Jesus and Barabbas Before the Roman GovernorBible World
19:2John 19:2
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
In Pilate's judgment hall after scourging and before He was led to Calvary, bound soldiers mocked His kingship by clothing Him in an old cast-off purple robe, placing a reed in His hand and bowing before Him, and pressing a plaited crown of sharp thorns upon His head. When they struck His head with the reed the thorns pierced His temples and brow so that blood ran down His face and beard, leaving Him weary and wounded in pain from scourging. Even bloodied and exhausted He showed patience, meekness, composure and kingly dignity that filled Pilate with awe and moved onlookers to sympathy. He endured this cruelty without complaint, retaliation or use of divine power, in voluntary exchange of His royal crown and robe of glory for shame, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities to bear the sins of the whole world and redeem by His blood as an unblemished offering. His wearing of shame rebukes pride and devotion to outward adornment and gives the example of self-denying service, and at His second coming as heaven's King the shame will be reversed when instead of thorns He wears a crown of glory and instead of purple is clothed in dazzling white.
Mockery in Pilate's Hall
The plaiting of the crown of thorns and the putting on of the purple robe belong in Pilate's judgment hall before Jesus was led from there to Calvary for crucifixion. There He stood bound as a prisoner while the Jewish leaders and a crowd gathered outside. This mockery came after He had been scourged and before the nailing of His hands and feet and His hanging on the cross with thieves.
The soldiers mocked His kingship by dressing Him in mock royal garments and presenting Him as a mocked king. They put on Him an old, tattered, cast-off purple kingly robe that had belonged to a king, placed a reed in His hand, bowed before Him in mockery, and set on His head a plaited crown of sharp, barbed thorns bound around it. Herod and the priests encouraged the insult, with Herod's soldiers joining in the abuse.
The thorns pierced His holy temples and brow when the soldiers struck His head with the reed, driving them in to cause all suffering possible. Blood from the barbed crown ran down His face and beard and left blood upon His face. Already weary and wounded from scourging, He was left wounded, exhausted, and in pain, in bodily agony greater than any person can endure, so severe that when the cross was later laid on Him He could bear no more and fell fainting beneath its burden.
Despite exhaustion, pain, and abuse, His patience, gentleness, pity, meekness, composure, patient submission, strength, and kingly dignity remained evident. Though bloodied and with blood-stained face, His bearing remained kingly and could not hide His noble character. His bloody wounds made the punishment visible, yet His face and manner showed a noble, patient, dignified character.
That noble character stood in sharp contrast to Barabbas, the hardened criminal and robber beside Him. The sight filled Pilate with awe and wonder whether Jesus was a divine person. Pilate hoped the sight of the robe of mockery and crown of thorns after scourging would satisfy the crowd and spare His life. The contrast moved some spectators to sympathy and left a lasting impression on the watching soldiers.
Sacrifice for Human Sin
The mocking with the crown of thorns and purple robe came when Jesus was already weary and wounded from scourging, dressed as a false king to insult Him. The sharp thorns pierced His temples when He was struck, so that blood ran down His face and beard, and He bore it with meekness and composure. This cruelty was meant to provoke Him to complain, to retaliate, or to use His divine power to escape, which would have thwarted the plan of salvation. He endured without doing so, and His perfect faithfulness under this test was necessary for Him to be an unblemished offering for humanity's redemption. So solemn was that sight that angels laid aside their own crowns because they could not wear them while their Commander wore this crown.
The crown belonged to His voluntary sacrifice in which the Commander of heaven exchanged His royal crown for a crown of thorns and His robe of majesty and glory for a cast-off robe put on Him in mockery. He was wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, and by His stripes healing comes. In that suffering He bore the sins of the whole world and gave His life to redeem people to God by His precious blood. It followed the second scourging and left Him so spent that when the cross was laid on Him He could bear no more and fell fainting beneath its burden.
Satan moved his agents to inflict this abuse on the Son of God, the world's Redeemer. His holy temples were crowned with thorns as the earthly exchange for His crown of glory, as the King of heaven accepted insult, shame, and mockery in a self-denying, self-sacrificing life given as an example to imitate. His suffering was not punishment for any fault in Him. He came as the light of the world to save people, yet He was rejected because He taught heaven's truth by those He came to save, who did not receive Him.
Because He was scourged, mocked, and degraded in the proceedings before Herod and Pilate, with the crown of thorns pressed upon His holy brow, He stands close beside those who suffer for the truth. When His people are persecuted, Christ suffers in them.
Call and Coming Glory
He wore the shameful crown of thorns because of human sin, and that sorrow and shame rebukes pride and love of vanity. Those who spend time adorning themselves are to remember what their sins brought upon Him, and to resist devotion to outward display.
