The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ
The next week in Antigua is probably the biggest celebration week of the entire year. Semana Santa as it is called here will bring thousands do people to the city to watch the processionals. For many people it will just be a spectator event, for others a religious duty or fulfillment of tradition but for followers of Christ it has a very profound influence in our lives.
Many of us have seen the movie, “The Passion of the Christ” produced by Mel Gibson. The reality of the suffering of Christ was made clearer to me than I had ever known after watching the movie. The word “Passion” denotes the suffering of Christ after the Last Supper. The word “passion” also is used to describe an intense desire or love for another person. The Passion of the Christ was motivated by his passion for us. It was his intense love for each one of us that enabled him to endure the tremendous suffering he experienced after the Last Supper.
A suffering Savior was predicted by the prophets and none was more poignant than the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53 describes in detail what would happen to Christ.
53 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
It is difficult to not understand that the Messiah would suffer because of our sin after reading Isaiah 53. This was his purpose in coming to the earth. The sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats that the Jews practiced for centuries, would not take away the sins of mankind, God required the blood of His Son, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice without sin to be the ransom for our sins. The blood of the sacrifices was only a covering until the blood of Christ would be shed to bring forgiveness and cleansing.
The Passion of the Christ was a result of our sins. The penalty for sin was extreme. God did not take the sin of mankind lightly; his full wrath against sin was poured out on Christ. The intense suffering was part of his wrath against sin. Unfortunately today many people make light of sin because they do not understand the holiness of God nor do they appreciate the suffering of Christ that came as a result of our sin. Look again at the words Isaiah uses to describe what would happen to the Messiah:
Despised, rejected, sorrow, grief, wounded, bruised, oppressed, afflicted, stricken, stripes..These are very powerful words that remind us how Christ suffered physically, emotionally and spiritually. Tonight I want to look at these three aspects of his suffering as we follow Christ during his final hours on earth.
The Physical Suffering of Christ
His physical suffering was brutal. As we track through the journey to the cross we can identify the physical suffering Jesus encountered.
When he was before Annas he was blindfolded and struck on the face (Luke 22:63)
Jesus was then sent to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin where he was struck with the palms of their hands Matthew 26:67.
His next physical suffering was when he was before Pilate who ordered the Roman soldiers to whip him (John 19:1). If Jesus was given the maximum by Jewish law it was 39 lashes but there was no limit according to Roman law. His back was shredded by the whip that was embedded with metal and bones.
If Mel Gibson’s portrayal is at all similar to Christ’s suffering it was incredible that Jesus had the physical stamina to take all the punishment. He had to have been in tremendous physical condition to be able to endure what he went through. I am sure I would not have lasted through the 39 lashes on the back. After 3 or 4 I am sure I would have passed out. But Jesus withstood them all, he took the full punishment physically for us.
After the scourging the soldiers placed a twisted crown of thorns on his head John 19:2. The slamming of the crown of thorns on his head had to produce excruciating pain and blood flowed freely because of the numerous blood vessels in the head.
Placing the crown of thorns on his head was not enough abuse for the soldiers who then struck him on the head with their hands (John 19:2) The beating Jesus took on his head and face was such that he was not recognized.
After he was beaten, he was forced to carry his cross. It was not a finely sanded cross but rustic, full of splinters that dug into his shoulders. It weighed between 75-125 pounds. It was physically taxing for him to carry it the 675 yards of the Via De La Rosa, “The way of pain”, to the point that he fell under its weight and Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry it for him. .
When he reached Golgatha, the Romans were ready to nail him to the cross. The crucifixion was the cruelest form of punishment the Romans used. It was meant to be so gruesome and painful that no one would want this to happen to them, it was a deterrent to crime. The 6 inch dull nails driven through the hands and feet caused intense pain. His feet were placed on top of each other and a nail was driven through each arch putting pressure and causing fiery pain as it tore through the median nerve.
“In this position it is impossible to support your weight for long with your legs (especially in his weakened state). Therefore he mostly had to suspend himself by his arms. At first the arms were nearly horizontal, and so when he was lifted up into the vertical position a massive load was put upon the arms (like a terrible torture rack). This force would be many times a man’s weight. This would have dislocated his arms at his elbow and shoulder. His arms would have lengthened by six inches allowing him to sink down. In the final position his arms would have been about thirty degrees to the horizontal, making the load on his arms more bearable (about two hundred pounds, the weight of a man)… Therefore we see that crucifixion stretches the body out so that it is under intense strain and immense pain. The word ‘excruciating’ means ‘out of the cross’. It describes the pain suffered by on crucified. It was extreme public torture developed by the Romans for maximum deterrence.”
