BOOK 6. THE DEATH.
CHAPTER 2.
6.2.4. Of Christ stripped, whipped, clothed in purple, and crowned with thorns.
Of Christ stripped, whipped, clothed in purple, and crowned with thorns.
About nine, (which the Jews call the third hour of the day) was Christ stripped, whipped, clothed with purple, and crowned with thorns; in this hour his sufferings came thick, I must divide them into parts, and speak of them severally by themselves.
1. When Pilate saw how the Jews were set upon his death, he consented and delivered him first to be stripped. "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him," Matth. xxvii. 27. They pulled off his clothes, and made him stand naked before them all; he that adorns the heaven with stars, and the earth with flowers, and "made coats of skin to clothe our first parents in," Gen. iii. 21. Is now himself stripped stark naked. I cannot but look on this as a great shame; it appears so by our first parents, Adam and Eve, who no sooner had sinned, and knew themselves naked, but they "sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons," Gen. iii. 7. If Adam was so ashamed of his nakedness before his own wife, (who was naked too as well as he) what a shame and blush was it in the face of Christ, when in the common hall, in the view of the whole band or company of soldiers, he stands all naked? "My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me," saith David in the person of Christ, Psal. xliv. 15. It is reported in the ecclesiastical story, that when two martyrs, and holy virgins, (they called them Agnes and Barbara) were stripped stark naked for their execution, God pitying their great shame and trouble, to have their nakedness discovered, made for them a veil of light, and so he sent them to a modest and desired death; but our Saviour Christ, who chose all sorts of shame and confusion, that by a fulness of suffering, he might expiate his Father's wrath, and consecrate to us all kinds of sufferings and affronts, he endured the shame of his nakedness at the time of his scourging; see here a naked Christ, and therein see the mercy of Christ to us; he found us like the good Samaritan, when we were stripped, and wounded, and left half dead, and that we might be covered, he quietly suffered himself to be divested of his own robes, he took on him the state of sinning Adam, and became naked, that we might first be clothed with righteousness, and then with immortality: Oh! What a blessed use may we make of the very nakedness of Christ.
2. Pilate gave him to be scourged; this some think he did, upon no other account, but that the Jews being satiated and glutted with these tortures, they might rest satisfied, and think themselves sufficiently avenged, and so desist from taking away his life: that he was scourged is without controversy, for so the evangelist relates, "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him," John xix. 1. And that Pilate might give him to be scourged on that account is very probable, because, that after the scourging, he brings him out to the Jews, proclaiming, "I find no fault in him," verse 6, and before his scourging, he speaks it more expressly, "he hath done nothing worthy of death, I will therefore chastise him, and release him," Luke xxiii. 15, 16. And it adds to this, that howsoever the custom was, that those that were to be crucified must first be whipped, "if they were adjudged to die, their stripes must be less, and if they were to be set at liberty they must be beaten with more stripes." (Hier, in Mattheum, Tom. IX.). And Pilate endeavouring to preserve his life, they scourged him above measure, even almost to death.
In this scourging of Christ I shall insist on these two things; (a). The shame. (b). The pain.
(a). For the shame, it was of such infamy, that the Romans exempted all their citizens from it. "Is it lawful for you (said Paul) to scourge a man that is a Roman?" And when the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, take heed what thou dost, for this man is a Roman," Acts xxii. 25, 26. The Romans looked upon it as a most infamous punishment, fit only for thieves and slaves, and not for free-born or privileged Romans; and the Jews themselves would not surfer it above so many stripes, lest a brother should seem vile unto them; "If a wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed, least if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother shall seem vile unto thee," Deut. xxv. 2, 3, Whipping is so unworthy a punishment that only children, bond slaves and rogues were used to be corrected, therewith, especially if they exceeded the number of forty stripes. When Paul was thus used, he tells us, "Of the Jew's five times receiveed I forty stripes, save one," 2 Cor. xi. 24. Theophilact says, They would not exceed that number, lest Paul should have become infamous, and ever after incapable of public office, and hoping they might have regained him, they would not brand him with that note of infamy. O then, if one stripe above forty was so infamous amongst the Jews, what shame, what infamy was this, when so many scores, hundreds and thousands of stripes, (as some reckon them) were laid on Jesus Christ? And yet our Lord doth not disdain to undergo them for our sakes, he bears in his body those wounds and stripes that we had deserved our sins.
(b). For the pain, this kind of punishment was not only infamous, but terrible; no sooner the soldiers had their commission, but they charged and discharged upon him such bloody blows, as if he had been the greatest offender and basest slave in all the world. Nicephorus (Nicep. L. 1, C. 3.) calls these whippers, bloody hangmen, by the fierceness of those whipping, many had died under their hands; "The manner of their whipping is described thus: (Bosq. de pass. Domini, pag. 840.) After they had stripped him, they bound him to a pillar, whither came six young and strong executioners, scourgers, varlets, hangmen (saith Jerome) to scourge him, and whip him while they could, whereof two whipped him with rods of thorns; and when they had wearied themselves, other two whipped him with ropes or whip-cords tied and knotted like a carter's whip; and when they were tired, the other two scourged off his very skin with wires or little chains of iron; and thus they continued, till by alternate and successive turns, they added stripe upon stripe, and wound upon wound, latter upon former, and new upon old, that he was all over in a gore-blood." The scripture tells us, That "he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and with his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 5. He was wounded, bruised, chastised, whipped with stripes; if you would know with how many stripes, some reckon them to the number of the soldiers, six hundred and sixty, or a thousand stripes, others reckon them according to the number of the bones compacted in a man's body, which say, anatomists, are two hundred and sixty: and Christ having received forevery bone three stripes, according to the tripple manner of his whipping, they amounted in all to seven hundred and eighty stripes; others reckon them to five thousand above the forty, which the Jews were commanded not to exceed in. And the truth is, if the whole band of soldiers were the whippers of Christ, (as some would have it) I cannot see but his stripes might be more than so: when the son of an Israelitish woman blasphemed God, the Lord said unto Moses, "Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp, and let all that heard him, lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him," Lev. xxiv. 14. Now Christ had said before all the band, "That he was the Son of God," which they called blasphemy; and therefore why might they not all (according to this law) lay their hands upon him, and fall upon him, if not with stones (which was now turned into whipping) yet with rods, whip-cords, and little chains!
I shall not contend about the number of his stripes, but this is certain, that the soldiers, with violence and unrelenting hands, executed their commissions; they tore his tender flesh, till the pillar and pavement were purpled with a shower of blood; and if we may believe Bernard, "They ploughed with their whips upon his back, and made long furrows; and after that, they turned his back upon the pillar, and whipped his belly and his breast, till there were no part free from his face unto his foot." A scourging able to kill any man, and would have killed him, but that he was preserved by the Godhead to endure and to suffer a more shameful death.
Use. We may read here a lecture of the immense love of God in Christ to us poor Gentiles; he is therefore whipped, that he might marry us to himself, and never reject us, or cast us off; we read of a law in Moses, that if a man took a wife, and hated her, and gave occasion of speech against her, and brought an evil name upon her undeservedly, that then "the elders of the city should take that man and chastise him -- and she should be his wife, he might not put her away all his days," Deut. xxii. 18, 19 . There is a great mystery in this ceremony, for that man (say some) was Christ, who by his incarnation, betrothed unto himself the Gentile church; but he seems to hate her, and to give an occasion of a speech against her, and to bring an evil report upon her, "as into the way of the Gentiles ye shall not go, and into any city of the Samaritans ye shall not enter, Matth. x. 5. And it is not meet to take the childrens' bread, and cast it unto dogs," Matt. xv. 26 . And now he is accused before the elders, now he is whipped and chastised, and commanded by his Father, to take her to his wife, and not to put her away all his days. I know there is much unlikeliness in this mystery, for Christ was not whipped for calling the church adulterous, that indeed was chaste, but he was whipped to present the church as a chaste virgin to his Father, that indeed was adulterous: "Oh he loved the church, and gave himself for it. -- That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such, thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish," Eph. v. 25, 27. This was the meaning of Christ's whipping, "the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes are we healed," Isa. liii. 5. Come then, and let us learn to read this love letter sent from heaven in bloody characters, Christ is stripped, who clothed the lilies of the field; Christ is bound hand and foot, his hands that multiplied the loaves, and his feet that were weary in seeking straggling sheep: Christ is scourged all over, because all over, we were full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores, Isa. l. 6. And there was no way to cure our wounds but by his wounds, our bruises, but by his bruises, our sores, but by his sores: O read, and read again, Christ is whipped, belly, back, side, from his shoulders to the soles of his feet, the lashes eating into his flesh, and cutting his very veins, so that (as some say with much confidence, though I know not with what truth) the gashes were so wide, that you might have seen his ribs, and bones, and very inwards: what, was there ever love like unto this love? Had he not been God as well as man, he could never have had in his heart such a love as this; O it was a divine love, it was the love of a Jesus, a love far surpassing either the love of men or women, or of angels.
