A Closer Look at the Sacrifice of Christ

All these trees are not very pretty type of trees. They can live to be an enormously old age.

As they get older, they get short or they grow short and thick.

It sort of describes us as we get older. They have rough bark and limbs that get uglier and twisted and more gnarled the older they get.

At the bottom of the western slope of the Mount of Olives, facing Jerusalem are some truly old, ancient olive trees that many people believe are close to 2,000 years old. They've been there for a long time. They may date back to 70 AD when the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, laid siege to it. You might remember they cut down almost any semblance of a tree around to lay siege to the city. They used the tempers for the siege and also for crucifying people. And they crucified thousands of Jews on the road leading into Jerusalem.

When an olive tree is cut down, it's much like a lot of other trees. It begins to send out some new shoots that begin to grow up from the existing root structure of the tree. Thus, it's possible that these ancient trees that are there presently at the foot of the Mount of Olives, that their roots go back much before the time of 70 AD. The trees themselves apparently only go back some of them that far. Now, nearby this grove of olive trees is a cave that archaeologists have explored. And inside the cave, they have found the remains of an olive press.

Now, an olive press was used there, apparently over 2000 or around 2000 years ago. They would harvest the olives, pick the olives off the olive trees, bring them in, put them in the press, crush them, squeeze them, squeeze the oil out of the olives, and use it for food, for fuel, and even for medicine.

Now, in the Gospels, we find mention of a place on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, of the Mount of Olives, just across from the Kidron Valley, from the temple. It's a place called Gethsemane.

And I'm sure we're all familiar with that, and we've read that in the Bible. Gethsemane is an Arabic, or excuse me, an Aramaic word that means an olive oil press, which is basically what the word means, oil press. I'll look that up again this morning, just to verify that. Apparently, this cave, with its ancient olive oil press, and with the ancient olive trees nearby, is the Gethsemane that is mentioned in the Bible.

Those ancient and orled, ugly olive trees nearby, in a way, represent events that happened there nearly 2,000 years ago. The events that we all know that were quite ugly, unpleasant, would have been very painful to watch, and especially to experience. Now, the reason why I mention this is because, shortly, we're all going to be getting together to commemorate the events that took place in connection with the actions that happened in Gethsemane.

Before we do, I think it's important for us to look at what the Bible says and what the Bible describes about these events. We're commanded to examine ourselves every year before we take the Passover, and to consider the meaning of the events. Now, too often, we examine ourselves, we think about what we need to do, which is appropriate and correct, and I've already covered that with you in a sermon, that we need to examine ourselves, look at ourselves, see where we need to change, see where we've grown.

It's not just a negative process, but a positive one. But we also need to examine and reflect upon what Christ did, what He did for us. And not only just as a group, too often it's easy to read the Scriptures and think, well, yes, Christ died for us, for sinners, for the Church. But we need to think about it individually. That Jesus Christ and what He went through, He went through it for me.

He went through it for you. And so we need to think about it as an individual thing. So what I'd like to do today is to review these events in the Bible. And for all of us to go through them, but as we go through them, we need to consider their meaning and their implication for us individually, personally, and gain some additional insight into what Jesus Christ had to suffer in becoming our sacrifice. If you'd like a title for the sermon, it would be a closer look at the sacrifice of Christ, or Christ's sacrifice.

Every year during the Passover service, we read through the accounts in the Gospel about Christ's last Passover with His disciples. We read about the foot washing, we read about Peter's protesting, and Jesus washing His feet. We read about the We read about Judas leaving the meal, going out, and betraying Jesus Christ. We read about Jesus instituting the symbols of the bread and the wine, and how the thieves represent His blood and His body broken for us.

We also read through several chapters in the book of John, where Christ gave final instructions, details, exhortations, encouragement to His disciples. And we read where Jesus prayed for those who would come in the future years.

