The experience of the cross is graphically described for us in the gospels. The scriptures say that after Pilate had condemned Jesus to death, he “scourged him” (v.15). Scourging was a barbarous and inhumane punishment. The victim was stripped to his waist, his hands were tied to a pole, and he was beaten with a whip. The whip had a handle with leather straps weighted on the end with sharp pieces of lead and bits of bone. These straps literally tore a man’s back to ribbons. Sometimes it tore a man’s eyes out and knocked his teeth out. Some died under the punishment of it. Some emerged from the ordeal raving mad. Few remained conscious through it. Peter reminds us that “by his stripes we are healed.”