During this celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can acknowledge with gratitude the awesomeness of the God we serve! I recently looked at a beverage container that I received as a gift. The message printed on the container stated that, “God is so much bigger than: your hurts (and rejection); your pain; your shame (and humiliation). . .” I thought about those truisms, my friends, and I gave a heartfelt shout-out of, “Yes he is!”
We have all been hurt, rejected or felt pain; some of us have even experienced shame and humiliation at some point in our lives. Let’s just put that in perspective. Comprehend this: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came to this earth to offer his life to bring salvation to all. He was hurt, rejected, put through shame and humiliation by his very own creations. John 1:11 states that:
Pilate then had Jesus flogged by the Roman soldiers who stripped Jesus naked and chained him to a stone pillar. He was flogged with a Roman flagrum, a whip with three to twelve strands of leather with metal balls woven into the leather. At the end of each strand were pieces of broken glass, pottery, nails, bone, or twisted metal. As the Roman soldiers beat him over and over again, the flagrum grabbed and ripped the flesh from Jesus’ body! His skin, muscles, back and lower parts of his body were bloodied ripped, torn and mangled! Many who were flogged did not survive the beatings! Jesus, however, endured because of the purpose for which he came to the earth. The Roman soldiers mocked him, calling him “King of the Jews.” They put a purple robe on him and placed a crown of thorns on his head.
As a disfigured Jesus was brought out, the Jewish leaders continued to demand that Jesus be crucified as Pilate sat down on the platform’s judgment seat. Because of fear that the crowd would accuse him of treason before Caesar, he turned Jesus over to be crucified. (John 19:16)
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” (John 19: 19-22)
Jesus, carrying his own cross, was taken to Golgotha to be crucified! The Roman soldiers mocked, slapped and spat on him, as they stripped him of his clothes. They threw him down on the wooden cross, stretched out his hands and hammered a spike nail through his wrists. (They used the wrists because the weight of his body once lifted on the cross would tear his hands, whereas the connection of two bones on his wrist supported his body.) They then crossed his feet and hammered a spike nail through them. After nailing Jesus to the cross, he was lifted up and dropped into the hole dug for the occasion. At the jolt of the impact, Psalm 22:14 notes that Jesus’ bones came out of joint!
Jesus labored with each breath for six hours and at the end of the ordeal, Father God turned from him for a moment because because he could not look upon sin. all humanity on his body. With that, Jesus, bearing the sins of all humanity, declared, “It is finished.” The price had been paid for the sins of the world!
So, friends, because of Jesus’ momentous death on the cross, the Lord delivers us from all afflictions and all sufferings. (Psalm 34:19) Just remember this: In times of hurts, rejection, pain, sorrows, shame and humiliation, Jesus has your back, front and sides because he has already borne our griefs. (Isaiah 53:4) Moreover, if that suffering is for righteousness, 1 Peter 3:14, promises that you will be blessed,
So, in this time of celebration of Jesus’ birth, let’s do it with soberness and solemnity.
Have a blessed and grateful Christmas season!
Scripture References:
Matthew 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
John 3:17 For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
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