WARNING: This post contains descriptions of torture that may be distressing for younger or more sensitive readers.
Matthew 31-27:24 NIVUK
[24] When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’ [25] All the people answered, ‘His blood is on us and on our children!’ [26] Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. [27] Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him. [28] They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, [29] 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. [30] They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. [31] After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.27.24.NIVUK
The cult comedies of the 1980s were often a tough watch. Several, like ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Red Dwarf’, had no religious content in them at all. And yet the writers in them had no qualms about taking pot shots at Christians and Christianity, in a way that would be unthinkable towards any other religious grouping. Not because they could find no equivalent comic material, but likely because they knew that Christians would not retaliate in any way, whereas the other groups would.
Such is the cowardice of comedy.
Yet one look at the mocking Jesus endured – even just a passing glance – tells you that He endured something so, so much worse.
And it isn’t just the physical pain – which would have been immense.
No, these men literally added insult to injury by mocking Him while they tortured Him.
This meditation will not be for the faint of heart. We will be considering the symbolic nature of three elements of the extraordinarily inhumane torture inflicted on Jesus by these Roman soldiers.
But before we do that, we should set the scene, however difficult that will be for us.
These soldiers were hired or enslaved by the Romans, but historians and commentators tell us that they were likely not Romans themselves. More likely, they were men from the surrounding nations brought under Roman command by either defeat in battle or slavery or simply for the money.
Whatever the cause, we see men here from nations with no claim to God’s favour inflicting incredible pain and humiliation on Jesus – and vicariously on the Jewish people.
This is not at all unusual in Jewish history. It also happened during their blackest day – when the Babylonians took them into exile. The prophet Amos outlines their sin in Amos 1:3-15, 2:1-3. We can see in these passages how God had seen what they had done and He would punish them for it.
This gives hope to those who are enduring suffering. God is not blind to it. He sees. He knows. He will act.
Before allowing the soldiers to use Jesus as their plaything in the Praetorium, Pilate has Jesus flogged. Now, this flogging was unlike any painful punishment any of us could ever experience – it was far, far worse. One commentator wrote these words about it:
‘As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive the cross.’
All this took place before Jesus was mocked.
And here’s the wild truth: this flogging was limited to ‘just’ thirty-nine lashes, because it was felt that to give a prisoner forty or more would demean them.
Even if some prisoners did not survive the flogging.
The torture itself does not take place like it does in the movies – in some dirty warehouse in a distant industrial lot. Neither is it a beating in some dingy back-alley, or some sadistic hazing in a military academy.
No, this is way worse. It takes place in the Praetorium – a Roman courthouse. It takes place in front of and with the participation of a detachment of Roman soldiers. It is sanctioned and permitted by the Roman governor – the same governor who appointed the Jewish High Priest.
There is only one disturbing conclusion we can reach:
This was state-sponsored.
Now, I am in no doubt at all that modern torture methods are inhumane and wrong. I do not believe that the end justifies the means. Our military and secret services often have a lot to answer for.
But what Jesus passed through here is on another level altogether. This is sheer barbarity on an incredible scale.
We are going to examine the symbolic significance of elements of this cruel and unusual torture in the presence of a cohort of Roman soldiers.
The first of these is The Scarlet Robe:
Matthew 27:28 NIVUK
[28] They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.27.28.NIVUK
The implication here is that Jesus had been undressed, flogged with savage cruelty until He was almost dead, then dressed, and then undressed again, and then dressed with the scarlet robe.
Anyone who has removed a sticking plaster from an open would will know that it can hurt.
Having clothing removed while blood was congealing on deep wounds exposed to the bone must have been beyond excruciating.
The soldiers deliberately chose to do this with a scarlet robe. And it was nothing to do with the colour of the blood. Instead, it was to do with the fact that the dyes necessary to dye cloth scarlet were expensive, so scarlet robes were the sole preserve of the rich and those in authority.
They are doing this to mock Jesus’ pretentions – that He is King, Lord and God.
The passage is clear that after they mocked Him, they took off the scarlet robe, causing unspeakable pain again. They removed the vestige of power and authority, ripping open once more the wounds on Jesus’ back.
This has, to me, elements of the wonderful hymn recorded in Philippians 2:6-11. There Jesus took off the vestiges of all He had in Heaven and became a baby.
Do we think for one second that this was a small thing? That it was easy?
Somehow, I doubt it.
The second element us The Crown of Thorns:
Matthew 27:29 NIVUK
[29] and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.27.29.NIVUK
This was unspeakably cruel.
The thorns used in this crown were not like nettles or briars. These were much worse. They had long, hard thorns. It would have been difficult to even make a crown of thorns, twisting the jagged, sinewy branches into a circular shape. Given the sheer density of thorns on a branch, the maker would more than likely have injured themselves, and more than once.
But such is their determination to mock Jesus that they are prepared to endure it.
And to create with it a kingly crown with the deliberate attempt to injure?
That is quite something.
This horrid torture speaks of Jesus’ position – that He is the King.
These soldiers were Pilate’s personal guards. I wonder if the idea was formed after someone heard this exchange with their boss:
John 36-18:33 NIVUK
[33] Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ [34] ‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’ [35] ‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed
you over to me. What is it you have done?’ [36] Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’
So someone had the idea of making Jesus a thorny crown – implying that His claim to the throne was causing Him harm (which, in a sense, is correct) – and placing it on His head.
