October 16
October 16
Even when he was tortured and mocked, Jesus exercised divine power on our behalf.
This moment in the final days of Jesus might seem, on the surface, to be a moment of defeat:
The soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. (Mark 15:16–20)
You might read this and think, Where was Jesus’s power? Why didn’t he do something? Why did he just stand there and take the abuse? Some looked at this moment and concluded that this couldn’t be the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Why didn’t Jesus call down an army of angels to deal with these blasphemous torturers? How could he let them mock his divine kingship?
But we know that this was far from a moment of weakness. Jesus was not weakly succumbing to humans who hated him and wanted to harm him. No, in this moment Jesus was committed to his eternal redemptive plan; he knew exactly what he was doing. He refused to be diverted. He did not rise to his own defense. He did not let mockery or physical pain cause him to abandon his substitutionary mission. He did not come to earth for his own pleasure, comfort, or acclaim. He could not give in and save himself, because through his suffering he would deliver salvation to multitudes. Jesus’s response to this torture did not mock his identity; it was his identity (see Isa. 53).
You and I should see through the apparent weakness and be blown away by Jesus’s divine power. Rather than a show of defeat and weakness, what we witness here is a display of redemptive victory and strength. Jesus knew that his suffering was part of the plan that his Father had established before the world began. He knew the glory of grace that his suffering would unleash. He stood there with the worshiping multitudes in mind, the redeemed from all times and from every tongue and nation. He endured the torture and mockery for you and me. What appeared to be a defeat was another step in the success of his great redemptive mission. Jesus’s power was on display, and his power is our hope.
Now, by grace, that same power is ours as the children of God. We stand in both his power and his victory. In him we have the power to stand true in the face of mockery and suffering. When we are mocked, we do not have to be afraid or retaliate, but we can do what Jesus did. We can commend ourselves into the care of our heavenly Father, knowing that he will vindicate us in the end.