Finally, we find that Jesus Christ in Matthew 26, and let's go over to Matthew 26, we read here beginning in verse 30 that at the close of the service that Jesus had with the disciples that they sang a hymn and departed. As we read here. Verse 30, when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And what we want to do today is to continue with the story where this leaves off.

To read about the events, to read about the symbolism that the bread and wine symbolize, to take a closer look at what Christ's sacrifice did for us.

So with that in mind, let's begin in verse 31. What happened next as we read here is they apparently walk along, apparently transpired as they were walking to the Mount of Olives from the house where they had taken the Passover meal. And as they were walking along at night, Jesus Christ began to talk to them. In verse 31, Jesus said to them, All of you, not just Peter, but all of you, will be made to stumble because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. And of course Peter being the one who is more infatuous, verse 33 Peter answered and said to him, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. In verse 34, Jesus said, Assuredly I say to you that this night before the rooster crows you will deny me three times. And Peter said to him, Even if I die with you, I will not deny you. And then notice, it says, So said all the disciples. So it wasn't just Peter saying this, all of them were saying this. They all pledged their loyalty to Jesus Christ. They all said they would defend him to the death, that they would never deny him.

Yet, let's notice in verse 36, then Jesus came with him to a place called Gethsemane. And this is what I was describing to begin with. And said to his disciples, Sit here, and I will go and pray over there.

Now, Gethsemane was a place that they often visited when they came to Jerusalem. It would be a relatively private, quiet place. You'd have grove of olive trees. You'd be able to look down over part of the city. You could see people coming and going. And it was a place that Christ got together with his disciples, and he chose to have some private time.

And again, it was quite possible that during their days, that some of the ancient olive trees that were growing then date back to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Jews came back out of Babylonian captivity. And maybe even back to the time of David and Solomon. No one really knows. But this was indeed a very ancient place, and it was a place where you could go, just like you and I today might go out into the forest for the woods, and where you hear a little stream going by, in a place that would you could sit down, have some privacy, and relax. So, it was at this place that some of the ugly events on that night began to take place.

Jesus began what later became known, and rightly known, or accurately known, as His Agony. This is how the writers, concerning this section of the Bible, describe what Jesus Christ went through. Let's continue on in verse 37.

Verse 37, He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, had been James and John, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

I want you to notice the state of mind. He's sorrowful, deeply distressed. In other words, He was in pure mental agony. He knew what was about to happen. He knew all of the Old Testament prophecies. He had inspired the prophet Isaiah to write down the prophecies concerning his death. So, He knew exactly what was going to come to pass. He kept telling His disciples, we're going to go up to Jerusalem. I'll be killed. Three days later, I'll rise. They didn't understand what He was talking about. So, the pressure began to bear on Him. In verse 38, He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. He was mentally distressed over this. Any of us would be. If you knew that within a few hours, you were going to be beaten within an inch of your life, crucified, and die.

And He knew what was coming. But He told them, Stay here and watch with me. And in verse 39, He went a little further. He fell on His face, and He prayed, saying, O my Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. So, He's not just praying on His knees. He didn't just kneel down and begin to pray. He utterly prostrated Himself, I should say, with His face to the ground, and He prayed to the Father. And He was asking God, Did this cup of suffering be removed from Him? But He said, Not my will, your will be done. And so we see Christ, even though He's undergoing this agony, He understands what's coming, and He's praying for strength and for help. He also says, If you can let this cup pass, please do so. Now in verse 40, Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. And He came and found them asleep again. For their eyes were heavy, so He left them and went away and prayed three times, saying the same words. So three different times, apparently an hour each time, He went and prayed. Three hours, He cries out to God. And as the Bible describes, and when He cried to God and prayed, that His perspiration, that He actually bled blood out of His pores. And mixed with the sweat, the perspiration that came up. Now, medically, there's a term for that, and it describes, generally, somebody does that when they are in abject terror. So it shows the state, the emotional mental state that Christ was undergoing at this time. Now, I wonder how much we fully understand why Jesus Christ was truly going through at this time.

