The Crown of Thorns

When I think of the death of Jesus, the thing that is most real to me is the crown of thorns. Without it, I could not relate very well to His sacrificial death on my behalf, but with the thorns, I know exactly why He had to die for me.

He died for me because of the curse.

Every time I experience the difficulty of work, what the Bible calls the “sweat of the brow”, I know that I am cursed by sin. The other day I went over to the church property to pick up some trash that the winter winds had blown into the bushes lining the street. That litter was caught up in the weeds, tangled amongst the thorns, and my arms now bear the marks of that work.

When I try my hand at some gardening outside, my back tells me that I am cursed. Whenever the computer crashes, or I miss an important deadline, or the house needs repainting, or the family van breaks down, I remember the curse. It is hard to work against the curse, but we do it every day of our lives.

When somebody yells at me, or when a storm knocks out the power, or when sickness drives me to the doctor’s office, I experience the curse. Even the earth itself reels under the curse of mankind’s sin (Romans 8:20-22), such that we live in a violent world that is spinning toward extinction. The sum total of all the pain and suffering and death in this world is a result of the curse of sin, and the thorns are the particular reality of that curse and its symbol as well.

But the Bible also says that, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ (Galatians 3:13). The crown of thorns thrust upon His head that dark day of death so long ago was the indicator that Jesus was doing something for me about those cursed thorns.

All my life has been a struggle against the curse of the thorns, and the older I get, the harder it is to bear up under the load. I know that someday, that curse will take me to my grave. Maybe the flower of choice for funerals should be the rose, since it is the one flower most closely associated with the thorns.

But, Jesus changed all that when He allowed those soldiers to jam the crown of thorns upon His brow. Because of who He was, His death counted far beyond His own and reached out to me, and reached out to you, in our struggle against the curse of sin. He brought an end to the curse such that it will not reach beyond the grave and chase us into the hereafter.

While we are in this sin-cursed world, the thorns will pierce us still, but when we close our eyes for the last time here, and open them again in heaven, there will be no more thorns. The crown upon His brow will be one of joy and gladness when we finally see Jesus face to face in glory.

Which is why I am grateful that He once wore a crown of thorns.