During our meditation yesterday, we discussed how Jesus did not confess any sins to lessen the scourging of His back from the Roman soldiers. According to a forensic pathologist, the scourging typically caused rib fractures, severe lung bruises, and lacerations with bleeding into the chest cavity, as well as partial or complete pneumothorax (lung collapse).
Six hundred years before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote of the suffering of the Messiah in these terms:
4Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:4-7).
In the prophetic Scripture above, the Hebrew word chabbuwrah is translated as "His wounds" in the New International Version (NIV) (v. 5). This Hebrew term refers to a stripe or bruise, a mark or set of marks on the skin. The King James Version of the Bible renders the passage as “by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Many believe that the scourging by Roman soldiers brought healing to our bodies. Others say that the wounds that heal us symbolize His substitutionary death on the cross. Regardless of your view, Jesus opened a fountain of healing through what He experienced that day.
The Roman soldiers were still not finished with Him when the scourging ended. The soldiers' hatred for the Jews showed in the rest of the men in the Praetorium, the Roman barracks, as they took turns beating and humiliating Christ. Mark records that the entire company (450-600 men), or cohort (Greek speira), took turns hitting Him on the head with a staff and spitting on Him before mocking Him by bowing before Him as they would to Caesar.
16The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" 19Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him (Mark 15:16-20).
They placed a staff in His right hand and draped Herod's scarlet robe around His back over His gaping wounds. Then, they twisted a crown of thorns and pierced His head with it. The crown of thorns reminds us of the curse on the ground in the Garden of Eden. Christ bore the symbol of that curse, the thorns, and took it to the cross with Him.
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field (Genesis 3:17b-18).
In the Old Testament, more than five hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah spoke of the Suffering Servant of God sent to Israel. He wrote:
I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).
All that happened to Christ was part of God's plan. On the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter told the over 3,000 Jews present, "This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross" (Acts 2:23). Under God's sovereign hand, the Father gave His Son to us as our substitutionary sacrifice for sin. Jews and Gentiles — that is, all of humanity — in their ignorance of their need for a Savior, did their worst to try to destroy Him. But instead, He sits upon the throne. Keith Thomas
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The written study #38 is found in John’s Gospel: 38. Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified