Crown of Thorns: A Conversation on Christ's Suffering

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, my

name is Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible Guys. Yes we

are, and we are here today to talk about the Bible. Rumor has

its rumor has it? Yep? And so but before we do, we

have a segment, don't we, Jeff, We do, and it is

everybody's favorite segment, the one that everybody's been waiting for with baited breath all

week long. They've been waiting, Oh, Jeff, quit talking, just

get to the most important segment of the week. And so here we are,

folks. Do do what made Chris mad this week? Yeah? And

we haven't done this in a few weeks. Yeah, we did last week.

Yeah. Yeah, it seems so long for you. It seems so

long for you. Everything just makes you so mad. Clear you want to

talk about it every day. You prefer that this was your daily. We

recorded two weeks of episodes last week and two weeks this week. That's recorded

four weeks. That's right, twenty twenty episodes for us. It's been a

week for them, it's been like four weeks, but you would prefer that

this would be every day. No, oh, you you just walk around

mad about everything. So that's not true at all. You're gonna that's that's

in my experience, in my personal experience. You are going to don't get

people to think that. Don't minimize my experience. Everybody is not telling the

truth. Okay, don't make me mad. You wouldn't want to see me

when I'm angry, That's right, that's right, David Banner. All right,

So here is actually my I think that made me mad this week is

I was with a buddy of mine and he said, hey, let's go

see a movie. And we looked and we realized that there are no good

movies out and and but no, it's bigger than this. But then we

get into a deeper discussion about how movies in theaters are. The quality of

movies being released in theaters has gone down considerably. I'm not sure if you

like would agree with that, but like if I haven't seen a movie in

the theater in six months, maybe a year, okay, see, See,

the point is is that, like the quality has gone down so much.

Yeah, whatever it used to be, it used to be where like

if you'd look at the lineup in the theater and you'd say, you know

that just rewind like five years ago and you'd say, man, there's like

three movies out here that I really want to see, right, And now

you're you're like, Okay, this is the fifth week in a row where

I'm looking and I'm just seeing garbage. I mean, it's just it's garbage

that nobody's even ever heard of. Like I've never even seen a preview for

this movie, and it looks terrible and it is, and you know it's

terrible. If Rotten Tomato says it's good. Right, So you know,

all the critics are always wrong. So anyway, the point is is that

except me, except me, you're the critic that is right in my own

mind. No, So here's what I started doing. So it turned into

this larger conversation that like, like theater experiences in general have really declined.

Well, you know, COVID people were, you know, saying a lot

of things about theaters, and they were saying, oh, yeah, after

COVID, the theater is going to be obsolete, and we certainly know that

that is the traction of theaters has gone down considerably, right, And so

you're almost waiting for the day where they're going to shut down all theaters everywhere

and it's just going to be the living room experience. Right. But then

in my mind and in my heart, here's what I resolved. I said

to myself. I said, well, I don't think they're going to go

away, because you know, as long as the movie is released in the

theater first and then it makes it to your TV. As long as that

system stays in place, then basically, you know, I think that the

dinner in a movie is the most common date still in the world today.

And I think that people like the theater experience and the pop pun experience.

So I don't think it's going to go away. I just think it's going

to decline, you know. But people are lazy, they stay home and

all this stuff. Right, And now that I'm looking at movies and all

of a sudden, I'm connecting dots. Here's what I believe. I started

to connect the dots and think all the good movies are now being made for

TV. That's right. So now it's like it's like making four Prime.

They're made four netflis. Yeah, they're actually and there I think, actually,

we've we've just now reached the tipping point to where the ones that are

made for streaming services are better than the ones in the theaters a lot of

times. And I think that that actually has only people home theater systems and

all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and so I guess what I'm saying

is is like I just now started to connect the big picture dots and I'm

saying, oh, my goodness, we've reached the tipping point. And I

think it's only happened in the last like year to year and a half to

where I think I think, actually that could be the downfall of most theaters

as well. I think coming out of COVID, people got in the habit

of they invested in their home theaters and then they bought all the streaming you

know, things rocked, everything didn't, and you know, everything for the

got out of the habit. Yeah, for most of it. For the

worst. I think the last movie that I went to in theater was Indiana

Jones. Oh yeah, they did they know one? That was the last

week. That was last year with the girl. Yeah that was last year,

right, right. Anyway, The point is is that it may be

mad, it may be mad for the theater experience. It may be mad

for future generations that they're probably not going to grow up and experience the great

theater experience. Yeah, all that stuff. The world is changing, and

Chris is mad about it. Next week, tune in as he complains about

kids on his lawn the old man. No like, get off my lawn,

darn kids. Okay, well, good well, I'm mad for the

theater experience. Yeah, I like change. Well, apparently you just need

to buy a really good popcorn machine. I don't think I have that yet.

