I have written many times about the Crowning of Thorns. Saint John’s version is my favorite, and is the passage that speaks to me the most in the whole Bible. It is at His feet, Crowned with Thorns, that I feel closest to Him. It is the moment I return to the most when I need His guidance, when I need to feel is presence, when I need instruction, and when I need help.
It is the passage that He uses the most to instruct me, and this time was no different. He shows me in the following contemplation that there is a moment of resistance that I need to follow through with. A moment when the enemy enters and tries to move me away from the Lord.
The Mockery Of the Soldiers
Then therefore, Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple garment. And they came to Him, and said, “Hail, King of the Jews,” and they gave Him blows. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith to them, “Behold I bring Him forth unto you, that you may know that I find no cause in Him.”
Jesus therefore came forth, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he saith to them, “Behold the Man.”
-John 19:1-5
My Contemplation
The soldiers, so focused on power, are moved to cruelty so easily. Moved to lash out against anyone, even as meek as my Lord. The most innocent in all the world.
They are pushing and shoving Him. It is a large group, and they barely fit down the path through the garden to the praetorium. As they pass by the thorny plant, it snags the arm of one of the soldiers causing him to cry out and blood trickle down his arm. He stops and angrily removes it. In so doing, he pulls up a large length of it. As he tries to throw it back into the garden, it snags his cloak. Frustrated, he carefully rolls it up. As it rolls around itself, something in him makes him look up at the man they had been escorting. His comrades are shoving, punching, and spitting on Jesus now.
The soldier looks down at the ring he had made in his hands. There is a whisper in his mind, that easily overpowers his cold heart. He knows what do with it. He runs forward through the group, laughing, and crams it onto the head of the Lord.
Temptation
This is much how the enemy works in us too. He quietly whispers, as if trying to remain hidden in the dark. But he wants to plant the seed of His deceit. A seed that can grow into this thorny briar that will overtake the mind and then the heart. It snags the soul and can be incredibly difficult to remove. The longer it lingers, the harder it is to remove.
It is that initial moment, that initial whisper that needs to be rejected. It needs to be removed before it can take root in mind and deep into the heart. For me, this means thinking of our Lord, Crowned with Thorns. It is this image that draws me to Him and helps me focus on Him instead of listening to the whispers of the enemy.
Thrive in Jesus, My Friends!
How do you refocus on Jesus during times of temptation? How are you rooting out the growth of sin in your life?
New to my blog? Start here!
If you are interested, here are my other contemplations from the Crowning With Thorns: