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The shameful spectacle! What element of scorn is lacking? Roman soldiers mocking a supposed rival of Caesar are sure to go to the utmost lengths in their derision. The spectacle is as cruel as it is derisive. Thorns and rough blows accentuate mockeries and scoffs. Roman legionaries were the brutalized instruments of a race noted for its ignorance of all tenderness; they wrought cruelties with a singular zest, being most at home in amusements of the most cruel kind.

I. HERS LEARN A LESSON FOR YOUR HEART.

1. See what sin deserved. All laid on Him.

(a)  Ridicule for its folly.

(b)  Scorn for its pretensions.

(c)  Shame for its audacity.

2. See how low your Saviour stooped for your sake.

(a)  Made the substitute for foolish, sinful man; and treated as such.

(b)  Scoffed at by soldiers of meanest grade.

(c)  Made a puppet for men who play the fool.

3. See how your Redeemer loved you. He bears immeasurable contempt, in silence, to the bitter end.

4. See the grand facts behind the scorn.

(a)  He is a King in very surety.

(b)  Glorified by conquering earth's sorrow.

(c)  Rules by weakness.

(d)  Makes men bow the knee.

(e)  True Monarch of the Jews.

5. See that you honour and love Him in proportion to this shame and mockery. The more vile He has made Himself for us, the more dear He ought to be to us.

II. A LESSON FOR THE CONSCIENCE.

1. Jesus may still be mocked.

(a)  By deriding His people.

(b)  By despising His doctrine.

(c)  By resolves never fulfilled.

(d)  By beliefs never obeyed.

(e)  By professions never justified.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

WEB: They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"