Mensa Otabil - An Unfair Treatment
- Watch
- Donate
Luke chapter 22 verse 63- 65. Now the man who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. And having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, "Prophesy, who is the one who struck you?" and many other things they blasphemously spoke against him. Jesus was painfully mistreated by those who arrested him and though he had not been pronounced guilty, they treated him as a convicted criminal. And our passage sets out the summary of the some of the treatments that were meed out to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, it's important to understand that both Jewish law and Roman law did not permit a person who is not being judged and found guilty to suffer punishment. So, what they were doing to Jesus was totally illegal. It was illegal for either the Jews or the Romans to do this against him. But there are five things there I want you to pay attention to concerning what Jesus went through.
The first is that he was mocked. He was ridiculed. They sought to humiliate him. They were determined to belittle him and to make him feel very small because this is the person who has been out there people hailing him and just a while ago he had entered Jerusalem on a donkey with people crying hosana to him and they mocked him just to make him feel very small, make him feel very inadequate and they did it whilst people were looking on. Some of his disciples were looking on and the crowds who love Jesus were looking on as they mocked him and made fun of him.
And secondly, the passage says that he was beaten. That means that he was kicked and hit sometimes with sticks, sometimes with boots and with the feet of the people who are around him and sometimes with blows uh to him and just just beat him up.
Thirdly, that he was blindfolded and they put the blinds on him. And the reason the blinds were put on him was so he couldn't identify uh who was breaking the law, who those who were hitting him to disorient him. Because even if he was found uh not guilty and he had to report that people were mistreating him, he wouldn't be able to point out who mistreated him. So they blindfolded him so he would not have access to justice.
Number four is that he was slapped. They slapped him about and the passage says they struck him on the face and and so they they hit him very hard and as they hit him they'll be asking him who hit you? He was blindfolded and and they just confusing him making him feel bad about himself. And then finally it says that they blasphemed against him and that simply means that they insulted him and spoke profanity to him.
Can you imagine Jesus who hears the voice of angels and hears the praise of angels and has been doing that in eternity? Hearing unprintable words spoken against him, people insulting him, using all kinds of profanity, both Romans and Jews and he heard all of those words spoken against him. And this is before trial is starting. And uh he goes through all kinds of sham trials uh because the people were determined that no matter the situation whether he was right or wrong, they were going to kill him. It was determined that he should die.
But remember whilst all of this is happening that he's doing it for us. Jesus knew what he had signed up for when he said, "Let your will be done in Gethsemane". He foresaw all of this. He went through all of this because he wanted to give you and I a total redemption from shame, from disgrace, from all that is wrong. and in him we can have life and have it more abundantly.
Let's pray. Say with me, "Heavenly Father, for my sins Christ suffered. Help me never to forget the price that was paid for my salvation in Jesus name". Amen. And amen.