Jesus had nothing else to give that His enemies wanted. They would not receive His grace, nor would they avail themselves of His healing virtue. They wished to insult Him, to cause Him the anguish of social ostracism and of bodily pain. A little later they clamored for His life: “Away with Him.”
Jesus did not need to suffer these personal indignities. He, the Lord of glory, could embarrass and frustrate his enemies through the intervention of angels (Matt 26:53), not to speak of His own power.
But “the Son of man (did) not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’ (Luke 9:56). Though He opened the eyes of the blind, He never inflicted blindness on anyone; though He raised their dead, He suffered them to slay Him.
What a gift to men: “I gave my back.” He also gave His face “to them that plucked off the hair.” Why did He do it? The answer is “By His stripes we are healed.” Dare we wish to heal the hurts of others? Dare we offer our backs to the smiters? Dare we forego repaying evil with evil and railing with railing? Dare we give ourselves on to blessing?
--George E. Failing
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