The Scourge
St. John's Lutheran Church / Atonement Lutheran Church
Fifth Wednesday in Lent
Text: John 19:1-5
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Lenten session is a time in the church year when we focus and meditate on the humiliation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we prepare for the celebration of Easter. So today let us meditate on the scourge and humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever been in a situation that looks like one thing, but it was really something else. Take for example a surprise birthday party. Now I recall the time when my father turned fifty years old. My mother and my aunts wanted to throw my dad a surprise birthday party for turning fifty. Now there is a lot of work that my mother and aunts needed to get done for this surprise birthday party. First, they needed to find a time when everyone could come and surprise my dad. This was not easy because my dad’s birthday does not occur near a holiday or any other time when you would have a large gathering of people. Then where to have the party? They needed to find a place large enough to fit the number of expected guests. How do you feed so many people? And most importantly, how do you get the guest of honor, my dad, to the party without him noticing it was a surprise party for him? This last one was simple, Mom just told him it was a surprise party for someone else.
The look on my dad’s face, after he entered the room and everyone yelled “SURPRISE”, was gratifying to see. All the hard work that my mother and aunts put in had paid off. They got to see on his face something that was rare at that time. The look of happiness, the look of being loved by so many people. My dad thought it was a party for someone else – another thing to do – but it turned out to be a birthday party for him.
In like manner, when Pilate thought he presented a beaten, scourged, and mocked Jesus to the crowd declaring “Behold the man!” Pilate was really presenting to the people the crowned victors King Jesus at His coronation.
The scourging of Christ was not some random event, a display of Roman cruelty, though it was that. No, Christ’s scourging and humiliation were part of God’s plan for our atonement. Isaiah wrote 53:5 “…upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
The guilt and punishment of our sin, Christ took upon Himself. The scourge, the beating, and the humiliation that was meant for us, Christ took and stood in our place. The image of a broken, beaten, bloody figure of Jesus is hard to look at, knowing it was supposed to be us. But we must not look away from this image of a broken, beaten, and bloody Jesus. We must see the price of our sins, displayed on the body of Christ, knowing that’s what we deserve that, not Him.
But like a parent who goes to their children knowing that they have done wrong and forgives them. So, God comes to His children in Christ Jesus and willingly takes on our sins, willingly stands in our place for judgment, and willingly takes the scourge, and the beating and the humiliation. And willingly goes to the cross to die for our sins. To tell us that He loves us and that our sins are forgiven.
What a surprise it must have been for the devil; thinking he had won, that he finally triumphed over God. That the Messiah, the Son of God, had been rejected and is now dead, unable to fulfill God’s plan. Only to find Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the mist of hell proclaiming His victory over sin, death, and the devil. What a surprise that devil’s ultimate victory over God was his, in fact, was his ultimate defeat by the hand of God.
And what a surprise to us, that the death of the Son of God was not our condemnation, but Gods justice for our salvation. What a surprise that Easter morning that from Christ death came our eternal life. What a surprise that Christ rose from the death and the grave, and declared God love, mercy and salvation to us all.
What a surprise that our God is paradox us. Our God does not rule through power, control, or manipulation. No, our God rules through love, compassion, and self-giving sacrifice. For “God grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in weakness.”
Look upon the scourged Jesus whose back was torn and shredded, who wears a crown made of thorns, who wore a purple robe stained with his blood, and who was beaten. Look upon the mockery of a king, look upon the height of Jesus humiliation.
See that this humiliation is not what it seems. See the atoning work of God. See the Love of God that passes all human understanding. See our risen Lord, Jesus Christ who takes away the sin of the world.
Through this Holy Week, may you contemplate on your sin; mediation on the suffering of Christ, and see the revealed Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