I've mentioned in the past that if Jesus Christ's death was all that there was needed, in other words, if all He had to do was die and shed His blood, why couldn't His death have been more quickly? Why not just spare Him shooting, do whatever someone would do, and He would die very quickly? Why did He have to suffer so much, in addition to dying? As the book of Hebrews tells us, that He was tempted in all points as we are, but without ever sinning. So Jesus Christ was faced with everything that we are faced with. He was to go through all the experiences, to feel all of the emotions, and to go through all of the agonies that we all go through, and yet never sin, never compromise, never strike back.

There were no reasons why these agonies would come upon Him for His own personal sins, because He never sinned.

It was essential that He know and experience the dread, the pain, the agony, the misery that mankind goes through, the suffering that humanity goes through, the pain that people go through. Part of why Jesus spent these hours in Gethsemane was praying and weeping, even sweating blood because He dreaded what He was going to have to suffer. He knew the penalty for sin was going to be placed upon Him, and that He would have to experience that.

He had been feeling extreme emotions at this time, as I said any of us would, looking forward to what was going to happen. There was no other way, because Jesus Christ, again, knew what was going to happen. He was going to be and become our faithful High Priest, and He would intercede on our behalf with God. So, in order to intercede on our behalf, to know what we're going through, then we cry out to God. If you're lying on your bed, you're dying of cancer, and you're crying out to God to help you, to strengthen you, to be with you, and your will be done, does Jesus Christ know what that feels like? Does He know what the pain feels like? Does He know what a person feels like when they realize that unless God heals them, that they're going to die, and that He would have experienced that? He experienced these severe emotions that cut right down to the inside of a person. He felt that. So, on this night, Jesus Christ experienced great apprehension. He experienced dread. He experienced the feelings and the emotions that many of us go through, because He knew that when He left that area, and walked out of that area, that there was a mob waiting for Him. How would you feel, if you knew, after this sermon, you walked out the door today, that there was a mob waiting to grab you, they were going to haul you away, beat you, spit in your face, rip the skin off your body, strip you naked, torture you with an inch of your life, crucify you, and finally murder you? You wouldn't be anxious to walk out that door, but this is exactly what Jesus Christ went through.

And there wasn't a thing that Christ could do about it, because God gave Him His answer. Yes, you must do what we've already discussed, what the prophecies say, and why you know you've come to the earth. If you and I knew about all this, we might be slipping out the back door, we'd maybe run the opposite way, but Jesus Christ did not do that. So, He went through this dread, this agony, this distress, and He did it for us. He prayed repeatedly, and again, He said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. He also faced betrayal that night, did He not? Let's continue here in verse 45 in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 45.

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, Are you sleeping and resting? Behold, the hours at hand, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let's be going, see, my betrayer is at hand. It's interesting from this spot in this area, you can see right across the narrow valley to the walls and temple in Jerusalem, and the roads that lead outside of the city. It's no more than a few hundred yards away.

Frankly, it's very possible, as Jesus was praying that last time, that He could hear the mob of men coming. He could hear the clatter of armor, the banging of shields and swords. He could see the torches. He could hear the voices as they snaked along the road coming up toward where He was.

It would have been easy for Him to say, Well, I know what's coming, I'm going to get out of here. But He didn't do that. And verse 47 says, While He was still speaking, behold Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude, with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now, his betrayer had given them a sign saying, Whomever I kiss, He's the one, sees Him.

And immediately Judas went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi! And he kissed Him.

Now, I want you to notice he used the term, Rabbi. I may have been doing this facetiously. The word, Rabbi, means master or teacher.

So Jesus is still called master or teacher, even when He's betraying Him. And notice what Christ said in verse 50. Jesus said to Him, Friend, why have you come?

Now, He didn't condemn Him at this point. He just said, Friend, it's hard for us, I think, to imagine the sadness that had to be in Christ's voice.

