Why a crown of thorns?

As Jesus hung dying on a cruel cross, He wore  a crown of thorns.

Why thorns?

Was it just because the Roman soldiers were vicious men and wanted to inflict as much pain as they possibly could on Jesus? In their minds, that was part of it.

But let’s flip back in the pages of our Bibles for a different possibility. Flip all the way to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In Genesis 3, we see Adam and Eve choose sin, and we also see God mete out some specific punishments for sin on first the serpent (Satan), and then Eve, and then finally on Adam. Note what God said to Adam …

“And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains …” Genesis 3:17-18.

God continues on in that chapter, but did you catch that part of the consequences for man’s sin included the intrusion, difficulty, and pain of thorns?

As Jesus offered Himself as the only perfect and complete sacrifice for sin, the crown of thorns He wore indicated that the power of sin, along with its painful consequences, were being borne and paid for in full by Christ on the cross.

Through Christ, sin is defeated!

It has no more power over us, and the consequences of sin are defeated as we are new creations in Christ! Jesus displayed that message through the crown of thorns that He wore.

As through one man the thorns of sin and its consequences came into this world, through one Man they were utterly destroyed. Now there is a new promise to all those who trust in Jesus Christ and endure in the faith …

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him,” James 1:12.

Jesus suffered through wearing a crown of thorns on the cross so that we who endure faithfully may receive a crown of life!

Have you trusted in Jesus Christ for your freedom from sin and a new life in Him? Are you faithfully enduring as an obedient disciple of Jesus?

Scotty