(15) And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. (16) And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. (17) And they clothed him with purple, and plat ted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head. (18) And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! (19) And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. (20) And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
Before we enter upon this part of the awful events, in the cruel ties exercised upon CHRIST's person, I beg the Reader to turn to the 18th chapter of Luke, (Luke 18:31-34,) and read our LORD's prediction concerning them; then mark, one by one, the woeful account. And I request the Reader, yet more particularly, to observe through the whole, that he acted as the surety of his people. There certainly was, as I before remarked, a mystical meaning in all. For it forms a grand feature of our holy faith, that for the joy which was set before CHRIST, he endured the cross, despised the shame, before that he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. JEHOVAH, which lay on him the iniquities of his people, turned his glory into shame, Psalms 4:2, that the sin of his redeemed might be made appear exceeding sinful. Let the Reader attend to the shame, and reproaches, and cruelties, poured upon CHRIST, with an eye to this; and the blessedness of the whole will then appear, in their true colours.
The first act of cruelty which Mark takes notice of, exercised upon the sacred person of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, after Pilate had passed sentence of death upon him, and given him up into the hands of the Roman soldiers, is that of scourging. John, in his Gospel, relates that Pilate scourged CHRIST, or caused him to be scourged, before this; when he did it with a view to release him. And no doubt that this first scourging by Pilate, had been with no small severity. Among the Jews, there was no permission to give stripes in any case of delinquency, to above thirty and nine, lest, saith the law, thy brother should seem vile unto thee. Deu 25:3; 2 Corinthians 11:24. But CHRIST, our Brother, must be made vile, as the surety of his people, who had made themselves vile by reason of sin, and therefore the Gen tiles, into whose hands he shall fall, shall lay on stripes without number, as far as their savage cruelty shall incline them. And thus CHRIST, both at the first and second scourging, shall be made vile, that we might be made the righteousness of GOD in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Oh! the preciousness in this mystical allusion, concerning Him, and his unequaled sufferings, by whose stripes we are healed!
The next view we have in Mark's Gospel, of our LORD, after Pilate had delivered him up into the hands of the soldiers, is the calling together the whole band, to insult him, and then clothing him with purple, crowning him with thorns, spitting upon him, striking him on the head, bending the knee before him in mockery, and then unkinging him and unclothing him of his sham royalty, before they led him away to crucify him. In every one of these acts, more or less, we may, under divine teaching, discover the LORD's hand, directing to some interesting circumstances of a mystical nature, in allusion to the persons of CHRIST's redeemed, for whom he became surety, and for whom he suffered.
The clothing him in purple was wholly in derision; but then it should be remembered, that to do this, they first stripped him and made him naked; and indeed so was he crucified. And what so shameful as being wholly naked. But this also was necessary, and highly significant; for as our first parents had made themselves naked to their shame, in taking away the curse, CHRIST must be put in their very law-room and place so as to fulfil all righteousness.
The thorny crown, had mock royalty been only intended, would have been as well played off for their sport, with a crown of reeds! But it was not sport, but cruelty, added to mockery, they meant; and therefore thorns were chosen to be struck into his Sacred head. Sinners are threatened with having their heads and their hairy scalp wounded, as enemies to GOD. Psalms 68:21, etc. The LORD JESUS shall therefore, as the sinner's surety, suffer in their stead. And forasmuch as the curse pronounced at the fall, declared, that thorns and thistles should the earth bring forth to the man. Genesis 3:18. Here also Jesus shall be pre-eminent in suffering, as he is in all things; and shall be crowned with thorns, that the Head may feel, what in his members the Feet only of his redeemed go through, in a thorny wilderness.
Little did those Gentiles consider, how they were by their mockery, fulfilling JEHOVAH's design, in the setting forth these things. Insult and cruelty they intended, yet the LORD was then in reality setting his king upon his holy hill in Zion, and declaring the decree. Psalms 2:6-19. They bowed the knee in derision; but in truth then began in a more open display that declaration of GOD, that when He who was in the form of GOD, and with whom it was no robbery to be equal with GOD, humbled himself to the death of the Cross, every knee should bow before him, and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of GOD the FATHER. Philippians 2:8-11. The
purple robe and the thorny crown, and the reed for a sceptre, were the insignalia of this mock royalty. But whatever they meant, the LORD's purposes were fully answered: for the SON of GOD was at that moment, the brightness of his FATHER's glory, and the express image of his person, whose sceptre of righteousness was the sceptre of his kingdom; and concerning whom when the LORD JEHOVAH bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of GOD worship him. Hebrews 1:3-58.