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We all know that Jesus suffered and died for us on the cross, but have you ever considered that Jesus can relate to those of us who are abuse survivors? We are exploring a different perspective of the life and death of Jesus-That he was an abuse survivor Himself. I talk about his birth, his ministry, his array of human emotions, the loss of loved ones, the religious leaders trying to destroy Him, his illegal trial, and being abandoned and betrayed by those closest to Him. Find out how Romans made crucifixion as humiliating and painful as possible. You will find that Jesus experienced many of the same sufferings that we have.
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Jesus as an abuse victim
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now here is Diana. [00:00:33] Hello. Happy Easter everyone. I am recording this during Easter weekend, we just came from our Good Friday activity, which was stations of the cross. it’s not the same as the Catholic stations of the cross. It’s more of an interpretation. They use art, different [00:01:00] expressions of artistic forms, different mediums, and you go through the eight stations and there’s bible verses. [00:01:11] There’s prayers and different things to think about. Sometimes there’s music or sound effects. And every year it’s different. It’s really a great way to get into that meditative state where we’re thinking about what God has done for us. And a celebration on Sunday, resurrection Sunday when he rose from the dead. [00:01:44] I’m gonna try and put [00:01:47] the pictures that I took on my Facebook page, DSW Ministries. So if you wanna look at those, you can. I’m not the greatest photographer. I just took them with my [00:02:00] phone. But hope that you enjoy those. Something else I wanted to mention. If you’re watching this right now, it’s probably on YouTube because my website has been down for the last week. [00:02:15] My host for my website has, the server has been down. At least that’s what they’ve been telling me all week. And so I’ve been on the phone with them every day, and I still don’t have my website up, so that means I was not able to post the episodes for the last two weeks. [00:02:38] And that’s to all the podcasting platforms. The only thing I could do was post to YouTube, which I do anyway. But thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. And if you know anybody that just listens let them know to come and listen on YouTube. Because that’s the only thing I can post on right [00:03:00] now. [00:03:00] So I am meeting with my webmaster Etana this week, and I’m just going to switch website hosts. I can’t really deal with my site being down that long. If you have a business, you understand that? I don’t make enough to live off of my website, but I do have my music there and I have the podcast and the blog there and when somebody goes to my website, it isn’t available. [00:03:28] Yeah, I’m still deciding on which host to switch to. But anyway, [00:03:32] spring has sprung and in my neighborhood it is probably 80 degrees today and I was out doing my my garden and things are growing. Flowers are blooming. It’s very exciting. And Easter is exciting. And I was going to do a different Bible character this week in our study of abuse in the [00:04:00] Bible. [00:04:00] Different prominent Bible characters who have suffered trauma and abuse. And last week we did Queen Esther. I am going to do Jesus this week because it’s Easter Sunday. I thought it was appropriate. And you may not have thought of Jesus as an abuse victim, and you think yeah, I mean he died on the cross and he was, flogged and stuff. [00:04:31] We’re gonna get to that because definitely that is part of abuse. But we’re gonna go into his trial, his ministry, and maybe some things you might not have thought about. So I want you to change your mindset a little bit, your perspective a little bit, and think of Jesus as somebody who suffered abuse just like we did. [00:04:59] Maybe [00:05:00] more and many of the old and New Testament saints have suffered quite a bit as we have discovered already. There are some prophets we’re gonna go through down the road here, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Others are some the Apostle Paul and some of the the great missionaries of the faith. [00:05:21] We’re gonna go through all of those. Joseph being my favorite Bible character. So that’s something to look forward to. But I wanted to start with Jesus today, and there’s a lot of scripture because I want you to know where all this stuff is. [00:05:39] I don’t wanna just come here and just read off a bunch of stuff. I want you to know where in the Bible, that you find these things. [00:05:47] We’re gonna start in Matthew and some of the gospels, they have the same narrative parallel stories. I’m just going to pick one of them. Even though there may be more than [00:06:00] one account of a particular event or story you’re welcome to look at the other accounts. That’s great study. [00:06:09] Each gospel has a different viewpoint. Something to add. [00:06:13] We’re gonna start with Herod because king Herod tried to kill Jesus before he was even born. You know about the wise men. Herod asked him, where is the king of the Jews going to be born? And the Wiseman kind of figured out that Herod’s intentions were not very good. Herod was very jealous of anybody that would be a threat to his throne, even his own children. [00:06:50] And so he pretended that he wanted to worship Jesus. Come back and tell me where he is, so I may go and worship [00:07:00] him. Actually, the Magi was warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, because Herod would probably have killed the wise men as well. [00:07:10] And so of course Herod was a mad man. He was a great builder. He built many of palaces and structures in Israel. But I’m going to read in Matthew 2:16 through 18, [00:07:27] this is what happened. [00:07:29] Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. I know that a lot of people believe that the Wiseman went to the manger. The Wiseman did not go to the manger. The Wiseman went [00:08:00] to Joseph and Mary’s house, and the Bible describes him as being a child. [00:08:05] So he was a young child under two years old. It took a long time for the wise men to travel to find Jesus followed the star of Bethlehem. So anyway, that