His suffering shows the great cost of what He gave up for humanity and puts every act of self-denial in perspective. The King of heaven accepted insult, shame, and mockery in exchange for His crown of glory, living a self-denying, self-sacrificing life as an example for people to imitate. He came to save and uplift people, and those who follow Him serve others and become His co-workers. He was without fault and was not punished for any fault in Himself, but was rejected because He taught heaven's truth, coming as the light of the world to save people who did not receive Him.
Remembering His meekness and loveliness in suffering and death for sin humbles the heart and exposes the shame of continuing in sin. His brow bled under the barbed crown driven on with blows, and His hands were pierced with cruel nails, in bodily agony greater than any person can endure. That suffering calls sinners to arise, take hold of Him as He is, and give Him the heart. Children are to be taught they can be saved, because the Christ who so suffered also takes little children in His arms and blesses them.
His betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, rejection by the crowd, scourging as the worst of criminals, the choosing of the murderous Barabbas in His place, and His lifting up on the cross to die as a malefactor belonged to the great trial for which He prepared His disciples. In the depths of humiliation as He approached the cross He was in the hands of wicked men with His own nation clamoring for His blood, while Herod and his soldiers plaited the crown for His sacred brow, clothed Him in the purple robe, bowed before Him in mockery, and struck Him with the reed they had placed in His hand. This was the time when the Bridegroom would be taken away from the children of the bride-chamber, giving them cause to mourn and fast. The disciples had centered their hopes of eternal life in Him and hoped He would take David's throne, yet they saw Him treated as a criminal and mocked, so their faith was tried and their hope and courage failed. Their earlier experience of the world's fickle favor helped them endure that sight without losing faith.
His wearing the crown of shame has been invoked in devotion by later sufferers accepting their own crown of shame for Him, as when Huss did so. What He wore at His first coming in humility and suffering will be reversed at His second coming as heaven's King. Instead of the crown of thorns He will wear a crown of glory, and instead of the purple robe He will be clothed in dazzling white. He endured temptation on behalf of people and wore the crown of thorns for sinners, and that suffering crowning will give way to His being crowned with glory, when those who desire to see Him will see Him as He is, fall at His feet in worship, receive harps placed in their hands by Him, and raise their voices in music never heard on earth.
In Pilate's judgment hall after scourging and before He was led to Calvary, bound soldiers mocked His kingship by clothing Him in an old cast-off purple robe, placing a reed in His hand and bowing before Him, and pressing a plaited crown of sharp thorns upon His head. When they struck His head with the reed the thorns pierced His temples and brow so that blood ran down His face and beard, leaving Him weary and wounded in pain from scourging. Even bloodied and exhausted He showed patience, meekness, composure and kingly dignity that filled Pilate with awe and moved onlookers to sympathy. He endured this cruelty without complaint, retaliation or use of divine power, in voluntary exchange of His royal crown and robe of glory for shame, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities to bear the sins of the whole world and redeem by His blood as an unblemished offering. His wearing of shame rebukes pride and devotion to outward adornment and gives the example of self-denying service, and at His second coming as heaven's King the shame will be reversed when instead of thorns He wears a crown of glory and instead of purple is clothed in dazzling white.
Mockery in Pilate's Hall
The plaiting of the crown of thorns and the putting on of the purple robe belong in Pilate's judgment hall before Jesus was led from there to Calvary for crucifixion. There He stood bound as a prisoner while the Jewish leaders and a crowd gathered outside. This mockery came after He had been scourged and before the nailing of His hands and feet and His hanging on the cross with thieves.
The soldiers mocked His kingship by dressing Him in mock royal garments and presenting Him as a mocked king. They put on Him an old, tattered, cast-off purple kingly robe that had belonged to a king, placed a reed in His hand, bowed before Him in mockery, and set on His head a plaited crown of sharp, barbed thorns bound around it. Herod and the priests encouraged the insult, with Herod's soldiers joining in the abuse.
The thorns pierced His holy temples and brow when the soldiers struck His head with the reed, driving them in to cause all suffering possible. Blood from the barbed crown ran down His face and beard and left blood upon His face. Already weary and wounded from scourging, He was left wounded, exhausted, and in pain, in bodily agony greater than any person can endure, so severe that when the cross was later laid on Him He could bear no more and fell fainting beneath its burden.
Despite exhaustion, pain, and abuse, His patience, gentleness, pity, meekness, composure, patient submission, strength, and kingly dignity remained evident. Though bloodied and with blood-stained face, His bearing remained kingly and could not hide His noble character. His bloody wounds made the punishment visible, yet His face and manner showed a noble, patient, dignified character.
