19th Day of Lent
Beloved. Last week we heard that in an attempt to placate the mobs, Pilate had Jesus whipped in an attempt to arouse sympathy and pity for Jesus. Pilate had found Jesus guilty of nothing and had hoped a whipping would be enough and satisfy the demands of Jesus’ enemies. But it wasn’t. Jesus’ scourging was prophesied in the psalm in a rather picturesque way [Psalm 129.3]: The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long. And of course there is that more familiar verse from the prophet Isaiah in which Jesus’ words are recorded [Is 50.6]: I gave My back to those who struck Me. And then those words of our Lord continue and we see them fulfilled in today’s account: I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
This was Jesus’ humiliation. By humiliation, we don’t just mean like the word is commonly used today that Jesus’ self-respect was wounded. Instead, by Jesus’ humiliation we mean that although from the moment of His conception Jesus, had all divine power and majesty, also according to His human nature, but He emptied Himself of its constant use; He did not always or fully make use of it—He took on the form of a servant and was just like any other man. And now in today’s account we see Jesus’ greatest humiliation in these hours of His Passion. Jesus—the very God of heaven and earth—gave Himself to be whipped by heathen soldiers; He was spit upon as if He were the dregs of humanity and He was ridiculed in all sorts of ways.
And it is precisely in this scene that we see the great contrasts of the Passion: Jesus who is the brightness of God’s glory [Heb. 1.3; Jn 1.14, 17.5] and from eternity is clothed with the glory of the Father, here allows himself to be ridiculed and clothed in an old soldier’s cloak. The One God crowned with glory and honor [Ps. 8.5] is here crowned in mockery with a crown of thorns. He whose dominion stretches from sea to sea and [Ps 72.8; 2.9] who will smash His enemies one day with a scepter of iron is here given a reed in mockery of a scepter. The One from whose face the holy angels cover themselves and who is worshipped by them [Is 6.5; Hb 1.6] allows Himself to be spit upon. This is His humiliation and He, the Almighty and eternal God, will continue to humble Himself even to the point of death and burial.
What a scene we come to tonight: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. Jesus had just been whipped. At this point it certainly seemed as if Pilate had succeeded in making the charge that Jesus made Himself a king look ridiculous. After all here He was all bloodied, powerless and the Romans still in undisputed control. Jesus is brought into the Praetorium, the governor’s headquarters, the judgment hall. At this point, after the whipping, His body is one gaping wound and certainly every step was marked by blood. Here Jesus is placed at the mercy of these Roman soldiers and is mocked and ridiculed in a most horrible way.
When Jesus is brought into the Praetorium and the whole garrison surrounds Him and puts on Jesus the robe, crown Him with the crown of thorns, put the reed scepter in His hand and kneel before Him—they are doing in jest what many Roman soldiers have done throughout the centuries: they are proclaiming the next emperor/ Caesar. Yes, they did it in jest but their jesting becomes, in a sense, a prophesy; this really was the reality—precisely by His ridicule, His suffering and His death Jesus becomes King. Jesus set up/ established His kingdom by His suffering and death. Although the soldiers meant only the greatest ridicule, they were still announcing and prophesying the greatest mystery. Jesus’ enthronement would take place on the throne of the cross. Their ridicule, their power and might would/ could not stop it!
But does this whole scene fit together? Can the almighty and holy God Himself, Jesus, suffer like this? After all He was sinless from the very first moment of His conception in the virgin’s womb; never once did He sin during His earthly life—not even now in the midst of greatest suffering. Quoting the prophet, St. Peter writes of Jesus’ perfect sinlessness: Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously [1 Pt. 2.22, 23].
So how/ why can Jesus suffer? Our text is the clue. In it we see Jesus whipped and bloodied and being mocked and ridiculed. And what do we read in the OT prophet about the coming Savior? [Is 53.5-6] But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. As we see Jesus standing here as One despised and rejected and mocked and ridiculed, we are seeing the One who is bearing our sin, the One who took on our sin, the One on Whom the Lord has laid all our sin and guilt. He is suffering and enduring all this precisely because as St. Paul writes [2 Cor. 5.21]: God the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
There is an interesting tie in here/ a visual for us. Our text: And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. Most commentators are agreed that this robe was the outer cloak of a Roman soldier. Probably it was some old one that was lying around somewhere. Notice—the soldiers put on Jesus this old cloak. Isn’t that a rather fitting picture of what is happening to Jesus? –Our sins, pictured by this scarlet robe, are being placed on Jesus. What should really be on us—our sin, guilt and wretchedness is now on Jesus. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Now we want to spend a few moments pondering the crown of thorns. It is a great sorrowful mystery. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head. Again, this was something done in mockery; and the thorns that were twisted together were probably some soldier’s “bright idea” since they were probably growing there, readily at hand and could cause pain and humiliation.
