This post’s kind of heavy. Just wanted to warn you.
Matthew 7:29 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!
It occurs to me that they didn’t sell crowns of thorns at a stall in the Jerusalem marketplace.
Some soldier or two, in the excitement of the moment, picked those thorns and sat down to weave a halo out of them, likely pricking their hands in the process.
That’s me sometimes. Deliberately sinning against the One who died for me. Slowly and carefully weaving my own condemnation, oblivious to all the harm I suffer from it.
That kind of sin: callous, spiteful provocation of God, is what Jesus forgave us at the cross. He didn’t die to save a band of bumbling ne’er-do-wells. He died for his vicious mortal enemies, in order to reconcile us to the Father in the only way possible.
Some of his last words before his death begged forgiveness on the people who mocked and crucified him. He was pleading for us. I don’t know how to express this level of grace, mercy and love better than this:
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8
