As you read this, please read it all from the standpoint that he died and suffered for you. For that is exactly what he did. In Isaiah 53:5 it says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
First off, I want to look into the excruciating pain the Jesus went through for my sins. I want to give context in the Gospels and where it talks about Jesus; his beatings and crucifixion. Each of the Gospels are own perspectives of what happened to Jesus. (It is perfectly fine that they don’t all say the same thing. It is more important that they don’t say the same things, for if they did, then it is really suspect on being a lie.) I will then give an in depth look of history, and the time of Jesus what each of the terms in the Bible relate to. I don’t want to slight anything of what the Bible says so I will give details of crucifixion and show a lot of what the Bible is talking about. A lot of the things that I will describe are horrific, but it shows God’s love for us all the more.
In Matthew 27:26 it says, “Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.” I want to dig deep into this first verse that states that Jesus was scourged. What exactly was scourging?
In the Roman empire it was a judicial penalty, consisting of a severe beating with a multi-lashed whip containing imbedded pieces of bone and metal. When the offender was whipped, the whip would no doubt wrap around his body and shred up his skin. The metal and bone would dig in and act just like a fish hook. They would ‘latch’ onto the skin. The whipper would then yank the whip back and those pieces of metal and bone would then destroy the skin that they dug in on. In several occasions, the offender would die in the scourging. This was no small thing. It was so brutal and excruciating that it would marr the appearance of the offender.
In Matthew 27:27-28 it says, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,” First off, there was a lot of people before Jesus at this time. A battalion is about 600 men. Jesus is then stripped of his clothes and had a scarlet robe put on him. After getting severely beaten, Jesus’ blood would have started to dry. His blood would then cling to his clothes that were shredded upon him. Stripping him would cause all of his wounds to open up again. It would be very painful. They then mock him as a king. When they put the scarlet robe on him, the reed in his hand, and the crown of thorns on his head, they are mocking all of the things that he stated. All 600 men then kneeled before him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” On top of all of this, they spat on him and struck him on the head with the reed that was in his hand. When they struck him on the head, the crown of thorns would have sunk into his scalp. Verse 31 says, “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.” All of his wounds that were freshly opened up when they took off his clothes, are now opened up again.
All of these things are also found in Mark 15:16-20. This passage and the one in Matthew are very similar. The only thing that is different is the wording when the soldiers were before Jesus. In verse 18 and 19 it says, “And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews. (19) And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.”
Luke’s account of the crucifixion doesn’t say anything about Jesus being before the whole Roman Battalion. It goes from Pilate stating that he didn’t find anything wrong with Jesus in Luke 23:24-25, to Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross in Luke 23:26.
John’s account of the crucifixion talks about Jesus being flogged, arrayed in a purple robe, and having a crown of thorns on his head. Pilate then presents Jesus to the crowd with the crown and robe on. (John 19:5-6) In John 19:7-10 it says that once Pilate hears that Jesus has made himself the Son of God, he converses with Jesus to find out where he is from and who he is.
That was only the start of the start of his sacrifice. When going to the cross they had Simon, a man of Cyrene, carry the cross of Jesus. The first three of the Gospels states that Simon carried the cross of Christ, but in John 19:17 it says, “and he went out, carrying his own cross, to the place called The Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic it is called Golgotha.” (It does seem like a contradiction between all of the Gospels. But these are eye accounts on what happened during the crucifixion. They saw parts of what happened differently from the others.) After being scourged and losing a lot of blood, Jesus by now is very weak. He probably carried the cross for a time, but then after the weight of the cross beam being around 100 pounds he couldn’t go any longer. The soldiers then compelled Simon to carry Jesus’ cross for the rest of the way.
In verses 34 and 35 it states, “they offered him wine to drink 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.” It suddenly jumps to saying Jesus is crucified. Mark 15:21-23 states the same things as Matthew states. It doesn’t state in Luke that Jesus was offered the wine but he rejected it.
Apart from these things, John 19:28-30 says that Jesus said, “I thirst” to fulfill scripture. Here he received the sour wine and then says, “It is finished.” Verse 30 goes on to state that Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This and the other times I think are different. The other times when he tasted the wine, he didn’t drink it. However for this time, he ‘received’ the wine and then died.
First off, crucifixion was a cursed thing. It was the most extreme way of being executed. After being beaten, stripped multiple times, and being tired, it was horrific way to die. A cross consisted of a cross beam that the offender would solely carry to the place that he was to die. The cross beam would then be attached to a vertical beam. The victim would have their wrists pinned to the cross beam by spikes. Their feet would be pinned to the vertical beam usually by one spike, sometimes it was two. In order for the victim to take a breath, they would have to push their feet against the spike and pull their body up with their arms. They had to do this so that their diaphram could rise, letting their lungs breath. But with being so weak and causing pain to their extremities, it was very hard to fight for life. To speed up the ‘process of death’, Roman soldiers would break the legs of the one hanging on the cross. The victim then would soon suffocate on the tree.
Jesus however died upon his own will. He didn’t fight death as others would have. Matthew 27:50 says, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his Spirit.” He had come for this; to take on the sins of all people and die. He wouldn’t stay dead however. For if he remained in the grave, death would have the victory. Jesus wouldn’t truly be God for he himself said that he would rise again 3 days later. But he rose again just as he said.
Over the whole ‘process’ of the crucifixion, Jesus was so beaten and so sacrificed, it says in Isaiah 52:14, “As many were astonished at you – his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.”
He did that for me. He did that for you. He did that for all of us. There is nothing that we can do to ‘inherit’ our own salvation. We solely have to depend on Christ and what he did for us. It says in Romans 10:9, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Your lifestyle should be dramatically changed for Christ. Everything you do should bring glory to God.
