"They stripped off Jesus' clothes and put a scarlet robe on him. (29) They made a crown out of thorn branches and placed it on his head, and they put a stick in his hand. The soldiers knelt down and pretended to worship him. They made fun of him and shouted, 'Hey, you king of the Jews!' (30) Then they spit on him. They took the stick from him and beat him on the head with it." -Matthew 27:28-30
Imagine being stripped of your clothes and given a scarlet robe, and imagine having a crown of thorns shoved on your head...This is what Jesus had to endure. Verse 29 says, "They made a crown out of thorn branches and placed it on his head, and they put a stick in his hand. The soldiers knelt down and pretended to worship him. They made fun of him and shouted, 'Hey, you king of the Jews!' ". In case you have never touched a thorn, it is razor sharp and can cut through flesh very easy. I can imagine that when they placed the crown of thorns on His head, it cut through his flesh and blood is rushing down his face, and the thorns may have been an 6 inches or longer so they run deep in his flesh...Can you imagine enduring that kind of pain? How would you feel having sharp thorns piercing your skin, blood running down your face? The soldiers torturing him pretends to worship him or in other words, they tease him and call him names...Think about how you would feel if someone called you names and insulted you repeatedly...However, it gets worse....
Verse 30 states, "Then they spit on him. They took the stick from him and beat him on the head with it." This is probably the most disgusting thing you can do to a human being..They spit on Jesus, no doubt that it was probably multiple people doing it...How would you feel if you were being spit on? What would be your reaction? Anger? Revenge? This is what Jesus endured, this is what Jesus put up with. The second part of the scripture states that they beat him on the head with a stick...Now, please let's be real about this...the stick they are talking about is NOT a twig, I imagine it was heavy, and apparently big enough to support his weight (something like Moses carried) but they take the stick and beat him on the head with it....Imagine being pounded on the head, possibly 40 times non stop with full strength...you're already losing blood with the crown of thorns and you're covered in spit....How do you feel? Would you fight back? Cuss them out? Cry? They also forced Jesus to carry His Cross on his back, possibly weighing 100+ pounds but let's not forget that He's been beat on the head, had a crown of thorn shoved on his head, and spit on....Would you be able to carry the cross Jesus carried but it became so heavy that He needed help carrying it (Mark 15:21)?
Jesus has been whipped, spit, and beat on, and suffering harshly....so what was Christs' response to His unjust suffering? The Bible tells us in Luke 23:34, "Jesus said, 'Father, forgive these people! They don't know what they're doing." Ok, STOP THE PRESSES....Did Jesus just say what I think He said?? Is Jesus asking God to forgive the people who's beating him and spitting on him? Am I crazy? Is He crazy?? The answer is No. Jesus is not crazy but showing the most powerful demonstration of LOVE ever shown. He's asking God to forgive them because they really do not know what they're doing...They do not know that Jesus is fulfilling prophecy or that His Death is vital to His Mission.
So why did Jesus allow them to beat him and kill him? The answer is YOU. Jesus took the beating and spitting because He took our place and accepted the punishment of God upon Himself. Henry, what are you talking about? After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, a curse fell upon the earth known as "sin". Since God is holy and perfect, He cannot tolerate sin so we were disconnected to Him. Jesus was sent to reconnect us because Jesus was GOD in the flesh. Sin was our debt to God, and the only way to pay Him was through death. However, Jesus never sinned which made him the perfect candidate to pay God back and the only way He could do this was to die. Think about it like this: You borrow money, and can't pay it back so they order a hit out on you, but you hear that someone else has taken the punishment you were supposed to receive. This is what Christ did, He paid the price with His Blood because it was pure and was the only thing God would accept as payment. Romans 5:8 (CEV), states, "But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful."
Now, please understand that Christ did not have to die, He could have called angels to destroy everyone or He could have chosen to get down off the cross to prove himself to the people. However, Jesus was thinking about you when He chose to stay up on the cross. He would rather lose His Life temporarily than to lose you permanently. Who would do that? Who would love you so much that they would sacrifice their own life for you so that you do not have to be punished? God has shown His Love by having Christ pay the price for sin. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this is what Christianity is truly about: The story of how we owed God because we were sinners, and could not afford to pay God, so God sent Jesus, who was God in the flesh and never sinned, to pay our debt by dying on the Cross and it was paid ONLY THROUGH HIS BLOOD. The only thing we must do is accept His payment and follow Christ because of what He has done. It's the same as if someone paid off a large debt...you would want to know what can you do to repay Him, the same is with Christ...If we want to show our appreciation for what He has done, we must accept His payment and obey the Father. We must understand that we did not do ANYTHING to pay off our debt, and we could not because the price was too high. Jesus Loved you so much that He died for you, accept Salvation, a gift given to you by God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23), and obey the Father. Be blessed
P.S. Please double check EVERY scripture reference and if I have misquoted or even left one letter, please let me know and please forgive me because it was not intentional.
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