Read: Luke 23:35  The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

It is difficult to look at a person who is dying, or one who is being killed mercilessly. Why do you think the guards blindfolded Jesus as they set about beating Him (Luke 22:63-65)? Of course, we could say that they were playing a cruel game of ‘guess who hit you’ with Jesus. But it more likely points to the fact that they did not want to look at Jesus’ face.

To blindfold someone or to put a hood on is to cover the face and to treat the person as less than human. The person is reduced to a thing or an idea. It is easier to be cruel to someone whose face is hidden.

Paintings of the scene of crucifixion usually depict a tall cross, which was not what it was like in the time of Jesus. The cross was deliberately kept short, so the person hanging on it was kept at eye level.

Do we … remove from it all the pain that the Lord endured?

The Roman soldiers’ intention was to frighten and terrorise their subjects, but they probably had mixed success in this. People did not like to look at those who were being crucified, nor to acknowledge they were human. How much more, then, to acknowledge Jesus as God? Only a few people looked at the eyes of Jesus on the cross. “The people stood watching” (Luke 23:35) but we wonder what they actually saw.

Whatever it was, the cross and its occupant were only talking points for the onlookers. There was no redemptive impact on them. Notice that they talked among themselves (about Jesus) rather than to Jesus. The eyes of their hearts were closed to Him, for to really look at Him would have been a very difficult thing to do.

If we stand there and look deeply…

For the passers-by it was a time to mock the victim and shake their heads in self-righteous judgement (Matthew 27:39-40). They read the board on the cross—”This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”—but it did not make any difference to them. They spoke to an idea, a faceless victim of circumstances but refused to really look into His eyes. And so, they walked away unredeemed, trapped in their own prisons.

What about us? Do we sanitise the cross and remove from it all the pain that the Lord endured? We can smoothen it with clinical care, or worse, even put in a few diamonds or plate it with gold, and thus eliminate the traces of the pain and death it represents.

We are quick to remove the wounded and helpless figure on the cross so that we do not need to look at His face or meet His eyes, thus avoiding having to face up to our guilt.

We are ready to discuss all the theories about what happened on the cross and the technical details of how He died, but refuse to look into His eyes.

…they did not want to look at Jesus’ face.

If we stand there and look deeply, and feel the profound pain and truly appreciate the sacrifice of divine love, then we would be ready to deeply celebrate the Resurrection of the One who was cruelly beaten and humiliated on the cross.

To reduce the death of Jesus to an idea is to miss the depth of His suffering, and to deny His Incarnation. But to appreciate what He endured in the flesh (as well as in His soul) is to be ready to experience the new life of Easter.

May God open the eyes of our heart (Ephesians 1:18) to see Jesus of Nazareth face to face—painfully crucified and gloriously risen.

 

Consider this:
How does looking at Jesus’ painful suffering offer you a new perspective of His resurrection?

 

Excerpted and adapted from Boundless Love by Robert Solomon. © 2014 by Robert Solomon. Used by permission of Armour Publishing. All rights reserved.