But even worse was to follow. It was bad enough that they placed it there at all. This is what happens next:
Matthew 27:30 NIVUK
[30] They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.27.30.NIVUK
The crown of thorns would have been enough for us. The pain would have already been intense. But to them beat those thorns into His skull?
That was beyond inhumane.
And then what happened takes the mockery to new depths:
John 15-19:13 NIVUK
[13] When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). [14] It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. [15] But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’ ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked. ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered. https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.19.13.NIVUK
Think about this for a moment: Jesus is standing before them, beaten, blooded, likely in deep shock from the pain and still wearing that crown of thorns.
Pilate was not just mocking Jesus. No, he was mocking the Jews and every last person in that gathering who ever followed Jesus.
This is truly, utterly heartless.
But still the torture isn’t done.
The soldiers have one last act of abysmal cruelty left, after the scarlet robe and the crown of thorns. They have The Reed Sceptre:
Matthew 30-27:29 NIVUK
[29] 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. [30] They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.27.29.NIVUK
The above translation misses this, but the Greek word for ‘staff’ implies that this was a stick made from reeds: brittle, weak reeds.
Even this act of heartless cruelty was symbolic, as these verses from the Old Testament explain:
Isaiah 36:6 NIVUK
[6] Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.
Ezekiel 7-29:6 NIVUK
[6] “You have been a staff of reed for the people of Israel. [7] When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and you tore open their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.
The ides of a reed staff was a joke at Egypt’s expense. The banks of the Nile are lined with reeds. However, if you tried to lean on a staff made of reeds, it would buckle and splinter and snap under the weight. Thus a staff of reeds came to represent something that promised much, but delivered little, and harmed those who depended on it.
By giving Jesus a reed staff to act as His royal sceptre, that is what these Roman soldiers were saying about Jesus: that He, as a Messiah, was weak, brittle, would buckle under pressure and that anyone who depended on Him would do so at their own peril.
Don’t get me wrong: this opinion about Christianity – and, indeed, about all organised religion – still prevails. The constant slew of scandals about people whose religiosity was a veneer to cover their immoral behaviour leads people to believe that involvement in any religion will ultimately lead to harm. Atheists regularly campaign to remove all forms of religion from schools and the public sphere because ultimately they view it as harmful.
But we know otherwise.
A sceptre speaks of pretence: of a claim to power and authority that could not deliver and would ultimately prove harmful.
But we know differently.
Here, in this rarely preached-on, horrendously violent and deeply inhumane passage, we see the depths of depravity to which a human can sink. It is a truly uncomfortable passage to read. Some of you might even be surprised that I would write about it.
But there is one core truth that shines out like a beacon from these verses:
These soldiers could do what they like to Jesus, but they did not stop Him from being who He is.
They meant that majestic scarlet robe to mock Him for His claims to power.
They meant the carefully crafted crown of thorns to mock Him for His claims to position.
They meant the reed staff to mock His pretence – His claims to be someone high up and strong.
But their mocking turned to silence when this took place:
Matthew 27:54 NIVUK
[54] When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’
And it will be filled with deep shame and regret because this has taken place:
Philippians 11-2:9 NIVUK
[9] Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Their mocking of Him, their reviling of Him, their torture of Him, might have given them some perverse delight, but it did not change one iota of who He is.
Everything that said about Him would one day be turned on its head.
When I was a child, I had a hard time both in my neighbourhood and in school. It was the 1980s. Ignorance abounded. Difference wasn’t tolerated. So as a Christian child from a Christian family, I was targeted. And so were my brother and sisters.
To try to help me keep my troubles in context, and since I was an avid reader, my parents gave me books to read on the suffering of Christians in Eastern Europe, little realising that this would lead to me serving as a missionary in Romania for three years.
Those Eastern European Christians who suffered so much were an inspiration to me.
I don’t know where you are reading this. Given the horrific, unspeakable violence of these verses, I don’t know if you’ve even made it this far. But if you have, there is a great source of inspiration in these verses.
Because Jesus was persecuted. Deeply, violently, unrelentingly, inhumanely persecuted.
The Geneva Convention would definitely outlaw the heinous torture He received.
Yet He endured it. And not only did He endure it, He endured it with dignity:
Isaiah 53:7 NIVUK
[7] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.53.7.NIVUK
And not only did He endure it with dignity, but every insult they hurled, every cold-hearted blow they struck Him with, every drop of spittle they spat at Him, all of it was reversed. All of it was rewarded.
Because no matter what the did to Jesus, it did not change one single cell of who He is. And not long after this, He would reign eternally.
So, my brother or sister, raise your head. No matter what anyone does to you, it will make no difference to your standing before God.
And one day, it will all be reversed.
One day you will reign with Him.
And may God speed that day.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I love you. These are terrible verses to read. They disturb me. But help me to see that all their hatred made no difference, and if I have to endure hatred for Your sake, it will make no difference either, because I am safe in You. Amen.
Questions
1. What specific aspects of Jesus’ identity did this cruel mockery target? How did God reversed these?
2. Do these elements of mockery show how enemies of Christianity feel about Jesus? Does this make any difference to who Jesus is?
3. How does this encourage us when we are persecuted?
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