Let us look at a few places in the Bible that speak of some of the physical sufferings the Lord endured while on the earth.

Speaking prophetically of the Lord, we read in Isaiah 50:6, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”  This certainly speaks of the time when the Lord was on trial and being cruelly treated before His crucifixion.  He did not resist this terrible punishment and humiliation.  We read further in Isaiah 52:14, “As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”  Our blessed Lord Jesus was beaten so terribly that he did not even resemble a man.  We then continue to read of the Lord in Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”  Although He was beaten severely, He did not raise His voice to stop the thrashings he endured. 

Now let us move to the crucifixion scene of the Lord Jesus.  As He was led out of the city to Golgotha, we read in Luke 23:26, “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.”  From this, we learn that the terrible beatings of the Lord were so severe that He could not bear the weight of the cross, so they brought Simon from out of the crowd and compelled him to carry the Lord’s cross the rest of the way.  Surely, the Lord suffered greatly from the treatment he received from the sadistic Roman soldiers.  The Lord Jesus was (and is) fully man and fully God, so it is only reasonable to assume that he felt pain as any man would. 

While on the cross, the Lord acknowledged His human sufferings as we read in John 19:28, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”  As He suffered from the floggings, the nails driven into His hands and feet, and the dehydration that came from bleeding in the sun, He was thirsty.  He thirsted so badly that He cried out from His distress.

In all these great sufferings from the hands of man, we must understand that the Lord was suffering for righteousness’s sake.  He suffered even as you and I would if we were treated the same way.  However, it was that which He suffered from the hand of God for sin’s sake that hurt so much and that has allowed us to be saved.  Let us read prophetically of the Lord Jesus and His sufferings in Lamentations 1:12, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, WHICH IS DONE UNTO ME, WHEREWITH THE LORD HATH AFFLICTED ME IN THE DAY OF HIS FIERCE ANGER.”  It was not the harsh punishment of men that caused the Lord His greatest pain, it was the wrath of God being poured out upon Him for our sins.  God punished His own Son in this day of His ‘fierce anger’ as He hung on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body.  He is the one, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…” (1 Peter 2:24).

It was the pain of the wrath of God and being forsaken of Him that caused the Lord Jesus to cry out in agony while on the cross.  In Matthew 27:46 we read, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  How terribly He suffered for our sin’s sake.  The Lord Jesus, as He died for our sins, suffered a depth of pain that I do not believe we will ever fully enter into.  We read of the Lord Jesus in Psalm 88:7, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.”  God the Father, moved fiercely against His son for our sakes.  We read in Romans 8:32, “He that SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  It was the wrath of God against His only begotten Son that now allows him to “freely give us all things.”  Because Christ suffered and died for our sins, we can now receive God’s free gift of salvation by believing on Him as our savior.  Have you received God’s free gift of salvation?  The Lord Jesus endured God’s wrath so that we might never feel His wrath at all.  Romans 10:9 tells us, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”  (478.6)