Day 115 Bible Reading - Psalm 66: 63-65 (ESV)

Joshua 8, Joshua 9-15, Luke 22: 63-71 Luke 23: 1-25, Psalm 66: 13-20

Luke 22: 63-65 (ESV)

“Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.  They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.”

Verses 63 to 65 from Luke 22 illustrate what Jesus experienced before he was crucified. If you watch the movie The Passion of the Christ which came out in 2004 and directed by Mel Gibson, you will see a graphic and perhaps a very realistic depiction of these verses. In David Guzik’s bible commentary on these verses, he said the following:

• It was important that Jesus demonstrate that the proper replay to hate is not more hate but love. Christ did nothing during this beating. He did not fight. 
• Christ endured the beating to demonstrate his own trust in God, and he did not defend himself.
• Christ faced the abuse from the Roman soldiers so that those who are abused, beaten, and humiliated can find refuge in a God who knows firsthand what they’ve experienced. 

The well-known English pastor Charge Spurgeon also noted that Christ’s persecutors could not make him give way to anger. They did not destroy his mercy or his love. They did not make Christ want to stop what was happening to him because he wanted to save us as sinners.

I find the depiction of these verses very hard to watch, and it makes me cry every time I watch this scene. But this scene is a reminder of what Christ endured and suffered for us, and his obedience to his father’s will. I always think to myself whenever I watch this scene that I do not have the right to say how horrible my life is, because nothing in my life is as painful and degrading as what Christ had go through at the hands of the Roman soldiers.