A Blood Spattered Cross — E.A. Johnston

Christ's Good Works and the Rejection of the Messiah

I've got a special message for us today, friends. We're going to take a good look at Calvary, and Christ on that cross, and ponder what he did there. Jesus came into the world doing good, healing the sick, feeding the poor, giving sight to the blind, why, he even raised the dead to life.

Yet, what happened, a cruel man cried, away with him, and nailed him to a cross. We read in Matthew's Gospel, when Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but rather a tall molt was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it.

Then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. I will pause here to say, a Roman scourge was a horrendous torture that few survived.

The Roman Scourging of Jesus

First, we must know what the Roman scourge was. There is a famous book called, A Doctorate Calvary, written by a medical doctor, Pierre Barbet, and in it, he describes the physical effects of scourging and crucifixion.

The Roman flagation, or scourging, was one of the most feared of all punishments. The dreaded instrument used was called a flagrum, it was a whip consisting of three or more leather tails that had small metal balls or sheep bones at the end of each tail, forty lashes was standard.

Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged in an extreme manner to appease the crowd. Jesus would have been stripped naked and shackled by his wrist to a low column so he'd be in a bent-over position, and one or more soldiers would be assigned to deliver the blows.

He would then strike in an arc-like fashion across the exposed back, ripping the flesh to shreds. Bits of metal and bone would dig deep into the flesh, ripping open blood vessels, nerves and muscle, and shredding the skin.

Blows to the upper back and ribs would cause rib fractures and difficulty breathing. Loss of blood would cause faintness and dehydration, and each time the scourge fell with the force of a strong man, the victim would let out shrieks of pain.

He could experience vomiting or even go into shock from the scourging. By the time Jesus was finished being beaten, his back and thighs and even the front side of him from the side would look like pounds of raw hamburger meat.

The Mockery and Crown of Thorns

Let's get back to our passage in Matthew. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him, and put on a scarlet robe, and when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

Well, let me pause here, friends, to say the crown was not like a wreath, but it was a cap of thorns that had sharp, closely spaced thorns that would dig into the tender forehead and cause much bleeding down the forehead.

The crown of thorns would have caused Jesus to experience severe facial pain from the trauma of the nerves in the top of the head. He would have a stabbing pain around the eyes because of the large supply of blood vessels in the head area.

He would bleed profusely, and our text says, and they spit on him and took the reed and smote him on the head. These strikes to the head would cause violent shooting pains throughout his face and neck.

Jesus would also be growing weak and lightheaded from all this abuse. Our text in Matthew reads, and after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him.

Crucifixion, Sin-Bearing, and Penal Substitution

Jesus is now a humiliated, weakened, bleeding, mangled mess of a man. His executioners pounded nails into his hands and feet. His whole body would twinge in pain with each blow, and once the nails were driven in there, there'd be no relief from the agonizing, throbbing pain.

The nails would have felt like hot pokers being driven through his hands, sending bolts of radiating pain up his entire arms. The muscles in his legs would be twitching and throbbing from the nails in his feet.

Jesus would have screamed out in agony after each foot was nailed. The burning, searing pain in his hands and feet was so severe that even a gentle breeze would be agonizing. The muscles in Jesus' legs would be cramping terribly, causing more pain as he tried to support his weight on that cross.

And because of the loss of blood and body fluids, Jesus would be extremely dehydrated. But despite all this, despite being rejected and mocked and enduring the pain and shame of Calvary, being nailed up there in naked public humiliation, add to all this the terrible weight of sin that was placed on him on Calvary.

A mountain of black sins was upon him. My wretched sins, my filthy, rebellious sin, your rotten, stinking sins, all your perverted sins, your presumptuous sins, all your aggravated sins of sinning against God after he blessed you, all your ungrateful sins of unthankfulness and ingratitude, all your sins of unbelief, all your sins of unbridled passion, wasting time and self-indulging pleasures, sins of lying and backbiting, sins of unforgiveness and bitterness, sins of not witnessing for Christ in your community, and sins of not expanding the gospel in the world, sins of not praying enough for your lost friends and loved ones, sins of adultery, real or in the heart, sins of fornication, in the lust of the flesh, sins of greed and accumulation of hoarding, sins of indifference to the poor and needy, sins of gluttony and self-gratification, sins of stealing from customers, being dishonest in business, sins of covetousness and worldliness, the great black mountain of all your collective sins, since you've been alive, rise behind and are strapped to the broken, bleeding back of the Son of God.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, our sins with the thorns in his bleeding hand, the nails that pierced his tender flesh, our sins with the thrust of the spear in his side, gushing out blood and water as it splattered the cross with the consequences of our sins.

Christ, the sin-bearer, the sin-substitute, who took the penalty for our sins upon him to satisfy the justice of an angry God, he became a curse for us on top of all the humiliation and physical pain and the hosts of hell mocking him, and the worst part of all, the turned face of the Father, because God couldn't look on sin.

Christ Forsaken on the Cross

Jesus cries out from the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus had to go through a sea of blood for forgiveness of sin. In Isaiah 53 we read, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. We like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The Promise of Cleansing from Sin

God speaks to your heart, friend, and he says, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool.

Looking to the Bloodstained Savior

Look at that man on the cross, friend. Look, look at that blessed man on the cross. See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin.

He didn't just die for someone else's sins. God's word says, he loved me and gave himself for me. He agonized for me. Some people look at Calvary and see for the first time in their lives that Christ died for them, that he agonized for them, that he bled for them, that the nails were put in his hands for them, that he was raised for them.

See him there on that scandalous cross. He cries, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.