Like many details in the Bible, the crown worn by Jesus in his crucifixion has more significance than we may have realized

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They stripped him and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” -Matthew 27:28-29 (NET)

God recently helped me to put something together in my mind, something I had not yet noticed in my five or so decades of following Jesus.

It never occurred to me that the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head was more than just the Roman soldiers sarcastically mocking the idea that he was a king. I understood that the purple robe and the tongue-in-cheek salute, “Hail, King of the Jews!” was intended to publicly humiliate Jesus and thereby added to his suffering.

But I didn’t realize there was deeper significance to the crown of thorns.

Jesus wearing a crown of thorns was symbolic of the fact that, by his sacrificial death, he was satisfying the entire penalty of human rebellion. With that poking, penetrating crown, he was experiencing the unmitigated consequences of our sin.

A Full-Circle Moment

If we rewind to Genesis 3, we’re reminded that thorns resulted as part of the fallout when Adam and Even trespassed. God said to Adam,

…the ground is cursed because of you;
in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
but you will eat the grain of the field. (Genesis 3:17-18)

Before the fall, there were no thorns in the garden, not even on the stem of a rose. Thorns came after the fact, as part of the curse.

Jesus wearing a crown of thorns was symbolic of the fact that, by his sacrificial death, he was satisfying the entire penalty of human rebellion. 

In a sense, it might even be accurate to say that thorns were not created. Rather, they just sprang up as a malignant outgrowth of the sin-cursed ground.

Thorns penetrate and puncture. If you’ve ever had a run-in with them, you know that thorns hurt.

This Holy Week, we’re reminded that Jesus wore a crown of them on his head for us. He paid the price of our sin, all the way down to puncture wounds from thorns on his tender brow.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for sending your only Son to do for me what only he could do. And Jesus, thank you for wearing my crown of thorns. Clearly, you love me. As I encounter the thorns of this world, please give me grace. Help me to respond to the pricks and pokes with courage and with your strength.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.