It's a troubling thing to think of a wounded Jesus. This powerful miracle worker, with a great heart for all people, is scourged prior to death: That whip, ripping into innocent flesh, over and over as the Lord is beaten and sore. A lot has happened since that prayer in Gethsemane, and I think it shows how he has been wounded in more ways than one.
First, he is betrayed by two of his closest friends. The first hands him over into the hands of the chief priests, all for thirty pieces of silver. The second denies that he even knows Jesus, despite spending three years right by his side. Jesus is also falsely accused of the crime of blasphemy, being beaten simply for affirming that he was "...the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One" (Mark 14:61). Yet despite all of this, there is no frustrated outburst from the Lord, no clap of thunder, or heavenly voice of the Father affirming Jesus's testimony. He is on his own.
The most fascinating part of this particular passage occurs shortly before the scourging. Pilate asks the Jews if he is to release Jesus or Barabbas. In Hebrew Barabbas's name translates to "bar (son) + abbas (of the father)." The prisoner Barrabas is quite literally the son of the father, much like how Jesus is the Son of the heavenly Father, but there's another parallel too. What was Barabbas imprisoned for? Mark says Barabbas was "was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection" (Mark 15:8). It was Barabbas, and not "the King of the Jews," as Pilate calls Jesus, who is in trouble for political violence. Yes, Jesus is truly a strange king. I'll speak on that more in my next blog post.
How do we wound Jesus today? We use his name, the name of the very Son of God, carelessly. We distort the meanings of his words to blend in with modern sensibilities and ways of thinking, We fail to see Christ in the marginalized, the "least" among us. Maybe with our love we can heal Christ wounds this Lent. It's my sin, our sins. Lord have mercy on us.
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