Lessons from Easter: Scourging

Warning: this blog gets down to the gory and gritty details of the scourging that Jesus endured before He was crucified.

Roman Scourging

When it was legally settled for someone to be scourged, that person was stripped completely naked so that the entirety of his flesh would be fully exposed to the torturer's whip. Then, the victim would often be bound to a 2-foot high scourging post that was made of stone. His hands were tied to a metal ring above his head, and his wrists were bound to that ring so that his body would be restrained from moving. The person being scourged was in a completely locked position, unable to move or even wiggle a little bit away from the lashes being whipped across his body. The Romans were the best of the best when it came to scourging, and they even took pride in being known as such professionals at punishing their victims with this barbaric and violent act of punishment.

Once the victim was fastened to the post and their body was laid out across it, the Roman soldiers would begin to torture him. Just the mere anticipation of the whipping caused immense stress and panic in the victim. Rick Renner tells of the scourging in his book, "Easter: The Rest of the Story" as he writes in the following excerpt taken from pages 134-135:

The scourge itself, as a weapon, consisted of a short, wooden handle with several 18- to 24-inch-long straps of leather protruding from it. The ends of these pieces of leather were knotted with sharp pieces of metal, wire, glass, and jagged fragments of bone. The scourge was considered to be one of the most feared and deadly weapons of the Roman world. It was so ghastly that the mere threat of scourging would calm a crowd or bend the will of the strongest rebel. Even the most hardened criminal recoiled from the prospect of being submitted to the vicious beating of a Roman scourging.

Most often two torturers were utilized to carry out this vicious punishment, simultaneously lashing the victim from two sides. As these dual whips struck the victim, the leather straps with their sharp, jagged objects extended over his entire back, and each piece of metal, wire, bone, or glass cut deeply through the victim's skin and into his flesh, shredding his muscles and sinews.

Every time the whip pounded across the victim, those straps of leather curled torturously around his torso, biting painfully and deeply into the skin of his abdomen and upper chest. As each stroke lacerated the sufferer, even if he tried to thrash about, he was unable to move because his wrists were held so firmly to the metal ring fastened on the stone column. Helpless to escape the whip, most often victims would scream for mercy that this anguish might come to an end.

Every time the torturers struck a victim, the straps of leather that were attached to the wooden handle would cause multiple lashes as the sharp objects at the end of each strap sank into the flesh and then raked across the victim's body.

Then the torturer would jerk back, pulling hard in order to tear whole pieces of human flesh from the body. The victim's back, buttocks, back of the legs, stomach, upper chest, and face would soon be disfigured by the slashing blows of the whip.

A Roman scourging removed so much flesh from the victims that often their ribs and their spine could be seen with the naked eye. Historical records even note that the bowels were known to even spill out of a victim through the open wounds that the whip created during a scourging. The brutality left veins, muscles, bones, sinews, and bowels fully exposed. The loss of blood due to the whip constantly tearing open the veins and blood vessels often led to a drastic drop in blood pressure, or even a heartbeat irregularity that ended in cardiac arrest. This is what Jesus endured before the Cross.

Willing

In all of this, we must remember that Jesus willingly surrendered to the men who led Him away the previous night in the Garden of Gethsemane. No man had enough power to take Him down, and certainly no Roman soldier. This was Jesus' Passion, He willingly laid down His life and endured this pain and shame, so that we could live. He was pierced, for our transgressions. And it is by the stripes that those whips made upon His bare back, that we are healed.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:3-5

We were the joy that was set before Him as Jesus endured such pain. Knowing that we would be with God forever, and be in Him forever by His sacrifice, was the joy that Jesus looked to as He endured the persecution, the scourging, and the Cross.

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

Jesus willingly did this for you, and for me.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

“He committed no sin,

and no deceit was found in His mouth.”

When they heaped abuse on Him,

He did not retaliate;

when He suffered, He made no threats,

but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

He Himself bore our sins

in His body on the tree,

so that we might die to sin

and live to righteousness.

“By His stripes you are healed.”

