<p>27:29 <em>And they plaited a crown of thorns and put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they knelt down before him</em>- The thorns were growing between the cobbles of the courtyard? Or were they using thorns on their courtyard fire? The thorns on the head would have reminded Him that He was being temporarily overcome by the result of the curse in Eden. As with several aspects of His mocking, His tormentors unknowingly gave Him spiritual stimulus by what they did. His mind was certainly in Eden, for He spoke of the Kingdom as &quot;paradise&quot;, with evident allusion to Eden (Lk. 23:43). Note that the Lord was beaten up at least three times: by the Jewish guards, by Herod's men and by the Roman soldiers. In a literal sense He was bruised for our iniquities, and chastised for us to obtain the peace of sin forgiven (Is. 53:5). And the Father surely foresaw all this back in Gen. 3:15, where the promised seed was to be <em>bruised</em>. He willed (<em>not</em> &quot;pleased&quot;, as AV) this bruising, and this putting to grief (Is. 53:10). The parallel here between the bruising, beating and putting to grief may suggest that the beatings up ('bruisings') really grieved the Lord. And note that the final sacrifice of which Is. 53 speaks was not <em>only</em> achieved by the hours spent hanging on the cross. This earlier beating and abusing was just as much a part of His final passion, as, in essence, His whole life was a living out of the principles of the cross. It has been suggested that the crown of thorns was not only a mockery, but a significant part of the physical torture of crucifixion. If the net of nerves and veins under the skin of the scalp are pierced, profuse bleeding and stunning head ache would occur. His hair would therefore have been bloody. It would have been a wreath, a <em>stephanos</em> similar to that worn by Tiberius. The mock homage to the crowned Saviour-Lord was surely in the Lord&rsquo;s mind at His ascension, when all the Angels of God bowed before Him in true worship (Heb. 1:6). <br /><em>A reed</em>- This is the same word translated &quot;pen&quot;. The hint was that the Lord was taking note. All was written and would be judged when the books are opened.</p><p><em>And mocked him</em>- The Lord had foreseen that the Gentiles would &quot;mock&quot; Him (20:19 s.w.). Matthew gives more attention to the repeated mocking of the Lord than the other Gospels (27:29,31,41). </p><p><em>Saying: Hail, King of the Jews- &quot;</em>Hail&quot; is literally, 'Be happy'.<br />J.D. Crossan mentions a Jewish tradition, quoting Mishnah passages to support it, that the bruised scapegoat had scarlet wool tied to it, and that the Jews spat on the scapegoat in order to place their sins upon it (J.D. Crossan, <em>Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography </em>(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994)). It could be that the Roman soldiers were doing all this in mockery of this tradition. It would have given the Lord something more to fill His holy mind with. He knew that He was actually doing what they were mockingly suggesting- carrying Israel&rsquo;s sins. God worked even through the spitting and mocking of men to work out the finest details of our redemption. The spitting is in the context of their mocking His Kingship. &ldquo;Hail, King of the Jews&rdquo; was in parody of &lsquo;Ave, Caesar&rsquo;. It was customary to give a kiss of homage to royalty. Their parody of this was to spit at Him, in the face, according to the type of Job 30:10. Earlier, at the trial, the Jews had spat in His face (Mt. 26:67). Now He tasted Roman spittle. And this was the face from which the glory of God had shone (Mk. 9:15?). One of the themes of the crucifixion records is that the same abuse and suffering was repeated to the Lord. Hence the frequent usage of the continuous tense. During the trial by Pilate, the Lord underwent mock worship and spitting (Jn. 19:3). Then later it was mock worship, spitting, hitting on the head (Mt. 27:29,30). And then hitting on the head, spitting, mock worship (Mk. 15:19,20). It seems they alternated bruising / spitting on Christ with bruising / kneeling before Him in mock homage. The reed was used as a mock diadem, although instead of touching His shoulder with it they hit Him on the head with it. They put it in His hand as a sceptre and then snatched it back to hit Him on the head with it. Wave after wave of the same treatment. Notice how many times the word &ldquo;again&quot; features in the Greek text (<em>palin</em>). This is the essence of our temptations. And it was a big theme in the Lord's final human experience. Likewise a comparison of the records shows that &quot;Come down...&quot; was clearly said more than once, the continuous tenses notwithstanding (Mt. 27:40 cp. Mk. 15:30). However, it is worth cataloguing the use of continuous tenses in this part of the record: The crowd <em>kept on </em>crying out (as demons did), &quot;Crucify him&quot; (Mt. 27:23); the soldiers <em>kept on</em> clothing Him (Mt. 27:28), <em>kept on </em>coming to Him and kept on saying... (Jn. 19:3 Gk.), Pilate <em>kept on seeking</em> (imperfect) to deliver the Lord (Jn. 19:12), thereby agitating the tension in the Lord's mind. They <em>kept on </em>kneeling (27:29), <em>kept on </em>spitting (v.30), <em>kept on </em>passing in front of Him on the cross and <em>kept on</em> shaking their heads (v. 39), <em>kept on </em>saying &quot;...save thyself&quot;, <em>kept on </em>mocking and asking Him to come down from the cross (vv. 40,41), the soldiers <em>kept on</em> coming to Him and offering Him their vinegar in mock homage (Lk. 23:36), they <em>kept on</em> offering Him the pain killer. They <em>kept on and on and on</em>. This is an undoubted theme.</p><p>The events of the crucifixion were so packed with fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy and shadows that the Lord&rsquo;s discernment of them must have given Him a wonderful boost of strength, in knowing who He was and where He was destined. For example, when they put a broken reed in his hand as a mock sceptre, His mind would have flown to the Messianic Is. 42:3: &ldquo;A bruised reed shall he not break... he <em>shall</em> bring forth judgment&rdquo;, as they mocked Him for His apparent inability to do.</p>