On the Road to Jerusalem: By His Stripes

“But He was wounded for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with His stripes we are healed.”

—Isaiah 53:5

The thought of Jesus’ suffering staggers the imagination. Medically, it is amazing that He survived as long as He did. While He was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion, we are told that “His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground”—Luke 22:44. One medical doctor described Jesus having the very rare condition of hematidrosis, which occurs within some individuals whenever they are faced with an extreme level of stress as Jesus was in the Garden as He faced His imminent death as sin bearer. Being under such severe stress caused the capillaries around His sweat glands to dilate to the point of rupture, with the blood going into the sweat glands.

After His arrest, and mock trials, He was flogged by a flagellum, a cruel whip-like instrument of torture used by the Romans. It consisted of bits of metal and stone tied to straps of leather that was meant to bruise the muscle and tear the skin off flesh. Such torture brought about another medical condition called hypovolemic shock, which occurs when the body experiences a great deal of blood loss and the heart attempts to compensate pumping blood that’s not there.

The pain Jesus would have been unbearable—He was already weak and reeling from being on His feet all night, and then being beaten by the Roman guards with rods, along with His back enduring the whip and His heart beating to pump blood that wasn’t there would have been unbearable for lesser men. In such a painful and terrible condition, it is no wonder then that Simon of Cyrene was drafted to the carry the cross for Him (Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26). Nevertheless, the greatest suffering was still yet to come, when Jesus would lay down His life on the cross.

Such pain and torture does not endear one to compose songs of cheer and hope. The manger gives cheer and hope, but the suffering and punishment mete out on the cross brings a holy hush to the host of heaven. To think that God the sinless Son would die on behalf of sinful men is the greatest mystery the universe has ever witnessed. It is one thing for a man to die for another. But it is quite another for a man to die for a man who is His mortal enemy. We die for family. We die for our children. We will die for our some of our friends and we will even die for a cause, but to die so that our enemy might live—that is a different story. Imagine a Jew in World War II dying in order that Adolph Hitler would be saved. Such a thought is beyond preposterous, but that is exactly what Jesus did, as Paul wrote,

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation”—Romans 5:6-11.

And why did He endure such suffering? For us. For you. For me. The divine Son of God offered His back to the whip and His hands and feet to the hammer and nails for us—so that we may be saved. We had the disease of sin, and this disease demanded our death—physically and spiritually. We couldn’t pay the price in order to procure our freedom from sin, but Jesus did by becoming sin for us, so that by faith in Him, we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Such thoughts are staggering to the mind! How God would do this for us is almost beyond belief! But He did! He did it for you! And He did it for me! Stop and thank Him and praise Him for His indescribable gift! And if you have not yet trusted in Christ as Savior, then repent and turn to Him! Ask Him to save you and He will do it today! Amen.