The Wound of Mockery

St. Matthew 27:27-31

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthew 27:27–31 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before Him.  And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand.  And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head.  And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him.

Dear fellow Lenten travelers…  It had the makings of a party, and they thought it was hysterical.  Those who were putting Jesus to death on the cross laughed at this Galilean peasant who, they thought, was pretending to be a king.  It just cracked them up.  So they decided to have some fun with His apparent delusion; the soldiers began by taking away His clothes.  Jesus had to stand there naked as they mocked Him.  Then they found a beautiful scarlet robe and put that around His shoulders.  There.  Now He is beginning to look kingly.  They joked with one another.

But something was missing.  They needed a crown.  And so, one of them decides upon an appropriate crown for this peasant king from Galilee, a crown to teach Him a thing or two about His silly daydreams: a crown of thorns.  They force the crown down upon His head…and the thorns bite and pierce, and the blood pours out.

And still Jesus just stands there.  His response – or lack thereof – is not at all what they had hoped for.  He is silent to the taunts, He is silent to the mockery, He does not respond to the jeers.

Someone comes up with another missing item: a king needs a scepter, a rod, a staff.  They scrounge around and find a reed, and they make Him take it.  They step back to admire the finished product: blood running down His face from the thorns cruelly piercing His head, His naked body barely covered with the red scarlet robe, and a flimsy reed that flops this way and that in His hand.  And there He is: “Hail! King of the Jews!” they say.

Laughing with scorn, they fall on their knees.  They cannot contain their laughter.  Still He looks on in silence.  But now their mockery turns vicious.  Jesus will not play along in their game, so they decide that He will pay.  They begin to spit on Him to show their utter contempt of this deluded upstart.  They take His scepter and whip His head with the reed.

“Some scepter.  Some rule.  Some kingdom.  You, Jesus, are nothing, and You are about to die, and it will not be easy.  You just wait and see, King of the Jews.”

And as He looks on them, what these men miss – what these who wound Him with mockery, these who try to shame Him and who are preparing to torture and murder Him – what these men miss is the intense depth of His pity for them.

Look closely, though, and you will see it – a depth of pity and a fountain of love that shakes us to the core.  Jesus does not respond with anger or hatred or plotting revenge, for He knows that this must take place.  Yes, it must take place, but not for Him, not for His sake.  It must take place for the sake of those who hate Him, for those who mock Him, for those who scorn Him, for those who do not believe that He is their only hope and Savior.

It is normal human trait, common to all of fallen humanity, to love your friends and to seek to do them good.  That’s natural, that’s normal.  But to love your enemies, to have nothing but pity and compassion for those who taunt and jeer at you and who are preparing to kill you – now that is the mark of the heavenly Friend.  That is Jesus Christ.

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Christ’s limitless pity – there is simply no end to it.  The look of pity from the face of the mocked King extends not only to His torturers but also to the entire human race, which is complicit in His death.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” He would say a few hours later (Luke23:34).  He holds no grudges, He wishes no harm.  He only offers forgiveness; He only offers to wipe their slate clean with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.  He wants them all – and us – to live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Of course, the truth that no one at the cross that day knew is that Jesus actually is King, the King promised to the Jews.  Yes, Jesus is the long-awaited Son of David.  But even more, He is the King for the Gentiles and He is their Ruler.  He is the One to whom the entire universe belongs.

Every one of us – including those who mocked and shamed Him then and who have done it since – we all owe our existence only to His will.  You will never ponder the Passion fully and rightly until you remember that one single thought from Jesus could have undone all those who sought His death; one single thought could have destroyed us all.

But in return for all of the mockery, in return for all of the misery, in return for all of the hatred, in return for all of the rejection – in return for all of that, Jesus gives love, Jesus gives pity, Jesus gives mercy.  In offering Himself once for all the sins of all the people of all the world for all time, Christ gives them and us something we could never pay for or earn.   That is what fills our Lord’s heart.  That is who Jesus is.  This is how He reigns as King above all kings: He rules in love, mercy, and forgiveness; a love which cannot be conquered by hate.

For you see, Jesus is determined to share fully in the lot we have chosen for ourselves.  We were destined to sit on thrones of glory and to be robed in majestic garments and to wear crowns on our heads.  That is what our God wanted for us; that is why He created us in the first place – to live in His grace and enjoy not only this life, but ultimately the life of the world to come.  But we and all of sinful humanity threw it all away, and embraced instead the path of suffering and death, the path of loneliness and pain.

Yet, Jesus would not have that be our end.  He came to walk that path as the true and only King of all kings and Lord of all lords so that through His sufferings all that was lost, all that was thrown away might be restored to us again.

Jesus was stripped in order that the nakedness of our sin would be covered and clothed in the bright robe of His righteousness.  He wore a crown of thorns in order that we would wear a royal diadem.  He was beaten and mocked, so that we would be welcomed and treasured forever.

Love Incarnate overcomes all hatred and mockery.  A way was opened for us to return from this misery of sin and death and be welcomed with outstretched arms – His nailed-to-the-cross arms – into the kingdom the Father prepared for us from the beginning.

Jesus walked that way – that suffering way – in kingly fashion.  None of the mockery could tarnish any of His majesty, His glory, His peace.  He performed every act of His Passion in burning love for the fallen race of men so that we might be forgiven and restored, with all of our sins paid for in full.  He chose to lay down His life – and in the process put to death the sting of death, which is sin – that we might live forgiven and restored in Him.

Such love on His part gives birth to love on our part.  As Scripture says, “We love because He first loved us” (I John 4:19).  That is why we sang together: “O make me Thine forever!  And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, outlive my love for Thee.” (TLH 172:8)

Behold, your King, dear baptized!  Behold – beneath the spit, beneath the blood, beneath the blows – behold the eyes that look upon you with tender compassion and love and unending forgiveness.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.