John 19:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Meanwhile Christ, amid so many and such great insults, stood silent, as He had done during the interrogation, and answered nothing. Do not only hear this, but keep it continually in your mind. When you see the Master of the universe and of all the angels insulted by soldiers in word and deed, and bearing everything in silence, do the same yourself. Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews. Therefore they place on Him the garment of mockery.

They have power to free and deliver us from the just consequences within us of our apostasy from God. As the giving of His flesh to death by Him who knew no sin was sufficient for our life to abolish the death of all, for One died for all (2 Cor 5:14), so also it is right to think this. These sufferings of the Lord on our behalf are sufficient to free all from scourges and insults. Otherwise, how is it that “by His wound we are healed,” as it is written (Is 53:5)? For we all went astray, each “in his own way,” as the blessed prophet Isaiah says. “And the Lord delivered Him over for our sins, and He suffers for us” (Is 53:6, 4). He was weakened because of our transgressions and gave His back “to scourges, and His cheeks to blows,” as He Himself says in one place (Is 50:6). Therefore the soldiers took Jesus as some false claimant to power and mocked Him in soldierly fashion. Thus the crown of thorns is placed upon Him, descending over the upper part of His forehead, as a sign of earthly kingship. The purple garment is, as it were, an image and symbol of royal purple, but it also becomes a cause for laughter. For they came with the words, “Hail, King of the Jews.” Yet I have known some who much prefer to see in the crown of thorns an indication of the multitude of idolaters. In time they were received through faith in Him as a crown for Christ. They liken the Gentiles to barren and useless thorns because they have no fruit of piety. Usually they are more fit as food for the all-consuming fire, like field straw or the wild thorn that grows without cultivation. The scarlet cloak, or “purple garment,” they say, signifies His future reign over the whole world. Everything is acceptable that does not go beyond the bounds of right reason and is not useless for faith. Therefore such an interpretation should not be rejected, for it contains a very subtle observation.

Thus, by hiding His astonishing power for a short time, He first showed the patience that must be imitated. Thus the Kingdom not of this world overcame the proud world, not by cruel battle, but through humble patience. Thus the grain that was to multiply was sown amid terrible mockery, so that it might bring forth a harvest in wondrous glory.

Behold our King, crowned with thorns! Come forth, daughters of Jerusalem, pious souls, inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, and look upon your King in the crown of thorns with which the ungrateful Jewish people crowned Him. Behold the lilies among thorns (Song 2:2), the crimson rose, reddened with blood, in a crown of thorns.

He whom the twenty-four elders crown, casting down their crowns and saying, “Worthy is the Lamb to receive honor and glory” (Rev 5:12), the Jews crown with thorns. They fasten it most firmly upon His head, to show that His kingdom is unshaken.

Thorns signify sinners, as Scripture says: “But the wicked shall be like thorns thrust away, for they cannot be taken with the hand” (2 Kingdoms 23:6). The Lord receives thorns upon His head, that is, He bore our sins in His own Body, so that man might bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.

Now let each one know that the way which leads to life and the kingdom is sorrowful, for it is thorny. Christ the Savior, who says, “I am the way and the truth” (Jn 14:6), came to us to lead us into His kingdom by the thorny road.

By the military garment they wished only to signify Jesus Christ’s supposed claim to supreme authority over the Jews. Then some of the soldiers, for the same purpose, quickly made a wreath and placed it on the Lord’s head.

Thorny branches were taken for weaving the crown. Yet what tree or plant they came from cannot be determined from the meaning of the Gospel’s original words alone, for the Greek word akantha means any prickly plant. The Fathers of the Church, beginning with Clement of Alexandria, hold that it was thorn in the proper sense.

Indeed, although the crown was devised not so much to increase His sufferings as in mockery, the soldiers’ inhuman caprice surely did not miss the chance to take the sharpest plant that could be found in the governor’s courtyard. Therefore the name of Jesus Christ’s crown as a crown of thorns corresponds both to the meaning of the original word and to Church tradition.

Now only the final sign of royal power was lacking, the scepter. Instead of it, one of the soldiers placed in Jesus Christ’s hand a stick of Palestinian reed, which resembles our reed, only much thicker and harder.

But all who lacked the rights of Roman citizenship, especially in restless provinces, were subjected to merciless scourging.

Christ was taken by the soldiers standing nearby. Accompanied by the shouting and uproar of the maliciously rejoicing rabble, He was led into the courtyard of the praetorium, where all the necessary instruments of punishment were kept.

A prisoner condemned to this punishment, flagellatio, was tied to a pillar. His naked back was scourged with special whips fitted with sharp points, so that the victim's whole body became one continuous bloody wound.

