I've just been watching Rick Renner on Daystar TV reading from his book, "Paid in Full", a section describing the practice of Roman scourging. I'm transcribing what I'm hearing. May we ponder the unspeakable suffering Jesus endured even before going to the cross, and recognize its meaning for us. We tend to just read over "he (Pilate) scourged Jesus", and carry on, without stopping to understand what that meant.
"The word (scourged) was one of the most horrific words used in the ancient world because of the terrible images that immediately came to mind when a person heard that word. When a decision was made to scourge an individual, first the victim's body was completely stripped naked so that his entire flesh would be open to the beating action of the whip. Then the victim was bound to a two-foot high scourging post. His hands were tied over his head to a metal ring and his wrists were secured to that ring to restrain his body from movement, and when in that locked position, the victim couldn't wiggle or move, trying to dodge the lashes that would be laid across his back, and across his body.
"Romans were professionals at scourging. They took special delight in the fact that they were the best at scourging people. Once the victim was harnessed to the post and stretched over it, the Roman soldiers began to put them through torture...
"The scourge was made of a short wooden handle with several long pieces of leather protruding from it, and at the ends of these pieces of leather were sharp pieces of metal, glass, wire and jagged fragments of bones. It was considered to be one of the most feared and deadly weapons of the entire Roman world. It was so ghastly that the mere threat of a scourge could calm a crowd or bend the will of even the strongest rebel. Even the most hardened criminals recoiled from the idea of being submitted to the beating of a Roman scourge.
"Most often, two torturers were used to carry out the punishment. Simultaneously, they lashed the victim from both sides, and, as the dual whips struck the victim, the leather straps with their sharp, jagged objects descended and extended over his entire body. Each piece of metal, wire, bone or glass cut deeply through the victim's skin and into the flesh, shredding muscles and sinews. Every time the whip pounded across the victim, those straps of leather hurled around his torso, painfully biting into the flesh of his abdomen and upper chest. Each stroke lacerated the sufferer. He tried to thrash about but was unable to move because his wrists were so tied to the metal ring above his head. Helpless to escape the whip, normally the victim would scream for mercy that the anguish might come to an end. Every time the torturer struck a victim, the straps of leather attached to the wooden handle would cause multiple lashes. The sharp objects at the end of each strap sank deep into the flesh and raked across the victim's body. Then the torturer would jerk back and pull hard enough to tear out whole pieces of human flesh from the body. The victim's back, buttocks, back of the legs, stomach and upper chest and face would soon be disfigured by the blows of the whip.
"Historical records record that a victim's back could become so mutilated after a Roman scourge that his spine would actually be exposed. Others recorded how the bowels of the victim would spill out through the open wounds created by the scourge. The early church historian, Eusabias (?), wrote, 'The veins were laid bare. The very muscles, sinews and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.' With so many blood vessels sliced open by the whip, the victim would begin to experience a profuse loss of blood and bodily fluids. The heart would pump harder and harder, struggling to get blood to the parts of the body that were bleeding profusely, that it was like pumping water through an open water hydrant. There was nothing to stop the blood from pouring through the victim's open wounds. This loss of blood caused the victim's blood pressure to drop drastically, and because of the massive loss of bodily fluids, he would experience excruciating thirst, often fainting from the pain , or going into shock, and frequently, the victim's heart beat would become so irregular that he would go into cardiac arrest.
"According to Jewish law, the Jews were permitted to give 40 lashes to a victim, but because the fortieth lash usually proved fatal, the Jews would only give thirty-nine. But the Romans had no limit to the number of lashes they gave a victim, and the scourging Jesus experienced was at the hands of Romans, not Jews. It is entirely possible, even probable, that Jesus received more than forty lashes across his body...
"So, when the Bible tells us Jesus was scourged, we know exactly what kind of beating Jesus received that night. What toll did the whip exact on Jesus' body? The New Testament doesn't tell us exactly, but Isaiah 52:14 says, 'As many as saw Him were amazed. His visage was so marred, more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.' If we take this Scripture literally for what it says, we conclude that Jesus' physical body was marred nearly beyond recognition."
Why is any of that important to us? Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:24 that "by (His) stripes you were healed"...
The word for "healing" that Peter uses is "iaomai". In our New Testament, it is translated as "heal" 26 times, and "make whole" twice. (In most instances, the reference is to physical healing, although there are a few references that could refer to spiritual/emotional/mental healing.) Jesus endured all that extra suffering so we could be healed and made whole.
When Jesus, at the last supper, took the bread and broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you", He meant it would be really, really broken, as we have now seen. Remember that whenever you take communion. Drink of the fruit of the vine to remember His blood, which bought us the new covenant of grace and forgiveness and new life, but take the broken bread to remember that He suffered for our total healing, physical as well as spiritual.
Isaiah 53:5: "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."
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