1 Peter 2:21-24

Marred Beyond Human Semblance

Isaiah 52:14 gives us an idea of what Jesus looked like after undergoing the Roman scourging:

Just as many were astonished and appalled at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form [marred] more than the sons of men.

AMP

Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—

NIV

But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.

NLT

This scripture tells us that Jesus was marred and disfigured beyond recognition, to the point where He didn't even look human anymore. And this wasn't even the end, but it was after this that Jesus was led to be crucified.

Jesus came to earth- fully God and fully man- knowing no sin, and yet He became sin on our behalf. When Jesus underwent that scourging, and when His face and body became so disfigured that He wasn't even recognizable as a human being anymore, He was bearing the punishment of sin for us, so that we could bear His perfect righteousness. He was paying the price for our healing. Isaiah prophesied of this healing that would be made available to us through Jesus Christ many years before the Cross, when He said,

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

And Peter even quoted the prophesy of Isaiah in 1 Peter 2:24,

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

1 Peter 2:24

Or another version writes, "By His scourge marks you are healed."

By His Stripes We Are Healed

It is by the bleeding and the scourging stripes that ripped the flesh off of Jesus' body, that our bodies are healed. The word for "healed" in 1 Peter 2:24 is a Greek word that specifically refers to the healing of physical conditions, and it is borrowed from a medical term that describes the physical curing or healing of the human body. It is by the stripes of Jesus, that we receive bodily healing. And all who belong to Jesus and have been redeemed by Him, are those who are worthy to receive this healing. All who believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings, are children of God who can receive the healing power of Jesus Christ in their bodies.

Jesus willfully took our sins upon Himself when He died on the cross, but He also took our pains and our sicknesses upon Himself when He lay tied to that scourging post and received those lashes across His body.

Jesus Christ's broken body was the payment that guaranteed our physical healing.

-Rick Renner

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:17

No matter what you've been through, no matter how dark your past, no matter how bad you believe your sin to be, Jesus is the Redeemer and Savior of all men. The Bible doesn't say that Jesus was scourged and crucified so that only those who had the "least" of sins could be healed. Jesus died once, for all men and all women. And all means all.

Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

Hebrews 9:26-28

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

1 Peter 3:18

Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.

Hebrews 7:27

He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:2

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:10

Do you believe you need Jesus to be your Savior for your sins and the sins of the world? Do you receive His atoning sacrifice only needed to happen one time, for all sins, for all of mankind? Then you are now the righteousness of God by Him. You are now a child of God who can receive healing in your body, your mind, and your emotions. Not because of anything you did to earn it, but because of everything Jesus atoned for and everything Jesus accomplished for you. What Jesus did was not because of us, but it was because of God's love for us. And that is why you can receive healing this Easter.

I pray for the one reading this blog right now. I pray for a revelation of the finished works of Jesus Christ to be quickened within your spirit, and that it would flood out of your spirit into your soul and then into your body, bringing healing to every bone, tissue, cell, muscle, ligament, organ, system, and process in your body. I pray that you would receive healing today because it's just as simple as receiving salvation. I pray that you would receive healing today because the Healer lives inside of you. I pray that you would receive healing because Jesus is healing. I pray that you would receive the blessing of the WORD because it is written,

By His stripes, we were healed

1 Peter 2:24

He sent His Word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Psalm 107:20

I pray that the healing power of God would fill up the room that you are in right now, and that every disease and every sickness would flee in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray that your heart would be illuminated with understanding that healing is not something we must earn, but something Jesus earned for us, and now we can simply receive. I pray that this Easter, you are filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, and that you experience a turning in your life today- a turning point where you begin seeking Jesus Christ more than ever before, and you never look back. I pray for the new thing that God desires to do in your life to come forth today in Jesus' mighty name, and I praise God for His WORD that brings health to your whole body today.

God bless you all.

Happy Easter, and,

Happy Resurrection Day.

JESUS IS RISEN.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matthew 28:6

My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.

Proverbs 4:20-22

If you enjoyed this Easter blog series and you want to go deeper, we recommend purchasing Rick Renner's book, Easter- The Rest of the Story.