It is not surprising that those punished soon fell unconscious, and awoke from unconsciousness with a sense of unimaginable suffering. Christian martyrs were often subjected to the same scourging later during the persecutions.

"All who were present," Eusebius of Caesarea relates concerning one such scourging in Smyrna, "were horrified at seeing that their very backs were laid open, and their muscles, ligaments, and even inward parts became visible."

The Mosaic legislation, with its usual spirit of humanity, limited the punishment to a definite number of blows. According to it, "Forty blows may be given, and no more, lest your brother be disfigured before your eyes by many blows" (Deut 25:3).

But this humane law was not observed amid the lawlessness of that time. In the present case this was all the more true, since the scourging was performed by sentence of the court.

It therefore followed Roman legislation, which knew no limits. In the usual order of things, since scourging was considered one means of inquiry, the judge himself was commonly present at it.

He encouraged the executioners in their dreadful occupation, saying, "Give it to him!" We may be sure that Pilate spared himself this terrible duty.

Withdrawing into the inner chambers, he wanted to calm himself after the agitation and think over a plan for further action. Most likely he also wished to speak with his wife Claudia.

Since she had taken so warm a concern in the Prisoner's fate, she certainly did not fail to tell her husband personally about the sufferings she endured in the dream. She also told him all her perplexities concerning the Righteous One.

Meanwhile, in the courtyard of the praetorium, events took their course. The scourging was finished, and the Prisoner had been delivered fully "to their will" (Lk 23:25).

The coarse legionaries, usually recruited in the provinces from the refuse of the population, gave themselves over to the usual mockeries of that time over the Prisoner.

No doubt His nearest enemies did the same. They feared to enter the praetorium lest they be defiled, but they could not deny themselves the malicious pleasure of looking upon the cruel spectacle of scourging.

Christ called Himself King. Therefore one could amuse oneself over His kingship.

Some torn red military cloak was thrown over His shoulders. A reed was placed in His hands in place of an imperial scepter.

On His head, instead of the customary laurel wreath, they placed a thorny crown. It was probably made from the thorny nubk shrub, which still grows abundantly near the walls of Jerusalem.

Opinions, however, differ on this. The crown wounded the divine Sufferer.

Pleased with their inventiveness, the mockers bowed before Him in derision and cried mockingly, "Hail, King of the Jews!" "Rejoice, King of the Jews!" Chaire ho basileus. Ave, Caesar. Mt 27:29; Mk 15:18.

The Jews echoed this cry: shalom leka, melek ha-yehudim. They accompanied these exclamations with blows on the head, spitting in the face, and every possible outrage.

These were the outrages of which a coarse rabble, inventive in cruelty and baseness, is capable.

It is not known how long this mockery lasted. Yet all the cruelties and insults connected with it could not draw a single sigh from the breast of the divine Sufferer.

He could have asked for mercy. With groans and cries of pain, He could have begged His executioners for compassion.

After all, the human heart beats even in the coarsest and most hardened breast. But He remained silent.

He remained silent because He knew His infinite triumph and superiority over them. In the garden of Gethsemane He weakened under the unbearable burden of His soul's anguish.

With cries He called upon His heavenly Father, beseeching Him that "this cup might pass." But now, when He had already begun to drink this bitter cup of sufferings, He showed the calm joy of the victor.

His silence was a clear sign of complete self-surrender to the will of His Father. By bearing insults without murmuring, He fulfilled the work of His life.

He did this in accord with the pre-eternal decree of the heavenly council and by the power of love for His erring people and the whole world.

To human eyes His royal spirit was covered with clouds of bodily grief and torment. But the triumphant end of His earthly life appeared to Him all the more clearly.

He was drawing near to death in order to conquer and destroy death with its works of corruption. He would rise as the Giver of life and Founder of the Church, which must save the world.

There is no doubt that the soldiers’ capricious cruelty took care to find not only a stinging mockery, but also the most thorny plant for the head of the King of the Jews. Over the Lord’s naked body, covered with wounds, they threw a “purple robe,” or, as St. Matthew says, a “scarlet cloak.” A red cloak, fastened on one right shoulder, was royal clothing. It was also given to military commanders, while ordinary soldiers wore a short cloak of various plain colors. They threw a red cloak over Jesus, surely old and useless, only to express by it mockery of the King of the Jews. Thus He who “clothes Himself with light as with a garment” was now clothed (Ps 103:2). One sign of royal authority was lacking, the scepter. In its place “they put a reed in His right hand” (Mt 27:29), a stick of Palestinian reed, καλάμος, which resembles our reed, only thicker and harder.