A Crown of Thorns

(In the name of The Good News) You nor I could never have endured the excruciating pain we can only imagine Jesus felt, and not for a few minutes, but for hours! Following the evenings Last Supper, and following Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was manhandled and ill treated by the Jewish priests and forced back and forth between different authorities for hours, into the next day. All the while terribly abused, denied and abandoned by His friends. He was physically alone. He knew what was going to happen before it happened. He knew that this mission was God’s plan and that He was on His last leg of His journey Home, back to His Father, our God. Jesus yet had to take our sins and punishment for those sins upon Him. This was about to take place with Pilate trying to satisfy the Jewish priests. Pilate ordered cruel and unusual punishment while proclaiming his own innocence with the blood of this man. Of course, that made history for its outrageousness. The mystery of the Passion is lost in the butchery. The guards were merciless in their scourging and flaying with metal-tipped whips slicing at Jesus’ body. That awful scene would have ended His life right there it seems, if one of the guards, a centurion, had not stopped the flaying; other soldiers sat Jesus up and managed to press a crude crown of thorns down upon His head. And, as prophesized in the Old Testament, “He opened not His mouth.” No one on earth that I know of could take this sort of inhuman treatment without screaming in unimaginable pain, and suffering murderous torture. Yet, Jesus was led on to stand before Pilate and the crowd, with all the welts all over His body from the brutal whipping – and the pain from the Crown of Thorns still penetrating His head, Pilate made the cowardly decision to accede to the priests and crowds’ cry to crucify Jesus. The ritual of Pilate washing his hands, while claiming to be innocent of murdering a known innocent Man, sealed Jesus’ fate. The barbarous soldiers made Jesus, with His body wracked in pain, carry the heavy wooden cross the long way outside the city to the place called Golgotha (meaning Skull Hill) we today, refer to as Calvary. There they stripped Jesus of His clothes, threw Him down to the cross on the ground, actually nailed Him to it. They then raised the cross and Jesus upon it, and dropped the cross into the hole in the ground with such force that Jesus, in all of His already existing, torturous pain, had to feel with the thud or jolt upon all of His body, pulling upon the nails in His hands and feet. As if this horrible treatment wasn’t enough, all of this suffering was followed by taunting and torment, probably from some of the same people whom Jesus may have helped as He walked and talked, and taught and shown so much wisdom and compassion and love among them as recent as a week or so before. We can muse: How soon humans forget, how insincere, superficial man is. All manner of miracles seen and experienced by thousands, were soon ignored. Then, as now, what seems to matter is “What’s in it for me?” Shortsightedness is a sad, common trait among most people in this world. People in general live as though life here is without end. Many find themselves surprised when their end does come. Meanwhile, dying takes on many forms. There is the dying in unbelief, dying in distortion, dying in failing to reason, dying in shame, etc., and literally, dying seems only to happen to other people. Obituaries and cemeteries are for others. How self-deceiving, delusional and grossly self-misguiding this attitude is. I hope there are many people who would like to save themselves from their hopelessness. There are a number of things one can do in this 21st century. What has been written, Moses and the prophets (Lk 16:31), i.e. the Bible, is your best chance for coming back to life from the death of selfishness and sensuality. Save yourself by wanting to know the truth. There is an end for each of us. When that end comes for you, then what? How sure are you about your answer? The Bible can bring you back to care and love again, and recognize God in people. Uncomplicate your daily life, make time to read the word of God in peace and silence; hear the word of God; God is pure love, you have nothing to fear; pray, as you know how. Live God’s word for dear life. Any other way leads to irreversible destruction. Why, you may ask, should I make such a change in my personal life? My reply is simply because you never know how or at what hour you will be called home for Judgment; there are things you need to do while you are here. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; only by Him can you come to the Father and return home. Of course, you have the God-given freedom to choose the alternative. However, with the Bible you know what to expect. God’s Bible remains unyielding from the ages, and Jesus’ New Testament of the Bible is our most recent Guide. The Bible, God’s word, will not pass away. Alleluia! Jesus’ Resurrection showed us the way, overcame the sting of death, and leads us home. The Bible IS our guide, always will be until God says “Time.” When He alone says that this time as we know it is over, it will be over; the end is His to call, not ours. By our increasing disobedience, we will be the cause for hastening God’s disgust for all of the many things we now do that abhors Him. God’s Love is merciful, not foolish. Jesus, God’s only Begotten-Son, became Man, walked the earth among man. God’s people treated Jesus’ love and His works with inhuman cruelty. Those who really knew Him loved Him, yet showed the weakness of humanity in virtually all possible circumstances. Despite knowing all about man’s weakness, before Jesus ascended to heaven He set the rules for life and living, and brought light into the world where there was only darkness. Jesus’ plan was that of the Father. He was destined to take man’s sins upon Himself to the cross and suffer. He did all of this for love of us. His giving Himself up to death for us, His glorious Resurrection, brought a new way of life into the world. The sin of Adam and Eve brought us death and darkness;Jesus brought us love and Light. If we die before He comes in glory upon the clouds with His angels, we will face Him on Judgment Day, then we shall see Him face to face and render an account for our life in this temporary place called earth. If He comes before Judgment Day, His actions will not only raise the dead and call them forth refreshed, but will separate the worthy from the unworthy en masse. That is why the warning: “Be ready. You know not the time when the Son of Man will come.” In today’s world, there is an apt slogan used in the Air Force that reads, “You can run but you can’t hide.” By Jesus’ death on the cross and His Resurrection, He made all things new. His inhuman suffering Passion and the Crown of Thorns, were voluntary acts of complete obedience to the Father, acts that would bring ignorant, straying peoples back to Him. He is the Light, the Life, and the Way to the Father. No power on earth can ever change that. Before His ascension to heaven, Jesus told His Apostles to go into all the world and proclaim the Good News, promising to be with them until the end of time. Now Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, receiving glory and praise from all who have gone before us worthy of His promises; for those whose time has not yet come, and who know and love Him, and keep His commandments, we pray and praise Him from earth until He calls us home. Upon our death, we will face Him either eagerly or with reluctance. As for me, I live and pray for eternal salvation; for all our Savior did for us I say with Saint John, Come, Lord Jesus! Thanks for visiting. - Bob Rom 15:13