At The Cross: The Crown of Thorns John 19:1-5 (Wednesday Lenten Reflection Week 1)
What would you give up to let someone know just how
much you love and care about them? We
might give up watching a ball game to take our spouse out to dinner. We might give up an extra hour at work, and
it’s sales commission, to go to our child’s school program. We might give up sleeping in so we can make
the trip to visit a family member we haven’t seen in a while. However, would we give up the comfort of our
recliners to sit in a small chair and read with kids at school? Would we give up the comfort of our beds to
sleep under the bridge with the homeless?
Would we give up the security of our homes to live among the poor in a
foreign land?
He was royalty…a Prince unlike any prince we have ever
encountered. In fact he was so close to His
Father, that they truly ruled as One, making Him more of a King than a
prince. As He sat on the throne, all
around would bow and sing His praises. No one would contest His power or
complain about His rule.
Listen to a description of His throne room:
…and there… stood a throne, with one
seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian,
and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the
throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four
elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from
the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in
front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of
God; and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like
crystal.
Around the throne, and on each side
of the throne, are four living creatures…Day and night without ceasing they
sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to
come.”
…the twenty-four elders fall before
the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and
ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, “You are worthy, our
Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”[1]
Can you just imagine the beauty and majesty of that
very throne room? Can you imagine once
being there, ever being willing to leave it behind? Yet that is just what the Son of God, the
Prince of Peace who is also the King of kings did. As Paul reflects,
…though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exported, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found
in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death—even death on a cross.[2]
Does that really sink in to us? Do we truly understand what we so readily
proclaim? The Son of God stepped down
from His throne and left a place where there is no hunger and thirst, a place
where there are no tears and no sickness and no death, and came here. He came to this earth, not riding in on a
white horse ready to wage war, but came as a tiny baby who hungered and thirst
for milk from his mother’s bosom…a place tears were shed over the death of
loved ones…a place where sickness and death surrounded him each and every day. He came to a place where He himself would
experience death. He traded that that
eternal magnificent throne room and a crown we will only one day behold in
order to wear a crown made not of gold or silver or any other fine material,
but one made of wood; a crown not adorned with rubies, emeralds, amethysts, or
diamonds, but one that was covered with thorns; a crown that did not magnify
his royalty as it sat upon his head, but one that mocked Him as it dug into his
scalp.
And my friends, my brothers and sisters, he traded
crowns out of a deep love, not for his family, not for his friends, not for his
acquaintances, but out of a deep love for those who were His enemies, as Paul
reminds us: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners
Christ died for us… For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through
the death of his Son…”[3].
Could there ever be any greater expression of love?
As we travel through this season of lent and consider
the gifts God offers at the cross, may we always remember the act of love that
God has shown through the wearing of the crown of thorns.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
1) Had you ever considered that Son of
God had traded an eternal crown for the crown of thorns as an act of love for
us?
2) What would you be willing to
sacrifice to reflect a gift of love? For
whom would you be willing to offer that gift of sacrifice?
3) How is Jesus’ command to love our
enemies understood in light God’s act of love for us?
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