is why Herod wanted all the children under two years old in Bethlehem killed because his idea was better that the innocent dies than the guilty to go free. [00:08:36] I think that was his mentality, [00:08:38] and that is very tragic. And all those children died because Herod was jealous of a baby king of the Jews, that he misunderstood that Jesus was gonna come and take his throne away. Wasn’t going to be an earthly throne, it was gonna be a heavenly throne. In fact, discover later that a [00:09:00] lot of people, including the disciples, believed that he was coming to rescue them from the oppression of Rome, which he wasn’t. [00:09:10] He was there to save our souls, to rescue us from our sin. He made no effort to rescue anybody from the clutches of Rome, which caused a lot of misunderstandings. So that was the first act of abuse, was that they were in mortal danger hiding from Herod. And so let’s talk about when Jesus is older. [00:09:37] He was raised in Nazareth, which is a town in Galilee. It’s just a humble little village. Nothing to get excited about. And what Jesus did was he went into the synagogue and he started reading from the scriptures and he basically said, the kingdom of God is [00:10:00] upon you. [00:10:00] So I’m going to go to Luke 4: 29. [00:10:04] So this is where the trouble started. And he came to Nazareth when, where he had been brought. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. [00:10:21] He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. [00:10:44] Verse 20. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled [00:11:00] in your hearing. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. [00:11:08] And they said, is not this Joseph son? And he said to them, doubtless, you’ll quote to me this proverb physician, heal yourself. [00:11:20] Verse 28, when they heard these things all in the synagogue were filled with wrath, and they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff. [00:11:40] But passing through their midst, he went away. [00:11:43] he was pretty much declaring that he was the Messiah. So he was showing some of his [00:11:51] God-like attributes where he could pass right through them because it was not his time to die. Going over the edge of a [00:12:00] cliff. [00:12:00] You get a lot of ridicule if your family are not believers. You get ridiculed by your friends. Oh, we partied with you. We watched you grow up. You’re not, super Christian. You’re not a missionary, you don’t have, the stuff to be a pastor or a preacher. You get that. [00:12:19] Your friends and family may not understand. And a lot of times you’ll have to go outside of your inner circle to go and minister to other people before anybody believes you. So that’s what happened to Jesus. I don’t know about his siblings. It must have been interesting growing up in Jesus’ family. [00:12:39] I wish that the Bible gave us more information about what was it like when he grew up? Like did he get along with his brothers? Did they know about him being the Messiah? Did Mary tell the other children that he was the promised one, that an angel [00:13:00] came to her? I don’t know. The Bible is silent about what the rest of the family knew. [00:13:06] I think that there was probably some doubts among the siblings, but as we know, James is one of his brothers that is a believer and he is one of the disciples in the early church. Now Judas in this passage is not, Judas Iscariot. Judas is a very common name. There’s another translation would be Jude. [00:13:32] So just to clarify that, and Simon’s a very common name. It was not the same Simon Peter. So anyway. [00:13:38] Let’s go to the next one. [00:13:41] Okay. So after they, they tried to push him off a cliff, they called him a drunk. So I’m going to go into Matthew [00:13:53] chapter 11, verse 19. [00:13:57] So this is the Pharisees, [00:14:00] the religious leaders of the day. And they’re always trying to trick him, and we’re gonna talk about this more further down, but they are always trying to catch him doing something wrong when he wasn’t doing anything wrong. So let’s read in verse 19. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, look at him. [00:14:24] A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. So drinking wine wasn’t considered a sin cuz many people drank what we would call watered down wine because the water was really bad. Drinking alcohol isn’t described as a sin, but being a drunk is. Not having control of your senses or being consumed with alcohol. [00:14:52] That is where the sin is. Also, it mentions gluttony. So he’s sitting down and they’re accusing him, not [00:15:00] just eating with his friends, but eating in excess. Which I find to be ridiculous because the only people that were overweight or had access to a lot of food was probably the wealthy. They had probably more than enough food to even overeat. [00:15:20] So they’re trying to corner him, trying to accuse him of doing things that really he wasn’t doing. Saying he’s a friend of tax collectors. So Levi or Matthew, the author of this book, was a tax collector. And yes, we all hate the IRS but in those days, the Roman government would find someone like Matthew, who was a Jew in that community. [00:15:48] They grew up in the community, and they would ask them to be tax collectors and collect from their own people and they could collect whatever they could and [00:16:00] they would get to keep the extra that Rome didn’t ask for. And so they were hated in Jesus’ day. You didn’t hang out with tax collectors because they were traitors to their own people. [00:16:13] And let’s see, and then they’re mentioning sinners. Sinners, could be anything. That’s a general term for undesirables. So it gets worse. So not only they called him a glutton, a drunkard, hanging out with tax collectors, which, Levi Matthew becomes one of Jesus followers, one of his disciples. [00:16:39] They called him the devil. And so I’m gonna look in two different passengers here. I’m gonna look in Matthew 12:22. [00:16:50] All right [00:16:50] The devil is called many different titles. His original name was Lucifer. Lucifer is an angel, a [00:17:00] fallen angel. And he started a rebellion in heaven and took a third of the angels with him to be fallen angels as well. And so there are many different titles of the devil in the Bible. [00:17:16] We’re going to hear some of them. Verse 22, then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw, and all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only Beelzebub, the Prince of demons that this man casts out demons. [00:17:41] So yeah, Beelzebub is, another name for the devil. Prince of Demons is another. Verse 25. Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against [00:18:00] itself will stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, He is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand? [00:18:09] And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods? Unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house. [00:18:38] So I’m gonna stop there. [00:18:41] Okay? So this is terrible. He’s the son of God. He is God in the flesh here, and they’re calling him Beelzebub, which doesn’t make any sense as Jesus was pointing out. If you are the devil, you’re not going to cast out your own devils [00:19:00] from somebody. You want them to stay in there. [00:19:02] That makes a whole lot more sense. So it wasn’t logical for the Pharisees to accuse him of, being in league with the devil. So the Pharisees are grasping at straws. They do this all through the gospels, all through his ministry. They follow the crowds and they’re trying to find something to accuse him of that will stick. [00:19:25] Okay? And so we’re going to go into, when Jesus goes into the wilderness, God calls him to go into the wilderness after he was baptized by John the Baptist. And that’s pretty much for a testing. [00:19:44] The Lord is testing Jesus. And also gives us an example of how you should respond when you’re being attacked by the devil. So you’re probably familiar with the story, the [00:20:00] temptation of Jesus. So that’s in Matthew 4:1 through 11. [00:20:05] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting, 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry and the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. [00:20:26] By every word that comes from the mouth of God. Verse five, then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written. He will command his angels concerning you. On their hands, they will bear you up unless you strike your foot against the stone. [00:20:49] Verse seven, Jesus said to him again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high [00:21:00] mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord. [00:21:18] Dear God and Him only shall you serve. Then the devil left Him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. [00:21:27] So you’re probably familiar with this story, but just think about this for a minute in a different way. Think of your worst day. You are tired, you are hungry beyond belief, and it’s hot and you’re just trying to put one foot in front of the other and survive the day and your blood sucking enemy comes and knows that you are starving and you are hot, and you are thirsty and you are [00:22:00] very vulnerable and your enemy takes full advantage of your weakness. [00:22:07] Abusers do that. Abusers, their signature is they tear you up when you are down. And that’s what happened to Jesus here. He can make bread, he can, make a river, go right in front of him. He can jump off the temple. [00:22:23] In fact when we were in Israel, we saw the pinnacle in Jerusalem where that was where the devil took him up. And so it’s pretty neat when you read you can visualize where that is. We’ve seen the wilderness where he walked through. A desolate place. But Jesus can, Jesus could have done all of these things, I’m sure it was very tempting, instead of dying on the cross, Hey, let’s take the easy route. [00:22:51] I’ll just give you the kingdoms if you just worship me, which is totally abominable that the [00:23:00] son of God would worship a created being an angel. Preposterous. But if you notice the way that Jesus defeats the devil is he doesn’t give him philosophy or his opinion or, swears at him. He has scripture at his disposal and he responds with the truth, responds with scriptures. [00:23:28] This is not God’s will for me. This is not my purpose. My purpose is to die on that cross and to save humanity from their sin. And Satan knew this. Satan is trying to stop him. So the moral of this story is learn your favorite scriptures, the ones that are powerful, that can help you in your weakest times to help you to resist the devil. [00:23:59] [00:24:00] Resist the devil and he will flee from you the devil. Jesus defeated him. And you have that power too, with God’s word. So it’s important to get some scripture memorization. Uh, [00:24:12] let’s go to some others. The death of John the Baptist. If you didn’t know this, John the Baptist was his cousin. I don’t believe that they lived close by. If you remember, Mary, his mother went to visit Elizabeth, John’s mother when they were both in utero. And so that’s how we know that John and Jesus are cousins. [00:24:37] And John paved the way for the Messiah and he knew that Jesus was the Messiah that was promised because his mother and father told him that. And you know the story of Zechariah and his father, you can look that up, I won’t get into that. But John the Baptist, baptized Jesus in the Jordan, and [00:25:00] he was preaching to the Pharisees to repent. [00:25:03] And they would pull out their pedigree. While I’m the son of Abraham, I have the bloodline a mile long, I’m a Pharisee and they’re sticking their chest out. And John the Baptist would say, God can turn these stones into Sons of Abraham. [00:25:19] You need to repent and believe in the Messiah. And so he, would always get in trouble for that. But then he started preaching against Herod Antipas who divorced his wife to marry his brother’s wife. And so John was preaching against Herod. [00:25:38] And so they arrested John. John’s in prison. [00:25:42] And I’m sure that being in prison probably being starved. And it’s a dark, cold place. You start thinking things. And John was one of those also that believed that Jesus was here to overthrow Rome. [00:26:00] He didn’t understand why he was doing what God wanted him to do, and he winds up in prison. [00:26:06] And so he is asking Jesus disciples questions. [00:26:11] Hey, I’m here in prison. [00:26:13] So here we go. Matthew 11, two. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind received their sight and the lame walk. [00:26:38] Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. [00:26:49] And Jesus is even preaching about John and saying really good things about him. Jesus began speaking to the crowds concerning John, truly I say to you, [00:27:00] among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. [00:27:09] So all of the prophets that God had sent previously, they were murdered and beaten and starved and burned. That’s what Israel does to its prophets. But about John’s doubt, this must have been painful. That, okay, this is my cousin. He’s supposed to be my messenger. [00:27:33] He baptized me. He saw the Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove. He heard God the father stating this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. And he doubts. It must have been painful. But again, John thought that Jesus was going to overthrow Rome. So Herod executed John the Baptist because [00:28:00] um, Herodias, Herod’s wife asked for the head of John the Baptist through her daughter who did this very sensual dance at a party. [00:28:12] And so Jesus had to [00:28:14] mourn, mourn the death of his cousin. Did he know it was coming? Probably knew that it was coming. But he had to mourn that. His disciples had to mourn that, John losing his life. And now Jesus is, he’s the main event. And all of John’s disciples now follow Jesus. That’s how he was meant to be. And so let’s go on to talk about some other abuses here. [00:28:39] People thought he was crazy. [00:28:41] They wanted to have him committed. And this is kind of a new verse that I’ve discovered I did not know about till recently. [00:28:48] That is in Mark. [00:28:50] Mark 3: 21. So [00:28:53] I’m gonna set up, the scene for when this takes place. This was after he called his 12 [00:29:00] apostles, [00:29:01] cuz you don’t know who they are. Those are in verse 13. [00:29:06] Then he went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. So they’re followed all the time to these great crowds. In verse 21, when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, or they were saying he is out of his mind. Now, some uh, translations used the word friends instead of family. [00:29:34] And I had to look this up because it didn’t make sense that his family thought he was crazy because his mother was visited by the angel Gabriel. And Joseph, had the dream that Mary was going to be the mother of Jesus. So it didn’t make a whole lot of sense that family was the correct translation. [00:29:58] So the original [00:30:00] language the word is par and that basically means the people that were around him and his immediate vicinity, now that could have included friends. It doesn’t say that his family was there. It just said the crowd, those that were in the general vicinity where they were. But they were close enough to say, we’re gonna go seize him. [00:30:25] So it could have been his enemies. For all we know. Acquaintances. [00:30:29] But whoever they were, they wanted to seize him. [00:30:33] They wanted to take him away. They thought he was crazy. [00:30:38] And so we are getting towards the week of Jesus’ death. [00:30:43] Not gonna go into too much detail because of time, but the Jews have been rejecting his miracles, have been rejecting him as the Messiah. And so it says that Jesus swept over Jerusalem. That is in Luke 19:41 [00:30:59] [00:31:00] through 44, [00:31:04] and I’ve been on this hill where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. [00:31:11] They actually have a little chapel there, [00:31:13] and it’s right off of where the triumphal entry happens. So let’s read Luke 19:41 when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it saying, would that you. Even you had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they’re hidden from your eyes where the days will come upon you and your enemies. [00:31:39] will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground and your children with you. They will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. So what does all that mean? I [00:32:00] see a lot on Twitter that, oh, Jesus was never depressed. [00:32:04] Jesus never had anxiety. They kind of whitewash that Jesus had any emotions at all. Again, he is fully human and he is fully God. So this is him. He has great sadness over his people, the Jews, and just seeing Jerusalem from the top of that hill, just overcame him with emotions. [00:32:29] And he is mentioning that Israel is going to be occupied and driven out with wars and other countries. I think what more than 70 times Jerusalem is destroyed and occupied by other countries, other civilizations built on top of one another, and the temple has been destroyed twice. [00:32:54] So he sees all this coming. [00:32:56] [00:32:56] So let’s [00:32:57] Talk about the death of Lazarus. [00:33:00] Here’s a story I’m gonna be reading from John 11 [00:33:04] again people whitewash Jesus that he didn’t have human emotions. It’s very obvious that he did. He loved, he grieved, he was sad, he was happy, he was anxious. That is John 11, one through 44. [00:33:23] I’m not gonna read the whole story, [00:33:25] but it says that, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. They were all friends and he visited them on a regular basis. So Mary [00:33:38] her brother Lazarus was ill. It says here, And so the sister sent for Jesus to come and heal Lazarus. [00:33:49] So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. [00:33:55] And people are like, why did Jesus wait to go [00:34:00] and see his friends? Because he was going to do a miracle there over in Bethany. [00:34:07] Jesus told them in verse 14, Lazarus has died. [00:34:11] So Thomas said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. The disciples knew Mary and Martha and Lazarus, they were friends as well. So they are mourning the death of Lazarus also. [00:34:28] Everybody knows the verse. And Jesus wept [00:34:31] So I’m just reading different verses for the sake of time. Verse 17. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. [00:34:42] Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. [00:35:00] And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. [00:35:04] Whoever believes in me, though he die yet shall he live. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God. [00:35:17] So that was Martha. And then Mary. Mary went out to meet Jesus as well. Verse 32. