Hands of Brutality
Matthew 27: 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole company around him. 28 They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. 29 They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” 30 Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head. 31 After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Brutality has been a reality throughout human history. And these people who brutalized Jesus were absolutely appalling. What makes their brutality so horrible is not only that he was innocent, but he was also the Son of God. If one were to count the number of times Jesus was brutalized over a 36-hour period, one would find five or six different experienced brutalities.
First, there was the brutality he had to undergo when he appeared before the high priests. He was brutalized both before and after the trial before them and the Sanhedrin. Just before this trial, we read in Luke 22: “The men who were holding Jesus started mocking and beating him. After blindfolding him, they kept asking, ‘Prophesy! Who was it that hit you?'” (Luke 22:63-64). And then right after this trial before the high priests – after he had confessed to be the Son of God – Mark tells us they repeated the same brutality:
the high priest tore his robes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?” They all condemned him as deserving death. Then some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to beat him, saying, “Prophesy!” The temple servants also took him and slapped him.
Mark 14:63-64
After this, they brought Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontus Pilate. And Pilate, finding out that Jesus was from the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, sent him to Herod where another brutalization took place: “The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod, with his soldiers, treated him with contempt, mocked him, dressed him in bright clothing, and sent him back to Pilate.” (Luke 23:10-11).
The next act of brutality was one of the worst, purposely designed to inflict great pain. Pilate, seeing that the Jews unjustly wanted blood, thought he could appease the Jews by having Jesus flogged: whipping the back of the criminal with a short whip that consisted of several strands with pieces of lead tied to the ends to rip open the flesh and cause excessive bleeding. This alone would put the victim in critical condition.
But not satisfied with this amount of suffering, the soldiers decided to go further with another brutality. They then
stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head.
Matt. 27:28-30
And finally, of course, he was forced to bear his own cross, nailed to it, and suffered one of the most brutal and agonizing deaths known to man: a crucifixion.
What kind of people are these? What kind of people would do this? Especially in view of the reality that, #1, he was innocent, and #2, he was the Son of God? What kind of people would do this?
Brutality such as this has a long history, going all the way back to the fall (Gen. 4). We also think of the Roman Colosseum and other places in the Roman Empire: gladiator fights to the death and people being thrown to lions, with thousands looking on and cheering them on. We find brutality described in many of the classics like Lord of the Flies and Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities. And brutality has a present reality as well. Think of the brutal fights that sometimes result in football, hockey, and other sports. And of course, there can be great brutality in the different kinds of professional fighting. One can also go on the internet to find brutal fights on streets, in bars, between women; not to mention what takes place during mob riots. One of the most brutal forms of violence is one that almost always goes unseen: abortion. It is as brutal as it gets.
And one of the strangest things about brutality is people are drawn to it, relish it, and even justify it (unless, of course, they are the victims). Is brutality built into the human heart?
Going back to Jesus and the question: Who would do this sort of thing to an innocent man and who is also the Son of God? And the answer is, I would. And I did. And the answer also is, you would. And you did. We should never think for a moment that the Jewish leaders, the Jews that readily went along with them, Herod and his soldiers, Pilate and his soldiers, were somehow more evil than you and me. The same sinful blood, the same original sin, the same nature that is capable of great evil and brutality, is the same sinful blood that flows through our veins and is the same sinful flesh that is found within all of us. If there is any doubt, listen to the way the apostle Paul describes not just them but all of us:
There is no one righteous, not even one.There is no one who understands;there is no one who seeks God.All have turned away;all alike have become worthless.There is no one who does what is good,not even one.Their throat is an open grave;they deceive with their tongues.Vipers’ venom is under their lips.Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.Their feet are swift to shed blood;ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,and the path of peace they have not known.There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom. 3:10-18
However, there is one more person who in one sense – a very real sense – was more brutal to Jesus than the Jews and their leaders, than Pilate and Herod, than those cruel soldiers, and more brutal than you and me. Two verses from Isaiah 53; verse 6: “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for [or laid on him] the iniquity of us all.” Verse 10: “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and to allow him to suffer.” The brutality of God the Father. This is crazy, people! But it is also true.
This is a brutality that goes beyond our ability to grasp. It was not by any means a sinful brutality; it was just brutality, but a justice – and a love! – that we cannot fathom. It is described for us in Romans 5: “… rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:7-8).
Therefore, what this willingness of the Father teaches us is this: the sins of brutality committed by the Jews and their leaders, by Herod and Pilate, by the Roman soldiers, the sins of brutality committed by you and me (whether they be done physically, verbally, or in our hearts) – and all other sins the entire world and you and I have ever committed – were placed on and paid for in full by this innocent man who was also the only begotten Son of God as he was brutalized, suffered, and died. All sins, no matter how well hidden they may be or no matter how horrible they may be, are forgiven in Christ.
The only thing that really needs to be considered at this point is how sinners are to react – and must react. And that reaction – the God-pleasing and the God-directed and inspired reaction – is said in a most excellent way by Martin Luther in the Small Catechism:
I believe that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary; and that he is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death; in order that I might be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
Amen.
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