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THE INDIGNITIES OFFERED TO OUR LORD
AT this season [Note: The Passion Week.] we are naturally led to contemplate the sufferings of our blessed Lord. In general, we think it desirable to fix your minds on some one point; because that, if duly opened, will afford ample matter for one discourse: but now we will rather call your attention to this assemblage of facts; not so much for the purpose of elucidating each particular indignity that was offered him, as, from a collective view of them, to shew you the Lord Jesus Christ,
I. As the predicted Messiah—
There was scarcely an incident relating to his death which was not the subject of a distinct prophecy—
[It was foretold that he should be scourged. The Prophet Isaiah says, that “the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed [Note: Isa_53:5.].” And though the Psalmist appears to speak of Israel at large, yet I think he has also an eye to God’s servant Israel, the Messiah, in particular, when he says, “The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows [Note: Psa_129:3. with Isa_49:3.]. The various indignities of mocking and reproaching, and the spitting in his face, were also specifically mentioned: “I gave my back to the smiters, (where the scourging is again referred to,) and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting [Note: Isa_50:6.].” And the Prophet Micah says, “They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek [Note: Mic_5:1.].” And, in reference to these things, the Psalmist says, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none: and for comforters, but I found none [Note: Psa_69:20.]. His crucifixion was plainly declared in the erection of the brazen serpent in the wilderness [Note: Joh_3:14-15.]; as was also the place where it should be carried into effect, by the burning of the sacrifices without the camp [Note: Lev_4:12.]. These things were also distinctly foreseen, and plainly predicted, by our blessed Lord; predicted, too, as subjects of prophecy, which were assuredly to be fulfilled: “He took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go to Jerusalem; and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge him, and put him to death [Note: Luk_18:31-33.].”]
And these things were all literally fulfilled in him—
[His scourging is first mentioned in my text. But this was inflicted to prevent his crucifixion. Pilate hoped, by scourging Jesus, to pacify the anger of the Jews against him, and to move them to compassion towards him [Note: Luk_23:16; Luk_23:22. with Joh_19:1; Joh_19:4; Joh_19:6.]: so that the very mercy of his judge, no less than the fury of his persecutors, contributed to fill up the destined measure of his sufferings.
The various insults and indignities that were offered him are next mentioned. And where were they inflicted? In the very hall of Pilate himself, and by the very soldiers who were under his command! The discipline maintained amongst the Roman soldiers was exceeding strict: yet did they, under the very eye of the Governor, not execute his wishes, but go in direct opposition to them, to please and gratify the Jews: and thus they, voluntarily, and of their own mind, and in direct violation of their military duty, at the risk of being called to a severe account for it, go beyond the laws, and add punishments which the law did not prescribe, that so the Scriptures of the prophets might, unwittingly indeed on their part, be in every thing fulfilled.
His crucifixion closes the scene. But that was not a Jewish punishment: it was a penalty inflicted only by the Roman law: yet, though the law by which he was judged was Jewish, the punishment inflicted on him was Roman. But so the prophecies had foretold: and it was not possible that one word of them should fail of its accomplishment. The Roman Governor, without whose authority it could not be executed, did all in his power to prevent it; but could not prevail. He would gladly have embraced the opportunity, which custom had sanctioned, of pardoning one of the prisoners: but the Jews chose rather to have a murderer spared, than Him; a murderer, whose guilt was fully proved, rather than Jesus, whom the judge himself, after the fullest investigation, affirmed to be innocent. But so God had ordained; and so it came to pass.
Behold, then, how clear and indisputable is his Messiahship! Things were foretold which had no relation to each other, and which, in the common course of events, were inconsistent with eachother. But in him they all combined; and they came to pass, not through the well-adjusted efforts of friends to fulfil them, but through the unwitting agency of enemies, and through the very efforts which were made to prevent the accomplishment of them. I ask, then, with confidence, “Is not He the Christ [Note: Joh_4:29.]?”]
Let us now view him in another light; namely,
II. As our surety and substitute—
Having undertaken for us, he must bear all that our sins had merited—
[Shame, and misery, and death, were our proper and deserved portion. Even in this world “the way of transgressors is hard,” and “there is no peace to the wicked;” and the sentence of death hangeth over us: and, in the eternal world, the wicked will “awake to shame and everlasting contempt [Note: Dan_12:2.].” (Who can conceive the contempt and indignation that will then be felt against them by God himself, and by the saints who will sit with him as his assessors in judgment? The sentence that will be denounced against them in that day amply declares that point: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”) As for the misery that awaits us, no finite imagination can conceive it, when we shall lie down “in the lake of fire and brimstone, and spend a never-ending eternity in “weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” In a word, the curse of the law [Note: Deu_21:23.], “the wrath of God,” and “the damnation of hell,” which are the bitter ingredients of “the second death,” are the sinner’s doom.]
