Did you see the Passion of Christ? I did.
There were so many people who said that it
was so "bloody and gruesome" and just too
much BLOOD! Too much time was spent
on the beating that JESUS took from
the soldiers (about 30 or 45 minutes of it)!
There definitely was too much violence they
said! Well if you take what the Bible says
about HIS last day upon earth,
you will see that it was not a picnic!
HE was up the whole night before in prayer to
the FATHER (have YOU ever spent a whole
night in prayer? Never ceasing?) I doubt it!
So before we break our arms patting ourselves
on the back for what little we do pray,
perhaps we should remember this!
Then HE was delivered to the soldiers by a
"so called FRIEND", one with whom HE had
spent about three and a half years with daily.
Teaching him about love and forgiveness.
And this was HIS reward! Judas delivered
HIM to the enemy with a "friends kiss"
upon the cheek. Betraying our LORD
with a little "kiss"! And by his greed he
"sold our LORD" for 30 pieces of silver!
Later he couldn't live with himself, so he
committed suicide and split hell wide open!
So from praying all night in the garden,
JESUS then was taken to out and spit upon
and smacked around for awhile! It was so
early that the rooster had not even crowed yet,
for when it crowed two times, Peter had
already denied HIM three times! Then when
it first got sunrise (probably so they
wouldn't stub their toes in the dark or trip
over their long robes of (self) righteousness),
so at the "crack of dawn" they took
JESUS to the chief priests and elders
as to charge HIM with some trumped-up
crime and full of lies, then after accusing
HIM there, they could take HIM to Pilot
and after slapping HIM around and grueling
HIM for we don't know how long, they
finally took JESUS to Pilot and since he
could find nothing wrong in JESUS, he sent
HIM to Herod. Then after questioning HIM
for awhile, Pilot didn't find anything wrong
in HIM so he sent JESUS back to Herod.
I guess they thought they were playing a
"ping pong" game and JESUS was the ball!
All this time, you must realize that HE had not
gotten any sleep the night before and had
already been punched and smacked around
much of the morning by big Roman soldiers
(for I tell you this much, there were no little
men in the armies of Rome)! So back and
forth HE went and hearing the people HE
loved so much deny HIM and to make up
lies about HIM and accuse HIM of terrible
heresies! How it must have broken HIS
heart of love! From there they decided
to at last release a true criminal to the
people, because of course that is what they
wanted! They wanted JESUS to be crucified!
Pilot said he would have JESUS whipped
(which was truly bad enough because they
usually beat them with a cat of nine tails
with 39 lashes across the back and front!
And the cat of nine tails usually consisted of
pieces of metal, broken pottery, chards of
glass, the normal things that would really
tear the hide off of someone when they were
beaten with it!) But they would have NO part
of it! They wanted JESUS "dead" and out of
their hair! Now people say, it was the "Jews"
and some say it was the "Romans" who put
JESUS to death, but I tell you it was NO one
that put HIM to death! They brought about
the "cause of death of the flesh", but NO ONE
killed HIM, because as HE had said before this
"no man takes MY life, but I give it"! HE "
gave HIS live" for YOU and for ME, so that
we could live with HIM and the FATHER
in heaven for eternity! So HE laid HIS life
down as sure as one removes a piece of clothing
from the body, this is what JESUS did!
Now getting back to the beating which
came again after HE left Pilot. HE was
beaten so badly, well let's put it this way:
If you take a piece of meat and put it on
a meat board and just "beat it" with a
metal meat tenderizer (like a hammer with
little spike things on it) and hit it 39 times
in the same spot can you imagine what it
is going to look like? But then if you took
knife and hit it 39 times (as a person would be
stabbed) just think of how the meat would
look! Pretty BLOODY and smashed up!
Well that is what they did to JESUS
and I am willing to bet that HIS flesh just
hung like ribbons on his frame! So, yea,
it wasn't a pretty site! When it says that
the soldiers "punched" HIM, the word in
Greek, which means they "boxed" HIS face
like a boxer in a ring does their opponent!
So you can imagine HE looked worse than
"Rocky" ever thought to be! You know what
I mean?! Well I will put it this way, the
movie that Mel Gibson put out called
"The PASSION of CHRIST" really just
"highlighted" what JESUS went through!
He just "touched on the sufferings" that
JESUS suffered for YOU and for ME!
I cried during HIS beating on that stone
in the midst of the crowd and thought
"No please don't do it anymore. Please
JESUS just forget it! No it isn't worth it!"
Oh man did I feel bad for HIM! It tore at my
heart for days and when I see it in my minds
eye again, then I just cringe at it and cry again!
But for the love of GOD, this would not have
happened! But for the love that JESUS
had for YOU and for ME, this would
not have happened! But for the love
that the FATHER and the SON both have
for us, then this would not have happened and
we would not have one chance of living always,
forever, eternally, and never-ending in
heaven with them! Not ONE chance if
JESUS had not done that for YOU and
for ME! Doomed forever to spend eternity
in the damnation of hell that was prepared
for the devil and his angels!
From the 6th to the 9th hour (like from
12 noon til 3 p.m., it was dark, and JESUS
hung there on the cross. Now this darkness
should have told those people something!
This was nine hours after being taken from the
garden and this is after HIS all the beatings and
punching and kicking and being spit upon!
And HE carried HIS cross a lot of the way
to Golgotha. And no doubt it was a couple
of hundred pounds in weight too! No small
stick I can tell you that much! Oh and yet
that "love of HIS" still shown through
as HE was dying upon the cross, as HE
looked out upon the hate-filled crowd, still
shouting and jeering at HIM; and HE said:
"FATHER, forgive them."
Oh the love of it all right there in HIS heart!
The love that HE shed upon us because of
the love in HIS own soul for us! That even the
FATHER turned away because HIS own SON
"became sin for us"! To think of it! Imagine it!
JESUS the CHRIST became YOUR gossipy
tongue! HE became MY lying spirit! HE became
YOUR lustful thoughts! HE became YOUR
pride and vanity in the flesh! HE became MY
self-centeredness, and YOUR very own
self-righteousness! HE became everyone's
SIN because it said that HE cried out:
"MY GOD, MY GOD! Why hast THOU
forsaken ME?"
Even HE wondered what happened!
You see JESUS became our filthy rags
of unrighteousness and our selfishness and
our own lying and stealing spirits, and
our backbiting, hateful gossiping tongues.
HE became all this and more and HIS own
FATHER could no longer look upon HIM
for the rancidness of HIS covering! For no
longer was HE the sinless, holy, righteous,
glorious SON, but now HE had become
OUR SIN for US! And for this, HIS own
FATHER could not look upon HIM and
remain in HIM and for that split second in time
JESUS was separated from HIS FATHER!
And that had never been before and shall
never be again! For in the next breath HE
said to HIS FATHER:
"IT is done. FATHER, into THY hands
I commit my Spirit."
And HE hung HIS head and
"gave up the ghost"!
And here you note again, that "HE GAVE"!
Letting us know once again that NO ONE
took HIS life, but HE "gave it" for us!
So if you hear someone saying that the
PASSION of CHRIST was too bloody and
so very violent! You just tell them:
"Yes it most certainly was and
that was only the beginning!"
(K.S. 2-27-05)