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell on his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. [00:35:45] And he said, where have you laid him? And she said to him, Lord, come and see. Verse 35, Jesus wept. Very famous Bible verse. Everybody knows that to be the shortest verse in the [00:36:00] Bible. [00:36:00] So the Jew said, see how he loved him? But then some of them said, Could not he who open the eyes. The blind man also have kept this man from dying? So Jesus is getting some flack here because he didn’t come and heal him when he was sick. [00:36:17] So everybody knows the story of Lazarus rising from the dead, [00:36:23] but I was just pointing out that Jesus had, very powerful emotions. He was troubled, he was sad, he had compassion for his friends and had compassion for those who were mourning. And he didn’t just heal Lazarus, he raised him from the dead. He was consoling his friends. He was mourning with them. [00:36:50] And I’ll just read the rest of the story because it’s a great story. Verse 38. Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. [00:37:00] It was a cave and a stone Lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by the time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days. [00:37:13] I love how King James version translates it. It says, Lord, he stinketh. Verse 40. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away this stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me. [00:37:39] He cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus come out! The man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. [00:37:51] Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. [00:37:56] Can you imagine the conversations after [00:38:00] that. Doesn’t really talk about the after party. They came for a funeral and they got a resurrection. They got their Lazarus back, [00:38:09] and yes, Lazarus dies a natural death someday, but just not today. [00:38:15] We are going to move into holy Week, which is this week. Today as I’m recording, it’s holy Saturday and Jesus is in the grave. [00:38:25] Of course the abuse really accelerates and gets really bad. [00:38:30] So Judas is one of his 12 disciples, his inner circle, his closest friends. When you’re the 12 they’re your right hand. You eat with them. You’re traveling with them, you are healing people with him you’re with each other 24 7. [00:38:48] And you get to know each other pretty well when you are with somebody that long. And as his closest friends left him, abandoned him in his time of [00:39:00] great need. He was betrayed by Judas. [00:39:03] So I wanna read the account of Luke because it gives more, details. Luke [00:39:10] 22, 3. [00:39:12] Now the Feast of the Unlevened, Bread drew near. Which is called Passover, and the chief priest and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death where they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot who was of the number of the 12. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers, how he might betray him to them. [00:39:38] And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. [00:39:48] And Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was going to betray him. That was in the Messianic prophecies. Zechariah 11:12, you can [00:40:00] look that up. [00:40:00] So they have the the Passover meal. We all know about that. They prepared the Passover meal in the upper room. And he says, one of you is going to betray me. How’s that for a great dinner conversation? [00:40:16] So they began to question one another. Which one of them could it be? And then they were talking about who is the greatest. [00:40:22] And then Jesus foretells Peter’s denial [00:40:26] because Peter is saying that he would never betray Jesus. Verse 31, Simon. Simon, behold Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death! [00:40:51] In Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. [00:41:00] Scripture must be fulfilled. [00:41:02] Okay, so Peter is one of his closest friends, and I’m sure Peter meant well. He is a flawed man, like the rest of the 12. And [00:41:13] Peter’s going to betray him here shortly. [00:41:15] I’m gonna go over to Matthew, because Matthew has [00:41:19] more details or different details. [00:41:22] Matthew 26. Verse 36, and Jesus went with a place called a Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. [00:41:41] Saying that Jesus doesn’t ever get sad or troubled or anxious. That’s not true. Verse 38. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. Hey, I just want a little support here. My [00:42:00] closest friends, my disciples, verse 39, and going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. [00:42:14] Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Verse 40. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. And so that must have been really disappointing. [00:42:39] Okay, my friends are sleeping. I’m going to be crucified in the morning. So verse 42 again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass until I drink it, your will be done. And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes [00:43:00] were heavy. [00:43:00] Yes, these are very flawed individuals. Our Old Testament, new Testament saints are humans and they’re definitely not perfect. Jesus points that out very clearly. Here, you’re letting me down a second time?/ Verse 44. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time. Saying the same words again. [00:43:23] Verse 45. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand. And the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See my betrayer is at hand. And so [00:43:42] here he comes. Now your friends are sleeping. Nobody’s praying for him, nobody’s supporting him. He’s all alone. And then here comes Judas with a crowd with swords and clubs. The chief priest and the elders. [00:43:56] Verse 48. Now the betrayer had given them a sign [00:44:00] saying, the one I will kiss is the man. Seize him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, greetings, rabbi. And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, friend, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. Be hold one of those who were there with Jesus stretched down his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant. [00:44:24] He struck the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? [00:44:42] But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? Verse 55 that hour, Jesus said to the crowds, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? [00:44:56] Day