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For the Joy set before Him

For the Joy set before Him
Words of Faith 3-17-17
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2017
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
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John 19
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. [2] The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe [3] and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
[4] Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." [5] When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
[6] As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"

Don’t think of Pilate as a merciful man looking for a kind alternative. When Pilate ordered the flogging of Jesus he essentially ordered a slow death after terrible pain.
Roman flogging was a horrific ordeal that did devastating damage to the flesh on the back. Jesus’ back was penetrated with jagged filthy pieces of glass and metal and the flesh torn away. Infection would normally kill a person so tortured after a week or so.
Pilate then allowed the soldiers to make sport of Jesus. These soldiers were hardened old-world men of war who were part of one of the most brutal armies ever known. They were skilled in the art of humiliation. They played a game of mockery in which Jesus was robed as a king wearing a crown of thorns and then struck in the face repeatedly as the soldiers bowed before Him.
The crown of thorns surely tore through the scalp to the bone. Jesus was spat upon and His beard torn out from the face, both humiliating offenses to a Jew. At the end of this torturous humiliation Jesus was probably hardly recognizable, His face bruised and beaten. There was no attempt at mercy here.
Jesus had become quite a problem for Pilate who did not want to incite rioting on the eve of the Passover feast. He also did not want to be seen as a tool of the corrupt religious leaders. He evidently thought that this terrible beating would appease those demanding the death of Jesus. But when Jesus was presented back to the religious leaders they shouted for crucifixion, a most horrible and humiliating means of execution.
The torture and humiliation of Jesus is not something we can rush by. It is not a place that we want to tarry but it is a place we must consider. Within a relatively short period of time, the physical strength and viability of Jesus was dramatically taxed. Prior to this point, Jesus had only been slapped across the face and shoved around by the relatively weak Temple guard. This torture took a great toll.
Once again, we cannot help but be struck by the remarkable surrender of Jesus to the will of the Father as He endured all this for us. The writer of Hebrews tells us that it was for the “joy set before Him” that Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame, so to sit at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
What was this joy? We don’t know exactly what that joy was, but surely it involved the joy of completing the course set out by the Father. Perhaps it was also the joy of salvation. It would not have been the joy of His salvation but the joy of our salvation, the victory won for us.

O Lord, I give thanks to You for enduring such humiliation for the joy of saving us. Thank You for giving so much so that I might know such joy. In Jesus’ name.