John 19:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Meanwhile Christ, amid so many and such great insults, stood silent, as He had done during the questioning, and answered nothing. Do not merely hear this, but keep it continually in your mind. When you see the Master of the universe and of all the angels enduring mockery from soldiers in word and deed, and bearing everything silently, do the same yourself.

Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews. Therefore they put upon Him a garment of mockery.

Reasoning rightly, we must think that all Christ’s sufferings were for us and on our behalf. They have power to free and deliver us from the just consequences within us of our apostasy from God.

Just as the giving of the flesh of Him who knew no sin to death for our life was sufficient to abolish the death of all, for One died for all (2 Cor 5:14), so it is right to think that these sufferings of the Lord for us are also sufficient to free all from scourges and reproaches.

Otherwise, how is it that “by His wound we are healed,” as it is written (Isa 53:5)? For we all went astray, each “in his own way,” as the blessed prophet Isaiah says, “and the Lord delivered Him up for our sins, and He suffers for us” (Isa 53:6, 4).

He was weakened for our transgressions and gave His back “to scourging, and His cheeks to blows,” as He Himself says in one place (Isa 50:6). Therefore the soldiers, taking Jesus as some false claimant to power, mock Him in soldierly fashion.

For this reason the crown of thorns is placed on Him, descending over the top of His forehead, as a sign of earthly kingship. The purple garment is like an image and symbol of royal purple. Yet it also becomes a cause for laughter, since they came saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.”

Still, I have known some who much prefer to see in the crown of thorns an indication of the multitude of idolaters, later received as a crown for Christ through faith in Him. They liken the Gentiles to barren and useless thorns, because they possess no fruit of piety, but are usually more fit to feed the all-consuming fire, just like straw of the field or wild thorn growing without cultivation.

And the crimson 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 this kind of interpretation should not be rejected, since it contains a very subtle observation.

Thus was fulfilled what Christ had foretold concerning Himself. Thus were the martyrs prepared to endure everything that persecutors might devise against them. Thus, concealing for a little while His astonishing power, He first showed the patience that must be imitated.

Thus the Kingdom, which is not of this world, overcame the proud world not by fierce 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.

Amid these insults Jesus Christ appeared as the prophet had foreseen Him centuries earlier, when he spoke in divine inspiration: “As a lamb He was led to the slaughter, so He opens not His mouth” (Isa 53:7). When reviled, as the apostle observes, He did not revile in return. When suffering, He did not threaten, but committed both Himself and His tormentors to His Father, the righteous Judge (1 Pet 2:23).

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.

For Him who holds the world in His palm, who upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3), what would it have cost to subdue and destroy the insolent ungodly? But the Son of Man endures everything in silence. Not one sign of impatience, not one movement of indignation, could the prince of this world observe in Him (Jn 14:30).

The Lord had long before said that “they will deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked and beaten” (Mk 10:32; Lk 18:32-33). And now He endured all insolence and blows as the will of the heavenly Father. “When He was reviled,” says the Apostle Peter, “He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed it to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet 2:23).

This is how we must endure injuries and insults, however unjust they may be.

It seems to us that Pilate would gladly have seized even upon a condemnation of the Lord to death by Herod, if only he could rely on some opinion. But Herod too did not dare accuse the Lord, as Pilate points out (Lk 23:15).

In this very purple robe, which on Herod's part testifies to the Lord's innocence, Pilate commands that the Sufferer be brought out before the people after the scourging (Jn 19:4-5).

Chrysostom thinks that both the scourging of the Lord and the bringing of Him out bloodied before the people were also invented by Pilate as a means of partly satisfying the frenzy of the Jews.

By this means he hoped to save the innocent One at least from death. It is very likely that this is so.

But of course this does not elevate Pilate's character in our eyes. In the end, out of cowardice, he yielded to the demands of the chief priests and the cries of the people.

The great sacrifice had to be accomplished for the salvation of the world. The Jewish people had already been judged: "Therefore the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits" (Mt 21:43), and many other passages.

"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and clothed Him in a purple robe.

And they said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck Him with their hands."

One must distinguish two separate mockeries of the Lord by the soldiers. One occurred before the condemnation and was connected with the scourging, as in the verses of John being read.

The other occurred after the condemnation, before He was led to execution (Mt 27:27-31). It is a very difficult question whether the second mockery was again connected with scourging.

For Mt 27:26, "having scourged Him, he delivered Him to be crucified," could also refer to the first scourging mentioned by John.

In the first three verses of John chapter 19 which we read, we see, following Chrysostom, not yet the execution of a judicial sentence.

Rather, we see a device invented by Pilate to move the crowd to pity. This is expressed in Luke's Gospel (Lk 23:22) by Pilate's words, "I will therefore chastise Him and release Him."

Thus at this moment in the course of events, Barabbas the robber is released (Mt 27:26). The innocent One, speaking only according to His humanity, is delivered to cruel tortures.

These were accompanied by mockery, insults, and derision. Among these mockeries and insults, the emblems of royal dignity occupy the chief place.

There is a crown, but it is woven from thorns. There is a purple robe, but it is placed upon the most pure Body cut by blows.

There is a scepter, the reed with which they struck His honorable head, driving the needles of the thorny crown into His body. Compare Mt 27:28-30.

The Roman soldiers, coarse, insolent, cruel, and proud before the Jewish people, gladly carry out Pilate's order to mock the One called King of the Jews.

They rejoice in the chance to humiliate a people they despised, though they probably know nothing of Pilate's true intentions.

We consider it important to mention here that James Fergusson, in Temples of the Jews, points out that Warren found a pillar in an underground chamber.

According to Fergusson the archaeologist, this chamber undoubtedly belonged to the Tower of Antonia, where the praetorium was located. The pillar very likely served for tying those being scourged.

Fergusson maintains that the discovered underground chamber cannot be later than the time of the Herodian dynasty. It is also certain that the Lord's scourging and mockery occurred inside the praetorium, not before the people.

For in the next verse it is said, "Pilate went out," and in verse 5, "Jesus came out." Pilate also says of the Lord after the scourging, "Behold, I bring Him out to you."

Therefore it may be that the pillar indicated by Fergusson was stained with the sacred Blood of the Lord.