My Walk Through the Book of Matthew by Annette Godtland

The Soldiers Mock Jesus (Matthew 27:27-31)

27Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. 28And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" 30Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. 31And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

Here is another event that just makes me angry. Was it really necessary for the soldiers to mock Jesus? Yes, this is just as Jesus predicted, but why did it have to happen? Here Jesus was already bound and beaten by the chief priests and elders. Next he was taken to Pilate where he was scourged. Footnotes in my Bible explain that the lashings performed when a prisoner was scourged was done with sharp pieces of metal in the straps. This would lacerate the skin terribly and many times prisoners died from being scourged before even being taken to be crucified. So here Jesus is, already beaten and bloodied, and the soldiers felt compelled to dress him up as a king and mock him!

Another thing that really puzzles me about this text is why they took Him to the Praetorium. Footnotes in my Bible say the Praetorium is the official residence of the governor. Why would they take Him there? The governor just washed his hands of Jesus. The governor’s wife just said they should have nothing to do with Jesus. But here the soldiers took Jesus to the governor’s residence before His crucifixion. Why?

I know this is a stretch of the imagination and may very likely be wrong, but there is only one reason I can think of for this to happen. I can’t imagine that soldiers would take anyone to the official residence of the governor without the governor’s permission. And Pilate seemed to feel some compassion for Jesus. I just wonder if maybe Pilate had meant to send Jesus to his residence to be made comfortable in his last hours. So maybe Pilate, who I really hadn’t liked much from what I understood of him before, was really trying to do some final kindness for Jesus. But the soldiers had a different plan in mind.

So here is a whole garrison of soldiers surrounding a beaten man. They robed Him in king’s apparel and mocked Him and beat Him some more. After that they returned Him to His own garments and took Him to be crucified. What an awful thing to do to a man! How could someone do this?

But really that is nothing compared to what we do to Jesus. I know I’ve mentioned this story a few times before, but it seems to apply in so many different situations. I remember when I was mentoring a Confirmation class in our church. We were talking about how any of our sins may be forgiven. Some of the students felt it was very unfair that someone who may have been much more evil than they would be just as forgiven as they. But then the question also came up if Jesus is going to forgive us anyway, why not go ahead with our own desires, then just ask for forgiveness afterwards?

That is even worse than what these soldiers did to Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, He did so robed in our sins. Every sin we make gets added to that robe that Jesus wore to the cross. We mock Jesus much worse than these soldiers did when we knowingly sin thinking we will just ask for forgiveness later. Jesus suffered so much from so many on His way to the cross. And Jesus took everything that was done against Him. Do not add to His suffering. Do not add to that robe of sin. Do not crown Him as king by just handing Him a crown of pain. Do not hand Him a staff of power whose only purpose we want is for removing our sins, our sins with which we strike Him again and again. Yes, even though I get angry at how the soldiers mocked Him, what we do with these thoughtless actions is much worse.