after day, I sat in a temple teaching and you did not seize [00:45:00] me. But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. They scattered like rabbits. [00:45:14] There wasn’t anybody who was coming with Jesus to support him. [00:45:21] And if you got arrested with Jesus, you were probably gonna get his fate as well. And they knew that. So they were afraid and they scattered. [00:45:28] So we’re going into Jesus trial before the Council of the Jews. [00:45:34] So he’s taken this long walk in the middle of the night. [00:45:37] So [00:45:38] here’s where Peter denies Jesus, verse 54. Then they seized him and let him away, bringing him to the high priest house. And Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl seeing him [00:46:00] as he sat in the light and looked closely at him, said, this man also is with him, but he denied it, saying Women, I do not know him. [00:46:09] 58. And a little later somebody saw him and said, you are also one of them. But Peter said, man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour still, another insisted saying, certainly this man also was with him for, he too is a Galilee. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you’re talking about. And immediately while he was speaking the Rooster Crow, verse 61, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. [00:46:52] And he went out and webbed bitterly. So this is, this is pretty bad. [00:46:58] So let’s look, see [00:47:00] what’s happening. This is the kangaroo court. This, everything they’re doing here is illegal. This is an innocent man. They’ve been trying to trap him with all kinds of stupid questions to trap him, to get him to say something wrong or try to trap him into doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. [00:47:19] Boldface, lying about him. Verse 57. Then those who had seized, Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest where the scribes and the elders had gathered, now, the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none. [00:47:40] Many false witnesses came forward. Last two came forward and said, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent, [00:48:00] and the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, [00:48:04] tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God! Verse 64. Jesus said to him, you have said so, but I tell you from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he has uttered blasphemy! What further witnesses do we need? [00:48:30] You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? They answered. He deserves death. Then they spit in his face and struck him and some slapped him saying, Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you? A lot going on here in this passage. He’s not getting a fair trial. He doesn’t have any legitimate witnesses to come forth as you can see. [00:48:59] And [00:49:00] they don’t believe that he is the Messiah and they’re saying, oh, you’re committing blasphemy because you are saying that you are the son of God. [00:49:10] And they’re abusing him. Physical abuse, spitting in his face, striking him, slapping him mocking him, and that’s going to continue. And this they did to the prophets of God. Any prophet that God would send to tell people that they need to repent, they need to follow the Lord. This is how they treated [00:49:31] prophets. They would kill them, stone them. And the Romans were not mee at all. Now, they were not allowed to crucify Jesus on their own. Only the Romans could do that. But it was prophesied that he would die on a cross. That is [00:49:50] what had to happen. [00:49:51] So this is what is going to take place next. We’re going to go to Matthew [00:50:00] 27. We’ll probably stick with Matthew since it seems like this is a detailed account. [00:50:05] Verse one, when the morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, and they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. [00:50:19] Verse 11. Now, Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said, you have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priest and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge. [00:50:44] So that the Governor was greatly amazed. So sometimes it’s time to keep your mouth shut, and then there are times when you open your mouth and you need to say something. So Jesus decided not to. [00:51:00] There’s a verse in Isaiah 53, 7 and it says He opened not his mouth like a lamb to the slaughter. He’s fulfilling that prophecy as well. Let’s go to verse 15. Here’s Jesus being treated like a common criminal, and they bring up Barabbas, who is a criminal and deserves to be a subject of Roman justice. Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release from the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted, and they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. [00:51:34] So when they had gathered Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus who was called the Christ? For he knew that it was out of envy, that they had delivered him up. Pilate knew that, you know, I don’t wanna get involved in your religious wars. This is not a legitimate complaint for Rome. [00:51:54] Verse 19. Besides when he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to [00:52:00] him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream, verse 20. Now, the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd, ask for barrabas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, Which of the two of you want me to release for you? [00:52:20] And they said, Barrabas! Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who has called the Christ? They all said, let him be crucified! And he said, why? What evils has he done? But they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified! I think that in another gospel it talks about that there were Jews in there to stir up some trouble, to stir up the crowd, and they all got their crony friends to come and say crucify him. [00:52:52] Because Jesus was very popular. And again, this is not a fair trial. None of his supporters were [00:53:00] there, and the Jews are rallying up the crowd and telling people to say, crucify him. So verse 24. So when Pilates saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather than a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying,. [00:53:17] I am innocent of this man’s blood. See it to yourselves. And all the people answered, His blood on us and on our children! Then he released for them barrabas and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. [00:53:32] Pilate knew he was innocent, but didn’t want a riot because there would’ve been a lot of trouble with the Roman soldiers if there was a riot beginning. And so he was just appeasing the crowd, their blood thirstiness, and sent an innocent man to death. [00:53:49] And this gets, [00:53:50] it just gets worse. [00:53:52] They sent him over to Herod because he was in his jurisdiction. And so [00:54:00] Herod did the same thing. Herod was like, I find no fault in this man. [00:54:05] So he was sent back to Pilate. [00:54:08] Pilate was no angel and neither was Herod. But at least, they recognized that Jesus was an innocent man, but the whole crowd shouted, away with this man! Release Barabbas to us! [00:54:21] So I’m reading in Mark 15. [00:54:23] In verse 16, the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace that is the praetortium and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him and twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. Those thorns are huge. I’ve seen them, the trees in Israel, they have these trees with these huge thorns. [00:54:47] Even in my own front yard, I have a mesquite tree, and I have been stabbed with some of those thorns, and they are a good inch and a half. And the joke is, [00:55:00] this was where Jesus’ crown of thorns were. They very painful to put on somebody’s head. Oh, the Romans were experts in torture, experts in crucifixion. [00:55:14] Their goal was to make the death as humiliating and shameful and painful as possible without killing you until the end. And so that was. First part of it, they’re mocking him as a king, twisting together a crown of thorns. They began to call out to him, Hail king of the Jews. They struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. [00:55:41] And following on their knees, they paid homage to him. And verse 20, when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they let him out to crucify him. [00:55:53] So if you’re not aware of what flogging is, the Romans would use what’s called a cat of [00:56:00] nine tails. And they would get 39 lashes because supposedly 40 lashes would kill a man. [00:56:08] And cat of nine tails has nine whips on it. And on the end of these little whips are pieces of glass, metal, [00:56:18] nails, anything that would inflict severe pain on the end of those whips. So it wasn’t as just that he was whipped. And a lot of people mention the passion of the Christ and how he was flogged [00:56:34] those cat nine tails rips your flesh out in chunks, so it’s not just, okay, he’s, he got whipped in the back. And most people are not aware that you are flogged naked. This has been verified by historical accounts on flogging and crucifixion by the Romans. And they were not careful about where that cat of nine tails landed. [00:56:59] I [00:57:00] am sure that they were hitting his genitals, his buttocks, which were obviously extremely painful. It’s kind of hard to sit here and [00:57:13] acknowledge that Jesus had genitals. Because all the Bible movies, they have a loincloth on for obviously modesty sake on a television. But he was flogged naked to be the most humiliating and painful thing possible without killing him. Now, when he went through the streets with his cross, they put his his tunic on, I guess it was indecent for them to have him walk through the streets with all those crowds and him being completely naked. [00:57:46] Abuse advocates state that is sexual abuse right there. Stripping somebody naked, mocking and humiliating them. And then flogging not only their body, but their [00:58:00] private parts, And we all know about the Via Dolorosa. Jesus carrying his cross, which, okay, he hasn’t eaten, he hasn’t slept in two days. [00:58:11] He’s been dragged all over the place from Bethany to the praetorium to Herod’s palace and back to Pilate again. And now he’s carrying his cross after flogging and paraded down the street with the crowds. Not all of them are supportive, and where’s his disciples? There isn’t anybody around, is by himself. [00:58:39] And [00:58:39] there’s a story here of Simon, of Cyrene. In Mark 15, we can read somebody that was able to help Jesus carry the cross. They forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgatha , which means the place of the skull. [00:58:58] Then they offered him wine mixed [00:59:00] with Myrrh, but he would not take it, and they crucified him, dividing up his clothes. They cast lots to see what each would get. So when they would crucify somebody, they were completely naked. They didn’t have anything on, no loin cloth. Again, this was to make it extremely humiliating and shameful. [00:59:26] And this was a sign to the rest of the people watching that if you go against Rome, this is where you’re going to end up. And I think it was probably a pretty good deterrent. [00:59:37] And so Jesus was hanging on the cross, humiliated. And of course, we all know about the nails in his hands and feet. The Romans designed crucifixion to where after you’re beaten to a bloody pulp, you’re on that cross. And of course gravity kicks in and you are trying to breathe. [00:59:58] And there’s usually a little [01:00:00] shelf that your feet go so you can hold yourself up so you can breathe. And when you got too tired to hold yourself up to get air into your lungs, that’s when you would die. But let’s talk about a different part of the story. [01:00:14] Verse 25, it was nine in the morning when they crucified him. [01:00:19] The written notice of the charge against, him read the King of the Jews. 27. They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, so who are you? You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself. [01:00:44] In the same way, the chief priest and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. He saved others. He said, but he can’t save himself. Let this messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may [01:01:00] see and believe. [01:01:01] Jesus could have done all of these things, I’m sure it was very tempting, instead of dying on the cross, Hey, let’s take the easy route. [01:01:10] Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. So in another gospel narrative, it talks about the two criminals on each side of Jesus. [01:01:22] One was hurling insults at Jesus and asking Jesus to take them off the cross too. And then the other guy on the other side, he admitted his guilt. He said he, he knows he is guilty. He deserves to die. But jesus, when you go to your paradise, will you remember me? [01:01:41] He knew he was going to die and believe that Jesus was the answer. So anybody can be saved even at the last minute. [01:01:50] Another gospel narrative talks about [01:01:53] His Apostle John. Jesus’, mother Mary were at the foot of the cross and [01:02:00] Jesus told John to take care of Mary cuz of course, because Joseph died. So we have John, John is one disciple that Jesus loved, so probably his favorite disciple. [01:02:14] And John’s at the foot of the cross and Mary is now your mother, take care of her. And mother, this is now your son. You take care of him. So here comes the end. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, [01:02:35] which means, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a messianic prophecy that he is going to say that particular phrase. But he’s calling out to God because [01:02:53] God is turning his back on Jesus. Because at that time, [01:02:58] All of the world’s sin [01:03:00] was laid on him and God turned his back on Jesus in that moment because he was our sin. And so that’s why he was crying out. Why has he forsaken me? Cuz he was utterly alone in dying, taking our place, our substitutionary death on the cross that we deserved to pay for our own sin. [01:03:26] But Jesus took our place, to save us from our sin so we could spend eternity with him in heaven. So then in verse 37, it says, with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, surely this man was the son of God. [01:03:53] Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of [01:04:00] James, the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. The women are always there. [01:04:16] They were not under the cross, but they were out watching from a distance probably because it wasn’t safe to go any closer. But they had been followers of Jesus. [01:04:30] So I wanted to mention the curtain of the temple being torn in two from top to bottom. We don’t need anymore animal sacrifices. Jesus was the Passover lamb. He was the final sacrifice for sin. The blood of bulls and goats, those were temporary coverups. Only Jesus can do that because he was a perfect sacrifice. [01:04:52] As we know the end of the story that. [01:04:55] Jesus rose on the third day and all of his suffering was [01:05:00] over. [01:05:00] So Joseph of Arimathea went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus body. He gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph brought some linen cloth, took down the body and wrapped it in the linen and placed it in the cut tomb out of the rock. [01:05:16] Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb, Mary Magdalene and the Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid. [01:05:27] The resurrection story. [01:05:29] That joyful part of the story is that Jesus rose from the dead. Even then, his disciples did not even believe that he rose from the dead. They were hiding, scared like rabbits. And again, the women were there to go and anoint the body of Jesus and found that he was not there. [01:05:48] And they’re going in telling the disciples who are hiding, Jesus is not in the tomb. He’s, he is risen. And it was a long time before they believed that Jesus rose [01:06:00] from the dead, even when Jesus came and appeared to them in the upper room. [01:06:06] Jesus came into the room where they were hiding and went right through the walls. He had a glorified body and some of ’em still didn’t believe. They thought he was a ghost, [01:06:17] and Thomas went and put his fingers into his hands and side and [01:06:24] cuz he doubted that Jesus was actually there. They gave him a piece of fish. He was eating just like a human being, would eat a fish. He had a glorified resurrected body. And so Jesus met with many other witnesses and his disciples and. As you probably know, he ascended bodily into heaven and more than 50 witnesses saw him. And promised that he was going to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in them permanently [01:06:58] to give them strength [01:07:00] and guidance and comfort. Anyway if you all have been in church for Resurrection Sunday, you are very familiar with the story. I am hoping that there were some things that you learned that you didn’t notice before. Jesus was a victim, not just in the crucifixion being nailed to the cross, which that was absolutely horrible. [01:07:24] Yes. But in other ways, and [01:07:27] he can definitely relate to us because he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He has gone through some horrible mistreatment. He can be a comfort to you because he was bruised for us. He prayed for his persecutors, his friends abandoned him. He can relate to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. [01:07:58] Jesus has been through [01:08:00] all of that. [01:08:01] So I hope that you have a blessed, joyous resurrection Sunday with your family or friends or other loved ones, your church family, if you have one. And, [01:08:13] Know that, he is there for you in your time of need to comfort and give you strength in your darkest hours. Reach out to him. And if you have any questions about what we talked about today, maybe this was all new to you, maybe you haven’t heard very much of the story of Jesus. You have questions, feel free to reach out to me. [01:08:38] I’ll be glad to help you. You can reach me at diana@dswministries.org. You can reach out on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Send me a message. We can set up a chat on Zoom to talk about your questions. That doesn’t cost anything. It’s not a sales pitch, I wanna be there for you for any [01:09:00] questions that you have about abuse. [01:09:01] If you need help yourself getting out of a terrible situation, you need prayer, I can definitely come alongside you. [01:09:09] I will search for that answer for you. So you all have a blessed week, and we will see you next time. On the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, God bless you. [01:09:21] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us at DSW Ministries dot org where you’ll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel Lakes. Hope to see you next week.