Because for three and a half years, Judas has said at his feet, he'd been taught by the Messiah. He heard everything else that Peter, and James, and John, and Matthew, and all of the other apostles heard. And yet, there was something about Him. He became crosswise with Christ over money.

He thought that they weren't spending money properly, they should be giving it to the poor. Anyway, he found fault with Christ, and he betrayed Him.

Judas knew that Jesus Christ knew why He'd come.

But he doesn't condemn Judas here. He simply addresses him as Friend.

So, Jesus Christ knows what it's like to be betrayed.

Have you ever been betrayed in your life? Has somebody ever turned against you that you trusted, that you relied upon?

Few things I believe hurt as badly as a betrayal are cut so deeply because you have trust in that person or that individual, and they betray you. We were all betrayed several years back by people whom we trusted, who were in leadership positions, set there to spiritually guide and direct us, and they wanted to pursue their own personal agendas, rather than what God wanted and what was best for the Church. And so, they took the Church off in a different direction. And we were betrayed by them. Let's notice here in verse 50, it goes on to say that then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and they took Him.

In verse 51, suddenly one of those who were with Jesus, that would have been Peter, stretched out his hand, drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, cut off his ear. So here they're about to take Jesus Christ, and Peter's ready to defend him. So he whacks his ear off, and Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will provide me more than twelve legions of angels? That wasn't the problem. Now, how then could the Scripture be fulfilled that it must happen thus?

Now, Luke records that Jesus reached out and touched the servants, the priest-servant, healed him, restored his ear, and so he was healed. And in verse 55, in that hour, Jesus said to the multitude, Have you come out as against the robber of swords and clubs to take me? I said, David, with you, teaching in the temple, you did not seize me. But this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all of the disciples forsook him and fled. So what he said was going to happen, happen. They thought all the jigs up, they've got him, what are they going to do to them? So they fled. Now, Jesus tells us, or excuse me, John tells us that Jesus told the mob, Since I'm the one you're looking for, let these let the rest of my disciples go. Because they could have grabbed the rest of the disciples, hauled them off too, and killed them. So Jesus Christ was left to go through this trial alone. When it was all said and done, he had to bear this trial alone. The betrayal of Judas was part of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, that he learned what it was like to be betrayed. Sin does have consequences.

Not only for the sinners, sin affects the lives of others also. So, there are all kinds of betrayals that take place in society. What about a mate who leaves their marriage, whether it's a man or a woman, and runs off with somebody else, and betrays their mate, destroys the trust in that marriage. A person commits adultery, betrays if it's a man, his wife, or the woman, her husband, and sets up a lifelong situation of suffering, privation, and want to people who've done no harm. Children suffer as a result of it. The mate suffers. So Jesus Christ, who'd never sinned, who'd done no harm, suffered betrayal, and experienced what it was like to go through that. The fact that sin has consequences for those who are innocent is also reflected in the abandonment of Jesus by His closest friends.

We've all seen situations where those that we were the closest to, close friends, people that we love, turn their backs, go a different way, and we feel abandoned. And those that Christ trusted for His closest friends betrayed Him, abandoned Him. And then, from that point forward, He became the victim of lies, for they lied about Him. Has anybody ever lied about you, what you've done, your conduct, this type of thing? When that happens, your first reaction is, well, that's not right. I'm going to set the record straight. You want to tell people. You feel disgusted. You're sick. How can they say those types of things? I think from one time or another, we've probably evolved and lied about. Well, let's notice going on in verse 57.

Those who had laid hands or hold of Jesus, led Him away to Caiapas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. He went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now, the chief priest and the elders and all the council noticed. One did to find out the truth of these allegations. Is that what it says? No, it says, they sought false testimony. They weren't looking for the truth. They just wanted somebody to say, he did it, and then they could crucify him. To put him to death. That was their motive. They weren't trying to see if he was innocent. They were trying to put him to death. But they found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. What this means is a lot of people came forward, made charges against Christ, lied about Him, but no two people's testimony agreed. The Bible says, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, something has to be established. So, they couldn't find two witnesses. So, they had to bring the witnesses in. They had to come in separately, and they never agreed. But notice here, the last part of the verse, that last two false witnesses came forward. So finally, there are two who come forward and said, this fellow said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.

