The Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary: The Scourging at the Pillar (Luke 22:63-65)

⁶³ The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. ⁶⁴ They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” ⁶⁵ And they said many other insulting things to him.

In Luke, we learn that there were two stages to Jesus’ trial. He went first before the Jewish leaders who condemned him under Jewish law. However, since they wanted a public execution and could not condemn him to such a death, they had to figure out a charge that would convince the Romans to execute him. This would lead to the second trial before the Roman governor of Judea (where Jerusalem was located), Pontius Pilate. Luke’s account here differs from that of Mark and Matthew because they describe an official trial before the Sanhedrin, the supreme assembly of religious leaders, while in Luke it seems much less formal and closer to an interrogation. Also, in Luke the scourging and mocking come before Jesus faces the Sanhedrin and not after, as in the other two gospels.

In the first sorrowful mystery, Jesus’ suffering was primarily mental as he worried about the suffering that was to come. His anxiety was so great that he experienced physical symptoms, notably sweating blood. From now on, his suffering will be both bodily and mental as he undergoes both mockery and physical abuse. The entire process that leads to his death is a progressive degradation of Jesus as he is publicly humiliated and presented as a criminal.

In  this mystery we see this in action as he is mocked, tortured and effectively excluded from human society. Here he follows in the footsteps of the prophets who also experienced violent rejection and even sometimes death at the hands of their fellow countrymen. Note too, that he earlier predicted that this would happen which makes the mockery of the guards deeply ironic. Jesus has, indeed, seen the future and accepted it – something which his tormentors cannot fathom. But this is cause for great hope for, in spite of the horror of this event, it is all part of the unfolding of God’s plan for human salvation.