It's talking here about His walk to the cross, and as He walked to the cross, people yelled at Him and abused Him, spat on Him, and then they pulled out His beard. Now I don't know if you've ever had a beard - women wouldn't know what I'm talking about here, but the men would know. If you had some whiskers, and someone's pulled them and tugged them out, that hurts. See, ask Clive see. [Laughs] It hurts! But the thing is, they spat on Him, they treated Him with contempt, and He said: He didn't try and hide or conceal Himself from any of it. He set His face like a flint; I am doing this, because I know people in the 21st Century in Hastings, New Zealand, who need to be free of shame, and I will take the shame so they can be free, see? So He didn't hide from the shame. He determined not to hide Himself. He did not draw back from the shame of dying on the cross like a criminal. You understand this, we'll look at the cross in a moment. The cross was a criminal's death. It was like a public hanging. It was a criminal's death. It was actually not about just execution. If they wanted to kill them, they could kill them quite easily, they could just stick a sword through them. But they didn't want to kill people that way.
What they wanted to do was to have them die slowly and painfully, and be exposed to public ridicule. You probably would have seen some things in the French Revolution, and they used to have the guillotine, and they'd bring people out, and then the whole crowd would watch, and they would revel in someone losing their life and being publicly humiliated, who was aristocracy. In this situation with Jesus dying on the cross, the crowd gathered around to publicly ridicule, and mock, and shame Him. They treated Him shamefully. He took our shame. He carried our shame, and He refused to allow Himself to be shamed, but He took our shame on Himself, amazing thing that scripture is. He took the shame on Himself.
In Hebrews 6, Verse 6, it tells us Christ was put to an open shame, He was exposed to public humiliation. I don't know if you ever thought about it, because all the pictures you see of Jesus on the cross, they have His private parts covered, but that's not actually what happened when they were hung on the cross. That's to preserve modesty for us, who are very sensitive. Actually He hung naked on the cross. He hung naked, and totally exposed to be ridiculed. When you are in a place where you feel powerless, even more you feel the ridicule and the taunts. When you're in a place where you are exposed, even more you feel the ridicule and the taunts, and He was exposed to die like a criminal on the cross, a slow, painful death, drawn out over hours.
I want you to read with me in Matthew Chapter 27, the death of Jesus on the cross. Just look what it says about Him. It says the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the Praetorium, and gathered the whole garrison around Him. These are hard, rugged, hardened soldiers - and they stripped Him naked and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they twisted a crown of thorns they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. They bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, or they taunted Him, and said: Hail, the King of the Jews! Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. When they'd mocked Him, then they took His robe off Him again, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.
Verse 33: And when they came to the place called Golgotha, which is to say the Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink, but when He had tasted it, He would not drink. Then they crucified Him, dividing His garments and casting lots, that it may be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet. They divided My clothing among them, My clothing they cast lots. Sitting down, they kept watch over him and they put up on His head an accusation written against Him: This Is Jesus, The King Of The Jews. Even the robbers were crucified with Him, one on the left and one on the right, they taunted Him. Those who passed by, wagged their heads - ah you just destroy the temple and build it up, save Yourself if You're the Son of God! If He's the king of Israel, come down. Can you see the mocking and belittling of Jesus? A number of things happened with Him on the cross. He was stripped naked and exposed to public ridicule, three times the soldiers stripped Him naked, put a garment on Him, then they stripped Him naked, put His own clothes, and they took Him to the cross, stripped Him naked.