Now, you might convict a man of being crazy with those accusations, but it's hardly a crime worth executing somebody for. If you walked out, you walked downtown in Rome and said, well, here's the courthouse in three days. You know, I can destroy this building in three days. I'll build it back.

People think you're crazy. Well, it's not something you take somebody out and kill them over. And of course, they didn't quote exactly what Jesus Christ said either, did they? And, you know, they twisted his words. In verse 62, the high priest rose and said to him, you answer nothing. What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus kept silence, and the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.

And Jesus said to him, it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying he has spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now, you have heard his blasphemy.

What do you think? And he answered and said, he is deserving of death. So, Jesus was convicted, not on the testimony of the false witnesses, but on the judge's interpretation of his own statement.

He said he is guilty of death. He is blasphemed.

Then in verse 67, they spat in his face, they beat him, others struck him with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesy to us, Christ, who is the one who struck you?

Mark's gospel adds that they blindfolded him at this time. So, he's blindfolded. Somebody comes up and hits him in the jaw. Somebody else slaps him.

Have you ever had somebody spit in your face?

Are you a spit on you?

The natural reaction is to retaliate to something like that. And yet, here they were doing this to Christ, and he did not.

So, here's Jesus Christ, supposedly in a court of law.

The highest court in the land, the judges, the officers, the guards, are all gathered around him like a pack of wolves. They're spitting in his face. They're slapping him. They punch him. They hit him in the ribs. And there's nobody there to defend him. There's nobody there to say, now, wait a minute, this is wrong.

What if you went to court to be tried for something, and the judge hauls you up front, and they start slapping you, and hitting you, kicking you, spitting on you, and knocking you down? Yeah, that just simply is not allowed.

Again, this is the kind of suffering that sin brings on people. Jesus had to feel the humiliation, the hurt, the pain of being beaten up by a mob. Why did he go through this? Well, because sin also leads to humiliation. There are times that a person sins, and as the Bible says, be sure your sins will find you out, and when you do, there's a certain degree of humiliation that goes along with that. It leads to bruising, it leads to pain. It doesn't require God to do anything. Sin, by its very nature, hurts people. It hurts you, and it hurts people that you know and that you care about. It even hurts total strangers who don't know anything about you. So, to deal with sin, Jesus had the suffering, the humiliation, and the beating that was due to us. Now, while all of this is going on, I want you to notice that Peter is trying to find out what's happening in verse 69 of this chapter.

Now Peter said outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him, saying, What you were with is Jesus of Nazareth. And he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you're saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him, and said to those who were there, This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again he denied with an oath. So this time he curses and swears, and says, That's not true, I do not know the man. And a little later, those who stood by came up and said, Peter, surely you're also one of them, for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know this man. And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, who had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So he went out and wept bitterly. So it was necessary for Christ to also suffer denial from his friends, because it's one of the things that happens to us, and it happens to us because of sin. But there's hope. Peter repented. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, received the Holy Spirit. Peter became one of the leading apostles and servants of God. He was later martyred. But he became a very effective and powerful Christian and teacher. Titus 1.16 shows that we deny Christ by our works, by what we do, by our actions, so we likewise can deny Christ. When we have denied Christ, there's hope for us, because we can also repent, can we not? We can also change and ask for God's forgiveness. Now going on here in chapter 27 and verse 1, When the morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. When they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, saying, I have sinned and betrayed innocent blood. And you find that Judas was sorry. He realized he'd made a terrible mistake. Maybe he didn't realize exactly what they were going to do to Christ. Maybe he thought that they would just beat Christ, and that wouldn't be it, and it wouldn't be too much more. But the priests, in essence, said, what's that to us? And he threw the thirty pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went out and hung himself. Verse 5. See, being sorry was not enough. Blood had to be shed, and pain had to be felt. Because what happens with sin is not necessarily punishment, but consequences, and there's a difference between punishment and consequences. God can punish us, sometimes, when he sees that it's our best interest. The reason why God punishes us is for us to turn around from sinning, to show us what we're doing wrong, to correct us so we change our life, and we don't keep doing the same thing over and over again. Mostly, what happens from sin is not punishment, but the natural consequences that follow on the heels of sin. And when it's done, it just can't be instantly undone.

