Enduring Pain

N.T.#655 "Enduring Pain"

Oct. 21, 2025 

Luke 23-Part 4 

LET IT GLOW

What has been the most painful thing you have endured? Today we read about the pain Jesus endured, not because He deserved it, but because He was sinless. 

And so the mockery begins. Matthew 27 tells more details of what Jesus went through:

• After the 6 trials Jesus endured, Pilate released Barabas, the murderer, thief, and treasonous prisoner for free. (verse 26). 
• Pilate had Jesus scourged (to whip; lash as a public punishment). (verse 26)
• The Roman soldiers replace Jesus' clothes with a scarlet robe.(verse 28)
• They placed a crown of thorns on His head.
• They put a reed in His right hand. 
• Then the soldiers bowed the knee before Jesus and hailed Jesus as King of the Jews.  
• They spit on Jesus.
• Then they took His reed and smote (repeated blows) Him on the head. (verse 30) This would have dug into the scalp, causing bleeding.
• After that, the soldiers mocked the Messiah.
• They took the robe off and replaced Jesus clothing on Him.
• He was led to be crucified. (verse 31)
• As they brought Jesus out of the courtyard, He would have been too weak to carry His cross. They compelled Simon of Cyrene to bear His cross. (verse 32)

John describes the robe as being purple that a king would wear. The reed was a royal staff which drove the thorny crown deeper into the skull of Jesus. 

What harsh treatment Jesus went through! At any moment, He could have called thousands of angels to kill those soldiers, but He didn't. What a Savior!

LET IT GROW

When they led Jesus away from Jerusalem, the cruelty could have lasted several hours. It was a Roman custom, apparently, that a prisoner be beat with a flagrum, a long leather whip with bis of sheep bone braided into it. (Swindoll)

After all of that, Jesus could not have managed to carry His cross, horizontal wooden piece, up the hill to the crucifixion. Simon, a Cyrenian, was compelled to carry Jesus' cross to Golgotha, a place of a skull.  Cyrene was a Roman province in North Africa where many Jews lived. His sons, Alexander and Rufus, later became well-known Christians. (Mark 15:21) (Falwell)

Since it was uphill all the way for Jesus to walk, it would have been a very hard way. Such love Jesus showed for us sinners. No wonder He sweat drops of blood as He prayed in the Garden. Jesus knew what was ahead of Him.

LET IT GO

O what a Savior! Isn't He wonderful!