Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. (John 19.1 – 3, ESV)

I identify with John here: he gives the flogging one sentence with another sentence for the crown of thorns. I’m not good at making this longer than the Gospels do. I don’t know how many minutes The Passion of the Christ devotes to this scene, and I don’t intend to watch it again to find out.

So I encourage you to do your own meditation…

I will share something from Station to Station by Gary Jansen that helped me.

Terrorism, mass shootings, child abuse, war—all of these evils stem from brokenness, which then leads to an unbroken cycle of pain…Jesus, the bread of life, is broken here. Yet there is no eye for an eye. He will not seek vengeance. Instead, he acts like a sponge, absorbing all the violence and hatred. In turn he will convert all that negative energy, all that waste, into something positive.

The senseless beating of Jesus was, well, senseless, just like most of the violence we’re seeing today. Jesus’ taking that beating was part of his sin-bearing.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. (Matthew 27.27 – 30, ESV)