Here's the action of Judas. He sinned, and the suffering of Jesus that was brought about by it. He was sorry, but his sorrow couldn't undo it. Christ was still going to die. Sin has consequences. There are penalties that go along with sin. There are blessings that go along with obedience. You obey God's law, there are blessings automatically. A person may know nothing about God's law, but if they keep the laws concerning marriage, to the degree they do, they will have a happy marriage. A person may not know anything about the law of God saying you should be honest and trustworthy in all of this, but if you are, you'll be blessed. If you're not, there are consequences as a result of it. So, you find the only way that we can be delivered from those consequences is by the suffering and the shame and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Notice verse 6. The chief priest took the silver pieces and said it's not lawful to put them into the treasury, and so they went out and bought a potter's field with the money. Now verse 11. Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? So, he's been brought before Pilate here. And so Jesus said to him, It is as you say, yes, I am. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. And again, he is being accused and he's being lied against. They sought false witnesses when he went before the Sanhedrin. Now he's before Pilate, and they're making false accusations again, and he doesn't respond to those. Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he answered him not a word, so that the governor marveled. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time, they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber and a murderer. So he was a known criminal. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Who do you want me to release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew, notice, he knew that they had handed him over because of envy. Not because he had done something wrong, but they were envious of him. They were jealous of him. Pilate knew that this was a set-up. He knew it was a sham.

He appears to have thought that the people would have come to their senses, maybe asked that Jesus Christ be free and Barabbas executed. That didn't turn out that way, did it?

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, They have nothing to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Now, I want you to notice what envy, self-seeking, and seeking for power can do. It can destroy. It can divide. And that's exactly what it did here. And the governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you? And they yelled out, Barabbas! And the governor answered and said unto them, Which of the two? Well, then verse 22 Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called to Christ? And they all cried out, Crucify him! And they yelled, That is a mob!

Then the governor said, Why? What evil has he done? But they cried out the more, Let him be crucified. So here's Pilate. He's afraid he's going to have a revolt on his hand. There's a mob scene here. They're getting ugly. And so, when Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water, washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it. And the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Now, I would suggest, if you've not done it, or not done it recently, go to a good Bible dictionary and look up the word, Scourging, and just see what it says, what a scourging was. A scourging was done with a short whip that had several strips of leather.

They say anywhere from 9, 10, 11, 12. Single strips of leather coming out.

Embedded with pieces of metal, glass, and bone that function almost like hooks that would shred and tear the flesh. There was a Roman soldier who was called a Lictor, who was specially trained in the use of this, who would take the whip, wrap it around, and just as it reached the body, would jerk it. And all of those pieces of bone, glass, and metal would dig into the flesh, and he would jerk it, and it would rip across the torso, across the back, across the face. So he would administer this whipping. It was called the half-death, because it would leave a person half-death, maine, and many times crippled for life.

Many a man died from scourging before they would be crucified. It was an excruciating, painful, and bloody thing. It just left the body cut to ribbons, just like somebody taking knife blades and just cutting and cutting and ripping the flesh.

David describes this beating back in Psalm 22 verse 17, if you might remember, when it says, I can count all my bones. They look and they stare at me. So Christ said he could look down, and he could see his ribs. He could see his leg bones. He could see the bones. They were not broken, but the flesh, the tendons, and so on, had been ripped. John's Gospel said that after the scourging, Pilate again brought Jesus before the crowd, hoping that they would think Jesus had been punished enough. Let him go, but instead they cried out the more to crucify him. So, verse 27 here, verse 27, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him. They stripped him, put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. And reading his right hand, they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hey, old king of the Jews! And then they spat on him, took the reed, and struck him.