Now these, as far as was necessary for our redemption, he bore for us—
[As for the idea of every individual part of his sufferings making an atonement for every corresponding circumstance in our sins, I look upon it as altogether fanciful and absurd. But the great leading points of his sufferings and of our deserts do fully correspond with each other. Every mark of ignominy was shewn him, both in these his preparatory sufferings, and in his death itself, which was inflicted only on slaves, and which was declared by the Jewish law accursed. And “who ever beheld sorrow like unto his sorrow [Note: Lam_1:12.]?” Truly beyond any other person that ever existed upon earth was he despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief [Note: Isa_53:3.]:” “the whole nation despised and abhorred him [Note: Isa_49:7.];” and “his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men [Note: Isa_52:14.].” Finally, in his death, “he became a curse for us, that he might deliver us from the curse” to which we were doomed [Note: Gal_3:13.].” Thus did he not merely die in our stead, “the just for the unjust [Note: 1Pe_3:18.],” as a common victim in the place of the offender, but he fully discharged our debt in every particular; so that neither law nor justice can demand any thing further at our hands. Methinks we were lying, like Isaac, bound upon the altar, the knife being lifted up to inflict the deadly stroke, and the wood and fire prepared ready to consume us; but Jesus, as the ram caught in the thicket, undergoes the whole for us, and restores us to the bosom of our Father and our God. “By his stripes we are healed [Note: 1Pe_2:24.];” and by his death we live for ever [Note: 1Th_5:10.].]
Once more we may, in the midst of these sufferings, contemplate him,
III. As our great example—
What he endured shews us what we also shall have to bear—
[“God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son [Note: Rom_8:29.]:” and our blessed Lord has told us, that, as men hated and “persecuted him, so they will hate and persecute us [Note: Joh_15:20.].” “The servant cannot expect to be above his master: it is sufficient for him, if he be as his lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, much more will they those of his household [Note: Mat_10:24-25.].” We may see therefore, in the universality, contemptuousness, and acrimony of his persecutors, what his followers must expect, even unto death. We are expressly told, that “we are called to the same, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps [Note: 1Pe_2:21.]:” and, seeing that he has suffered for us without the gates of Jerusalem, we must go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach [Note: Heb_13:12-13.].”]
It shews us, too, in what way we must bear it—
[In the whole of these sufferings, we hear not one word of complaint. No, verily: though “he was so oppressed and afflicted, yet opened he not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth [Note: Isa_53:7.].” This especially is marked out for our imitation by St. Peter. “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously [Note: 1Pe_2:21-23.].” To this effect we are instructed by our Lord, and all his holy Apostles: instead of “rendering evil for evil unto any man,” we must “love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us [Note: Mat_5:44.].” Nor let this be thought impossible. It was done by Stephen, in the very hour of martyrdom [Note: Act_7:60.]: and it was nobly carried into effect by St. Paul, throughout the whole of his ministrations: “We are made a spectacle,” says he, “unto the world, and to angels, and to men. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things, unto this day [Note: 1Co_4:9-13.].” Here you see practical Christianity: and, if you come from the hall where Jesus so meekly bare all his ignominious treatment, and learn “so to walk as he walked,” you will not have beheld this sight in vain. “Consider then, I pray you, brethren, Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself;” that you, under similar treatment, may never be weary nor faint in your minds [Note: Heb_12:3.].”]
Let me not conclude without further remarking on this subject,
1. How astonishing is the love of Christ to sinful man!
[Our blessed Lord, as I have shewn, foresaw from the beginning all that should come upon him: yet, instead of drawing back, he longed for the period even to be baptized with this bloody baptism, and was quite “straitened till it should be accomplished [Note: Luk_12:50.]. What manner of love was this! When shall we learn to estimate it aright? O, brethren, seek to comprehend its breadth and length, and depth and height!” for it is by that, and by that only, that you can be “filled with all the fulness of God [Note: Eph_3:18-19.]” — — —]
2. How infatuated must they be who do not seek those blessings, for the obtaining of which all these things were endured!
[Who would believe that men professing to receive this record as true, and to hope for mercy through these very sufferings, should yet be as careless about their souls, as if they were of no value; and as indifferent about eternity, as if there were no future state of existence? Look at the Saviour, brethren, and reflect, Who he is; and what he has done; and what he has suffered; and for what end all these things have been effected! Had your souls been of little value, would all these things have come to pass? Had the future state of existence been a matter of such indifference, would the Son of the Living God have suffered all this for you? Go to the garden of Gethsemane; go to the hall of judgment; go to Mount Calvary; and learn the value of immortal souls: go, I say, and learn the folly and madness of neglecting this Saviour, through whom alone any soul of man can be saved. I pray you beloved, be in earnest, whilst yet the sufferings of God’s dear Son may avail for you. But if ye will not seek after him, then think what your portion must be in the eternal world. For, “if these things were done in the green tree, judge ye, what must be done in the dry [Note: Luk_23:31.]?”]