us towards spiritual redemption and the birth of the Church and how it will be persecuted.
It also shows Christ’s absorption of humanity’s deepest inner brokenness and sin.
I will hold off on the medical explanation because it comes into play for next week.
It is here that I want to share a part of a poem named Injustice and Torture
Soldiers drag Jesus away to Pilate’s Palace
Crack sharp-toothed whips on his back
Rip his flesh and tendons,
And tear out his beard.
They adorn him with an ornate robe,
Slap it on and rip it off his gaping wounds,
cram a crown of thorns upon his head,
mock him,
and beat his face beyond recognition.