I would thank you. I have everything. You just don't want to

have to make it yourself. You'd rather pays. I've got the surround sound,

I've got the big screen, I've got all that. I just I

just like the movie theater experience. I just do. Okay, Well,

there you go. Have you have it, folks. I know that was

important to you. Yes, so we have just dealt with it. You're

welcome, Yes, thank you, Thank everybody. Yes, you're grieving now

today it wasn't so much mad. It's grief grieving on behalf of the rest

of us that we're losing. Well, how about how about this? How

about this I'm mad at the broad strokes of Hollywood of actually making the choice

to cut off the theaters. How about that? Would that would make me

mad? Yeah? Right, So I'm sad for the theater experience, but

I'm actually mad at the decision makers who don't care about the theater experience.

Oh, there you go, there it is those are the anger comes in.

Okay, and anymore so many of the movies just feel preachy and it

feels way it don't even start instead it instead of getting up and leaving a

movie that you just spent thirty bucks on or forty bucks on, yeah,

it's easier just to go find a different movie on Netflix. So I think

there's a lot of that every Disney movie ever made. Okay, so let's

move on. That's what you can yell about next week. In the last

eight in the last five years, Oh, the Disney movies are terrible that

way. Okay. So, and it's funny that preachers hate preachy stuff.

So that's that's funny to me too. But yeah, okay, So today

we're continuing on as we are in the last hours before the crucifixion. Just

maybe these are the last minutes before the crucifixion. Now as of today,

Matthew, Chapter twenty seven is where we're going to start, and verse twenty

seven, and then it'll also go over to Mark fifteen. It's these two

places. And this really is the Roman soldiers part. Yeah, this is

the soldiers. And some of the governor's soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and

called out the entire regiment. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe

on him, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on

his head, and they placed a red stick in his right hand as a

scepter. Then they knelt before him and mockery and taunted, Hail, King

of the Jews. And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck

him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him,

they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again.

Then they led him away to be crucified. And in Mark chapter fifteen,

verse sixteen, the soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor's headquarters called

the Preetorium, and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a

purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on

his head. And then they saluted him and taunted Hail King of the Jews.

And they struck him on the head with a red stick and spit on

him, and dropped to their knees and mock worship. And when they were

finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his

own clothes on him again, and then they led him away to be crucified.

Okay, first thought is one causes a scarlet robe and one calls it

a purple robe. I wonder if that's now I know that Herod put up

purple robe ontom scarlet robe, I would think is more red, right,

I would imagine. Yeah, But you can have read that looks purply,

yeah probably so yeah, yeah, color purple. So let's let me let

me read this note in the Life Application Study Bible that it says about Roman

soldiers. It says when the military invention of POMPEII in the internal affairs of

Judea in sixty three BC, Rome established its presence in Palestine. The Roman

military presence is visible throughout the Gospels and during the New Testament period, service

in the Roman legions was open to all Roman citizens. A professional volunteer of

army had replaced a conscripted militia. The permanent standing army was made up of

legions of recruited from the ranks of citizens, expressed officers in the ranks of

the consul command of the legions on spot. So occasions, particularly all the

Great Jewish festivals, when riots and disorders could be anticipated, the providential governor

would take up residents in Jerusalem, accompanied by a substantial contingent of troops.

And so just a little insight here about the history of Roman soldiers and understanding

that a Roman legion contained about two hundred men. A regiment was a division

of a Roman legion. Yeah, yeah, So the Roman legion did not

contain it's the regiment contained about two hundred men. Oh okay, oh yeah,

because the legion is a thousand, isn't it. Yeah yeah, yeah,

okay, So a regiment, there'll be five regiments in the legion.

So the so it's about two hundred men that come out to mock Jesus.

This isn't just a little thing. That's a big thing, right that they

bring out Jesus. They decide that they're going to mock him, they're gonna

beat him, they're going to rough him up. They're just gonna play with

him like a cat plays with a mouse, right, is what they're doing

here. And they're incredibly brutal. Right, So you have a power hungry

leader in Pilot who wasn't particularly gifted. You have a kind of another power

hungry half Jewish king Agrippa, who just dismisses Jesus, just wants me to

do tricks. You've got a bunch of just wild eyed radical leaders, religious

leaders wanting to execute Jesus because they have multiple reasons. But a lot of

it was, according to Pilot's view, it was just envy. They didn't

like that Jesus was so popular. That's Pilot's take on the whole thing was

they're just envious. And so there's this rage, this anger, this brutality

in this whole process right here that seems unwarranted and unmerited for a guy that

