25th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. In today’s reading from the account of our Lord’s Passion we find Jesus before king—Herod and emperor, Pontius Pilate—the mighty Roman emperor’s representative. In both cases they declared Jesus innocent. Several times during this ordeal Pilate declares Jesus’ innocence and he even says to the Jews [Luke 23.15]: After examining this man before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against Him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. But before sending Jesus back to Pilate, we read [Lk 23.11]: Herod with his soldiers treated Him with contempt and mocked Him. Then, arraying Him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. The verdict of both Pilate and Herod could not appease the crowd that was screaming “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” That’s where our text comes in:
And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
Notice the similarity—both Herod and his soldiers as well as the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus as king. The splendid clothing that Herod sent Jesus to Pilate in was a mockery of Jesus’ kingship. The whole action of the 600 man Roman battalion was a mocking of Jesus’ kingship. The charges that Pilate questioned Jesus on during his examination dealt with the question: is Jesus really a king.
To the outward eyes of the casual observer, it hardly seemed the case. After all, here was Jesus before two rulers; and He was a prisoner. On top of that, they treated Him with contempt and ridicule. The soldiers even held a mock enthronement of Jesus with the purple robe, crown of thorns, fake homage.
But here was a case of the Lord using what they intended for evil—mockery and ridicule—for good, as a proclamation of the truth that is seen only with the eyes of faith. The truth is this: Jesus sets up/ establishes His kingdom precisely in His suffering. If there is no suffering of Jesus then there is no kingdom of Jesus. Not that long before, Jesus had said [John 12.32,33]: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. And then, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. John adds: [Jesus] said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Precisely by His suffering and death—being lifted up on the cross—Jesus was exalted; He established His Kingdom; became King—paying the penalty for the sins of all people and drawing people from every nation into His Church, His Kingdom.
Unknowingly and unwittingly the soldiers proclaim the truth that Jesus is King; and their beating and mockery proclaim the truth that Jesus becomes King precisely through His suffering. Because Jesus suffered and died and by that reconciled us sinners to the holy God, He can call us into His Kingdom, the Church, offering us and giving us the gifts He won on the cross for us: forgiveness of sin, life, salvation, peace with God, etc.
All this is not seen by the outward, physical eye but only with the eye of faith. Outwardly we do not see any glory. There we see only One who was held up to contempt, who was miserable, who was in pain; we see One who was beaten and bloodied; we see One who was despised and rejected by the Jews at their trial of Him: And they all condemned Him as deserving death. And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face and to strike Him, saying to Him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received Him with blows; and by the Romans as we see in our text. Jesus was rejected and despised by both Jew and Gentile. And still today Jesus is rejected today by most. Most do not regard Him as King; most are not subjects of His kingdom, the Church, but are still and want to be part of the devil’s kingdom and slaves to him, sin, death and hell. But again, dear Christian, we do not look with the physical eyes at the events of our text and passion reading, but with the eyes of faith and there see Christ our King being enthroned and establishing His Kingdom by His suffering and death.
But let’s take it a step further and just focus on that purple cloak. We heard in our Passion Account of Herod, in mockery, placing splendid clothing on Christ and in our text the Roman soldiers cloth[ing] him in a purple cloak. So, then, what does the physical eye see when they clothed him in a purple cloak to mimic a royal robe? It sees great ridicule and mockery!
But with the eyes of faith what do we see? We see Jesus clothed in a different garment and in truly different royal robes. We see Him clothed with a great glorious obedience to the Father. We see Him clothed in great love for us. And far from being probably some soldier’s old cloak that was scrounged up, we see Jesus with the eyes of faith being clothed in sweet smelling royal robe of a true King.
1. How wonderful for us, dear Christian! As our physical eyes see/ our physical ears hear that that old soldier’s cloak is placed on Jesus, with the eyes of faith we instead see Jesus clothed with a different garment: we see Him clothed in great, glorious obedience to the Father. This perfect obedience that Jesus shows here, that He is “clothed” with, is a glorious comfort to us: Jesus came to do His Father’s will and He did it—for us and for our salvation. After all, that’s why He came.
Remember, although here we see only Jesus’ great suffering; although we see only His humanity, Jesus is still the God-man. He is still the true almighty God. Jesus never stops being true God. He may, like He’s doing now, hide it—but He is still the true God. He showed glimpses of it during His Passion—like we heard a few weeks ago when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane: as He uttered His divine name [John 18.6], I AM, the arresting horde drew back and fell to the ground. By this He showed that He was willingly allowing Himself to endure the upcoming events—arrest, trials, beatings, crucifixion—just as He had earlier said [John 10.18]: No one takes [My Life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Jesus is clothed with great, glorious obedience to His Father. Good thing for us and our salvation that He was! How determined He was in obedience to the Father to carry out His will. After all, because Father and Son are two distinct Persons but yet one God, that means they have the same will—they both desire the same thing! That’s the perfect obedience Jesus is clothed with. That’s why we read [Luke 9.51]: when the time had come for [Jesus] to be received up…He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.
