Context: Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's gone before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, and he's been condemned to death.
Text:
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. (NIV)
taken from www.biblegateway.com
Peter, who was nearby the whole time, tells us that Jesus did not retaliate in any way and that he made no threats. "Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."
Do you ever wonder what was going on in Jesus' mind as all this was happening? The God portion of his being knew that he would die and knew the glory that would result. And the man part of him was hurting in a way that he had never hurt before. As a carpenter, I'm sure he'd hit his thumb with a hammer a time or two, and he may have received splinters and cuts as he worked. As a child he most likely fell from a tree and scraped his knees. But we have no evidence that he's been abused intentionally by the world before.
Did the human side of him take control, even for a moment? In other texts it says that the soldiers blindfolded him and taunted him to 'prophesy' who had hit him. Don't you think that just once he wanted to show them that he knew who caused each blow? That he wanted to lay each of their sins in front of them, if not to prove that he was God, then maybe just to get back at them a little?
Yet he remained silent, and he took each blow. He knew they were wrong, yet he suffered through their torture so that we wouldn't have to.
He didn't deserve what he received, and we don't deserve what he gives us in return. Yet he gives it freely if we only believe. Isn't it amazing?
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