John 19 verses 1 to 3, then Pilate took Jesus and flagged him, and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple road. They came up to him saying, Hail King of the Jews and struck him with their hands. This is the reading of God's word for his people. May God bless this reading. Pilate, in seeking to satisfy the crowds without crucifixion, has decided on a course of action to send Jesus for a scourging or as the S.V. puts it, flogging. He's thinking that if he presents Jesus battered before them, perhaps the very shock of his appearance will satisfy them that there has been a punishment made it out. As we will see, however, the thirst of the Jews was not simply for punishment, but as we discussed in our previous study this morning for his destruction. In Frederick Croomocker's work, which I referenced this morning, the suffering Savior, he begins his chapter on Christ scourging with these words. The path of the Holy One of Israel becomes increasingly dark and obscure. The night piece of his passion carries us from the region of the tragicle into that of the appalling. His sufferings increase to torture, his disgrace to infamy, and the words of Isaiah, he was despised and rejected, and we hid as it were our faces from him, are completely realized. Croomocker has a correct. The suffering of Christ began not at the cross, but in Gisemini. Some might even trace it back and say, as long as Jesus had been aware, which was his life, that the cross awaited him, that there was an element of suffering, and I wouldn't dispute that, but the actual suffering of Jesus seems to me that it began in Gisemini as he came before the Lord in prayer. As he prayed that if it were the will of God, perhaps this cup might pass from him, as he blood droplets of blood as sweat from the anguish and the stress of that evening. And then as he was arrested and carried immediately away to an inquisition at which he was struck there, physical blows placed upon him at the inquisition. Still bound in chains, taken to pilot, where he was again interrogated, now being flogged, you have the humiliation of it all, as this one who is God, as being humiliated by his own creation. That in itself would be suffering enough, but pile upon that, the actual physical suffering of Jesus as he is being stricken as they are striking him in the face and about the body. And now, as he has been taken off to be flogged, Jesus, is still under pilot's jurisdiction. But pilot hasn't decided yet to have Jesus crucified. In fact, partly because of his desire to frustrate the Jewish party, partly because of his concerns because of the disturbing dream, which his wife has had concerning Jesus, and partly because of his own sense of the miscarriage of justice that seems to be bothering him at this point, pilot seems to be hoping to satisfy the Jewish thirst for Jesus' life by letting them taste his blood without spilling all of his blood to take his life. But pilot will find no way out. There is no way to wiggle away from the destiny that belongs to Jesus. He is now, that is pilot, a part of a story, a redemptive history that was prophesied many years before even in the smallest of details. In Isaiah 53, verse 3, if you had before turned there, I would invite you to look now. In Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 3, I'll read the balance of this chapter. Listen for the startling detail that Isaiah renders concerning the agony and the death of our Savior. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. What Isaiah is here pointing out which the other writers in their gospel accounts show us in the way that they render, in the way the language is used, is that when Jesus appeared in the condition of one who had been flagged, the people looked at him with disdain as a man having suffered a just penalty for his own sins, for his sins. It says in the other accounts that they looked at him with all. They looked at him with all just as we read in in the scriptures where the people of Israel looked with all at the city of tire when it was destroyed because of their sins and offense against God. They were destroyed rightly and punished by the hand of God because of their offense against him. And now the people look up at Jesus and see in Jesus' own body evidence of what they presumed to be the punishment for his own sin. But Isaiah has even predicted this. He said he has borne our griefs and sorrows and yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. The people who looked at Jesus said this man is being punished by God. He's being punished by God for what he has done against God. They failed to see the reflection of their own sin and the body of Jesus. But Isaiah goes on to correct the view, verse 5, but he was wounded for hour transgressions. He was crushed for hour and equities and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed. What graphic language was wounded and he was crushed? Here is this man. Jesus, very God and very man. His body like yours and like mine could be wounded and would feel pain and he was being crushed physically, crushed for hour sin. And yet those who gathered there looked at him and pointed and jeered and said there is a man who has the wrath and indignation of God being poured out upon him for his own life and yet it was not for his life but for hours. Verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of a soul. Is there any clear explanation? We have strayed from God. We like sheep have wandered from our shepherd and for that offense of wondering that iniquity was laid upon Christ. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears his silence. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant. Make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. It's sobering in my estimation how the prophets of the Old Testament are so clear and so articulate and their prophecy which unfolded in human history and in this case even against the greater desire of Pilate. Pilate was wishing to be rid of all of this but he finds himself compelled by the opening and the turning of the pages of history to play the part he was destined and created to play and that is the one who would send Jesus to the cross and Isaiah chapter 52 only one verse 14. As many were astonished at you his appearance was so marked beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. Ponder meditate that let that sit in for just a moment. When we think of the vlogging that Jesus had to undergo we think that he was whipped like we seal movies and perhaps he was left with blister stripes even open wounds on his back maybe the whips came around and we see blood streaming down his face because of the crown of thorns. Isaiah clearly tells us that the abuse that was heaped upon Jesus the physical abuse was to such a degree that he could not even be recognized as being a human. His form was so marked that to look upon him you wouldn't even know that there is a man that is standing before you so great was the abuse that he underwent. Krumacher again describes the scene I think very eloquently what now takes place he asks a deed respecting which a feeling comes over us as if it were improper and even sinful to behold