So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Mark 15:15
In this description there are no gory details, just the facts. Notice how the Bible shows great restraint in describing the physical sufferings of Jesus. This is important because there’s a real temptation for every teacher of the Bible to use the violence of what Jesus suffered to shock people. But you don’t find that in the Bible.
There is no attempt to have an impact by making people squirm over the sufferings of Jesus. There are no grotesque descriptions of the violence to get people’s attention. In a world of manipulation, God speaks the truth. He never manipulates.
While the Bible gives us restrained descriptions of Christ’s suffering, it also gives us explicit applications of the sufferings of Jesus. We are given very little by way of descriptive details, but we are given lots to answer the question, How does what Jesus suffered touch our lives today?
We often focus on how the death of Jesus touches our lives: He bore our sins. He took our judgement. He died our death. That’s what Jesus did in His death. But the question before us is not, How does the death of Jesus touch our lives? The question is, How do the sufferings of Jesus touch our lives? The Bible has some very distinct and clear and powerful applications of the sufferings of Jesus to our lives today as His followers.
How do you think the sufferings of Christ touch your life today?
