And when they had platted a crown of thorns.
Mocked of the soldiers
The shameful spectacle! What element of scorn is lacking? Roman soldiers mocking a supposed rival of Caesar are sure to go to the utmost lengths in their derision. The spectacle is as cruel as it is derisive. Thorns and rough blows accentuate mockeries and scoffs. Roman legionaries were the brutalized instruments of a race noted for its ignorance of all tenderness; they wrought cruelties with a singular zest, being most at home in amusements of the most cruel kind.
I. Hers learn a lesson for your heart.
1. See what sin deserved. All laid on Him.
(a) Ridicule for its folly.
(b) Scorn for its pretensions.
(c) Shame for its audacity.
2. See how low your Saviour stooped for your sake.
(a) Made the substitute for foolish, sinful man; and treated as such.
(b) Scoffed at by soldiers of meanest grade.
(c) Made a puppet for men who play the fool.
3. See how your Redeemer loved you. He bears immeasurable contempt, in silence, to the bitter end.
4. See the grand facts behind the scorn.
(a) He is a King in very surety.
(b) Glorified by conquering earth’s sorrow.
(c) Rules by weakness.
(d) Makes men bow the knee.
(e) True Monarch of the Jews.
5. See that you honour and love Him in proportion to this shame and mockery. The more vile He has made Himself for us, the more dear He ought to be to us.
II. A lesson for the conscience.
1. Jesus may still be mocked.
(a) By deriding His people.
(b) By despising His doctrine.
(c) By resolves never fulfilled.
(d) By beliefs never obeyed.
(e) By professions never justified. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The crown of thorns
According to the Rabbis and the botanists, there would seem to have been from twenty to twenty-five different species of thorny plants growing in Palestine; and different writers have, according to their own judgment or fancies, selected one and another of these plants as the peculiar thorns which were used upon this occasion. But why select one thorn out of many? He bore not one grief, but all; any and every thorn will suffice; the very dubiousness as to the peculiar species yields us instruction. It may well be that more than one kind of thorn was platted in that crown: at any rate sin has so thickly strewn the earth with thorns and thistles that there was no difficulty in finding the materials, even as there was no scarcity of griefs wherewith to chasten Him every morning and make Him a mourner all His days. The soldiers may have used pliant boughs of the acacia or shittim tree, that unrotting wood of which many of the sacred tables and vessels of the sanctuary were made; and, therefore, significantly used if such was the case. It may have been true, as the old writers generally consider, that the plant was the spina Christi, for it has many small and sharp spines, and its green leaves would have made a wreath such as those with which generals and emperors were crowned after a battle. But we will leave the matter; it was a crown of thorns which pierced His head, and caused Him suffering as well as shame, and that suffices us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christian’s crown, not gold but thorns
That thorn crown cures us of desire for the vain glories of the world, it dims all human pomp and glory till it turns to smoke. It takes the glitter from your gold, and the lustre from your gems, and the beauty from all your dainty gewgaws, to see that no imperial purple can equal the glory of His blood, no gems can rival His thorns. Show and parade cease to attract the soul, when once the superlative excellencies of the dying Saviour have been discerned by the enlightened eye. Who seeks for ease when he has seen the Lord Christ? If Christ wears a crown of thorns, shall we covet a crown of laurel? Even the fierce Crusader, when he entered into Jerusalem and was elected king, had sense enough to say, “I will not wear a crown of gold in the same city where my Saviour wore a crown of thorns.” Why should we desire, like feather-bed soldiers, to have everything arranged for our ease and pleasure? Why this reclining upon couches, when Jesus hangs on a cross? Why this soft raiment, when He is naked? Why these luxuries, when He is barbarously entreated? Thus the thorn crown cures us at once of the vain glory of the world, and of our own selfish love of ease. The world’s minstrel may cry, “He, boy, come hither, and crown me with rosebuds!” but the voluptuary’s request is not for us. For us neither delights of the flesh nor the pride of life can have charms while the Man of Sorrows is in view. For us it remains to suffer and to labour, till the King shall bid us share His rest. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Crowned with thorns
I. The crown of thorns was placed upon the brow of our Divine Redeemer in derision of His true kingly dignity. It suggests the world’s general treatment of His claims. Herod’s question-“Art Thou a King?” Christ claims this supremacy on the ground of His Divine fulness and sufficiency as our Redeeming God.
II. The crown of thorns reminds us of kingship over suffering, or the passive perfection of the Lord Jesus.
III. Of the disappointments which are inseparable from the earthly and the seen. (C. H. Davison.)
The crown of thorns
1. A striking exhibition of the intense love of Christ to guilty man.
2. The profound depth of His abasement.
3. The development of the nature of that kingdom which Christ came into this world to establish.
4. There is a description of the character, tendency, and issue of the affliction of the righteous. Afflictions prick and tear, but suffering is a crown.
5. An affecting image of the reality, extent, and the permanence of the dominion of Christ. (J. Clayton.)
The thorn crown
I. See what that age must have sunk to. We test forces in depravity by their resistance of good. Rome decadent! Do you know its wealth, armies, etc. It was withal corrupt, dying.
II. See what a limited power Christ’s enemies have. They can put thorns on His head, but none on His heart. How calm in all His sorrow. The keenest physical agony is little felt in the joyous sense of triumphant love for others.
III. See what suffering love can do.
IV. See what is the sin of the world today. Our rebellion is a crown of thorns on his heart.
V. See the altered verdict of the ages. The crown was then a mockery, now a royal symbol. Learn
(1) never to be carried away by a mere temporary judgment;
(2) what a contrast we have in the glorious vision of the Apocalypse, “On His head were many crowns.” (W. M. Statham.)
The crown of thorns
The crown of thorns symbolized-
I. That Christ was about to bear the curse for sinful man. Thorns were part of the original curse upon the soil.
II. That Christ was about to endure pain for sinful man. The piercing thorns were harbingers of the cruel spear and nails.
III. That Christ was about to conquer death for dying man. Christ was crowned before He came to the cross; undesignedly indicating His victory. (F. W. Brown.)