The Soldiers Mock Jesus Matt 27:27-31 // Mark 15:16-20 // John 19:1-3
27Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment.28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.29They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”30And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it.31When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
The Roman soldiers show Jesus no respect at all. They have no idea who he really is. To them, he is the best the Israelites had to offer – and in there eyes that wasn’t much. The cruelty and pain that Jesus quietly suffers is amazing. And he feels no compulsion to defend himself and no malice toward the soldiers, or at least he doesn’t show it. I’ve heard it said that this is the only moment in his life on Earth that Jesus is dressed as a king and everything about it was awful. Perhaps that is the best this world could give him. It may also be the best this world can give us.
The crown of thorns is too significant to pass by. In the book of Genesis, the ver first book of the Bible, there is a story about Abraham being told to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. Abraham is obeying and as he and Isaac are walking up the mountain Isaac asked his father what they would sacrifice. Abraham tells Isaac that “God will provide the sacrifice”. At the end of the story when God has told Abraham not to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham looks around and sees ram with its horns tangled in a thorn bush and sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac. God knew every detail of his son’s death before he ever created the world at all…and the Bible is an amazing book. *obbs*