Matthew 27:29, commentary and pictures

The soldiers stage a mock coronation, setting a platted crown of thorns on his head, placing a reed in his right hand for a scepter and an old purple robe on him, then bowing the knee and hailing him as King of the Jews in derision of his royal claim. They then turn the mockery violent, striking him on the head with the reed, smiting and spitting upon him, and driving the thorns into his temples until blood trickles down his face and brow. He bears all insult and shame without retaliating, murmuring, or opening his mouth, refusing to use divine power or call for a legion of angels though he could paralyze the striking hand and silence the scoffers. He suffers as the just for the unjust with the sins of the whole world upon him, leaving his kingly crown to become a Man of sorrows from Gethsemane to scourging and cross in order to pay the ransom and redeem sinners by his blood. The same head once crowned with thorns will be crowned with a diadem of glory as King of kings, to the terror and remorse of those who mocked him when they see him in majesty, and his thorn-crowned suffering puts all human self-denial in the shade and calls his followers to share his reproach and bear the cross rather than live for ease.

Scene and Mockery

Matthew 27:29 stages a deliberate mock coronation in derision of his royal claim, with a platted crown of sharp thorns bound upon his sacred head, an old purple kingly robe put upon him, and a reed placed in his right hand as a mock scepter while his tormentors pretend to enthrone him, bow the knee before him, and hail him as King of the Jews with blasphemous mockery, insult, and salutation as a false king. The reed serves as the false scepter of that enthronement, and the bowing and hailing are performed as though he sat enthroned, only to insult him. The mockery is the work of Herod with the priests and the crowd joining in the derision.

The derision turns violent when they take the reed from his hand and strike him on the head with it, smiting and spitting upon him. The blows drive the sharp thorns into his temples, so that blood trickles down his face, brow, and beard and runs from his brow.

This belongs to his trial and condemnation in the judgment hall and on the road from Pilate's hall to Calvary where he is led to be crucified, coming after scourging and amid shouts, jeers, and the wailing of the daughters of Jerusalem as he bears the heavy burden of the cross. The agony of the judgment hall and the cross is preceded by a night of prayer, witnessed by heaven, with angels present at the scourging. He is seized at midnight in Gethsemane as a murderer, dragged to and fro from palace to judgment hall, arraigned twice before the priests, twice before the Sanhedrim, twice before Pilate and once before Herod, then mocked, scourged and condemned and led out to be crucified as a betrayed victim hurried from one earthly tribunal to another.

The actors are hardened Roman soldiers, an infuriated clamoring multitude demanding his blood, the chief priests and elders, and Herod, with the religious leaders' ridicule spreading through the people. Satan and his angels are busy in the judgment hall to destroy human feeling and sympathy, making the atmosphere heavy and polluted, exercising frenzied power over the hearts of men, and stirring the leaders and the crowd by lies and violence to mock, condemn, scourge, and murder him.

The greatest guilt and heaviest responsibility belong not to the hardened and corrupt soldiers, nor to Pilate and Herod with the ignorant soldiers, who are comparatively ignorant, not knowing that this man is the Sent of God, unacquainted with Old Testament history and without the light so abundantly given to the Jewish nation, thinking to please the priests and rulers by abusing him. It belongs instead to those in the highest places of the nation who betrayed their sacred trust, who with that light would not have treated him so cruelly. It belongs also to Judas, who handed him over to be mocked, scourged, and crucified and acknowledged his betrayal, yet felt no deep grief that he had delivered the Son of God.

Patient Endurance Under Abuse

He bore insult, reproach, taunts, and shameful abuse without retaliating, murmuring, complaining, or opening His mouth, remaining steadfast and faithful to His Father's will. Though slight and indignity were heaped upon Him, He answered as the meek Lamb, spit upon and crowned with thorns and stretched toward an ignominious death. The cruelty was endured without a murmur while religious leaders and crowd were stirred to mock and condemn Him.

He refused to use divine power to escape, though He could have asked His Father for a legion of angels to assist Him. He had power to display divine majesty and deliver Himself, to seal the lips of scoffers, to paralyze the hand that smote Him, and to flash forth righteous indignation, to the marvel and mystery of angels. Yet He restrained that power and bore taunts and revilings without sin, enduring the abuse without retaliating or freeing Himself.

He bore the cruelty with patient dignity, meekness, and condescension, and with a meek and lovely endurance of mocking and pain. Bloodied and exhausted, His bearing stood in noble contrast to the hardened wickedness of Barabbas the robber beside Him. His endurance of humiliation displays infinite love and condescension, for He neither sought applause nor feared the world's threats.

That endurance preserved His perfect and blameless humanity and His fitness as the unblemished Lamb of God. Satan and his angels were busy to make the abuse most difficult for human nature to bear, hoping the mockery and violence would draw complaint or murmur from the Son of God or cause Him to manifest divine power and wrench Himself from the multitude, so that the plan of salvation would fail. The test was decisive, for one failure under it would have made the offering imperfect and caused redemption to fail, and even angels laid aside their crowns in sorrow as their Commander suffered.

