I never liked getting a spanking. I deserved every one I got, but I didn’t like them. But limits were set and when I decided to ignore them, I got into trouble. It wasn’t just the pain I disliked, but the embarrassment and shame, too. You could say that I suffered. The dictionary defines suffering as enduring pain or distress, or tolerating something for a time.

The Bible says that Jesus suffered. He felt the pain and embarrassment of people saying that He deserved to die. They spit on Him! YUCK! How awful that must be! They blindfolded Him so He might become disoriented and perhaps fall. They struck Him with their fists. Already blindfolded, He couldn’t even see what was coming. After all this, the guards took Him and beat Him. The first serving of suffering was not enough, another set of guys decided He needed more… they put a ‘royal’ robe on Him and pushed a crown of thorns into His head.

No one would want to think any of this would happen to someone they knew. Oh, wait, it did! And you DO know Him! Our precious Jesus, that loved us so much, He took this suffering. Not because He deserved it, but because we did.

Mark 14:64b-65: “They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards took him and beat him.”

Author: Angie Reeves