it with the naked eye here Krumacher is saying that when we imagine this we want to turn our face away. Whatever your opinion concerning this movie the Passion of Christ one complaint I do hear is that people will say I just can't watch that I just can't see that. Well Isaiah says that that we'll want to look away even if it is simply in the reading of the passage we'll want to avoid even that. We want to get away from that we don't want to see what we are meant and intended to see perhaps if not with the eyes of flesh certainly the eye within through the reading of scripture. Did God intend for the crucifixion to be in secret that we would not be witnesses to the effect of our own sin? Surely not as described in such graphic detail. Again make to Krumacher who continues. Look at Yonder Pillar black with the blood of murderers and rebels they iron collar which is attached to it as well as the ropes which hang down from its iron rings sufficiently point out its cruel object. Look at the rude and barbarous beings who busily surround their victim observe the brutal vulgarity of their countenances and the instruments of torture in their hands. They are scourges made of hundreds of leather thongs each armed at the point with an angular bony hook or a sharp sided cube such are the instruments of torture prepared for him who was dear to God and the apple of his eye. Jesus will be stripped of his clothes he'll be tied to a post his back fully exposed to his tormentors the long leather thongs with bone fragments in the shape of miniature dumbbells or with lead or rock inserted into the leather whichever it might be would when they are flung against him stick into his skin they would penetrate the skin and they would stick in and the body would absorb particularly the larger portion as it goes into the flesh and into the muscle and when they are ripped loose from the victim they wouldn't leave holes or sometimes even tear flesh from the victims back after receiving several lashes from these leather thongs the flesh would often just be hanging from the bone if you could even remain conscious very long at all during the scourging many died during the actual beatings themselves but Jesus perhaps owing to his divine nature his determination or the preserving power of God who could raise the dead after all Jesus took the punishment and the words of Isaiah echoed down to us even today his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance any of us who were there would have prayed that God would have ended our life far before Jesus' scourging was complete pilot comes out and presents Jesus to the people with these words which he said in Latin echo homo a hear or behold the man once the physical torture is concluded he's untied only to receive more indignity soldiers would take that old worn out purple robe probably given by Herod would throw it over his back to mock his kingly dignity and then a thorn bush is twisted to make a wreath that'll be placed on his head as if it were a crown again mocking him they give him a read instead of a scepter and they pay homage to him in mockery and laughter hail to the king of Jews say the ones who just tore the flesh from his back Matthew tells us that they took the read from his hand after that and they began to strike him in his head driving the thorns deep deeper still into his skull and when they had finished they tore the robe now stuck to his back by the clotting that would have occurred from his blood and they put his own clothes back on him as they explained the end of all this suffering in 52 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand while many will see his disfigurement as a punishment that he is due for his own sin Isaiah explains that it's by it that he will sprinkle many nations and this is a technical term this sprinkling of many nations with roots in the mosaic law when oil water or blood were sprinkled as a rite of cleansing and purification such as in Leviticus 147 and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease this act of sprinkling was ceremonial clean cleansing the one who does the sprinkling however must himself be pure and innocent this is a work that belongs only to the priest our high priest sprinkles us to make us pure by his suffering in our place his Donald Gray Barnhouse said since God knew that man would break his law he decreed that there must be payment for the guilt but Galatians 313 tells us Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us God wrote into the very law that the wages of sin is death and this is why a lamb was killed every morning and every night every sunrise and every sunset saw blood spilled why in order to impress upon the people of the thought sin means death when we sin it means our death or the death of the Savior the picture of Dorian Gray is a book that I have long had a fascination with sometimes this inaccurately titled the portrait of Dorian Gray it's actually the picture of Dorian Gray it's the only novel that was published by Oscar Wilde in 1891 a young man named Dorian Gray is the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward Basil Hallward is so enraptured by the physical beauty of Dorian Gray that he becomes infatuated with him he is so impressed by him that he wants to capture that beauty in a portrait and even attributes to Dorian a new mode of painting and his own growth as a painter Dorian meets a friend of the artist however Lord Henry Water who introduces him to hedonism he convinces Dorian that the only worthwhile pursuits in life were beauty and indulgement Dorian buys into hedonism and then he realizes that his own beauty will vanish and will not last forever because by virtue of his own aging process he will lose that beauty associates with his youthful appearance and he cries out and is willing to sell his own soul to keep his beauty the Faustian bargain that he strikes is that his portrait would age and show the wear and tear of his lifestyle rather than he himself Dorian gives himself completely over to hedonism and according to the bargain that has been struck the portrait bears the evidence each act of carnal indulgence has upon his soul each sin disfigures his form in the picture even as the picture continues to age naturally for 18 years Dorian lives a reckless life of lust and indulgence ultimately Dorian decides that he must destroy the painting as the last vestige of his conscience he picks up a knife and he stabs at the painting his servants hear a scream and they come into the room only to find a man or at least one who seems to be a man lying on the floor with a knife plunged into his own heart his body bears the disfigurement of that painting the painting is now restored to its original perfection Dorian himself is unrecognizable hardly even as a man because of the toll that sin is taken upon his body except for the rings which he has on his fingers and by that he is identified the sin of his life had disfigured and marred his appearance aka homo behold the man sin of our own lives have disfigured and marred the Lord Jesus' appearance aka homo behold the man Romans 589 but God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God