“By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5)  

Pilate delivered Christ to the soldiers to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a dreadful instrument of torture. Three or more leather straps were connected to a wood handle. The straps were knotted with a weight at the end and embedded with metal, nails, and bone shards. Sharp fragments from the knucklebone of a sheep were often used. Sometimes there was a hook on the end called a “scorpion.” Scourging would quickly removed the flesh, leaving skin hanging like ribbons, exposing muscle, bone, and sometimes internal organs. 

 Christ was stripped naked and tied with ropes or shackled with chains, probably between two columns. Two soldiers, each with a whip, took turns beating Him. Jewish law limited beatings to 40 lashes, but the Romans had no limit. The goal was to beat the prisoner one step away from death. 

 Oh, saint, weep over His body. Can you gaze upon Him without tears, as He stands before you the epitome of agonizing love? He is fair as the lily for innocence, but red as the rose, covered in blood. You feel secure in the blessed healing which His stripes purchased for you, but does your heart melt with love and grief? If ever you loved your Lord, surely you must feel that affection now. 

"See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in His lowest case! Sinners have bound the Almighty's hands, And spit in their Creator's face. With thorns His temples gor'd and gash'd Send streams of blood from every part; His back's with knotted scourges lash'd. But sharper scourges tear His heart." 

 You’d probably rather stay home and weep; but since your business calls you away, pray that the Holy Spirit will remind you of His bleeding body all day long, and in the evening, return home to commune with Him, and express your sorrow that your sin cost Him so dear.