“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face from mocking…”

- Isaiah 50:6

The above is a messianic passage, prophesying about how Jesus would be abused and suffer in our place leading up to the cross.

Think about the fact that Jesus said I and the Father are one. This Triune God sends the Son in the flesh to walk and live among mankind, specifically, the ones who had the Scriptures alerting them to His coming.

The Son who came was the same God who spoke through the prophets regarding the need to turn from sin. He commanded us to seek His face and that we would find Him if we did. Tragically, when He comes as the Son of Man, we spat in His face.

What incredible humility and absolute meekness! He died for the ones who spit in His face. Not only that, but it says He GAVE His back to those who struck him, and He GAVE His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard. He willingly and voluntarily gave Himself to be a sacrificial Lamb.

For God so loved that He gave. He gave His back, He gave the cheeks on His face, He gave the nerve endings in every part of His body, He gave His dignity, He gave His only begotten son, He gave Himself. 

The king Himself gave His own life for His enemies.


So when Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, He was not merely speaking poetically or using flowery-sounding language - He knew he was going to literally give Himself to His abusers. He was not telling us to do something He was not ready and willing to do Himself.

What kind of love is this? What kind of king, when His subjects rebel against Him, comes off His throne to become one of them? And then dies for them so His enemies could be reconciled back to Him?

Can we even fathom such love?

Jesus not only suffered on the cross but He embraced the suffering that came with obedience to the Father throughout his life. Finally, climaxing with the ultimate suffering of His crucifixion.

Why all of this suffering? Why did He go through all of that? I don't have all the answers to that question, but I believe that one of the answers is simply so that we could never look at Him and tell him He doesn't understand the pain we are going through. 

He not only knows what we are going through because He’s omniscient but because He lived life with all the vulnerabilities of a human being. Jesus understands us and has compassion for us in our struggles. Jesus is our High Priest who can sympathize with and understand our weaknesses and struggles!

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

- Hebrews 4:15