3. They put on him "a purple robe, or a scarlet robe," John calls it purple, John xix. 2. and Matthew scarlet. Matt, xxvii. 28. Howsoever, some difference may be, yet because of their likeness, they are put sometimes one for another: "They put on him a scarlet robe;" it is in the original, A scarlet cloke; (Klamuda kokinen) it was a loose short garment, at first used only by kings or emperors; and the colour of it was suitable to Christ's condition, for he was now purple all over, as well within it as without it; his body and his garment were both of a deep dyed sanguine colour. Some out of Zachary, where it is said, "That Joshua was clothed with filthy garments," Zech. iii. 3. conclude the old ragged, thread-bare filthiness of his robe; so that every thing shall have its office and several share in his abuse; the colour and the manner of the garment floats his kingdom; the barrenness, his outward estimation with the people, the raggedness, his late scattered retinue, the sulliedness, his stained spotted life, as they pretended, saying, "He was a friend of publicans and sinners." -- But out of this darkness the Lord can bring light, he hath his mysteries wrapt up in the malice of his enemies; for both on his garment, and on his thigh, was written a mystery, Rev. xix. l6. And in this sense, what other is his garment but the emblem of his humanity? And what is his scarlet garment, but the emblem of his wounded body? That as he spake of the woman, "She anointed him aforehand unto his burial," John xii. 7 . So Pilate in the mystery, clothes him aforehand unto his bloody death.
4. They "platted a crown of thorns, and put it upon his head," Matt, xxvii. 29. a goodly crown for the King of kings; we read of many sorts of crowns, as of the triumphal, laurel, naval, mural, etc. but never till this, did we read of a crown of thorns; a crown it was to delude him, and a crown of thorns to torment him: in this we may read both his pain and shame.
(a). For his pain, it bored his head, saith Osorius, with seventy and two wounds; Bernard (Bern. Serm, de Pass. Dom.) speaks of many more, mille puncturis, etc. I know not what ground they have to number them; but certainly many wounds they made; and the rather may we say so, because, that after they had put it upon his head, "They took a reed, and smote him on the head," Matt, xxvii. 30. i.e. they smote him on the head, to fasten the crown of thorns upon him surer, and to imprint it deeper, till, as some think, it pierced his very skull.
(b). Nor was it only pain, but shame; when Jotham put out his parable to the men of Shechem; "The trees (said he) went out on a time, to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive-tree, reign thou over us. But the olive-tree said unto them, should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me, they honoured both God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said unto the fig-teee, come thou and reign over us. But the fig-tree said unto them, should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, come thou and reign over us; and the vine said unto them, should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, come thou and reign over us; and the bramble said unto the trees, if in truth, ye anoint me king over you, then come, and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon," Judg. ix. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. As Jotham put out his parable in scorn of Abimelech, so the soldiers in scorn, put on Christ's head this bramble crown, q.d. "Come, thou sayest thou art king of the Jews, and therefore we will make thee a crown of bramble, king of trees;" by which means they protest against Christ as a feigned fabulous king, as if he were no fitter to be king of the Jews, than the bramble was to be king of all the trees in the forest.
Use. How many lessons might we draw from hence?
1. They put upon his head a crown of shame, of death, of torture, who came to give us a crown of victory, of life, of glory.
2. Our sins caused the earth to bring forth thorns and briars; and our Saviour must wear them, both to take away our sins, and in the issue, to take away sin's curse, thorns or briers, or whatsoever.
3. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, we were full of sin, and Christ accordingly must shed his blood from head to foot; their whips did not reach his head, their nails could not pierce it without an end of torture, but now they draw blood from it with thorns, Isa. l. 5. "The whole head is sick," saith the prophet of us; and the whole head of Christ is bruised with thorns to cure our sickness.
4. Christ is not crowned with thorns without a prophecy or type; here he is "a true lily among thorns," Cant. ii. 2 . Here he is, as Isaac's "ram tied fast by the head in thorns," Gen. xxxiii. 13, he was ever intended to be a sacrifice, and a ransom for our sins; and to that purpose he was caught in a thicket, he was crowned with thorns.
5. O what a shame is it, for any of us to crown our heads with rose-buds, (as the wanton worldlings would say) afore they were withered, to spend our time in vanity, folly, sin, when Christ our Lord had such a grove of thorns growing on his sacred head? "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord: it is enough for the disciple to be as his master, and the servant as his lord," Matt. x. 24, 25. If our Lord and Master was crowned with thorns, surely the members of Christ should not be soft, delicate and effeminate, wholly sensual, or given up to pleasures.
6. "As every bird sitteth upon the thorns in the orchard," Baruch vi. 7, So let us draw near, and make our nests in these blessed bushes: let us abandon all the colours of other captains, as the world, flesh, and devil; and let us keep close to the royal standard of our King; under these thorns we may find shelter against all our enemies; from these thorns we may undoubtedly gather grapes, even a vintage of spiritual joy and gladness.
Now, the hour sounds again, and calls us to go forth, and to behold King Jesus, with the crown wherewith he was crowned, in the day of his espousals. And this we shall do the next hour.