Crown of Thorns and the King's Victory
The crown of thorns, alongside the cross, is a central symbol of the Passion and represents the suffering of Jesus like almost nothing else. In art, we often see this familiar image: Jesus wears a woven crown of thorns, is led through Jerusalem, and later nailed to the cross. Such depictions have become so commonplace that we hardly perceive them consciously anymore. Yet the meaning of the thorns tells us much about Jesus. In Scripture, we first encounter thorns in the harrowing proclamation of the curse after Adam and Eve brought sin into the world: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” (1. Mose 3,17-18).
Thorns were clearly part of the curse. Throughout the Old Testament, thorns and thistles symbolize sin and humanity's turning away from God. Jeremiah puts it this way: "They sowed wheat but reaped thorns." (Jeremia 12,13)Isaiah describes it similarly: “I will make it desolate, neither pruned nor hoed, but thorns and briers will grow on it, and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” (Jesaja 5,6).
It is entirely different where God is present and people walk with him. Then even the desert comes alive, streams of water flow, and flowers bloom, growth flourishes, and abundance thrives. The soldiers put a purple robe around Jesus and forced a cruel crown of thorns onto his head. His death was profoundly humiliating. Yet, in that very moment lay his victory, and with his last cry, "It is finished," the kingdom was proclaimed. He took our pain, our loss, and our sin upon himself. Through his death, the worst consequence of sin was nullified.
The thorns, the lasting mark of the desolation caused by sin, became the crown of Jesus Christ, the King. Jesus transformed shame into glory. Then he called us to live day by day in this upside-down kingdom, where the last will be first, the weak will be strong, and thorns will become crowns. What does it mean to live in this existence, not merely as a distant promise of a blessed life after death, but as the transforming reality of the world he has overcome? Paul gives the answer: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Röm 12,2).
It is the freedom to live life to the full, to share in Jesus' victory, and to regard the crown of thorns as a reminder that Jesus is the King.
from Greg Williams
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