while I know that it can make us wince in pain and just not enjoy reading or learning about the pain that Jesus went through.
As I have been researching and reading, I have gotten "squimmish" it was difficult to read. But I think that it is really important for us to learn and for us to understand of how much Jesus went through for us! - He did it out of love. :) please keep that in mind while reading all of this.also, please keep in mind that I am getting alot of my information from the book :
"A Walk with Christ to the Cross" by Dawson McAllister. A wonderful book, and I highly recommend.
The Scourging of Jesus.
Scourging was a practice that was from the Romans. It was an extremely cruel.
Soldiers would tear all the clothes off a victim, then tie his hands to a pole, leaving him hunched over with his back exposed.
It was a sturdy stick with nine strips of leather attached to it, at the end of each strip was a hard leather ball, and along the sides were woven pieces of sharpened bone and iron.
A trained soldier was to swing it in to the victims back, while another trained soldier would watch his breathing to make sure he didnt die. - Scourging was called the 'half-death' they didnt want to kill the victim, they wanted him to suffer a bit more. They'd leave him just short of death.
So theres the soldier swinging the cat of nine tails into the victims back pulling out chunks of skin, with just a few strokes the flesh could be torn all the way to the muscle and even to the bone.
Keep in mind this is the second time within a few hours that Jesus had nearly died. The first time being when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane - remember when he was super stressed and just in a terrible state?
John 19
4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
Pilate was saying , Look at this pathetic, bleeding Jew - hasn't he had enough? When the crowd saw Him they weren't satisfied. - They wanted more bloodshed... the crowd began to chant louder "Crucify Crucify!" they were out of control! on the verge of starting a riot!
John 19:6-
6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”
Pilate was angry- out of anger he said to the leaders and said to take Him and go crucify Jesus. - But Pilate didnt find him guilty.
The Jews could see things changing in their favor, so they responded "We have a law ... by our law He ought to die because He claimed to be the Son of God" (John 19:7)
Pilate didnt want to mess with Jesus; he was trying his best to get rid of Him. - When he heard the new claim that he was claiming to be God, this took things to a different level.
John 19
8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?”
Where in the world did you come from?
Jesus didnt answer though. He had already told Pilate that His kindom was not of this world. This made Pilate more frustrated.
John 19
10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Jesus is so gracious. Even under great stress. - He was aying, Hey Pilate, you think you're in control, but God's allowing this to happen. You're a bit player on a stage, you didnt deliver Me up, the Jews did. and they're the ones who have the greater sin.
Pilate asked them "Should I Crucify your king?"
-"We have no King, Except for Caesar!" Said the Chief priests.
When Pilate saw that he couldnt disuade them, but insdead a riot was in the making, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd and said "im innocent of the blood of this righteous Man. You will be witnessses of the fact." All the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children" [ Matt 27:24-25)
One last time Pilate went out into the crows. -this time the Jewish leaders revealed their final ploy. - It was like a ddagger thrust deep into Pilate's heart. They sneered " you're a Jesus lover - well we'll tell Caesar of this Jesus who said He was a king, and how you sided with Him. wait until he hears this...."
Pilate then was forced to make a decision, was it his life or was it Christ's life? His Job or Christs?.... Pilate chose his way rather than Christ. - He turned against Jesus, and decieded to have him murdered.
Barabbas was realeased, but Jesus was handed over to be crucified.
Pilates role was now over. Its unknown to what happened to him after that day.
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