This  is the start of what is known as passion week.  It begins with the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and ends with the crucifixion of Jesus at the place called Golgotha.  We looked at some of the words of comfort and assurance of Jesus to His disciples last week.  I hope you went on to read Jesus’ prayer of intercession on behalf of His disciples, John 17.
 
Look at John 17: 9; 15-16,
“I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  Vs. 9
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”  Vs. 15-16
 
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”  Vs. 20-21
 
How wonderful and awesome!  Safe in the Father through the Son by His Holy Spirit.
 
In John 10, Jesus says,
“I am the door; if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture.”  Vs. 9
“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”  Vs. 11
“My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. 
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  
I and the Father are one.”  Vs. 27-30
 
Our Good Shepherd did just that, He laid down His life for us.  The death He died was a horrible and painful death that came after being spit on, mocked, beat on the head, slapped in the face, crowned with thorns and scourged.
 
“Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists, and others slapped Him.”  Matthew 26:67
 
“And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ 
And they spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head.”  Matthew 27: 29-30
 
“So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.”  John 19:1
 
“Vine’s Expository Dictionary” says:
“Under the Roman method of scourging, the person was stripped and tied in a bending posture to a pillar, or stretched on a frame.  The scourge was made of leathern thongs, weighted with sharp pieces of bone or lead, which tore the flesh of both the back and the breast.”
 
Lee Strobel in “The Case for Christ” gives a very vivid description of the ‘torture before the Cross’ and the ‘agony of the Cross’.
 
We see crosses in churches that are so beautifully crafted -- polished, smooth and of fine wood, but Jesus was crucified on a tree.  Not smooth and polished, but rough.  Imagine (there is no way we can!) being brutally hauled up and secured to this instrument of death with a body so torn and wounded, then to hang struggling for every breath until the end!
 
But our intercessor, Jesus, prayed once again, “…Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  Luke 23:34
 
There are no words to adequately worship and honor our Lord!!  But gratefully let’s just open our hearts to Him and allow Him free access to these lives He has paid for so dearly!
 
Thank you, Most Precious Lord, we humbly bow before You; have Your perfect way in our lives!  Amen