The Cross of Christ Pt. 3 - Christ's Physical Suffering Pt. 1

Matthew 27:26-31, "Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified. 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, 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!' And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. 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."

We are going to be spending the majority of our time looking at these verses, but first, I want to start with the physical aspects of the garden. Remember, in Part 1, when I talked about hematidrosis. Hematidrosis is a rare physical condition, where extreme anguish or physical strain causes one's capillary blood vessels to enlarge and then, finally, burst, mixing sweat with blood. Jesus, under great emotional strain at that time, contracted this condition due to his anguish of foreseeing the Father's cup of wrath. His intense anguish led to this condition, which will also come to play in the final chapters of Jesus' crucifixion. Hematidrosis can be fatal when not treated.

Now, we are led into the following verses above, which lead us to the end of Jesus' trial with Pilate and the beginning of Jesus' scourging.

Traditional Roman flogging, known as scourging, was, by far, the worst form of cruel and unusual punishment at the time of Jesus. Victims were tied to a post and beaten with a leather whip. This was not just any handy dandy leather whip. This whip was interwoven with pieces of bone, pottery, metal, and any other hard device that would lacerate (tear) the flesh. The Roman soldiers, who were used to flog victims, were the strongest men in the empire. Now, you have a strong man hurling down his nasty whip upon our Savior. Can you see the word picture? Whip! Jesus screams in pain. Whip! Again Jesus screams in agony. Whip! Jesus cries out in absolute terrible pain. Over and over again - forty times. Jewish law commands 39, but Jesus was not even spared 39. At the end of the scourging, Jesus' back is lacerated, literally, in shreds of flesh and tissue. His bones are exposed and many of his organs, as well.

After the flogging, they put Jesus' own clothes back on Him. Since Jesus' back is torn to shreds and tissue is exposed, Jesus' clothes act like a bandage. The blood and tissue clots extremely fast when something is up against it. In this case, Jesus' clothes help the blood and tissue to clot quickly. This leads to verse 28, "and they stripped Him." That is bad news. They strip Jesus' clothes off of Him. Have you ever had a parent or some older person rip a bandage off of you and you were dreading the fact of having it torn off? This is exactly what happened to Jesus, but it was a bit bigger of a bandage. Jesus yelps in pain. The veins and arteries, that were once healed, have reopened to spill more blood. Jesus is losing blood at an irregular pace and death is fast approaching until the soldiers place a scarlet robe on Him. Jesus is relieved. Once again, this time, the scarlet robe is acting as a bandage. The veins, arteries, tissue, and pieces of hanging flesh are healing up once again. The soldiers start twisting together a crown of thorns. These thorns are not small rosebush thorns, but gigantic thorns that came off of a Jerusalem plant that grew along the outskirts of town. This crown of thorns was carefully twisted together and jammed onto Jesus' head with a Roman soldier's full strength. End of Part 1