Past The Thorny Crown

"Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe... So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold the man!' " - John 19:1-2, 5 ESV

"Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain." - Mark 4:7 ESV

Thorns create a barrier of painful experience and yet Jesus endured wearing them on His head in full identification with us. That crown must have made carrying the cross that much more difficult.

I think having painful thoughts is a part of our human experience. We all have them at times. Jesus knows all about that. He led a shame free and guilt free life but He knows.

He wears a different crown today.

"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." - Ephesians 1:16-23 ESV

He identified with us and now we identify with Him. He experienced shame and pain and we experience glory and majesty.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," - Philippians 2:5 NKJV

God gave us a way to handle the thorns. Jesus is the way. We think with Him. He is past the pain and He extends His hand to us to bring us past it also.

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