That noble character stood in sharp contrast to Barabbas, the hardened criminal and robber beside Him. The sight filled Pilate with awe and wonder whether Jesus was a divine person. Pilate hoped the sight of the robe of mockery and crown of thorns after scourging would satisfy the crowd and spare His life. The contrast moved some spectators to sympathy and left a lasting impression on the watching soldiers.
Sacrifice for Human Sin
The mocking with the crown of thorns and purple robe came when Jesus was already weary and wounded from scourging, dressed as a false king to insult Him. The sharp thorns pierced His temples when He was struck, so that blood ran down His face and beard, and He bore it with meekness and composure. This cruelty was meant to provoke Him to complain, to retaliate, or to use His divine power to escape, which would have thwarted the plan of salvation. He endured without doing so, and His perfect faithfulness under this test was necessary for Him to be an unblemished offering for humanity's redemption. So solemn was that sight that angels laid aside their own crowns because they could not wear them while their Commander wore this crown.
The crown belonged to His voluntary sacrifice in which the Commander of heaven exchanged His royal crown for a crown of thorns and His robe of majesty and glory for a cast-off robe put on Him in mockery. He was wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, and by His stripes healing comes. In that suffering He bore the sins of the whole world and gave His life to redeem people to God by His precious blood. It followed the second scourging and left Him so spent that when the cross was laid on Him He could bear no more and fell fainting beneath its burden.
Satan moved his agents to inflict this abuse on the Son of God, the world's Redeemer. His holy temples were crowned with thorns as the earthly exchange for His crown of glory, as the King of heaven accepted insult, shame, and mockery in a self-denying, self-sacrificing life given as an example to imitate. His suffering was not punishment for any fault in Him. He came as the light of the world to save people, yet He was rejected because He taught heaven's truth by those He came to save, who did not receive Him.
Because He was scourged, mocked, and degraded in the proceedings before Herod and Pilate, with the crown of thorns pressed upon His holy brow, He stands close beside those who suffer for the truth. When His people are persecuted, Christ suffers in them.
Call and Coming Glory
He wore the shameful crown of thorns because of human sin, and that sorrow and shame rebukes pride and love of vanity. Those who spend time adorning themselves are to remember what their sins brought upon Him, and to resist devotion to outward display.
His suffering shows the great cost of what He gave up for humanity and puts every act of self-denial in perspective. The King of heaven accepted insult, shame, and mockery in exchange for His crown of glory, living a self-denying, self-sacrificing life as an example for people to imitate. He came to save and uplift people, and those who follow Him serve others and become His co-workers. He was without fault and was not punished for any fault in Himself, but was rejected because He taught heaven's truth, coming as the light of the world to save people who did not receive Him.
Remembering His meekness and loveliness in suffering and death for sin humbles the heart and exposes the shame of continuing in sin. His brow bled under the barbed crown driven on with blows, and His hands were pierced with cruel nails, in bodily agony greater than any person can endure. That suffering calls sinners to arise, take hold of Him as He is, and give Him the heart. Children are to be taught they can be saved, because the Christ who so suffered also takes little children in His arms and blesses them.
His betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, rejection by the crowd, scourging as the worst of criminals, the choosing of the murderous Barabbas in His place, and His lifting up on the cross to die as a malefactor belonged to the great trial for which He prepared His disciples. In the depths of humiliation as He approached the cross He was in the hands of wicked men with His own nation clamoring for His blood, while Herod and his soldiers plaited the crown for His sacred brow, clothed Him in the purple robe, bowed before Him in mockery, and struck Him with the reed they had placed in His hand. This was the time when the Bridegroom would be taken away from the children of the bride-chamber, giving them cause to mourn and fast. The disciples had centered their hopes of eternal life in Him and hoped He would take David's throne, yet they saw Him treated as a criminal and mocked, so their faith was tried and their hope and courage failed. Their earlier experience of the world's fickle favor helped them endure that sight without losing faith.
His wearing the crown of shame has been invoked in devotion by later sufferers accepting their own crown of shame for Him, as when Huss did so. What He wore at His first coming in humility and suffering will be reversed at His second coming as heaven's King. Instead of the crown of thorns He will wear a crown of glory, and instead of the purple robe He will be clothed in dazzling white. He endured temptation on behalf of people and wore the crown of thorns for sinners, and that suffering crowning will give way to His being crowned with glory, when those who desire to see Him will see Him as He is, fall at His feet in worship, receive harps placed in their hands by Him, and raise their voices in music never heard on earth.