The Master’s Sufferings

Much has been said and written about the movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” by Mel Gibson. One thing I remember hearing was that it was a gory, bloody movie. Another was that it showed too much Jewish persecution and was therefore Anti-Semitic.

Well, first of all Yahoshua was a Jew, so how could it be Anti-Semitic? I mean the definition of being Anti-Semitic is that you are against the Jews and everyone knows it was the other way around. It was the Jews against a fellow Jew. You cannot even logically use the Anti-Semitic excuse to say that it shows the Jews persecuting other races, such as an Arab or Roman because Yahoshua was neither one.

Let’s get real people, the Jews persecuted a fellow Jew. Something that was done century after century to those whom they believed were violating THE LAW. Is Abraham shown or believed to be Anti-Semitic because he was going to kill Isaac? Well, heavens no. “He was following the order of YaHVaH,” you will hear someone say. I say wake up == the Jews of the time of Yahoshua were doing the same thing, following the plan of YaHVaH.

Bloody! Gory! Well, yes. How could it not be and portray the proper suffering of our Master. I would dare say that it was probably not bloody enough or gory enough compared to what actually happened to Him.

Read Psalm 22. This is a detailed description (Prophesied by YaHVaH through David) about some of the sufferings of the Messiah. The first verse was actually vocalized by Yahoshua on the cross (see Mk. 15:34). Let’s start with Ps. 22:6-7, “I am a worm and no one, a reproach of men, and despised of people. All that see me laugh at me, they open wide the mouth, they shake the head:- . . .” ROSNV. Can you relate to this? The Jews despised Him, the Romans despised Him, & the Greeks despised Him. Everyone wanted to be rid of Him. Even His own disciples ran away. He was considered to be less than the murderer Barabbas. They laughed because of His claim to be King and yet He was on the cross. He was a nobody to the very creation He had created. Think of how lonely, how psychologically suffering that has to be for someone!

In v. 8, they mock Him, saying He should call on YaHVaH to save Him (see Mt. 27:43). Continuing in Ps. 22:12-13, we see the representation of the Roman soldiers.

In v. 14, we see some real difficult to grasp suffering. “Like water, am I poured out, . . .” ROSNV, refers to both His love and His energy being poured out even to His persecutors, as well as referring to the water that gushed out of His side when He was pierced by the Roman spear.

It goes on to say, “. . . and put out of joint are all my bones,- . . .” ROSNV. As a previous paramedic, this is hard for me to visualize someone being like this, and still walk and talk. The pain must have been excruciating, I mean we are talking ALL His bones. Not just the knees, but also the hips, the ankles, and the toes. Not just the elbows, but also the shoulders, the collar bones, the wrists, and the fingers. The there are the ribs and the spine. Hey, one backbone of the spine out of joint normally will paralyze most men or put them in unbearable pain, yet imagine every single one out of place. WOW! He did this for us. It was this Scripture here that made His suffering hit home for me. I will admit, I even cried when I first comprehended the suffering of every bone out of joint.

Next, the verse says, “. . . my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels” KJV. Can you visualize your heart melting down into your bowels? The heart is mostly solid muscle and even with no blood and completely out of the body it is still quite firm. Imagine it becoming placidly soft and falling into the bowels [intestines]. It could definitely not pump much (if any) blood. To help you see what I mean, look at a ripe red tomato. When first picked it is nice and firm full of juice, but let it set out and start to decay, what happens? It becomes all soft and squishy, about ¼ of its original size, and most of the fluid is lost.

In v. 15, we see, “Dried as a potsherd is my strength, and my tongue is made to cleave to my gums, . . .” ROSNV. A potsherd is a dry, baked, cracked piece of clay that was originally part of a pot, but was broken off. Tongue cleaving (sticking) to your gums, not able to move, not able to drink, and yet unbearable thirst with only vinegar given to you on a sponge (see John 19:28-30).

All of this on top of the Jews spitting into His face, buffeting Him, blindfolding Him, slapping Him, and mocking Him. For clarification, buffeting (kolaphizo) is the striking with the fist, as opposed to slapping (rapizo or rapisma), which is to strike with the open palms. Both were done by them.

Oh, let’s not forget the Romans. They were scourging Him, mocking Him, striking Him with a reed on the head, spitting at Him, hitting Him with their hands, then they put a crown of thorns on His head, made Him carry the cross, and Crucified Him. The definition of scourging, phragelloo, “is the word used in Matthew 27:26 and Mark 15:15 [to describe what was] endured by [Messiah] and administered by the order of Pilate. Under the Roman method of scourging the person was stripped and tied in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame. The scourge was made of leather thongs, weighted with sharp pieces of bone or lead, which tore the flesh of both the back and the breast (cf. Psalm 22:17)” (Strong’s, Greek section, 266).

But the worst suffering of all was the first verse of Ps. 22, also found in Mk. 15:34 and Mt. 27:46. This was the separation from the Father, YaHVaH, something that had not happened in all of time.

Each suffering Yahoshua went through had a direct correlation to some spiritual sin of mankind.

Praise be to YaHVaH that His Son, Yahoshua, went through this for us so that we may be SAVED!

First published 5-2004, © 2004, 2017

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