The abuse Jesus endured w as more than inhumane. It’s one thing to read the documentation as an observer, but it’s another to grasp that his suffering was for you and me. Ever since of pain and grief He endured was for our sin and separation from Him. He draws us in to Himself. For I am crucified with Him and the life I’m living is for Him and with Him, because He lives in me. He loves you and me far more than we can imagine. (Galatians 2:20)
“Jesus did not live a calm life. He cared too much. Yet he was not a tense person. He was not irritable, anxious, or driven. But he was not detached, cool, or aloof, either. He was no stoic or Buddhist. He plunged into the storms of human sufferings and sins. He felt keenly. At his friend Lazarus’s tomb, in the presence of death and human woe, he both bristled with anger and wept with sorrow.” - David A. Powlison, Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness
“Ridicule, mockery, and putdowns—along with criticism, judgment, and condemnation of another—are expressions of the ego-centric self constructed out of the yeast (thinking) of the Pharisees and Herod. They are ways of expressing superiority to one that is viewed as inferior and less than. They allow us to feel good about ourselves at another’s expense. They are unconscious efforts to prop up the fragile nature of our narcissistic identities.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford
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