Disgusting, Filthy People

The passion of Jesus Christ includes two very cruel actions:  a flogging, or scourging, and a crowning with thorns.  Very little detail of each of these is actually found in Scripture.  St. Matthew’s Gospel says this about the flogging:  “Then he [Pilate] released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”  (Matt 27:26).  St. John’s Gospel states it this way:  “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.”  (John 19:1).  St. Luke’s Gospel has Pilate threatening to flog Jesus, but that is all. 

Similarly, the crowning with thorns is mentioned in three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and John) as part of a mocking of Jesus because He had been identified as a king by His followers.  The most detail is probably given in St. John’s Gospel:  “And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on His head, and clothed Him in a purple cloak, and they came to Him and said, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’  And they struck Him repeatedly.”  (John 19:2-3). 

These passages leave much to the imagination, so, as I often try to do, let us try to fill in the blanks.  I’m thinking that it was the soldiers under Pilate’s command that actually performed these deeds.  So I think that they were not Jews but Roman soldiers who had contempt for the Jewish religion.  As such, they would have wanted to inflict as much physical and emotional pain as they possibly could, while laughing and mocking, proud of the ideas of the crown made of thorns and using whips that had hooks on the tips of leather straps as shown in the photo of the painting that accompanies this post. 

They likely were strong, muscular, uneducated men who must have cared very little about the Jewish people, perhaps were even pagans themselves.  I picture them as having dirty, sweaty faces, only a few yellow teeth and unkempt hair and beards.  In other words, disgusting, filthy people.  And here they are, whips and branches of bushes with very long and sharp thorns in their hands, pounding the crown into the top of Jesus’s head and flogging Him, while tied to a granite pillar, causing pieces of flesh to be torn from the skin on His back.  The loss of blood would have been astounding, not to mention extreme weakness inflicted on the sacred Victim.

Today, the Scourging at the Pillar and the Crowning with Thorns are two Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary in the Catholic Church.  The Rosary is a meditation prayer, so I think, with so little to go on from Scripture, we have to use our imagination as I have done here as part of our meditation so that the blanks can be filled.  It works for me.  God bless my faithful readers as we come into Holy Week next week!  Have a blessed ending to your season of Lent.  Amen!