Sermon nuggets Tues Nov 25
Theme- Mockery
Verses- John 19:1-5
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"(NIV)
Humiliation.
We realized last week that Pilate declared Jesus not guilty. We talked about the official roman trial that was a farce. Pilate knew that he was innocent of the indictment and tried to get out of making a decision. First he indicated that he would release a prisoner, either this Jesus or the worse criminal in the jail. The crowed called his bluff and chose Barabbas. It doesn’t say so here, but Pilate then tried to send him off to Herod claiming that Jesus wasn’t in his jurisdiction. That didn’t work. Now he had a couple more things to try. He would beat Jesus and let the people see the blood and his willingness to compromise by punishing this innocent man for them. There was no reason for the beating, except to satisfy the people.
Jesus bore our sin more than on the cross you know. He also bore our sin in his suffering. Ish 53:5 “He was bruised for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, by his stripes we are healed. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mount.” Al the prophecies point not only to the blood sacrifice on the cross but the sufferings as well as other ways.
The commentaries reveal that scourging was with leather straps with bits of metal or bone tied to the end so when the lash would hit the back it would tear open the flesh. The custom was to have 40 lashes save one That was all they could take before some would die.
John 19:2 says, “And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe.” After the scourging, they did three things: 1. Put a crown of thorns on His head..
And so they also “platted a crown of thorns, and placed it upon His head.” The thorns referred to here are very long, sometimes even 3½ inches in length, piercing the skin and causing blood to run down his face. Thorns are first mentioned in Genesis 3:17-19 “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife . . . and eaten of the tree which I commanded thee .. cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow . thorns and thistles shall it bring forth . in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat.” So the thorns were a product of the curse that came because of sin.
It seems the meaning of the thorns is for sin, sorrow and sweat. Since thorns are a result of the curse we see Jesus took my curse. "Christ . . . being made a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13). It is the result of sin that thorns came. The thorns were placed on Christ head as a result of our sin. It was for sorrow of man that thorns and thistles came and Jesus is spoke of as the man of sorrows. And the sweat of man’s brow must we work to achieve our sustenance. Work is a blessing of God, but hard work, sweat and toil is a result of the curse. Life is going to be hard and these thorns symbolize this in the mocking of the soldiers upon the head and sweat of the brown of Jesus. 2. Put a reed in His hand. 3. Put a purple robe on Him Now, the word there for “robe” does not denote the long kind of robe, but just a short robe that came over the shoulders, and barely covered the chest. So He was naked from the chest down, bleeding, and suffering. Then they put a reed in His hand as a type of mock scepter - the official staff of a king or ruler, symbolizing authority and power. But a reed, a hollow-stemmed brass was a symbol of weakness. Jesus had even referred to reeds as “shaking in the wind.”
Regardless of the other torture this scene is depicting the mockery of the claim that Jesus is the King of the Jews. This is the way the Romans wanted to make fun of Jesus and his rulership.
The world continues to make fun of Jesus because it does not want to recognize His Lordship. They continue to ridicule our Lord in ways that will be the opposite of honor and in it’s place give Him dishonor.
It was a few years ago that the protest came from many Christians when one “artist” produced Jesus on the cross engulfed in a bottle of urine. Among the worse ways to dishonor Jesus in his tax supported statement.
The amazing part of this for me, is the way in which Jesus humbles himself to humiliating mockery for the sake of dying for these very sins.
Pastor Dale
