This Week's Focus Passage

‘And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and beat him.’

Focus Passage: Luke 22:63

‘And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and beat him.’

Luke relates these shocking details in verses 63-65 of the 22nd chapter of his ‘Gospel according to Luke’ as some of our versions have titled the book. Jesus has been arrested, seized, and brought to the house of the high priest. This is followed by Luke’s account of the sad denial of Jesus by the apostle Peter, vss. 51-62, and this is then followed by our focus passage of three verses:

And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and beat him. And they blindfolded him, and asked him, saying, Prophesy: who is he that struck thee? And many other things spake they against him, reviling him.

Matthew’s telling of this interrogation by the high priest adds some things even more vile than Luke’s account. Matthew, in chapter 26:67-68, has written:

Then did they spit in his face and buffet him: and some smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ: who is he that struck thee?

Not only did these men blindfold the Son of God, but they mocked him, and beat him; they reviled Him with their impertinent questioning. Matthew added, if these were not enough, that these individuals spit in the face of the Christ, as well as buffeting Him. They smote Him with the palms of their hands, slapping Him it seems, adding insult to injury with that most degrading method of smiting. Again, Mark enlarges somewhat in his language of the occasion in Mark 14:64-65:

And they all condemned him to be worthy of death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the officers received him with blows of their hands.

It is discovered to us here in Mark’s account, in addition to the others, that these persecutors of the Christ not only covered His face, buffeted Him, mocked Him, and beat Him with blows of their hands. And Mark advises us along with Matthew that, as if that weren’t enough, they spit upon Him. Imagine that! Creatures made in the image of God spitting on His Son, God Himself manifest in the flesh. What should be done unto them, unto such as would lift their hands against the Most High?

The record left by the apostle John of this event seems to be that which we find in 18:19-24. As Jesus is being interrogated by the high priest, His defence is Why askest thou me? ask them that have heard me, what I spake unto them: behold, these know the things which I said. And when he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? These are among the things which Jesus suffered at the hands of men after He had been arrested and brought unto the high priest. We have not even mentioned the atrocities of the soldiers under Pilate, and their mocking the ‘King of the Jews,’ and also striking Him with their hands. Have you ever considered these men and their audacious behavior? Have you thought about their end? If many will be coming before Jesus protesting Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? only to hear this death knell from His lips, I never knew you, Depart from me, what will these mockers and blasphemers hear in that great day of the Lord?

Is it possible that any of these persons came under the intention of that glorious prayer of our dying Lord as He gazed through blood-stained eyes—His blood running down from the punctures that the mocking crown of thorns had made in His flesh—gazing, I say, upon the multitude that had just lately cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him;’ could any of these be the subjects of His petition to His Father, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do? As fearsome as the behavior of those who mocked, buffeted, spit upon, slapped, and beat the Lord of glory, is there any sin that cannot be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ? Have we been reminded perhaps of how we, at one time, like these sinners, also mocked Jesus? In the days prior to our regeneration, did we never treat one of Christ’s own in this despicable manner? Did we never, like the apostle Paul, persecute the church of Jesus Christ with our taunts, our making jokes of these gentle folk, perhaps even spitting upon them and buffeting them with scornful words from our wicked lips?

Yes, indeed, by the grace of God, being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, we are able to say with Paul, recorded in his first letter to Timothy:

I thank him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service; though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.—1 Tim. 1:12-14.

Truly must we proclaim with old John Newton, ‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,’ as well as with Charles Wesley, when he inquired in song, ‘And can it be that I should gain and interest in the Savior’s blood, died He for me who caused His pain, for me who Him to death pursued.’ Is it not glorious and grand that there is mercy for the chiefest of us sinners? There is mercy for those attendants of the high priest that so dishonored the King of the Jews in order to honor their high priest rather than honoring the Great High Priest, Jesus the Messiah of God. There is mercy for those soldiers of Pilate that so despicably abused the Son of God; the Governor of the universe, in order to please the comparatively insignificant Roman governor of Judea. There is mercy for those attendants and soldiers, and there is mercy for sinners such as ourselves. While they and we are guilty of bruising the Christ and putting Him to grief, yet has God declared through Isaiah the prophet many years before that it was God Himself who made His soul an offering for sin. Because of the determination of the Triune God to redeem His own, we are advised from this rather shocking statement, that it actually pleased Jehovah to bruise Him. Because of His pleasure; because of the compliance of the Lord of glory, and because of the promise of the Father to Him, He shall see His seed, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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