Seeds for 03/06/2024 - Matthew 27:27-31
Scripture: 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.
Observation: Onward presses the story to the cross.
The older term for this part of the story shows up from time to time: the passion. Passion means something different today, referring to an intense love or affection. It refers to feelings and may be directed toward someone (passionately in love with one’s husband/wife or family) or something (passionate about one’s work, hobby, cause, or ministry). But this is not what it meant when it was first attached to “the passion of the Christ.”
From Latin, it means suffering. The scene before us featuring Jesus and the soldiers is in between Jesus’ condemnation and His crucifixion. Here we see Jesus’ passion—His suffering, physically and psychologically. His messianic calling and identity is mocked as they dress Him up as a king for the sham coronation followed by beating His body.
Having evolved in the English language as it has, the word passion for the suffering of Jesus carries two meanings at once, locating the depth of His love in the very heart of His suffering.
As in many parts of this story, what it said, done, and written out of mockery and spiteful cruelty turns out to harbor the truest declarations of the Gospel. For Jesus is the true king. They may be pretending, but their actions in this text point toward the reality that Paul proclaimed in Philippians 2:6-11:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The soldiers actions both inflict and display the passion of Jesus, and this is merely the first time they will bow at the feet of the King.
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, may my worship embody authentic surrender to your passionate love for me. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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