Abusing the face of Christ, the Son of God.

Have you thought about the fact that some of the most painful things Christ endured happened to His face?

Would you ever slap your parent?  Spit in their face?  Has anyone ever spit in your face?  Has anyone ever blindfolded you and beaten you and mocked you?  

Matthew 22:67-68 Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit You?”

The WORD of God repeatedly calls for us to seek His face.

Psalm 27: 7-9 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”  Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!…

Psalm 105:4- Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.

Being able to see God’s face is blessing not accessible via any other religions!  

❤️ Christ is the only God who put on flesh so we could know God’s face; and not be afraid when gazing upon Him!  
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When in the presence of God, looking at His face, we are to be without fear of punishment and unashamed of our humble and vulnerable reliance upon Him for our salvation.  

He willingly laid Himself down!  Now we have the PRIVILEGE of drawing close to God to talk, whisper, weep, confess, sing, gaze upon, and focus on Him and him alone!     
 
This is the heart of the first commandment which says, “You shall have no other gods before me.”  The literal translation of Exodus 20:3 in original Hebrew is- No other god powers will exist for you “upon my face” or “in My presence”.   

No other powers will exist when we are so consumed with gazing upon the face of Jesus!!!!!!!   

So as we consider His suffering... is it any wonder there is such abuse of His face in His walk to the cross?

Do you think that spitting in Christ's face is one of the most obviously disrespectful things that happened to Him?

What part(s) of His walk to the cross makes you wince in disgust or horror?  I wince in thinking that He was beaten repeatedly over the head.

Can you imagine beating your parent over the head?

It's horrifying to consider!!!

Yet this is what happened to our precious and Holy Savior!

What meditation will be fresh in your spirit to maybe share with a family member or a friend on Easter?  How can you help someone understand the cost of Christ's suffering?  

❓ Maybe ask them, "Can you ever imagine blindfolding and then beating (y)our parent(s) over the head while mocking and spitting upon them?"  

🤔. Shock value might open the door for a challenging conversation about Jesus' suffering that they can connect with.

Otherwise, it is upon this Good Friday that we can take a bit of time to remember the Messiah’s walk to the cross.  Enter the difficult moments.  Look at Jesus' face as he suffered and took upon himself the full wrath of God. 
 
1 Peter 4:1- Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

If you try, it's not hard to imagine His face feeling the disgusting spit of mockers as it landed and dripped down.  Especially with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can work up in ourselves seeing his face writhing in pain as it was repeatedly struck with a reed, perhaps a nose broken or a cheek bone split from blows, a head pierced with thorns, blood dripping down, blurring his vision.  We can imagine the sounds of his cries from the repeated blows to his head; and his ears taking in the sounds of it all, especially public mocking.  His beard pulled out, his mouth dried with his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, no water to quench desperate thirst, only his own blood to swallow.    

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted. 

​Matthew 27: 27-31 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe  around him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” They  spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

As the Good Shepherd was struck, his sheep scattered (John 10:11, Zechariah 13;7, Matthew 26:31).

While at the time of his crucifixion his followers scattered, that no longer has to be true.  

Now that we know death did not hold him, we can stay with him in that walk and look at His glorious face!  We can whisper sweet things to him and praise him!  His face is the place to undo our own words of mocking and unbelief that has reached his ears.  His grace is sufficient! 

May you be willing to meditate on aspects of Christ’s suffering.  May you be willing to admit you are one of multitude who put him on the cross, Romans 5:8.  Walk with him to the cross, see the depth of His love.  Let your heart be softened by breaking as an eye-witness, share in his grief, grieve with Him and then celebrate His glory displayed in the face of the risen Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6- For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. 

✨. BLESSINGS BE UPON YOU AND YOURS AS YOU CELEBRATE THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS!  

LUKE 24:6-7- He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’