basically is famous for saying, turn the other cheek and go the extra mile

and treat people the way you want to be treated, and love your enemy,

love your enemies, and pray for them and do good to them,

and don't judge lest you be judged. And give to Caesar what is Caesar's,

Give to God what is God's. And oh, let me heal that

little girl. Let me, let me heal that man. Let me solve

your problems, Let me feed the hungry, Let me just walk among the

people and love them. It seems so inordinately violent and brutal to go after

a guy like Jesus the way that they do, but they are. It

doesn't make any sense, which a lot of times persecution and you know,

the fight against what is good and right seems so heavy handed, far more

heavy handed than is reasonable. So the crown of thorns that they made,

it says here that they took a wove thorn branches into a crown and put

it on his head and put a red stick in his hand as a scepter.

Yeah. So, you know, if you've been to church a little

while, you've been going to church, you know for years you've probably heard

preachers mention this. But you know, when you're over, when you're over

in that part of the world and you see thorns, the thorns are not

like thorns on a rose bush right where there's just like, oh, these

little prickly thorns. And I remember one time in my backyard I had like

a I had a it was like a red bush that was thorny, and

and those were like maybe twice the size and twice as pointy as rose thorns.

And I even thought that was like killer thorns until you go over in

Israel and you realize that the thorns are like sometimes three inches maybe two and

a half inches long, and I'm telling you, they are as sharp as

a needle would be, so imagine and strong, yeah, imagine, imagine

just as strong, yeah, in some cases. So imagine if you were

to get needles. You know, it's it's the it's it's the things that

looked like remember when doctor Strange was tortured on the Infinity Worst, you know,

remember that. Yeah, so it's like it's it's sort of like that

right where all the needles are coming at you. But those needles, man,

I mean, those thorns were like needles. And when you're over there,

you touch them and you can't even barely go to touch the tip of

them, just to say, well, I want to shut this, and

it's already immediately in your skin. So they took those kinds of thorn branches,

which are the only kinds of thorns branches over there by the way,

and they wound them together and they put them on his head. Well,

I mean, you know, the scalp is the most rigid part of the

body and it bleeds the most profusely, right, so there would have been

blood coming down his face in such a raging fashion. It would have just

been probably even maybe even hard to breathe because that's how much blood would be

going over his nose in his mouth. So it's just an unbelievable thought of

the cruelty. Right when you were in Israel, did you come across one

of those trees where the thorns they call them the Jesus Christ trees? Yes,

yeah, yeah, Yeahah. So we were in and Getty near the

Dead Sea, and we're I don't know, just south of Jericho, you

know, maybe an hour or so, maybe an hour and a half outside

of Jerusalem, so kind of you know, to the east, and there

were a couple of those trees, and so I thought, oh, neat,

I'm gonna go get a I'm gonna go get one of those and stab

myself so bad. Yeah, And I wasn't even doing anything. Also,

I was trying to do is I was trying to get it off the tree.

So it was a little the branch didn't want to come off easy,

and so I started to bend it and I stabbed myself right in my hand

and it just lit me up. Man. It just was instant, searing

pain. And I mean, I've been around, you know, I'm a

hunter. I have a pocket knife right here, right, this razor blade.

This blade is a razor blade. You see how I can remove the

blade, the razor blade, this thing right here, I could carve you

up so quick, right, I've been around that's really really really sharp.

I've been thinking about it. I've been around really sharp stuff all my life.

So it's not like I was just being reckless. It was that it

was just a slip in my hand. Bam, lit me up, and

good news was I mean, I got to stop quickly, but it was

it shocked me how painful it was and how quick they could just penetrate your

skin like that. So that's what they made the Crown of Thorns from.

Is probably that that's the most commonly viewed. So they it says it says

sequentially they put the chron of thorns on his head, They put a reed

stick in his hand, right, which which was decently heavy, right,

And then it says in both accounts, then they hit him in the head,

which means it sounds like his crown of thorns was still on. Yeah,

So if they would have hit him in the head with that crown of

thorns still on, it is almost unthinkable that could have that could have probably

killed him there, yeah, you know, but obviously it wasn't his time,

but the pain, because you know, it's not going to be his

time until he's on the cross. But the pain that he endured through this

was just unbelievable. And then to have the h to have them spit on

him and mock him and and then beat him is just unthinkable. The idea

that ugh, I just can't even think about it. I think about this

idea that you know, they they they're so brutal to him and then at

the same time just mocking him, right, and they're bowing down with their

knees to the ground, like, you know, pretending mocking him of being

the king of the Jews, and just this this harassment, and I think

of a song. There's an old Southern gospel song that says the lyrics said,

like a lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus never opened his mouth,

