Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged [him].
Pilate has already told the crowd he finds no guilt in Jesus, and the next thing he does is hand Him over to the whip. It raises the sharpest question of the trial. How does a judge who believes his prisoner is innocent order him flogged?
The word joining Pilate's verdict to his action is the moral centre of the verse. One writer traces it back to what Pilate had just said in Luke's account, and finds the logic monstrous:
What did that "therefore" point back to? May we join it to Pilate's verdict of not guilty? I think we may. That is exactly how Luke puts it. Pilate said, "After examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him… I will therefore punish and release him." Whatever excuse we may find for Pilate, his decision was wickedly callous and brutally unjust. It was as though a judge in a modern court said, The prisoner is absolutely innocent of the crime. I will therefore sentence him to twenty strokes of the lash.
The flogging was not a legal step toward crucifixion. It was Pilate's attempt to give both sides something and keep his own hands clean:
His conclusion must surprise the unbiased observer: "I will therefore punish and release him." Pilate shaped this verdict to serve his own aims and the crowd's at the same time. On the one hand, it would let him release Jesus, as he knew he should. On the other hand, it would appease the crowd by declaring the Lord guilty in two ways. He would be punished — which meant the cruel procedure of scourging (John 19:1). And He would be released, not on the grounds of innocence, but because Pilate had to release a criminal at the feast. When people are ready to compromise their principles they will soon resort to the principle of compromise.
John's account points to more than cold calculation. The scourging follows the crowd's cry for Barabbas:
It was at the cry of the Jews, "Not this man," that Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. These Jews were challenging his verdict. His honour and the dignity of his office were at stake. He was an angry man, and on whom should he vent his rage?
Commentators differ on whether Pilate acted by calculation or in anger.
Modern readers hear "flogged" and think of a beating. The reality was a punishment men did not always survive:
And what did this representative of Gentile power do next? He was a judge, and he was convinced that there was no fault in Jesus. He deliberately released the robber and murderer. And then what? Was the bruised and beaten prisoner, the declared just One, allowed to rest His weary body a while? The first thing they did was to inflict the cruel torment of the Roman lash — a torment under which prisoners often died. Pilate has Him stripped and scourged.
Nothing here caught Him by surprise. The same writer sets the scene beside words written centuries earlier:
Isaiah, more than 600 years before, had described this scene. He who clothes the heavens said, "I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6). And again: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).
His silence was not helplessness. Another writer, on that same line from Isaiah, shows where the control lay:
"I gave my back to the smiters." They could not touch Him till He permitted them.
Some teach that Isaiah's promise of healing through His wounds points to this moment under Pilate's whip. One writer rejects that reading, starting from the word itself:
The proof relied on is that "with his stripes we are healed" refers to His scourging by Pontius Pilate. The claim is that He was judged before a human court, to match our being charged as guilty before God. The word "stripes" does not even mean scourging, but the discoloured marks left by blows.
(The ESV of Isaiah 53:5 reads "with his wounds we are healed." Older translations say "stripes," the wording this writer discusses.)
The distinction matters. It guards what saves us:
These insults from violent men are terrible for those who worship the Lord to think about. But they are not the stripes that healed us. On the Holy Sufferer there came a smiting by God as well as a smiting by man.
- Verdict — Pilate flogged a man he had just declared innocent. The verse's "therefore" ties the two together. It is the logic of a judge who has given up on justice.
- Compromise — the whipping was meant to satisfy the crowd without a conviction. Bend your principles once, and compromise becomes the rule.
- Cruelty — prisoners often died under the Roman lash, and it fell on the one man there proven guilty of nothing.
- Consent — Isaiah described the scene six hundred years earlier. He gave His back to it, and no one could touch Him until He allowed it.
- Healing — the whipping post is not where our healing was bought. Behind the smiting by men lay a smiting by God, and that is what heals us.
And the soldiers having plaited a crown of thorns put it on his head, and put a purple robe on him,
Roman soldiers turn a prisoner into a joke. They twist a crown out of thorns and drape Him in purple. Commentators see two things at once here: the cruelty of men, and a crown and a robe that are signs of a curse and a kingdom.
One writer traces Pilate's thinking. He let his soldiers loose on a man he had already declared innocent.
Pilate hoped that Jesus would bear this cruel mockery and scourging without complaint before their eyes. That might move the crowd and its leaders to pity. At the same time, the royal claims of Jesus would look empty, and that would stir their contempt. Both effects would serve his own aim: to release the prisoner in whom, by his own word, he saw no guilt at all. But no! Every one of them had to show their true colours: priests and people, learned and unlearned, civilians and soldiers, judge and prisoner. It was their hour, and the power of darkness. Yet if man and Satan were there, so was God, weighing them all by the One they misjudged.
Of all the plants around them, the soldiers chose thorns. One writer explains what that plant has stood for since the beginning.
The world belonged to Him, for He made it. As the eternal Son He was the Heir to it. But it was under the curse. Man's disobedience had brought the curse on it. Thorns were the product and lasting evidence of that curse. He had come to redeem the world, to remove the curse and bring in the blessing, and to do this He must bear the curse... the original curse fell upon Him, and the sign of it was the crown He wore. What shame and what glory! Shame to man, who crowned Him — to us all, for we all had our part in it — but glory to Him.
There were other crowns within reach. The same writer explains why He took this one.