In order to breathe Christ had to lift himself up to catch his breath, this alone caused more pain in his hands and feet as well as his back that had been shredded by the whipping he suffered. Crucifixion was designed to produce a slow death to increase the amount of suffering the person would experience. Suffocation was usually the cause of death but in the case of Christ he cried out with a loud voice and then yielded up his spirit (Matt. 27:50). The physical cause of his death was most likely from his heart bursting or rupturing because of the tremendous emotional and spiritual stress. This was verified when his side was pierced and water and blood poured out (John 19:4).
It was my sin that caused all this physical suffering. I can never look at sin and take it lightly when I remember the intense physically suffering Christ endured.
Emotional suffering of Christ
Christ suffered emotionally as well.
In the garden he took his three most beloved and trusted disciples with him to have them pray with him. He needed their prayers and support because he knew what was coming. His trusted companions were overwhelmed by sleep and were of no emotional support to Jesus. They slept through the most intense hour of prayer in the life of Christ. The agony Christ suffered was such that he sweat drops of blood as he prayed that the cup of suffering he would face would be taken away if possible. The agony he felt in prayer was because of the separation he would face when he bore our sins.
Additional emotional pain came when he was betrayed by one of the men whom he had invested three years of his life. Judas was a man who was entrusted with the money so he was someone whom Jesus had confidence in and was willing to let him handle the finances. Most of us are pretty careful about entrusting money, especially our own money to another person. Judas’ betrayal had to have been like a knife being struck into the heart of Jesus. Some of you have experienced betrayal of a marriage partner. You know the pain that is felt when you learn of the betrayal of your marriage vows. One pastor said it was like being run over by a Mack truck. It is crushing and emotionally draining. All of us have read of the reaction of Tiger Woods’ spouse when she learned of his infidelity. As horrible as this was it could not compare to the betrayal of Judas. When Judas led the Roman cohort and Jewish leaders to the garden he had to properly identify Christ to them. His method of identification was through a kiss and salutation. A kiss was a common way to greet your friend. So Judas takes this common greeting of a friend and uses it to mark the man they should arrest. Judas also addressed Jesus as “Rabbi” which also helped the soldiers identify the Christ.
As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him (Mark 14:45)
Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?” Matthew 26:49
This caused Jesus to remark to Judas, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”(Luke 22:48) Jesus knew what was happening, he was not ignorant, yet it pained him to see Judas betraying him. It broke his heart to see a friend betray him.
His disciples after his arrest abandoned him. His total support group turned away and ran for their own safety. Peter who boasted he would die with him denied he knew him just as Christ predicted. When the rooster crowed it pierced the heart of Jesus as much as it did the heart of Peter.
Christ was despised and rejected by the Jewish leaders, the Roman soldiers and the people. No one enjoys being despised, misunderstood or falsely accused. People said blasphemous things to him, mocked him, ridiculed and scorned him. The humiliation he experienced was constant. He was spit upon by the people which is one of the most demonstrative ways of scorning and showing contempt for another person. I have never been spit on but I have seen it happen to someone else during a college baseball game. The coach of the opposing team disputed the call of the umpire and when he was not making any progress on changing the umpire’s mind he spit on his clean shirt with his chewing tobacco. The coach was not only ejected from the game but was told to leave the baseball park or his team would forfeit the game.
Christ was human like you and I. He was an emotional person. All these things that happened to him were not taken lightly. They wounded him emotionally just like you and I would have been wounded. He grieved over what was happening and what was being said to him. He was acquainted with sorrow, he was not immune to it. It affected him; he was not Mr. Teflon where nothing would stick to him.
The cry of the people, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!”must have cut deep into his soul. Imagine that you are in Christ’s place, completely innocent of any and all charges against you. Yet the people whom you healed and helped in many ways have turned against you and want you dead. They did not esteem Christ for who he was or what he did. This also had to have affected Christ emotionally. The injustice of the trial and the condemnation to death added to the emotional suffering Christ endured for us.
When he was placed on the cross his was stripped of his clothing. He was naked before everyone, how much more humiliating can it get.
Christ on the cross is placed between two people who were guilty and deserved their death sentence. He is placed in the same category as they are, numbered with the transgressors as Isaiah wrote. One of the thieves had the audacity to mock Christ in his final moments of life. The abuse of the chief priests, scribes and elders continued until his death as they taunted him to save himself to prove he really was the Son of God (Matt. 27:42) The emotional stress of all these things caused great pain for Jesus. He truly was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. All of this emotional pain came as a consequence of our sin.
