The Wounds of Christ
Isaiah 53:5
Within a few days from the Triumphal Entry, the exaltation of Christ by the crowds would quickly give way to untold suffering and the angry shouts of a mob saying “Crucify Him!” Christ’s reprehensible suffering is prophesied in the Old Testament. Bruised, Wounded, Smitten! But have you ever stopped to consider the wounds He received in His substitutionary death for you and me. Let us take time to do so today.
I. Contusions – An internal bruise caused by a blunt object such as a blow from a rod
A. Isaiah 53:5 “But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities.”
B. Matthew 26:67-68 “Then they spit in His face and buffeted Him, and others smote Him with the palms of their hands, saying, "Prophesy unto us, thou Christ! Who is he that smote thee?"
C. Buffet - to strike, as with the hand or fist; to strike against or push repeatedly; to attack “blow after blow”, as when waves buffet a boat. Christ was repeatedly struck with both fists and open hands in a sordid sickly sadistic mockery of the Lamb of God.
D. Micah 5:1 “Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; He has laid siege against us; they will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.”
E. Matthew 27:29 -30 “And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head and a reed in His right hand, and they bowed their knees before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews! And they spat upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head.”
II. Laceration – A wound which results in a jagged or irregular tear.
A. Isaiah 50:6 “I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting.”
B. Psalm 129:3 “The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows”
C. Matthew 27:26 “Then released he (Pilate) Barabbas unto them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.”
D. “Flogging was a legal preliminary to any Roman execution. The prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. The Roman legionnaire stepped forward with the flagrum, or flagellum, in his hand. This was a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip was brought down with full force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the weighted thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continued, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produced large deep bruises that were broken open by subsequent blows. Finally, the skin of the back was hanging in long ribbons, and the entire area was an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it was determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner was near death, the beating was finally stopped” – Dr. C Truman Davis, New Wine Magazine, April 1982.
E. 1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
III. Penetrating – A wound caused by a sharp or pointed object that punctures or penetrates the skin
A. Matthew 27:29 -30 “And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head and a reed in His right hand, and they bowed their knees before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews! And they spat upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head.”
B. Consider the crown of thorns. Imagine the pain that you and I would feel if a straight pin was pressed into your temple. Now imagine several dozen spiny thorns pressed hard into your brow to mingle open wounds that would mingle both blood and sweat.
C. The crown was put upon His sacred head; both to reproach Him as a king, and to torture Him as a man.
IV. Perforating Wound – Piercing – A wound caused by a sharp instrument making a hole through a body part.
A. Psalm 22:16 “For dogs have surrounded Me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me; they pierced My hands and My feet.”
B. The Roman legionnaire would feel for the depression at the front of the wrist. He would then drive a 5-7 inch long heavy, wrought-iron nail with a 5/8 inch square shaft through the wrist and deep into the wood of the patibulum or crossbar. The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot. With both feet extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each.
C. John 20:24-27 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said unto them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." "
D. Zechariah 13:6 “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
V. Incision – A wound made by a cutting instrument
A. John 19:33-34 “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they broke not His legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith there came out blood and water.”
B. A Roman spear was used in the New Testament to stab Jesus in the lower rib. Roman spears were generally placed on a long wooden shaft to prevent the breaking of the spear. The spear used to stab Jesus was probably a Pilum, generally carried by Legionaries, or elite soldiers. The point of the spear was pyramid shaped; which created a wound which would remain open and not heal quickly.
C. But John points out that Christ was already dead and from His side flowed water and blood.
D. There from His side flowed the watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the blood of the interior of the heart. This is convincing post-mortem evidence that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion way by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
E. Under the weight of our sins the very heart of Christ was crushed.
F. Isaiah 53:6-7 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”
VI. The Wounds were caused by our sin
A. Isaiah tells us that the accumulated sufferings of the Christ, being wounded, bruised, chastised, pierced-through, plagued, crushed was not for His own sins, but for ours. He carried on His own person the sins of the world. He carried your and my sins to the cross that we might be forgiven.
B. Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,...”
C. Revelation 5:9 "...Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation"
D. The wounds of Christ are there because Jesus loves you and me.
They were in God’s plan of redemption as prophesied of old. They were inflicted for you and me.
E. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
F. Hebrews 12:2 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