Salvation Through Suffering

The platted thorns set on his head and the reed placed in his hand as a mock scepter, with bowing and hailing as King of the Jews, were not mere insult but part of the suffering borne to open the way of salvation. That mock coronation belonged to the carrying out of the plan to pay the ransom for humanity, endured at the hands of wicked men who mocked and derided him. He humbled himself still lower to bear insult, reproach, accusation and shameful abuse, finishing his life-work in the world he himself had made and still sustained by the word of his power, where there seemed no room for him, amid betrayal, denial, fleeing from place to place, and bearing the cross. With a purple robe upon him they struck him on the head with the reed, driving the thorns into his temples until blood ran down his face and beard. Beaten with rods with cruel thorns piercing his holy brow, he bore the heaviest humiliations in behalf of fallen humanity.

That unbroken humiliation ran from leaving his kingly crown to become a babe and a Man of sorrows, through betrayal and Gethsemane to scourging, cross and tomb. It joined his conflict in the wilderness of temptation, his life of self-sacrificing love, his soul agony in Gethsemane, and his agony upon the cross. The cruelty came because men hated his reproof and his sinless character and were determined to get him out of the way, even though Pilate declared him without fault and still gave him up. So understood, his endurance teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God and fitting preparation for holy work, requiring one called to minister souls and enlighten them with divine truth to put all energies into it and make every other consideration secondary.

He suffered all this as the just for the unjust, the glorious Redeemer leaving the realms of glory to come to this dark and lonely world to give his precious life and die. The platted crown of thorns, cruel mocking and scourging were borne while the burden of the sins of the whole world was upon him, joined with sweating great drops of blood in the garden. He suffered it for us and for our sins, that by his precious blood he might redeem us unto God. His pierced royal head, with drops of blood flowing from it, together with striped flesh, nailed hands, spiked feet, bodily agony, cry of woe and anguish at the hiding of his Father's face, declares to each child of humanity that for them he consents to bear the burden of guilt. Moved by love, he who stilled the waves and walked the sea, made devils tremble, healed disease, opened blind eyes and raised the dead, offered himself as sacrifice, spoiling the domain of death and opening the gates of Paradise, enduring the wrath of divine justice as the Sin-bearer and becoming sin itself for their sake. Crowned with thorns he stands as the bleeding victim of the mob's rage, his suffering both the consequence of sin and the expression of eternal redeeming love, worn for the sake of others, for each person individually.

His wearing the shameful crown came because of human sin, including pride, vanity and love of pleasure and display, and was borne to save people from those sins and to heal transgressions and iniquities. He endured exhausting work, self-denial and long nights of prayer to bless the needy and help people resist temptation, and his sorrow and anguish were borne for them. The mocking, deriding, jeers, taunts, revilings, spitting and humiliation in the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary to rescue fallen man from utter ruin fulfilled what Abraham's offering of Isaac foreshadowed of the gospel of salvation, revealing the unutterable self-denial of the infinite God. Unlike Isaac, he was not spared at the last moment, for legions of angels waited sorrowfully hoping God would prevent his shameful death, but they were not permitted to bear the message that he need not die, so he endured through to bowing his head and dying on the cross.

Humiliation and Future Glory

His first coming was in lowliness and obscurity, suffering and poor, seen as a prisoner surrounded by a rabble, crowned with thorns and clothed with an old purple robe and mocked as King of the Jews with a reed in His hand and a feigned bow and hail. That humiliation in trial and scourging was witnessed by heaven, with angels present at the scourging. At His second coming all will be changed, for He will come not as a prisoner but as heaven's King in His own glory and the glory of His Father and of the holy angels, escorted by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels. The contrast will then be complete, with humiliation at His death exchanged for the glory and triumph of His royal majesty.

That same head once crowned with thorns in mockery of His kingship will on His coronation day be crowned with a diadem of glory. In place of the crown of thorns He will wear a crown of glory, a crown within a crown, and in place of the purple robe a garment of whitest white such as no fuller on earth can white it, bearing the true title King of kings and Lord of lords written on His vesture and on His thigh. Those who would not have Him reign over them will then see Him exalted and surrounded by the army of the redeemed, each marked as covered by His righteousness, while His faithful ones who are without spot or wrinkle receive crowns of immortal glory and shine in the glory of the Father and the Son.

The men who mocked Him and struck Him with the reed, who placed the thorny crown upon His sacred brow and the mimic scepter in His unresisting hand and bowed the knee in derision of His royal claim and title as Son of God and King, will see Him in kingly majesty and glory and recognize Him as the one they crucified and derided. That scene took place in Heaven's sight and showed how Satan's influence could turn people into liars and murderers, and those who mocked and rejected Him will later behold Him as King of kings and Lord of lords and face the truth of His identity with terror and remorse. When He is beheld in His glory at the second resurrection those very men are speechless before His piercing gaze, behold the marks with terror and remorse, turn to flee from the overpowering glory of His presence, and are yet to see Him sitting on the right hand of power as He declared, even smiting and spitting upon the Prince of life with impious hands at Herod's bidding in blasphemous mockery.

