Crowned King

Matt. 27: 27 - 31, 'Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus
into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him.
And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.  When they had
twisted a crown of Thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in
His hand.  They bowed before Him mockingly, 'Hail King of the Jews!'
Then they spat on Him, striking Him on the head with the reed.
After they were finished with their mocking, they took the robe
from Him, put His own clothes back on, and led Him away to be
crucified.'

Jesus died for us, taking our place so that we can have eternal life.  Whenever I read this scripture and others like it, or whenever I catch a glimpse of 'The passion of the Christ', I get a bit misty eyed because I know what Jesus got in return for His sacrifice...a wretched broken teenager 23 years ago.  I looked at this scripture last week in a way I never noticed before, and I would like to share it with you.

First of all, they twisted a crown of Thorns upon His head.  Thorns in the bible rose up and choked the 'Seed', and it became unfruitful...(Matt. 13)...I thought about that because thorns in the bible were defined by Christ as the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches...I've always thought in the past that the cares of the world were simply exploits of the flesh, but that's not entirely true.  I care for my kids' safety, health, education, etc...these are cares of the world...(1st Cor. 7: 34b...'cares for the world...') This is not bad within  itself...it becomes bad, and chokes the Seed when it becomes competition to the Seed.

The deceitfulness of riches are quite self - explanatory...the biggest deceiving strategy is, that riches can take the place of God's provision...so you have these 2 factors that Jesus says, are 'Thorns' if you will.  What's amazing to me is, this is what the Known World (Rome), mocked Jesus with by slamming it onto His brow.

What they didn't realize is, Jesus asked for this because He cares for us in this world!  Then it hit me...they removed the royal robes, and placed His plain clothes back upon Him, led Him away to the cross; they never removed the Thorns from His head!

So, while Jesus was hanging on the cross...He had the world on His mind...

- Pastor LaMont Melrose