Crown Him with Many Crowns

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:27-30

The humiliating treatment Jesus received at the hands of the Roman soldiers tasked with His execution was callously brutal. I suppose their job required a certain degree of soul-numbness to the humanity of the men they killed. For their sanity, they must have conditioned themselves to see the condemned as less than human, as evil incarnate, or criminally and hopelessly insane.

Jesus’ executioners seemed to particularly latch on to his claim to be the Messianic Jewish King. They found this idea laughable and made it the centerpiece of their torturous treatment of our Lord. A whole battalion (about 60 men) was brought in on it. I think the larger the group the easier it is to do the kinds of things they did to Jesus. The conscience of one man is easier to sway toward what is right than the conscience of 60.

I heard it said once that when you have one teenage boy you have one brain. When you have two teenage boys together you have half a brain. When you get three teenage boys together there is no brain at all. In a similar vein, a mob doesn’t strengthen the conscience it instead divides and diminishes it. This is what Jesus faced.

Targeting his kingly claim, he was donned with a scarlet robe, but not before being stripped naked in an act of brutal humiliation. They violently forced a flesh-piercing crown of thorns down upon his head. A mock scepter, a reed, was placed in his right hand. Note that there is no indication that Jesus threw it down or let it drop. He humbly held it, receiving from these men whatever they sought to dish out without the slightest complaint or act of retaliation and resistance.

I think Jesus’ calm, meek response intensified these men’s anger. Their acts were intended to provoke a response. They wanted Jesus to lash back in bitterness or cower and shake in fear. They wanted him to curse them or plead for their mercy. And He did neither. They were the ones losing their composure, not Jesus. They took the reed from Him and struck Him with it. They spit on Him.

And they knelt in mock reverence saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

There is coming a day when “every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Yes, even these men will bow again before Jesus. What must go through the mind of a person on that Day whose last earthly thought of Jesus was mockery?

I do hold out hope that some of those 60 men at some point in their lives came to know Christ as Lord. Yes, they could be forgiven for what they did that day, just as much as you and I can be forgiven for whatever sins we have committed against men and God. That’s grace. It is that amazing. It is so amazing that the man who shoved the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head could be saved and given a crown of reward to cast at Jesus’ feet on the Day of Judgment.