So here was yet another round of humiliation and shame being spat upon, mocked, slapped, ridiculed by these rough Roman soldiers. They didn't take it easy.

And so, we find the two elements of the Passover. The wine which symbolizes his shed blood, and that's symbolized by the blood that he poured out, but also the bread.

And the bread symbolizes his bruised, battered, and bleeding body, the scourging, the slapping, the beating, and all that he went through. Jesus' body was broken. His body was broken as part of his sacrifice that he had to make. The shame, the humiliation, the spitting, the mocking, the ridicule, all of this he went through. And as verse 31 goes on to say, when they had mocked him, they took the robes off of him, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified. And now as they came out, they found the man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his cross. Now normally, if they used a T-cross, you see, the Romans had many different types of crosses. They had a stake, just an upright stake. They had a T-cross. They had an X-cross. They had a wheel. They had any number. This says he had a bar, or he carried his cross. It could have just been the stake, or it could have been a crossbeam that would be nailed to the stake. Verse 33 says when they had come to the place called Golgotha, that is to say, the place of a skull, they gave him sour wine mingled with gold to drink, but when he had tasted it, he would not drink. What they were trying to do was give him a mild anesthetic to help him ease the pain that was racking his body, and he rejected that. He was going to bear the full consequences of sin.

Then verse 35 says they crucified him. Now, brethren, again, it's amazing that there have been bodies found that have been crucified, where you can see. In fact, I've got an article in my file that shows an individual has been crucified and when they came to extract the nail from his leg bone, they couldn't do it. So they just cut his legs off and they buried his legs separately.

It shows legs that were crossed. Normally, they would cross your feet and drive a nail, not a nice circular nail. These were normally square nails. They would drive that right through both of the ankle bones into the stake. If it were a cross beam, they would drive nails through your wrists. They couldn't drive it right through here, but generally in the wrist area to hold the weight. Or if it were over your head, it would be like this. They would drive one nail through both wrists. You can imagine the pain that a person suffers. If you ever ever sucked something through the wrist that way that would hit the nerves, the tendons, the flesh would go between the bones. And the same thing for the ankle bones.

Normally, when a crucifixion took place, a person was in excruciating pain. And they would normally suffocate. There have been records of people being alive for three or four days. And they just sort of heaved themselves up and down. And they can't breathe because when all of the weight is put on the wrist, sometimes they would even put a little seat that you could sit on and you would give a little support. And they would slowly but surely begin to suffocate. They would heave themselves up to get a breath. Pain would be too much. They would heave back down. And it was this constant rising up and down as they were crucified.

We find that going on in verse 35, they divided his garments among them. Verse 36, sitting down, they kept watch over him there. And they put over his head the accusation written against him. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him. Those who passed by, verse 39, blasphemed him, and they accused him. And notice, verse 40, saying, You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Now, you see, they're saying, the only way we'll believe you, you come down from the cross. Well, I mean, he had the power. He could have done that, but everything would have been over. No, he was there to die for our sins. And likewise, the chief priest also walking with the scribes and elders, saying he saved others. He cannot say, himself he cannot say, if he is the King of Israel, let him come down. Then verse 44, even the robbers reviled him. So even the humiliation didn't end here.

The crucifixion was intended to be a public spectacle. It was, in this particular case, along a major road leading in Jerusalem. This was a Passover season. Thousands of people were coming into the city, exiting the city, would have seen Jesus Christ hanging there, probably naked, or if he had anything on, very little. And you find that he bore that shame. Now let's go over to John 19 and verse 25. John chapter 19 and verse 25. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, and Mary the wife of Clothis, and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, that was John, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple, behold your mother, and from that hour that disciple, John, took her into his own home. Now many of you here are mothers.

