I've been hoping for a New Testament message and today we get one but it's on the suffering of Jesus before Pilate, the Roman magistrate in Jerusalem as recorded in John. Sometimes we just think of that story only at Easter so what's going on? But really as a Christian our whole spiritual life is centered on that story. It is about LOVE.
STORY
John is my absolutely most favorite author in the NT. He wrote five books. He is called the DISCIPLE OF LOVE. He used the word "love" in his gospel alone 60 times and then in his letters a lot more.
So in the reading today Jesus was arrested and stood before Pilot for sentencing. Why he was arrested is a long story for another time. They put a purple robe on him, for kingship, and a crown of thorns on his head. And Pilot ordered him flogged, whipped, 39 times. It does not say how many times in John but in another book of the Bible, it says it could not be 40 times because that would kill the prisoner. Yes, even before Jesus died he suffered tremendously! 💕