He was sinless. He was holy... so the curse had no reference to Him personally. But having taken up the cause of the ruined race, He must bear the curse. Otherwise He would have remained a solitary man for ever... Satan hoped to hold mankind under God's perpetual curse, so he offered Jesus every crown under the sun. Men too would have made Him king when He fed them with bread. But He would take no crown from Satan or from men — only this crown, the crown of thorns. Every other crown was tarnished... The earth could give only one crown that He could take. If He was to be the Blesser, He must bear the curse.
The colour of the robe carried a meaning of its own.
Purple stands for the royalty of the Gentile nations. The Gospel of John gives an example. The soldiers, with coarse brutality, were mocking the claims of Jesus to be the King, and they put a purple robe on Him.
The Gospels do not all name the same colour. One writer takes that up.
In Matthew the robe is scarlet (Matthew 27:28); in John it is purple. There is no contradiction here, but a divine reason. It is quite likely that these wretched soldiers put different robes on Him, to pour out all their scorn. Herod also dressed Him in splendid clothing (Luke 23:11).
The story does not stop at the mockery.
Still, we know that God is not indifferent to the insults heaped on His Son. Men crowned Him with a crown of thorns and mocked Him as the King of the Jews. The day will come when He comes out wearing many crowns, as the King of kings. The One whom men clothed with a purple robe will come to earth "clothed in a robe dipped in blood." The One whom men struck with their wicked hands will strike the nations with a rod of iron.
- Curse. Thorns came into the world through man's disobedience. The crown on His head was the sign of the curse He came to carry away.
- Choice. He turned down every crown Satan and men offered Him. This was the one crown earth had that He could take.
- Cost. The curse had no claim on Him, for He was sinless. He bore it because He had taken up the cause of a ruined race.
- Colour. The purple robe mocked a royal claim. Matthew names scarlet and John purple; one writer sees no contradiction, but a divine reason.
- Crowns. The One crowned with thorns will yet appear wearing many crowns. God will answer the mockery in full.
and came to him and said, Hail, king of the Jews! and gave him blows on the face.
The soldiers' greeting is a coronation played as a joke: a title spoken as a taunt, a salute followed by blows. Yet each part of it — the crown, the robe, the royal title — proves truer than the men who staged it knew.
Pilate had already said he found no guilt in Jesus. The beating in his courtyard was not justice. It was strategy. One writer traces the double calculation behind letting the soldiers have their sport.
Pilate probably hoped for two things at once. He hoped that seeing Jesus bear such cruel mockery and scourging without complaint might move the crowd and its leaders to pity. He also hoped that the exposed emptiness of His royal claims would stir their contempt. Either way he came closer to what he wanted: to let go a prisoner in whom he openly saw no guilt at all. But no! Everything had to come out in its true colours. That went for priests and people, learned and unlearned, civilians and soldiers, judge and prisoner.
The scene follows an order. Crown, robe, salute, then blows. The soldiers used the props of royalty to insult Him, then turned their contempt on His body.
The soldiers mocked Him, and, having twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on His head. Then, dressing Him in a purple garment, they saluted Him in mockery as King. "Hail, King of the Jews!" were their words. And to show their contempt of Him, they struck Him with their hands; and, as we read elsewhere, spat upon Him.
The soldiers chose thorns to hurt Him and to ridicule Him. But thorns carry a meaning older than that Roman courtyard. The One they crowned is the Maker of the world He came into.
The world belonged to Him, for He made it. As the Son who has always been at the Father's side, He was the Heir to it. But it was under the curse. Man's disobedience had brought that curse on the world, and thorns were the product and lasting evidence of the curse. He had come to redeem the world, to remove the curse and bring in the blessing, and to do this He must bear the curse... the original curse fell upon Him, and the sign of this was the crown that He wore... Oh, the shame and the glory of it! Shame to man, who crowned Him — and to us all, for we all had our part in it. But glory to Him, who in divine compassion for God's glory and our salvation took the curse upon Himself, so that by His death He might remove it.
Before the purple went on, His own clothing came off. One writer sees the change of clothes as a picture of what men took from Him — and of what He will wear one day.
They had robbed Him of His own garments. This suggests how men driven by Satan attacked our Lord, robbing Him of the glory due to Him. The soldiers dressed Him in the purple robe in mockery... though men dressed Him in cruel mockery, He shall yet wear the imperial purple.
Pilate misjudged the crowd in front of him. He also misjudged himself.
Sadly, Pilate understood the depth of hatred in the hearts of the Jews as little as he understood the utter depravity of his own heart and that of the Gentiles.
The soldiers meant their salute as a lie. Faith takes up the same words and means them.
We take up those very words which they spoke in blasphemy, and make them the expression of what is divinely true. He is a crowned King; the crown of thorns is the crown of glory now.
The men who bent the knee for a joke will meet Him again. Then the robe, the crown and the bowing will all be real.
What will the feelings of these wicked men be when they see Jesus in His glory? Instead of the purple robe, He will wear garments of heavenly glory. Crowns of majesty will rest on His brow. Their knees will bow, but not in mockery, before Him whom the angels and all created beings own as Lord of all.
- Compromise — Pilate allowed the mockery, hoping pity or contempt would end the case. Instead it exposed judge, priests, people and soldiers alike.
- Crown — thorns are the product and proof of the curse on the world; the King who came to remove that curse wore it on His head first.
- Robe — stripped of His own garments and dressed in purple as a joke, He will yet wear real royal purple.
- Blows — the soldiers struck Him with their hands, and the scene exposed the hatred of the Jews and the depravity of the Gentiles.
- Title — what they shouted in scorn was fact. Believers say the same words in earnest, and one day those same knees will bow for real.