"A
worn-out purple robe, once garment of the leader of a Roman cohort, is produced.
This is thrown over His back still bleeding from every pore, while the
barbarians exult aloud at this supposed witty and appropriate idea. They then
break off twigs from a long-spiked thorn-bush, and twist them into a circle,
which is afterwards pressed upon His sacred head as a crown. But in order to
complete the image of a mock king, they put in to His hands
a reed instead of a scepter, and after having thus arrayed Him, they pay mock
homage to Him with shouts of derisive laughter. The miscreants bow with
pretended reverence to the object of their scorn, bend the knee before Him, and
to make the mockery complete, cry out again and again, 'Hail, King of the
Jews!' It is not long, however, before they are weary of this abominable sport
and turn it into fearful seriousness. With satanic insolence, they place
themselves before their ill-treated captive, make the most horrible grimaces at
Him, even spit in His face, and in order to fill up the measure of their
cruelty, they snatch the reed out of His hands and repeatedly smite Him with it
on the head, so that the thorns pierce deeply while streams of blood flow down
the face of the gracious Friend of sinners.
How
can we reconcile such revolting occurrences with the government of a just and
holy God! A great mystery must lie at the bottom of them, or our belief in a
supreme moral government of the world loses its last support. And is not this
really the case? What befalls Christ befalls us in Him, who is our
representative. The sufferings He endures fall upon our corrupt nature. In Him
we receive the due of our misdeeds. With the shudder at the sight of the
martyred Lamb of God, ought to be joined adoration of the unsearchable wisdom
and mercy of God and the glorious accomplishment of the counsel of grace. Our
hell is extinguished in Jesus' wounds; our curse is consumed in Jesus' soul;
our guilt is purged away in Jesus' blood. The sword of the wrath of a holy God
was necessarily unsheathed against us; and if the Bible is not a falsehood, and
the threatening of the law a mere delusion, and God's justice an idle fancy,
not a single individual would have escaped the sword, if the Son of God had not
endured the stroke and taken upon Himself the payment of our debts."
-From
The Suffering Saviour by F. W. Krummacher First English Edition 1856 Published by The
Banner of Truth Trust 2004 Carlisle, PA
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