The world’s most precious crown was, of course, made of thorns.
John, as he records the crucifixion of Jesus, portrays his humiliation in terms of a coronation. Along with the other Gospel writers, he spares us no details.
“The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, and approached him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they greeted him with slaps in the face.” (John 19:2f). So the King of the Jews is acclaimed.
This crown would have been hugely painful as the long thorns were pressed into the skull of an already bloodied and beaten Jesus. We’re not talking about a rose bush here but thorns from a date palm, whose spikes were thick and hard, growing up to twelve inches long. And more, possessing toxins to intensify the pain.
We witness other details of a coronation: the purple robe, the homage, the acclamation. There is a royal cupbearer as the Roman soldier offers a cup of sour wine (Luke 23:36). There is a royal inscription: “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.” (John 19:19).
This is a coronation unlike any other.
So Peter Abelard, the medieval philosopher, registers his shock. “Are you not moved to tears and bitter compassion, when you behold the only Son of God seized by the most impious, dragged away, mocked, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crowned with thorns, hung upon the infamous cross between two thieves, finally in such a horrible and execrable manner suffering death, for your salvation and that of the world?
In fact, John has already prepared his readers for Jesus’ coronation at Calvary, his exaltation on the cross.
He tells us how Jesus teaches his disciples: “And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.” (John 12:31f). John explains: “He put it this way to show how he was going to be put to death.” (v33)
There is an important word play here. Jesus is going to be lifted up, exalted – literally, as nailed to the cross he is lifted up from the earth, about four feet by all accounts. But more.
The Greek word hypsoō, as in the English, can be also used figuratively. So by being raised Jesus is being exalted. “We want to see Jesus lifted high!” we sing, maybe unaware of the significance of our words.
There’s an important history to this word. It’s the one used in the Greek-version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, for Isaiah’s suffering servant. “See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up (hypsoō) and highly exalted." (Isaiah 52:13)
Everyone reading these words would have assumed that Isaiah was using hypsoō with the figurative meaning, that his suffering is going to be vindicated, subsequent to his suffering and humiliation. No one foresaw the cross foretold in his prophecy.
And when John uses the word hypsoō he wants us to understand that both uses happen at the same time. It is not that Jesus is subsequently vindicated through his resurrection and so exalted.
No, his very exaltation as Lord of all, at whose name every knee shall bow, actually takes place as the soldiers haul the cross into its upright position. This is his true enthronement as he is lifted high at the hands of sinful men.
The apostle Paul employs this insight in his letter to the Colossians but using a different metaphor, the triumphant procession of a victorious Roman army. The legionnaires would be trailed by a line of pathetic prisoners and bringing up the rear, the defeated king, stripped and humiliated, who would then be ceremonially executed.
As Tom Wright in his commentary explains: “Anyone looking at the cross of Jesus with a normal understanding of the first-century world would think: the rulers and authorities stripped him naked and celebrated a public triumph over him. That's what they normally did to such people.”
But amazingly the apostle Paul says the very opposite: it’s the other way around! “(God) stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.” (Colossians 2:15)
Wright continues: “On the cross, Paul declares, God was stripping the armour off the rulers and authorities! Yes: he was holding them up to public contempt! God was celebrating his triumph over the principalities and powers, the very powers that thought it was the other way around.”
But that’s the Kingdom of God for you, where God subverts all our values, when our so-called common sense is revealed to be a false view of reality. The central theme for the apostle Paul - that in Christ crucified we see God’s power and wisdom in action.
So he writes: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
For the cross of all places is the throne from where Jesus reigns. We see this in the vivid imagery in the book of Revelation, as the writer brings these two powerful metaphors together, the lamb that was slain, an image for the crucified Jesus, sits on the very throne of God.
So the final chapter of the final book of the Bible speaks of this great reversal: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” (Revelation 22:3)
May we as his servants today acclaim the Lamb who was slain as our King!