Easter Part 1

As the kids are playing I was finishing my earlier time of studying the Crucifixion. We hear the Easter story every year, but do we really hear it and realize what Jesus actually suffered. Yes, we know He died on the cross, took our place, bore our sins,etc. and rose the third day. Do we fully "get it" Do we take the time to look at what this perfect, sinless man endured for us as we are so unworthy, undeserving,and wicked hearted people. I began studying the physical torment Jesus endured from the time of His trials before Pilate through the crucifixion. Take a look: (I cannot hold back the tears anytime I read this) It begins with scourging - He has been tied to a post by His hands, His feet suspended off the ground so that His body, is taut. Two men, one on each side, Romans soldiers, have wooden handles in their hand to which are attached leather thongs, the end of which are filled with bits of rock and bone and metal filed down to a knife edge. And they proceed to lacerate the body of Jesus Christ extensively until blood is oozing out all over His body and His inner parts are made visible. This is the first effort to satisfy the blood‑thirsty mob. This is carried on by the soldiers. Then in Matthew 27:27 And the soldiers take Jesus to the common hall and gather around the, whole band," By the time He gets to this moment, He is a tragedy to look at. His face has been slapped repeatedly. It has been punched until it is swollen and bruised. It has been spit on till His face is covered with spit. His body now is lacerated and He bleeds profusely from the shoulders down. They know that He is supposedly a king because the people are screaming about His claim to be that. They know the people want Him dead. They see Him as a rather pathetic fake and fraud, perhaps mentally deranged and worthy only of their mockery. And when all through this entire encounter with them, He never says a single thing; they no doubt questioned His intelligence and perhaps even His sanity. They play Him like a clown as they would with an idiot boy in the street. They are cold. They are they indifferent. And they are ignorant. And this mentally deficient faker is nothing more than the butt of their jokes.Already bleeding from the scouring which opened up His flesh, blood flowing out all over His body, agony in every nerve, His whole body quivering in tortuous pain, He becomes the object of the soldiers ridicule as they all gather around Him and begin their little game. The first thing they did was strip Him, they stripped Him. They love to do this. They don't do this reluctantly. They don't like the Jews. In fact they hate the Jews. They've had a lot of problems with them. And any way they can mock them, they can enjoy thoroughly. And so there's a certain kind of glee in what they do. And there are, by the way, no Jews in the praetorium. The Bible tells us they wouldn't come in there lest they would be defiled and thus be unable to celebrate the Passover by entering into a defiling Gentile place. So, here all these soldiers are. They don't have anybody around to whom they're accountable of a Jewish nature. They do just exactly what they want to this individual. They don't really know Him; they don't know who He is. He has never been cross purposes with theirs. He has never violated their goals or objectives or motives. He has never demonstrated prejudice against them. They have no idea who He is. And yet there is no interest in alleviating His agony. There is none of the quote/unquote "milk of human kindness." There is no concern for His suffering. There is no interest in healing His wounds. There is no sense of justice. They are bent only on the fun of aggravating His agony. They have been trained to torture. They have been trained to kill. They are thirsty for blood, for evil. And they express the wickedness of the human heart in a definitive portrait of wickedness that is ignorant. They really reflect their father‑‑the devil‑‑who is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. They find their great joy in increasing the pain that Jesus Christ endures. They are without kindness and without sympathy. Now when Jesus was scourged, obviously He was naked. And after the scourging was over, they put back on His inner‑seamless garment, His inner robe. And only can be imagined the pain that that would cause Him, a rough cloth put over open wounds. And that has remained on Him for a time as He is brought back into the praetorium. And now it's time for their little game, so no doubt heartlessly they rip that robe off over His head, exposing again His wounds. They make Him naked.And then it says in verse 27, "They put on Him a scarlet robe." And so they place upon Him the scarlet robe that is intended to represent the purple robe, to mock Him as if He were some king. Verse 29 talks about the crown of thorns : around His head and crushed it down, no doubt, wrapping it around His head. The thorns piercing His brow and little streams of blood running down to mingle with the rest of the blood on His body.But all of this makes Jesus look ridiculous. He is a joke. He is bloody from head to foot. His face is now unrecognizable. He is hardly human. His face is distorted by the pain of emotion. It is distorted by spiritual anguish. It is distorted by the feeling of sin bearing and the very bearing of sin. It is distorted by bruises and swollenness and spittle mixed with blood and the dust and dirt of the day. And He is a scene of ugliness of which the prophet Isaiah says there is no beauty that we should desire Him.And they're not through- but I am for tonight. I cannot stop the tears as I cannot even imagine what Jesus looked like or how much He was suffering.........