“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him” (RSV, John 19:1)
Christ “himself bore our sins … that we might die to sin and live to righteousness”. “…by whose stripes ye were healed” (RSV and King James Bible, 1 Peter 2:24)
Although Our Blessed Lord’s earthly life lasted a little over 30 years and his ministry nearly three, only one day is described for us in detail – and that day was his last – from sunset on Maundy Thursday to sunset on Good Friday. And the reason for this is that that day was the most significant of all, not only in Christ’s own life, but in the whole history of humankind; for in those 24 hours the eternal salvation of all humankind was made possible.
Our Blessed Lord is more than a Teacher whose precepts and example we may follow as and when we feel inclined. He is our Saviour whom we can either accept and be eternally happy, or else reject and be for ever frustrated and discontented.
For in the end there are only two destinations presented to each human being: one is to live with God, beholding the splendour of his visible Presence and sharing in the joy of his very Being; the other is to be wholly separated from God, as unconscious of his infinite love and beauty and goodness as if he did not exist at all.
One thing alone can separate us from God and cause us to lose that true life for which he made us and that one thing is sin. For any thought or word or act that is contrary to the holiness of God is by its very nature sinful, and sin itself is in essence rebellion against God, a perverse desire to be independent of him who is the ultimate source of all goodness and of all joy.
If we should ever think that our sins do not matter, let us reflect that if such a notion were true, Our Blessed Lord’s life and death were a waste of time and a waste of pain for he came for no other purpose than to free each single one of us from the power of sin, and to restore us, thus freed, to God.
For there can be no compromise between God and sin, however unimportant we may choose to regard our own particular sins. God’s nature and character is one of dazzling, blinding holiness: there is no gradual shading off so as to merge imperceptibly with the bad in us. As Our Blessed Lord declared, it is the pure in heart who shall see God; and only he can purify the heart which has been soiled by sin and make it clean, and that was what he came to do.
And the cost of his mission is seen most vividly in its last 24 hours. Our Lord’s Passion – or Sufferings – is generally reckoned as beginning with the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a new phase was reached when he was scourged – flogged that is, with a whip composed of several leather strips to which were attached sharp objects, such as glass, nails and rocks. Scourging resulted in severe wounds to the skin and underlying flesh. (1) This was the normal preliminary to crucifixion.
So St Peter quotes a passage from Isaiah as applying specifically to the scourging of Christ as part of the price he paid for coming to save us, “with his stripes we are healed” (see Note below).
The passage from which those words are cited emphasises a truth which cannot be too often remembered, and that is our own personal share in the guilt of Good Friday: “…he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (RSV, Isaiah 53:5,6, our emphasis).
For in every sin we commit there is a two-fold guilt. First, there is the guilt of the sin itself which persists undiminished by the lapse of time, for ever accusing us before God until it is forgiven and we are made clean in the Blood of the Lamb.
But besides that there is a second guilt which, in a Christian who has seen the light, is even worse – the guilt of personal involvement in the Crucifixion of God. That is not an exaggeration, for he came into this world to save your own soul and mine as much as any other – and the Crucifixion was what that mission cost. If we had never sinned, then we could stand apart with a clear conscience and know that we were blameless for what happened to our Saviour on that day.
But no, there is no one who can make that boast. No one can say to himself or herself, “The Crucifixion had nothing to do with me and therefore I had nothing to do with the Crucifixion”. It was our sins which brought him into the world, and we see what happened to him as a result. Every wicked thought and word and act of each of us played its part in the sufferings of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
But even that is not all, for, unless we truly repent, that is unless we see our sins through his holy eyes and sincerely renounce them by turning to him in penitence and love and willing obedience, then so far as we are concerned, all his sufferings will indeed have been in vain. For not even God can save those who resist him by deliberately siding with their own lower sinful selves against him.
It is true that Christ died to free us from the power of our sins, but what difference can that make to us if we by our own will, hug those sins to ourselves?
Then indeed our guilt is three-fold: guilty of sin itself; guilty of our own share in the Crucifixion; until finally we become guilty of rejecting the salvation which the Crucified Christ himself offers. One then incurs the judgement of which he spoke, “…this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (RSV, John 3:19).
If you are touched by the Saviour’s love and the Saviour’s sufferings, turn to him with all your heart. Then with true penitence, seek and secure his forgiveness and enter on that new life with him to which he is calling you.
Collect for Ash Wednesday
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen. (3)
Note
In RSV and NRSV translations, the word “wounds” is used rather than “stripes” as in the King James Bible. However, the word used in the Greek refers specifically to wounds left by scourging. (2)
References
1. Evans, C.A. (2008) ‘The shout of death’ In Evans, C.A. and Wright, T. (ed. Miller, T.A.) Jesus. The final days, London: SPCK.
2. Zerwick, M. and Grosvenor, M. (1988) A grammatical analysis of the Greek New Testament, Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico.
3. © The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England (2006) Common Worship Times and Seasons: Lent. Available from:
http://www.churchofengland.org/media/41155/tslent.pdf (Accessed 19 February 2013) (Internet).