TOPIC:"The Christ of the Scourged Face"
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Matthew 26:57-67
"Then they began to spit in Jesus' face and beat Him with their fists. And some slapped Him" (26:67, NLT).
The disgraceful treatment of Jesus, the suffering Servant, was beyond that of any other man. It was inhuman what they did to Christ. So terrible was the punishment He received that it was said of Him by Isaiah the prophet that "His face was so disfigured He seemed hardly human." In other words, when they were through with scourging the face of Jesus you could not tell He was a human being.
They spit on His face. They cuffed Him about the mouth and cheeks. They plucked His beard out. They crowned His head with thorns. They beat Him with strips. He was indeed the Christ of the scourged face. Now the question: What is the message of this scourged face? What does it convey to us? I shall mention three things.
I.
Let me suggest, to begin with, the scourged face of Jesus speaks to us of the FURY which He ENCOUNTERED. Notice the words of verse 67: "Then they began to spit in Jesus' face and beat Him with their fists. And some slapped Him."
At the trial of Jesus the fury of all hell was let loose. The cruelty and brutality of the religious leaders in Jerusalem was the worst ever encountered by man. Going through the mockery of a trial, listen to what they tried to do to Jesus as recorded in verse 59: "The leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus so they could put Him to death." Now notice the words of verse 60: "But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone's testimony."
These Jews knew they had no real case against Jesus so they made up the charges. Yet the charges were so ridiculous they could not even find two witnesses - the minimum specified by law - to substantiate them. Finally, two were produced who misquoted and misapplied a statement of Jesus in John chapter 2 verse 19 when He said: "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Jesus wasn't referring here to Herod's Temple, but to His own body as stated in verse 21 "But when Jesus said 'this Temple,' He meant His own body."
There are some people who believe that all we have to do is exhibit goodness and men will surrender to it. That belief does not face up to the graphic picture found in the Bible of man's depraved and deranged human nature. The Scriptures declare: "The human heart is the most . . .