Ain't No Skin Off My Back!

This afternoon while I was doing nothing in particular a phrase that I have not thought of for a very long time came into my head. Some of you may have heard it even though it is a very old saying. “Ain’t no skin off my back!”

As I remember its general meaning it has to do with not caring about, being bothered by, or affected by the words or actions of another person. Like, “Seth, I heard your brother robbed the bank.” Seth says, “Well, that ain’t no skin off my back, but if the cops are chasing him he better not come here.” My wife Charlene thought it was related to being whipped like a slave.

What I thought about was that it was literally the skin off Jesus’ back! When we read in Isaiah and Peter that “By His stripes we are healed.” do we really understand what that means? When we read in the gospels that the Romans scourged or chastised Him before He was crucified do we really understand what that means? I know that some have taught what those statements mean and I am not going into the gory details.

What I thought about was that His giving the skin off His back for us came in the middle of what he experienced that day. At about the time of the morning that He was scourged He had been up about 24 hours. He had been arrested during the night and all His disciples abandoned Him, He was taken to Annas the father-in-law of the High Priest where He was questioned and open handed slapped in the face. Then sent to Caiaphas the High Priest where He was questioned then mocked and blasphemously spoken of, He was beaten, blindfolded and struck in the face and asked, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck you?” While this was happening Peter denied Him three times. Then He was taken to Pilate where He was accused, questioned and sent to Herod. At Herod’s He was expected to perform miracles then He was accused, mocked and treated with contempt and sent back to Pilate. Then He was accused and rejected by the people for a murderer, he was mocked by the Romans who put a crown of thorns on His head and struck Him with their hands, they hit Him with a reed type rod. Then He was scourged, this is done by one or two Roman soldiers who had whips that had up to nine leather straps and each strap had a piece of broken glass, or a broken bone, or a piece of metal and He was beaten with them thirty nine times where the skin (flesh) was literally ripped off His back, from His shoulders to His buttocks and down both sides of His body. Then they put a purple robe on Him and paraded Him before the people who again rejected Him and cried out, “Crucify Him!” Then He was paraded through the streets of the city with a stranger carrying His cross to Golgotha where He was crucified. He was nailed to the cross then hung on the cross for 6 hours, from the 3^rd to the 9^th hour of the day. While He hung there He was mocked by the people passing by and the religious leaders. Then He felt abandoned by GOD because of our sins that were applied to His life in our place and then He died.