How would you feel if your son, one of your sons, were crucified and scourged while you watched, and you saw what he was going through, and you had to observe him, going through this crucifixion, and his life drawing to a close? Well, Jesus Christ, even in spite of all of this, thought about his mother. Now, I don't think Mary fully realized that Jesus would be resurrected yet. And so, you know, it was very sad that basically the only ones there at that time, all of his brothers and sisters weren't there. His mother, along with her sister, who was the mother of James and John, were there. And Jesus' brothers and sisters, apparently, were nowhere to be seen. And Mary had to watch and had to observe what was going on. Now, verse 28 says, After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. They filled the sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, put it to his mouth. And so, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished.

And bowing his head, he gave up the Spirit. Therefore, because it was a preparation day, and that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day. This was the first day of the days of unleavened bread coming up. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and the other, who was crucified with him. Now, breaking the legs was to speed up the death, because the legs broken, they couldn't heat themselves up, and so they would very quickly suffocate and die that way. When they came to Jesus in verse 33, they saw that he was already dead and did not break his leg. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out, and he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. This is John writing. John saw this, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. John says, I am an eye witness. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be broken, and again another Scripture saying they shall look on him whom they pierce.

Now the question comes up, how did Jesus Christ die?

How did he die? Did he just die? In other words, he just became too weak and died. Or did he die from the spear womb? Now there are two translations. One, the Fenton translation, the other, the Lansma translation. Then in the book of Matthew, it shows that apparently there is a verse that has been left out. Jesus Christ died because the Roman soldiers had pierced his side. Now bodies don't bleed blood after a person is dead. Your dead may be a half an hour. Your blood collageates and you can cut and it's not flowing.

As it says here, they pierced his side. Immediately blood and water came out. Blood comes out of the body because the heart's pumping. And you cut an artery and the aorta and you find that the blood will begin to pump out. Simply put, Jesus Christ bled to death.

Right before he bled to death, you might remember, he cried out to the Father. He said, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Because in all of this, God the Father placed all the sins of mankind on Christ, turned his back on Christ, and Christ suffered this death.

I think it was very important for him to bleed to death because every sacrificial animal for 1,400 years leading up to this event that symbolized his death had its throat cut and bled to death. They didn't just die of natural causes. They bled to death. That's the way all sacrifices die. I remember a rancher once doing that exact thing with a lamb. He asked a person, you want this lamb? He said yes. He reached over to his knife, cut its throat, and the lamb fell over and bled to death. That's exactly the way the sacrifices were done. The high priest, and generally the person who brought it would lay their hands on it, and the thing would be sacrificed, or its throat would be cut.

The idea that Jesus Christ died some other way does not fit the the typology you find from prophecy, or the typology in the Old Testament of the sacrifices.

Read through Isaiah 53. We've read that here recently. In Isaiah 53, it talks about how he poured out his soul. A life is in the blood. Jesus Christ gave his life for us, and he died. He shed his blood so that our sins could be forgiven. So, brethren, Jesus Christ's sacrifice includes all of this.

When you and I come together to take the Passover, let's stop and remember as we take that bread that is symbolized as what Christ went through. Humiliation, betrayal, being beaten, being scourged, body being ripped, being beaten by soldiers, being slapped, being hit with rods, crown of thorns put on his head. And he went through that, and as the Bible says, by his stripes were healed. And so, that's part of his sacrifice. He went through that suffering so that he knows what it's like to suffer. He is a compassionate and merciful high priest today. He can go before the Father, and he can say, Father, I know what this person is going through. I suffered. I know what suffering is like in the flesh, and so he can intercede on our behalf.

So, he learned what it was like to suffer. And then, finally, he had a spear wound crammed in his side, and when it did, he cried out with a loud voice and said, It's finished. And he died from that wound. So, Jesus Christ, brother, knows what we're going through.

Do we know? Do we understand? And do we properly appreciate what he went through for us?