Scourging at the Pillar
Mental Prayer Meditation Helps
Presence of God
Grace I Ask: Make me, Jesus, see what sin did to you, that I may detest and despise it and have strength to fight against it.
Mental Picture (cf. Luke 23:22): Pilate says, "I find no fault in Him, nevertheless I will have Him scourged for you." Cruel soldiers step forward... merciless... hate shining in their gleaming eyes. Rudely they seize the innocent victim... rip the clothes violently from His back... seize His arms and chain them to a low stumplike column. Thus the blows will hit their mark with full force. The soldiers seize the leather whips... at the end of the lashes are bits of metal with razorsharp points to tear more deeply into the flesh. The whips whistle through the air... they land with a sickening thud on the back of Christ. He gasps... He twists... He struggles with the intense pain... His Body becomes a vast sea of blood. But the blows continue until His very bones are laid bare. The patience... the silence of Christ drives the tormentors on to more diabolical fury as lash after lash buries itself yet deeper in His innocent flesh.
I Speak to Christ: Every time I toy with temptation I am deciding whether I shall once again bring down the cruel lash on your back. Every time I commit sin I become cowardly like Pilate and join the soldiers in scourging you. Please fill me with strength and confidence when temptations and difficulties torment me. "Passion of Christ, strengthen: me!"
Thought for Today: "... and they took Him and scourged Him."
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)
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