Stripped

Stripped, thorns on his head, mocked, spit up on, and struck. 

Those are the actions we read about in Matthew 27, as Jesus stood before the crowd awaiting his crucifixion.

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.  They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Observe the clothing here that Jesus wore. 

First, he was stripped and then clothed in a scarlet robe, symbolizing royalty.  However, this was just to mock him because he said he was a king.

After the mocking, they took off the robe and again put his own clothes back on him.

I can’t think of anything worse than to be humiliated in public by having my clothes stripped from me.  And then to have the same people who stripped me place on me their own covering with which to make fun of me is another humiliation of the worst kind. 

Not only was Jesus stripped, but these awful people stuck Jesus in the head with thorns, twisted in the shape of a crown.  And again blood ran down his flesh that was torn.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus couldn’t just be taken away, speared in the side and killed, without so much public humiliation and drama?  Wouldn’t his quick death been enough for our sin, without having to suffer so much beforehand?

There is NOTHING we can experience in life that Jesus didn’t experience before he died. 

NOTHING.  Even the worst stories in history of innocents being sent to gas chambers, separated from their families, and labeled as outcasts – Jesus can identify with it all.

We have a Savior who loves us that much. 

If you feel you haven’t got a friend in the world who understands your particular situation – He does.  He died.  And he lives.

So that you too can live.