CHRIST’S HUMILIATION
‘Pilate … delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified. And the soldiers … did spit upon Him.’
The prophecy, ‘I gave my back to the smiters … and I hid not my face from shame and spitting’ (Isaiah 1:6) was literally fulfilled. From this most dreadful portion of the narrative we learn:—
I. The malignant cruelty of Christ’s enemies.—Pilate unjustly delivered Christ over to be scourged. The Roman scourging was horribly severe. Drops of lead and small sharp-pointed bones were often plaited on the scourges. The rough Roman soldiers smote the Saviour. In the ages of cruelty a prisoner was delivered over to the mockery of the guards, and the mockery with which the duty was fulfilled shows that they spared Christ no infliction. The cruelty of the heart, untouched with the softening influences of Christianity, is indeed unfathomable.
II. The wonderful patience of Christ.—The hands they bound had healed the sick and raised the dead; the lips they smote had calmed the winds and waves. One word and His smiters might have been laid low in death. But as He had begun, and continued, He would end … as self-restrained in the use of His awful powers on His own behalf as if He had been the most helpless of men.… Divine patience and infinite love knew no wearying.
III. His deep humiliation.—Spitting was an expression of the most thorough contempt (Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9). Those who were excommunicated were especially open to this expression of contempt. Christ was spit upon by Jews and Gentiles.
IV. Who was He?—Think once more (as we need again and again to be reminded in considering such scenes), who was He? Your God and Lord. And think, too, again of why He endured this smiting and spitting. It was for our salvation.
Illustration
‘In our own day deeds of cruelty are wrought sufficient to make the blood curdle in the veins; but these deeds were once common, and excited but little comment or reprobation. From this scourging of the Son of God we learn what the influence of Christ has been in the world. Such a scene is impossible in Christian England. Why? Because it is permeated with the softening ideas of Christianity. Not civilisation alone, but the doctrines of Christ, have transformed the moral aspect of mankind.’