This morning I was reading Matthew 26, the account of Jesus’ arrest and trial before the high priest, scribes, and elders. We are most aware of Jesus’ crucifixion and the visuals of the nails, the cross, and the crown of thorns; they are both familiar and precious to us, especially during this season of the year. As I read of Jesus’ trial this morning I was caught up with the scene where Jesus is before an angry mob that is thirsty for blood. Matthew writes that a “great multitude with swords and clubs” had been sent to arrest him, like a criminal, in the middle of the night. Each day before this, Jesus had sat with them, taught them, walked among them, and then in the dark of night they came to arrest Him, in a show of power and might. After they took Him away, they sat Him in the midst of all the religious leaders and they brought in “false witnesses”, one after another. But no one could give a reason that could justify taking Jesus’ life or even holding Him as a prisoner. Finally, two witnesses came forward and misquoted Jesus as having said that He could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. With this, those seated in judgment are furious and worked to a full lather. Caiaphas, the high priest, then asked Jesus, point blank, on an oath to God, if He was the Messiah. Jesus spoke, for the first time during His trial, and said, “It is as you said”. He then told Caiaphas that he would see Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven. With those words all of the anger and hatred of hell was unleashed.
Matthew says that they “spat in His face and beat Him”. Mark writes that they put a blindfold on Jesus and then they slapped Him in the face and were mocking Him by saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?” The Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16) endured beating and torture from His creation, but why? I believe it was because, before He died to fulfill the wrath of God and before He defeated sin and death, He took sin’s best shot. Most are aware that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), but sin does not just bring death, it desires to bring destruction. Sin does not just kill, it humiliates, it shames, it degrades, it bullies, it lies, and it tries to fill us all with the terror of its destruction. That is what happened to Jesus at His trial, and that is what He was defeating as He endured their torture. Jesus did not just come to die for our sin; He came to redeem us to God and to destroy the works of Satan. With each slap, each insult, with each handful of His beard that the Roman soldiers tore out, and with each scribe that spat in His face; Jesus was absorbing sin’s horror, sin’s bullying, and sin’s attempts to break and destroy all of mankind. He took a terrible beating that was meant to humiliate Him and yet it did not weaken His resolve, it did not lessen His love and it did not diminish His grace. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him”, that peace is not merely just being spared death, it is also the reality of knowing that life’s greatest bully has been beaten down.
Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost; by the love of God He was sent so that those who believed would not perish, but have everlasting life. He came in obedience to the Father; in order to free the captives, He had to defeat the captor. We must not forget that Jesus did not only save the lost, He defeated the thief. He took on sin and Satan, for the joy of fulfilling His Father’s will and our salvation. In doing so He had to take all that sin had to give, and then when it had dealt its greatest blows, had used all of its tricks and brought Him to the point of death; He turned the tables, gave up His own life for the Father, and then arose from grave holding the keys to both hell and death. When Jesus rose from the grave there was nothing else to come against Him; He took it all and walked away victorious. It was not just sin’s final blow that Jesus took on our behalf, it was not just the nails or the cross or the spear that He bore, He did not just die my death and take the final wrath and judgment; He took my insults, my slaps in the face, my humiliation, my accusations, and my lies about identity and character. Jesus took them all. He did this so that I could be free. When shame comes—Jesus took that. When lies come, remember His face; when humiliation arises, remember His beard; when ruin is threatened, remember His cross. Jesus paid it all—we do not only have a place in heaven, we have been given freedom from sin, not just its end of death, but its threats of torture.
This Good Friday I pray that we weep over Jesus’ torture, but that we will do it with joy. Jesus chose, in love and because of love, to take my beating, to take my insults, and to take my humiliation. Our weeping cannot be because of guilt, it must be for joy, and it must be for freedom. He was crushed, He was bruised and now I am healed and I am free. “Thank you Jesus for taking my sin and in doing so, for taking sin’s best shot, your strength has secured my eternity, but just as much, it has healed my past and made my present whole.”