And yet, because Jesus is true Man, enduring all this suffering, every fiber of His body recoiling at the thought of enduring God’s wrath over the sin of the world, it was a very real temptation when the devil, speaking through the crowds, came to Him on the cross saying [Matthew 27.40], If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross. But the great comfort of our text? Looking with the eyes of faith at Jesus clothed in that purple cloak, we don’t see a miserable, contemptible spectacle; instead we see Jesus clothed in that great, glorious obedience to the Father.
That’s the greatest comfort for us--Jesus willingly and in obedience to the Father’s will humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross [Philippians 2.8]! It’s our greatest comfort because only Jesus’ suffering and death gets rid of our sin. The sin we commit earns us nothing but God’s wrath and damnation. No matter how much good we think we may do, it cannot and does not placate God. Left to ourselves, we are left with only our sin, God’s wrath, death and eternal damnation. But that’s why Jesus! Because God desires all [people] to be saved [1 Tim. 2.4], He sent the Son to become also true man. And precisely by His perfect obedience to His Father’s will, Jesus obeyed God’s holy Law for us and by that gave God the perfection He demands of us. How gloriously Jesus is arrayed in obedience! And on top of that, His obedience leads Him to the cross where all of God’s wrath over our sin is poured out on Jesus and is assuaged/ placated.
By Jesus’ obedience, the good we fail to do He has done for us; the evil we are and have done, He has paid the price for. We sinners are reconciled to God; our sins are forgiven us and heaven is open to us. That’s the power and fruit of Jesus’ suffering. With the eyes of faith, we don’t see that wretched soldier’s cloak on Jesus; instead we see Him clothed in obedience.
2. As we come in and look at the scene and see that they clothed him in a purple cloak, not only do we see with the eyes of faith that Jesus is clothed with obedience to His Father, but also He is clothed in great love of us poor sinners.
Not just obedience to His Father’s will led Jesus to endure all this—but so also His love for sinners—you, me, all people. Think of it, when Jesus looks out on humanity what does He see? What did He see as He looked out on the crowds during His earthly ministry? But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd [Mt. 9.36]. He sees what we can’t see—our misery and distress: our sin that would condemn us and drag us down to hell, our slavery to sin and devil, our damnation. All things that we justly and rightly earn and deserve for our sin!
And yet He loves us. His love for us leads to His mercy and compassion toward us and that leads Him into action for us. And in His love for us, the holy, eternal God, the Son, becomes also a true man precisely so He can take our misery and distress on Himself and deal with it once for all. Remember—our sin and its effects can only be removed by Jesus’ suffering.
Already speaking in the Old Testament through the prophet, Jesus says [Isaiah 50.6]: I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. Here is the great love of Christ for us; here is the mercy and longsuffering of the Redeemer of the world. For Jesus to come and deal with our sins once for all, it was not a matter of waving a magic wand and our sins and their effects would all be gone. Instead, as is driven home in our Passion readings—and especially in today’s text—it was a long, drawn out time of great suffering. Beginning already as Baby born in poverty and hunted down by the king to be killed and all throughout His life, it was a continual grinding through the sufferings—and why? Because that’s the only way Jesus could bring about for us forgiveness of sin and salvation. In love for us, He took on our misery, sufferings and distress. In the midst of His sufferings—as here He has already been marked as the world’s sinner and is being led to the cross as that once for all sacrifice for sin to endure God’s wrath for our sin—He has before Him our misery and sufferings and in love He is enduring everything not just the physical, which is bad enough, but what is indescribably worse—the Father’s wrath over the sins of all people—so that we may be at peace, forgiven, reconciled to God and heirs of heaven. Here, as our physical eye sees/ physical ear hears Jesus in the grueling midst of His sufferings, let us open our spiritual eyes and there see Jesus clothed/ adorned in the garments of great love for us!
For when they clothed him in a purple cloak, we see Jesus clothed in, for us, the most glorious sweet-smelling royal robes: the robes of obedience to the Father and the robes of great love for us. Now we, subjects of His kingdom/ members of His Church, are clothed with His robes of righteousness and heirs of heaven. INJ