Jim Gallagher

Deuteronomy 25:3
“Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight.”

A man, condemned of certain crimes, was to be beaten as a form of punishment and humiliation. The beating was reserved for the wicked, while the righteous were exonerated. Years later, a “Kangaroo Court” met in Israel, gathered false witnesses, and condemned the Son of God to death, for the high crime of blaspheme. He was taken to the Roman authorities, where He was again tried, convicted and condemned. Part of the sentence meted out to Him was the Roman scourging. Unlike the Jewish law that carried with it a level of mercy, the Roman scourge was designed, not only to punish, but to kill.

After withstanding the agony of the garden, the hostility of the Jewish leaders…