“So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.” (Mark 15:15 NLT).
Why was it necessary for Jesus not only to suffer an agonizing death, but to have severe cruelty and indignity inflicted upon Him?
In addition to being flogged with a lead-tipped whip by Pilate’s order, Jesus was also:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23, HCSB).
I am a member of a men’s Sunday School class attended by several business and professional men in the community.
I know what you are thinking. You guys just sit around and talk about sports, politics, and business and not much time is spent discussing the Sunday School lesson.
Not so with these guys! They study and discuss the lesson.
I remember one class where the Sunday School lesson was on the resurrection of Jesus and the men discussed how God seems to carry out His plans and purposes in the most unexpected ways. They observed that it was the women, not the apostles that were the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. It was shepherds, not the religious leaders whom God told about the birth of the Savior.
“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22, NLT).
Jesus made these analogies in response to questioning from indignant Pharisees as to why Jesus’s disciples didn’t fast like the disciples of John the Baptist (vs. 18).
Jesus responded that the guests at a wedding celebrate with the groom; they don’t fast with the groom (vs. 19).
Jesus was saying that the customs and traditions of the old covenant are incompatible with the arrival of God’s Kingdom.
Steve's Bible Meditations 