Matthew 27:29

And they platted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head, and a reed in his right; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

Who but Satan himself could have sent a soldier scurrying about to prick his own hands on a thorn bush and weave such a crown for Christ? More than mortal hatred is evident in the cunning malignity of that diabolical animus which overflowed against Christ during his passion. The kneeling, and mocking salute, "Hail, King of the Jews? have lost none of their repulsiveness, though nearly two thousand years have intervened. There is more in this than the sport of soldiers accustomed to seeing men suffer. The knee bent not in sincerity, the glib salutes, proper as to form but damnable in their intention - all these things somehow ring a bell in our own hearts. Have we ever bent the knee but not in worship; have we never called him Lord, Lord, yet failed to keep his word? Why the admonition from an apostle that men should "sing with the understanding" and "pray with the understanding"? Is it not a common practice that Christ's disciples repeat the mockery of Pilate's soldiers, not of his physical person, to be sure, but of his spiritual body?

As to the kind of thorns used, we may safely leave that to the people who have "discovered" a hundred kinds of trees on which Christ was crucified, ranging from the dogwood with the nail-scarred petals to the quaking aspen tree, "quaking for the deed that was done"!

Christ will appear in glory, crowned "with many diadems" (Revelation 19:12), crowns of everlasting life, everlasting glory, all authority in heaven and on earth; but for mortals redeemed from sin, there will always be something especially poignant and emotionally quickening in this instance of his wearing that tragic emblem of man's shame, the thorn crown.