They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. –Matthew 27: 28 & 29, NIV 2011
So what about the crown of thorns? We’re talking about a battered Jesus being mocked, ridiculed, and derided because…well, because. Like a lamb, He didn’t say anything; like a scapegoat, He took all the blame. And that painful crown of thorns became the literal symbol of what was said when man fell for the first time: “It will produce thorns and thistles for you (Genesis 3:18a)”.
They mocked Jesus by putting Him with pseudo-royal regalia: a crown, a reed, scarlet robes. They knelt, and then they spat on Him like if He was a dog or an Arborian from a cartoon show (hehe). What more pain could Jesus take!? How could it be that men could take time to prepare such cruelty for the Son of God? And yet, how worse it is that we carry those same thorns in our body, in our hearts, and in our minds? And what else –that same pain have made our trials bleak than the things God faced…?