Spiritual Suffering of Christ
The final suffering of Christ involved the spiritual suffering he experienced when he as forsaken by His Father. The Trinity had always been together. Their love for each other was a love that you and I could never experience or understand. There was always unity between them, never a time of disagreement but always harmony and peace. Their love bound them together and was such that they created man to be able to extend their love to him and be loved in return. Sin had never come between them. The fullness of God’s wrath against sin was placed on Christ. But now Christ on the cross took the full extent of the sin of all of mankind for all of time upon himself. When this happened the Father had to separate himself from Christ for sin cannot dwell in God’s presence. Christ cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The spiritual separation caused by sin was the greatest pain Christ felt. Christ died shortly after taking on our sins. He paid the price that his Holy Father demanded and tonight I pray that we will understand with greater clarity what it meant for Christ to suffer for our sins. It should affect our attitude toward sin and hopefully keep us from falling.
The wrath of God was satisfied when Christ died for us and took our sins upon himself. All of the suffering he endured was with us in mind. He wanted us to be reconciled to the Father, to be forgiven of our sin and be set free from its penalty. His passion for us caused him to endure the Passion. How can we respond to this love? We can never do anything to repay Christ, what he did for us was a gift that we can only accept with a heart of gratitude. Our salvation is free but it also comes with a promise that if we truly follow Christ we will suffer.
The early church understood that following Christ was not going to be easy. They would suffer for His Name and be abused physically and emotionally. Compared to what Christ suffered for us, any suffering we will encounter will seem as nothing. Many believers today are being persecuted for their faith and are experiencing tremendous suffering. The enemy believes he can drive people away from their faith through suffering but for the true believers it only draws them closer to Christ as they too experience some of the sufferings He endured for us.
I read a book this last week about the life of Romulo Saune and his family who were descendents of the Incas and were from the Quecha Indians in Peru. His family came to Christ and held firm to their commitment to Him during a great time of political turmoil and violence in Peru when the “Shining Path” communist movement tried to take control of the country. Romulo’s father, Justiniano, became a pastor after he became a believer and never gave in to the demands of the Shining Path. At one point when he was 83 years old the rebels warned him to stop preaching to the young people or he would lose his life. He told them he could not and would not do it because he wanted to remain faithful to Christ and his word. The rebels returned later and took him away from his home and began to beat him with clubs. He pleaded with them to stop and said to them “you can attack my body but you can’t touch my soul.” This made them even madder and they continued to beat him with clubs. He raised his hand to deflect a blow when he was slashed with a knife and blood began to spurt out of his hand. One of the commanders said to him, “We’ll show you, old man, what we think about your preaching.” He gripped the blade of his knife and reached for Justiniano, grabbing him by his hair and forcing his head back with a snap. Justiniano’s mouth hung open. With a swift move, the commander yanked out Justiniano’s tongue and slashed it off. He held the tongue high for everyone to see. Justiniano moaned. Then another terrorist roughly pushed him onto his back. Handful by handful, he plucked out Justianiano’s flowing white beard. Loud moans escaped the old man’s bleeding mouth. Then with a final stroke of indignity, the terrorist took his blood drenched knife and scalped off Justiniano’s hair. Pinning the old man to the ground, another rebel reached for his knife, and, like the Inca priests of ancient days, he plunged it savagely into Justiniano’s chest. With a broad stroke he ripped open the chest, shouting wildly, he reached in and tore out Justiniano’s still beating heart. The blood fanned out in a spray of red, shocking the Senderistasts into silence…. The assassin flung the heart onto the ground and screamed at the villagers, “If anyone buries this body, he’ll; suffer the same fate! Let the sun rot his body for everyone to see.” (One Bright and Shining Path, P. 150-151)
To be a Christ follower requires that we also will be willing to suffer for the sake of His Name. The sufferings of Christ were motivation for the early church as it went through periods of persecution and pain. We too must be ready and willing to suffer for him and count it an honor as the early church did. Peter wrote that we must have the same attitude toward suffering in the flesh that Christ had. When our flesh suffers we have made a decision to not allow it to control us, we in essence die to its demands so that we can focus on doing the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2). Jesus suffered in the flesh to be able to accomplish God’s will for his life. Because he was faithful we have received forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life. We no longer have to suffer the penalty of sin but we will still suffer the consequences of sin that surrounds us each day. As we prepare for the Passion Week, let us be mindful of what Christ endured for us to enable us to suffer for Him as we live holy and righteous lives in a world that is reeling in sin and in need of the message of salvation that we have been entrusted with.