which is what Isaiah says. From the trial, through the crucifixion to the

grave, he was laid out after three days in the garden tomb. I

can hear the angels saying, as the lamb came forth as the lion,

and the lion became a king, right, and they're bowing down to him

in this moment like he's a king. But what we do know is at

the end, every knee will bow right, right right, and every tongue

will confess that he's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And

so the chorus on that song says, you won't find him again at the

whipping post, standing there so meek, and he won't be nailed to a

rugged cross through his hands and through his feet. They'll never be another cavalry

because he don't have to prove a thing. That day, the lamb became

the lion, and the lion became the king. Right. So when he

rose out of the tomb, the Bible said, it was like he was

the lion of Judah. And then when we see him come back. He's

the King of Kings. This is going to be the last time. So

they're bowing their knee now, they're mocking him now, but this is the

last time. He's the Lamb, right, So we see him as the

Lamb from in a past tense in the book Revelation. But he returns to

Earth as the King of king. He's got fire in his eyes, he's

got a blazing sword, he's wearing a white robe, and he's coming back

and wiping out all the armies of this world. And so on the one

side, I feel so bad for what's happening, but there is a little

bit of me I feel bad for these Roman soldiers because they have no idea

what they're doing, right, they have no idea who they're missing. And

Jesus says, they don't take my life from me. I'm going to lay

it down freely. So all these things Jesus was permitting. At one point,

you remember he told Peter, he said, don't you know, I

could call ten thousand angels, right right, a whole legion of angels come

and rescue me. And one angel, two angels came and wiped out entire

cities in the Old Testament, right, so let's bring in a thousand or

ten thousand of them, right, So Jesus is permitting these things. They're

not abusing Jesus because they had the power to do. So Jesus was taking

the abuse for you and me. But the next time we see him he

comes back as the King. You know, if you are a Marvel fan,

have you ever seen on Disney Plus the Little Things What If? Have

you ever seen the what If? Series? No? So they supposed things.

So if they say, as they say, like, what if instead

of the super Soldier serum going to uh h Rogers, Captain Rogers, what

if it would have been given to the woman what's your name? His girlfriend?

His girlfriend? Oh good? Just agent Carter, okay, Agent Carter?

And then and then and then and by the way, when you saw

Doctor Strange's multi universe and Madness, uh, that that was doctor Carter was

uh she played the Captain America member. That was from that was from the

Yah. Yeah. Remember they went to a different alternative universe. Well that

was that was actually based off of It was a nod to the what If

series? Okay, so so it's just it's a what if supposed you know,

universe, right, and and and so that whole series was comic books

when I was a kids, and it was called The Watcher, and the

Watcher would see all the different possibilities and he would he would create these what

if scenarios and there were a lot of fun to read because they weren't true.

And uh, and there's a what if scenario that plays in my mind

every single time without exception that I read this, and is Jesus calling the

angels. I try to envision this Raiders of the Lost arc ending kind of

scene when when when the angels swoop around and people's faces melt off, right,

they just destroy everybody. So I see, I see Jesus standing there,

you know, and he's bounding chains and everybody's around them, and he's

in front of either Pilo Herod or somebody, you know, and all of

a sudden, he looks up at the clouds and he just he squits his

eyes. He just gives a nod, you know, and all of a

sudden everything happens, you know, like there's a there's an earthquake, and

there's an eruption. Then the clouds part, you know, there's a voice

coming down. All of a sudden, these angels came down and they raised

the lost arc everybody, right, and then Jesus is like, I'm enough

of this. I'm going home. I've had enough of this. And although

obviously you know, Jesus says, you'll be glad and one day the whole

world will rejoice, Yeah, over the over the sadness. Right, so

Jesus knows that we're rejoicing now that he did not do that. Yeah,

I was gonna say, there's no gaither song had it not been and it

was. If Jesus hadn't been willing to die, I would be lost,

right, and the the the consequences of that comprehension not the Southern gospel today.

Yeah, yeah, you're right, but but there is a what if

scenario that because I long, and it's the same instinct that you had,

You're like, one day's gonna come back line, you know, King of

Kings, line of Judah. And that instinct for me is like I just

wish in that moment that Jesus was able to show his power to those guards

who were beating them and mocking him. Right, it's that it's that well,

he was able, he chose not to Yes, I know, but

I wish he did. He just just a little bit another I Am moment,

yes, where he goes I am and they all fall down. Yes,

yeah, yeah, it's it's that moment where at this point he's operating

as a man taking the punishment of our sin in his body, right,

and that's that's what he's doing. So yeah, well the God part spiritually

and in the man part physically, right, because the payment for sin is

death, which is both a physical and a spiritual death in it. So

well, hey, that is a great place to end, and that wraps

up today's passage, so hopefully we'll see you Monday on the Bible Gush