Luke 22:63-65--Jesus Is Mocked

Luke 22:63-65
English Standard Version
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Jesus Is Mocked
63 Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. 64 They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” 65 And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

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A short, but important passage to look at today as we often like to think that Jesus went immediately from betrayal to trial to crucifixion and we don't think of the hours upon hours of shaming and torture that He underwent that was all part of the process.  We often read what the Roman soldiers did to Him, but the shaming and mocking was done by all those who held Jesus in custody, including the Jewish people.  He was mistreated as a prisoner against instructions of the Law, and they made it a game since others called Jesus a prophet or even the Prophet of Deuteronomy to blindfold Him, strike Him, and then taunt Him by saying "Prophesy!  Who is it that struck you?"

Luke calls this exactly what it was--blasphemy--the very crime they would charge Jesus with.  Isn't it odd how they refused to see their own sin of blasphemy, yet they are willing to project that sin onto the Holy and Righteous One who knew no sin to try and make Him just like themselves?  When He stated that He was the Son of God, that was not blasphemy because He was stating who He was--and they had asked them to question to tell them plainly whether or not He was the Son of God!  All He did was to answer their question from Scripture to say that one day everyone would see who He truly is when they would see Him at the right hand of the Father in all His glory.  If any mere man had said this, it would have been blasphemy, but it was not blasphemy for the Son of God to say this about Himself.

We focus much on the bruising and beating, but it must have been hard to have endured the slander, blasphemy and the abusive words that came from the mouths of the Jews as they were the people of God who were supposed to recognize the Messiah and worship Him.  However, it was all part of God's plan for Jesus to be beaten, smitten and rejected not just by men in general, but specifically by those who He had called by His name.  He was betrayed by those whom He had called friends and even those who were closest to Him denied knowing Him in this hour.  Everyone close to Him deserted Him and therefore in some way betrayed their promise they had made to Him because all had sworn like Peter did that they would never deny Jesus and would be willing to go to prison or die for Him if necessary.  Many Christians today say the same kinds of things, but talk is as cheap today as it was back then.  Will we deny the one we call Savior and Lord before men because we don't want to partake in His sufferings like He promised we would?  If we are unwilling to also "take up our cross daily" (which involved being ready for all this that happened to Him) then we are not worthy of being called His disciples and if we deny Him before men (to save our own lives or for our own gain), He promises to deny us before His Father in heaven for no one that really belongs to Him will deny Him, but we will confess Him even unto death.  We could not save ourselves from eternal death and there is nothing we can do on our own to protect ourselves from physical death because life and death are in the hands of Jesus and we don't die until He commands/allows it.  So there is nothing you can say or do to prolong your own life (remember that teaching from the Sermon on the Mount).  When your day and hour comes like it did for Jesus, accept it graciously and use it as an opportunity to glorify God as Jesus would do.  What they mean for evil in their torture and abuse, God can use for good as it will show others that what we believed was true and life-changing.  No normal man would go through something like this and die for a lie.  Only if Jesus was telling the truth about what He was does it make sense to go through any of this.