Oh, the Price He Paid
(It's a weekend read; a page and a half instead of a page.)

Dearly beloved, very few of God’s people know what Jesus went through the last days of his life. He was arrested illegally, betrayed by a friend, falsely accused, illegally tried twice within the same day, condemned on false charges, and crucified by Roman authority. From his arrest on Monday night our time, to Wednesday about three PM when he died, he suffered beyond my comprehension.

The Word of God teaches us that he died for our sins and that we were healed by his stripes. He paid for them.

He submitted to ridicule, betrayal, denials, desertion, false accusations, mocking, humiliation, beatings, and torture without complaint knowing that he was accomplishing our redemption and salvation.

It is impossible in this short article to cover everything that he suffered and endured from his arrest to his death, but this should give you a sense of it.

After his arrest in the garden on the Mount of Olives, he was first taken to Annas to formulate charges against Jesus. He was the High Priest for Israel according to Hebrew law although deposed by the Romans. While he was before him he was beaten with a flexible whip-like thin cane that would have cut open his face as it wrapped around his head.

After leaving Annas, he was taken to Caiaphas whom the Romans had appointed as High Priest. Jesus had an illegal night trial before the Sanhedrin, which Caiaphas presided over. They sought false witnesses against Jesus having predetermined the outcome of the trial before it ever began.

They covered Jesus' head and and men from the seventy rulers spit on him, and they repeatedly beat him with their fists and kept striking him, cuffing him and beating him with rods. After having his head beaten to this extent, it is very likely that he had a concussion.

With his head covered, they spat on him and taunted him to prophesy who smote him. He was assaulted by the lawyers in the courtroom, he was savagely beaten, and thrashed without mercy! What do you think his face looked like after such savage beatings?

The night trial probably ended around 1:30 AM. Jesus had been mocked, beaten, thrashed, and scourged. The religious leaders were under the influence of a different spirit, one that inspired fanatical rage and lawlessness. After all that Jesus had spoken against them, they finally had him where they wanted him. They could have very well had Jesus beaten throughout the rest of the night until his morning trial; the Word does not say.

In the morning, only a few hours later, Jesus had another trial before the whole Sanhedrin where they conspired to put him to death without any collaborating witnesses. It was a kangaroo court; a total sham. They asked Jesus if he was the Christ. This is the only charge he answered. He said yes. They cried blasphemy! To get a death sentence they had to take Jesus to Pilate because being under Roman rule only he could pronounce the death sentence.

Early that Tuesday morning they took Jesus to Pilate with three fabricated charges against him: that he perverted the nation, did not pay taxes to Caesar, and he claimed to be king, which was treasonous. After interrogating Jesus, Pilate found no fault with him.

When Pilate heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he had him sent to Herod because Galilee was under his jurisdiction, and he was in town for the Feast. Herod and his men of war treated him with contempt, arrayed him in an ornate robe (the first of four), and mocked his claim of being a king. Herod wanted him to perform a miracle for his entertainment. He sent him back to Pilate without finding Jesus guilty of anything.

While before Pilate, after the crowd called for Barabbas’ release, Pilate had him scourged, beaten with a whip called a cat of nine tails. The throngs had bits of bone or metal at the tips. He received forty lashes less one with that whip. Pilate was trying to appease them so they would spare his life. Before his death, the Scriptures foretold that Jesus' back would look like a furrowed field.

The soldiers continuously beat Jesus while he was tied to a post. Pilate made a second appeal to the people to release Jesus because he had found no fault with him. After the brutal beatings Jesus received, dressed in a king's garment, and with a crown of thorns piercing his scalp and blood coursing down his beaten face, Pilate said, "Behold the man!" Jesus was looking less and less like a human being with every beating. Pilate knew he was innocent and he wanted the crowd to see he had suffered enough.

They said crucify him! Pilate appealed to the religious leaders and they responded that Jesus said that he was the Son of God and that he deserved to die! Pilate questioned Jesus again.

About the sixth hour of the Hebrew day, about noon our time, on Tuesday, the thirteenth of Nisan, Pilate made his third and final appeal to the crowd. Their response was, "Crucify him!"

Although Pilate washed his hands of the matter, he still consented to have Jesus crucified, fearing the people. Jesus was scourged again by the soldiers, receiving another 40 lashes, save one. He was turned over to a cohort of soldiers and taken back into the Praetorium, the judgment hall.

Jesus was stripped and they put a scarlet robe, a military cloak on him. They platted a crown of thorns, put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand, bowed to him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on him, took the reed and repeatedly beat him on the head with the stick, reopening his head wounds as the blood coursed down his face.

Jesus was turned over to hundreds of soldiers who sadistically abused, mocked, and beat him unmercifully. The pain he endured from Monday night until he died on the tree Wednesday about three was horrific. The humiliation thrust upon him was unthinkable,

The Scriptures are silent concerning all that transpired the next 18 to 20 hours before they led him out at 9 AM Wednesday morning to be crucified. They dragged him through the streets of Jerusalem as a spectacle of ridicule and humiliation to be crucified.

Before they led him out to be crucified they stripped him of the military cloak and put his own clothes back on him.

The people he died for desired a murderer be released by Pilate instead of him. He was despised of men, and hated by their religious leaders.

When they crucified him, they drove spikes through the medial nerves of his hands and feet nailing him to his cross, and tied a rope around his abdomen, raised the tree with him nailed to it, and dropped the base into a hole which held it up. He hung there for some six hours until he died. When the soldiers were breaking the legs of those crucified with Jesus so they would die before the Feast, when they came to Jesus he was already dead. They pierced his side with a spear and the blood gushed out.

Isaiah foretold of Jesus, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Many were astonished at him; his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. He had no form nor comeliness and there was no beauty that anyone should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of pains, and acquainted with sickness: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we did not appreciate him.

Surely he hath borne our griefs (sicknesses), and carried our sorrows (pains): 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.” By violence and by sentence he was taken away from the land of the living. Who shall declare his generation: he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people, was he stricken."

You can read these records in Isaiah in chapters 50, 52 and 53; there is much more.

The Lord Jesus volunteered to pour his soul out unto death for us, to bare our sin, and redeem us because His Father promised him that he would raise him from the dead, exalt him, He would be extolled, and he would be very high. The Lord Jesus believed Him and God fulfilled His promises to him.

The contract for our salvation was between God and His only begotten Son. On the cross Jesus said, “For this purpose I was reserved.” His last words were, “It is finished.” He accomplished what no other could. He died in our stead; the innocent for the guilty. He died as our Passover Lamb so that we might be saved, redeemed, and made the righteousness of God in him. He paid for our sins and for our sicknesses, beloved.

Cast your cares on him because he cares for you. He suffered being tempted, and he is able to succor those who are tempted. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Believe it beloved; he did it all, every detail of it, to bring about our deliverance. Don’t be discouraged by perplexing circumstances that may seem to have an advantage over you. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his exerted strength for you. He is Lord over all - ALL - and he is seated in glory at the Father's right hand! He is our deliverer and God will freely give us all things with him beloved; believe it.

He will deliver today and always; expect it. As long as we live, we walk by believing, not by the lying circumstances that we see. Don't be discouraged, encourage yourselves with His Word so that you faint not.

He is faithful that promised beloved. Oh the price he paid for our deliverance now and for all times. Walk in the great grace that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.