Good Friday 2023

The Mocking of Jesus

We all know the feeling of humiliation, the desire to hide or feel from others as you are being shamed or brought to a lower position then another.

We all experience humilation at some point in our life. However we will never experience the humiliation that Jesus faced in front of the crowds.

However the differenece between our humiliation and Jesus’ is that we never know how he felt as he was dragged before the crowds and paraded as the King of the Jews.

Matthew gives us one of the most humiliating accounts, and He sets up the scene,

Matthew 27:27 NIV

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.

Jesus is surrounded by those who wished him harm, their would be no allies around. Instead he is surrounded by the entire legion. Soldiers in their leigionare outfits.

The company of soldiers taking him into their generals home, showing that Jesus has such little power compare to them, but also compared to Ceasar.

This is humiliating, and as we read Matt 27:28-29

Matthew 27:28–29 NIV

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.

They went and took Jesus clothes only leaving him with a cloak from the soldiers wore. Its color was scarlet the color of the roman leigion. While they did they they also crafted a crown to give him that they would put a crown that was made of twisted thorns on his head while placing a staff in His hands.

Truly the imagine only came together as they kneel before Jesus in mockery saying “hail, King of the Jews” which was a twisted copy of the same saying they would say to Ceasar.

So they take Jesus and this whole idea that the Jews made for him, setting him up to be mocked as the king of the Jews so that the soldiers take it even further to physically show this humilation.

Parading around him while he stands their in the attire that their rulers would wear.

Now Jesus being called the King of the Jews by the Legionaires only futhers the tourment that Jesus would have faced.

Could you imagine standing their and being mockingly compared to your enemy, becuase to the world it looked like Cesar won. The army is celebrating and mocking Jesus, its clear who wins the battle.

1. Jesus suffered more then Just the cross, he took our mocking voices.

You might say, well this looks to be the works of the Jews, they turned on Jesus and rejected him. Jesus came for the Jews and Gentiles and yet the Jews rejected him. Well I want to show you that it was not the work of a few that Jesus goes to the cross. The legion is all Gentiles, there would not be a Jew in the crowd, and they are giving him the crown of thorns, they are presenting him as a mocked King.

We did this, this is our blood line that we too are the mockers of Jesus. We are the ones who have humiliatied him by striping him of his clothes only to give him a cloak, a crown and a sceptre.

Only to then beat him with these things, Matthew 27:30

Matthew 27:30 NIV

They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.

They could not stop at the mocking, they had to physically attack him and spit on him. This only added to the humilation, as it was not about hurting him but about showing how little power Jesus would have had. They wanted Jesus to be seen as a Joke.

Think about it this way:

Cesar is the Emperor and King over all of Roman, while these soldiers are holding another King captive, the King of the Jews, a King they never thought they would meet.

This is all they knew, Cesar is King, Jesus is not, and adding onto that as they were not Jewish they had the king of the Jews infront of them and a perfect opportunity to show their dislike of the Jewish people.

So to the Jewish King, they mock his viciously and create these images of him as a False king never knowing the truth of his legacy.

We today have to hold our heads ashamed as we too have taken part of this same mockery.

Known humiliating Jesus with our words, showing Christ that he should wear thorns by the way we live our life. We at times are no better then the Soldiers that mocked him.

So as we approach this momment where