As we enter this season of joy and celebration, giving and receiving of gifts, good will towards man is at its highest, we must not forget that Jesus, in whose name we celebrate, found His life less than all joy. The Bible says -

"Mary will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

What does that mean? What are those sins?

They include our sins against God and our sins against man. Jesus suffered the very sins of man that He came to forgive. Now the story of Christ is a story of sorrow, rejection, and loss.

Like many today, Jesus suffered emotional and physical abuse: here are a list of the emotional struggles and abuses He suffered ---

Emotional 

Jesus had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him,

He had no appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and they considered him insignificant.

He was hated without cause;

Rejected by his own culture, the very people He came to help;

His own family abandoned Him,

He was lied to and about,

His close friend, Judah, betrayed him, and even that with a kiss, 

He was threatened,

Laughed at and spit upon,

Stripped naked in public,

Mocked in His life and in His death, and still today.

Physical abuse -

His beard was pulled out,

 Is. 52:14 "It is true that many were shocked when they saw him. He was beaten so badly that he no longer looked like a man."

They struck him on the head with a stick

Crown of thorns.

His back was beaten until it was laid open,

Drove nails through his hands and feet

Stabbed him with a sword

Hung him on the cross to suffer the agony of death.

In spite of all this, he forgave and offered pardon for all who believe.

Truly Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with the very grief's we sometimes bear in this world. May we make every effort to follow Him in His forgiveness and mercy.