But again, there’s something more here. The Lord is using these soldiers and their ridicule to point us to a deeper and profound truth. The thorns are certainly not as coincidental as it may seem. After all, where do we first run across thorns in Scripture? –Right after the fall into sin. Thorns are a result of, a curse of sin. The Lord spoke to Adam [Gn. 3.17,18]: Both thorns and thistles [the ground] shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return. With the crown of thorns that the soldiers make and that Jesus lets be placed on His head, we are seeing that Jesus is assuming, taking on the curse of sin. The curse of sin that Jesus is taking on is not a light superficial load/ burden; certainly the soldiers didn’t just lightly lay the crown on Jesus’ head like a tiara. Certainly they made use of the thorns, forced them onto Jesus’ head and into His sacred head slicing it with many cuts from which His holy blood then began to flow. If that were not enough, we hear: then they…took the reed and struck Him on the head and by that certainly driving those thorns deeper into His skin and causing our Lord more agony.
But even here, as we ponder this act/ scene, remember this is a prophetic act the Lord was working for our learning and comfort through His unwitting and involuntary prophets, the Roman soldiers: Jesus was taking on Himself the curse of our sin that He might cancel the sentence; our sin and its curse is on Jesus.
What a fitting illustration of sin those thorns are. Think of a thorny plant, vine—even a rose. There are not just thorns here and there or in one spot or in one location. They are all up and down the stalk on all sides. And then when those vines are twisted together in a circle to make crown like the soldiers did, how many thorns were there—must have been one after another. What a fitting picture that crown of thorns is of our sin—one sin after another; one sin heaped up on the next—just like all them thorns on that crown. As we reflect on that crown of thorns, let each of us see our sin cutting into Jesus’ sacred head. Day by day, sin after sin, we wound the head of Jesus. So much greater is our sin to our Lord than the pain caused Jesus by these soldiers.
And this crown of thorns not only shows that Jesus took on Himself the curse of our sin, but since this crown is placed on His head, let us see there that we even sin by our thoughts and these, too, Jesus paid for. Because we sin also in what we think, Jesus’ sacred head was wounded.
Dear Christian, let us see what great suffering our sin brought on Jesus. Let us see by that what a great offense to God they are and let us, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, strive especially in this Lent season to recognize our sin, sorrow over our sin and fight all the harder against that sin and root it out of our heart and life—all sins of deed, word and thought!
So, yes, precisely by His suffering—including His being mocked and crowned with thorns—Jesus established His kingdom, finally being enthroned on the cross. And by His suffering He also draws us and brings us into His kingdom, the Church. Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. Then when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified. As we see Jesus despised and rejected here, we remember that He was despised and rejected also by God as Jesus was bearing the sins of us all; that He had been made sin. Had He not been rejected, He would not have been able to be our Savior, the Savior of the world.
As we see Jesus standing there, mocked and wearing that crown of thorns, let us see His love for us sinners. He stood there, enduring every sort of physical torment; He stood there loaded down with our sins feeling the wrath of God over our sin, certainly something much worse than even this physical suffering. Here was His love of us sinners: He endured it all to reconcile us sinners to the holy God, to be the once for all sacrifice for sin—the sin of the world.
Jesus endured all this not with a forced resignation but patiently, meekly and willingly. Because He stood there and bore all this with such patience that He did not turn away or revile His mockers and torturers, they took the reed and hit Him in the head with it. When they had unleashed their worst and Jesus remained their steadfastly enduring it all for us and our salvation they led Him away to be crucified. Here even in this great temptation to turn away from His saving work, Jesus didn’t but remained steadfast in it.
This Lenten season, let us see Jesus crowned with thorns—and all it means—and patiently and willingly enduring every torment for us. When we feel our sins and the accusations of our conscience, don’t look at God in all of His divine majesty, glory and holiness. Instead, let us look at Jesus, our suffering Savior, crowned with thorns and there see His love, grace, mercy toward us sinners who would do and endure all this to save us from our sin. When we realize that we are the cause of His torments, let us still go to Him in repentance and faith—because that’s why He was tormented. Let us look to Him not only in His suffering but also as He is risen from the dead, victor over sin and death. Let us see in His resurrection precisely who it was who suffered and mocked and crowned with thorns—the very God Himself. Our forgiveness and salvation are certain! How blessed for us—Jesus who was crowned with thorns is now crowned with glory. He is our Savior! INJ Amen.