John 19:1-5 (NIV)
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.
Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
Pilate was perplexed by the seeming inflexibility of the Jewish leaders. He had figured that he would be able to simply declare Jesus not guilty of sedition and release Him. But the leaders were insistent that He was a danger to the empire.
The plan he came up with was not very subtle. He would have Jesus flogged for whatever crimes He might possibly be guilty of. He figured that when the leaders saw that He had been suitably (and painfully) punished, they would be satisfied and go away.
The soldiers in charge of the punishment took some extra liberties in carrying out their orders. None of them enjoyed the process of flogging a person. It was brutal, nasty, bloody work. And, unlike the Jewish justice system, which limited the number of lashes to 40 (Deuteronomy 25:2-3, although the number was usually limited to 39 in case there had been a miscount), the Romans had no limit. The number of blows was prescribed according to the severity of the crime.
Since Jesus had been called the king of the Jews, the soldiers played a parody with Him after they had finished beating Him. A crown they wove of thorns, more of a cap than a circlet, was pressed down on His head, drawing blood from the many deep puncture wounds it caused. A commander’s purple robe and a stick used to deliver beatings placed in His hand as a scepter (Matthew 27:29) completed the picture.
For a few minutes, they knelt mockingly in front of Jesus shouting “Hail, king of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29) But that game quickly grew boring, and they began beating Him on the face and head with both their fists and with the stick that they had put in His hand.
When Pilate next saw Jesus, He was a bloody mess. Pilate was sure that this severe punishment would satisfy the desire of the chief priests to see Him suffer for whatever sins He had committed in their eyes. So, he announced to them that he had made sure that Jesus had been adequately punished, and then brought Him out to face the crowd with an impressive wave of his hand, and a booming, “Behold, the man!”
Father, Pilate’s error was to miss entirely the hatred in the hearts of Jesus’ accusers, and to mistake their motives. They didn’t want Him punished, they wanted Him dead, and were willing to go to any lengths to make that happen. They had no regard for Roman law unless it could be moved to do for them what they were forbidden to do themselves. Lord, I have a hard time fathoming such hatred in the hearts of people that were supposed to belong to You! Protect us from ever allowing our hearts to grow so hard that such thoughts and feelings are even possible. Amen.
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