The Roman soldiers who had plaited the crown of thorns saw Him glorified after He rose from the tomb, for the mocked prisoner in the judgment hall was the risen Christ whom no obstacle could keep from coming forth. The shameful treatment and crucifixion recalled in the crown of thorns and the reed in His right hand with feigned homage became part of proclaiming Him as the risen Saviour.

This insult to the Master belonged to the most trying ordeal of betrayal, agony in Gethsemane, and crucifixion, when the very multitude that had hailed Him as their king hissed at Him, reviled Him, and cried for crucifixion, and the crowd's later rejection contrasted with the earlier welcome He had received as king. He foresaw it with full knowledge of unbelieving and weak faith among His followers, and deliberately brought on a testing crisis beforehand while still present to comfort, strengthen, and prepare His faithful few, so that when the scorn came they would not be overwhelmed with surprise, would not sink beneath fear and disappointment and grief over the ruin of their fondest hopes, would not hang their faith upon the inconstant favor and opinions of others, and would not be carried away by the apostasy of faint-hearted professed followers in that hour of horror. His condemnation and mockery therefore became a severe test that disappointed worldly hopes, and the disciples who hoped He would reign on David's throne and deliver Israel witnessed their hoped-for King crowned with thorns, treated as a criminal with derision, insult, and mockery, and stretched on the cross at Calvary as a malefactor dying as a criminal. With Him then taken down and laid in Joseph's new tomb they felt they had lost their Lord, their hope was killed, affliction and anguish came upon them, and the testimony that He had risen seemed too much to believe, bringing grief that tested their faith, hope, and courage.

Example for Believers

The thorn-crowned suffering puts all human self-denial in the shade beside what was given up to lift sinners up, proving the narrow self-denying way is not too strait. The King of glory wore the thorny crown while bearing the cross and drinking the bitter cup, enduring derision, insult, coarse jests, cruel mocking, and blows that drove thorns into the temples until blood flowed from the brow on the way to crucifixion. That reproach and suffering calls followers to share his reproach in work for the salvation of others, not to live at ease or for self-glory but to serve God wholeheartedly with time and means. Together with conflict in temptation, a life of self-sacrificing love, agony in Gethsemane, and agony on the cross, it teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration, and fitness for holy work, requiring one called to minister souls and enlighten them with divine truth to put all energies into it and make every other consideration secondary.

Remembering the crown of thorns and pierced brow should awaken gratitude for the great sacrifice and cost of salvation and move to sacrifice and self-denial for faith. Indifference to his pain shows loss of the sense of that cost, while remembrance rebukes pride, selfish desire and indulgence, and excessive concern with outward appearance.

Because the holy, self-denying, humble Master had his head decorated with suffering and shame as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities through which healing comes, his followers professing to be washed by his blood must not decorate poor mortal bodies for show and fashion. Needless ribbons, laces, bonnets, collars, and outward adornment stand in contrast to his sacrifice and humility. Spending money for prideful adornment while he wore thorns proves pride in the heart, and outward appearance is an index to a heart that must be cleansed.

He is the example set before impatient and passionate people for overcoming passion and impatience, enduring all slight and indignity and opening not his mouth though he could have asked his Father for a legion of angels to assist him. As the meek Lamb and innocent Sufferer he was spit upon, crowned with thorns, and stretched on the cross to die an ignominious death for sins, because it behooved him to suffer all this to make a way of escape for lost man. Those he died for must therefore be perfectly subdued by grace, must not complain or murmur over any sacrifice even when suffering for their own sins, but must deny self, die to self, and crave the suffering part. Thinking of his meek and lovely endurance of mocking and pain, borne with thorns and nails for human sin, should humble and break the heart, bringing bowing in the dust with shame and humiliation and turning from sin instead of thinking well of self in a condemned course.

The thorn-crowning belongs to unbroken humiliation borne in behalf of fallen humanity, leaving a kingly crown to become a babe and a Man of sorrows, hated for reproof and sinless character and determined to be put out of the way even though declared without fault, yet beaten with rods with cruel thorns piercing the holy brow. That depth of humility is one no believer can go beyond, teaching that those who partake of divine nature must also be willing partakers of sufferings in hard places. He wore the shameful mockery for each person individually, giving followers reason joyfully to bear their own crown of shame for him, as when the paper mitre of degradation was likened to his crown and accepted for his sake in remembrance that he bore shame first.

His love so deep as to leave glory for a dark and lonely world, bear the burden of the sins of the whole world with sweat as great drops of blood, endure cruel mocking and scourging with the platted crown, and give precious life and blood to redeem sinners as the just for the unjust, rebukes those who treat it as a great thing to help the cause of salvation and will not dispose of this world's goods to save perishing souls. Beside such sacrifice, clinging to the world and to dead, heartless professors is condemned, and undivided affections, entire consecration, and separation are demanded.