29 Apr Heroes…why not you? (Hebrews 12:1-3) Part 9
When we think of heroes, our western mindset immediately goes to Chuck Norris rescuing soldiers missing in action, pictures of Rocky overcoming his Russian nemesis or (if you’re old enough) even John Wayne rounding up the bad guys in a western! When we think of heroes, we may think of someone rescuing a child from a burning building. My great grandfather was a preacher and actually ran into a burning building to rescue a family…he gave his life to successfully rescue them!
There really is no greater hero than our Lord Jesus Christ. He successfully rescued us from so much! The Bible tells us, “…when he had scourged Jesus he delivered Him to be crucified” (Matt. 27:26). It’s just so easy to quickly read this verse over without truly understanding just how heroic our Lord Jesus truly is!
When a person was to be scourged, soldiers would fashion a whip that had nine tails to it. On the end of each tail you could find sharp pieces of bone or metal. You would also find little lead balls to allow this whip to wrap around the victim’s body. I hear frequently that Jesus was beaten with 39 stripes. This however, was a Jewish law and done to Paul on five different occasions (see II Cor. 11:24). It was the Romans who “scourged” Jesus and they had no such law. As a matter of fact, they were notorious for scourging people to death. This way they did not even have to go through the crucifixion process and could get home quicker to their families.
Jesus was beaten so severely the Bible tells us, “…His visage (or form) was so marred (or disfigured) more than any man…” (Is. 52:14). In other words, Jesus was so disfigured by the scourging, He was almost unrecognizable. The Bible further reveals, “I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off my hair…” (Is. 50:6). This Hebrew phrase strongly connotes that Jesus was literally made bald by the scourging. You see, the victim would be beaten on the legs, buttocks, back, neck and the tail would even wrap around the face. Each time the whip was retracted, hunks of skin and hair would be removed. It was not uncommon for someone who was scourged to have their muscles or bowels exposed because of the severity of the beating.
The Bible also tells us, “I may tell all of my bones, they looked and stare upon me” (Ps. 22:17). From this verse we can surmise that Jesus’ ribs were exposed because of this horrible scourging. Of course, He then went to the cross and was nailed to it with five to seven inch spikes. The cross was then slammed down into a deep hole which caused Jesus’ bones to be pulled out of joint (see Ps. 22:14). When people were crucified, they eventually died because of suffocation. When Jesus said, “Father, forgive them as they know not what they do”, He had to push off the spikes in his legs to get just a small amount of air in His lungs to utter those loving immortal words! The word “excruciating” literally means “from the cross”.
Now I don’t tell you all of this to make your stomach squeamish! I recognize it is very graphic! I do tell you all of this so you would recognize your Ultimate Hero…Jesus Christ! He did all of this to rescue you from sin, sickness, poverty, fear, worry and depression!