October 30, 2023

Clothed In Mockery  

(Some information may be too graphic for small children)

“… and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and to give Him slaps in the face.” John 19:2b-3 (NASB)

            Several times while working in law enforcement, I was inside the ER of a hospital. I either had a prisoner or a victim of a crime, drowning, or death. Many times people arrived inside the ER for treatment from other related injuries. It’s what ER’s do. Once, there was a man who had crushed his hand inside a hydraulic press while working at Tensolite Inc. The press had crushed his hand. It severed three of his fingers. When rescue arrived, the man was wrapped in bandages (while in extreme pain) and transported to the ER. When he arrived at the ER, the doctor began to unwrap the injured area. I remember the scream that came from the victim. They couldn’t get the pain meds to work soon enough. They reopened an extremely painful wound. Jesus too was about to experience the same thing when they removed the robe from His back.

             “… and put a purple robe on Him;” The purple robe placed upon Jesus was an item of luxury trade. The dye used for making the color purple was extracted from shellfish. It was one of the most expensive of dyes at the time. This color was non-fading, which was used by Roman royalty. “The very fact that purple was an expensive color made it affordable only to the royals. That Jesus was made to put it on before his crucifixion, implies that the Romans were sending a strong signal to the Jews against any coup.”[1] Hughes thinks there might be another possibility too; “The gruesome carnival continued as the soldiers “clothed him in a purple robe,” probably using a ragged soldier’s robe that had faded from crimson to purple.”[2] Both Matthew (defines it as ‘scarlet’) and John (‘purple’) differ in the exact color of the robe at the time. The thing to remember is that in some languages certain colors are described in terms of a flower or bird which has such color. Meanwhile, the blood from the scourging was soaking the blood from Jesus’s body. This later would be torn from his body, reopening the wounds once again. Imagine the scene; Jesus, in extreme pain, with massive amounts of blood lost from His body, now cloaked in makeshift royalty. The false honor of soldiers saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” The words were the same words used by Pilate as he shamed Jesus. No ruler would endure such abuse either as they “gave Him slaps in the face.” Matthew also mentions that Jesus “was spit upon, and took the reed and smote Him on the head” (Matt. 27:30). “John mentions only the fact that each man as he came to Jesus gave him an ugly blow with the hand; ῥαπίσματα is the same word used in 18:22, which see. The marvel is that Jesus did not collapse under this mass of horrible abuse.”[3]

            The horrible scene we see is only about to get worse. How would you react when punishment comes so violently? Would you stay your course? Jesus stayed His course for us.

[1] https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/41580/what-is-the-significance-of-colour-purple-in-the-robe-that-jesus-was-made-to-wear.

[2] Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe (p. 431). Crossway Books.

[3] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The interpretation of St. John’s gospel (p. 1249). Augsburg Publishing House.