Scourged and Mocked
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March 27, 2018“After flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.” (Mk 15:15)
Three times Jesus is said to be handed over: Judas to the chief priests, the chief priests to Pilate, Pilate to his executioners. All these hands are tainted. The Jewish guards and Roman soldiers do what others will not dirty their hands to do, but there is blood on everyone’s hands. Jesus is mocked and ridiculed, manhandled, beaten and scourged.
Between the scourging and the crucifixion, the soldiers take some time out and get creative. In a courtyard before an audience of about five hundred men, he is clothed in a regal cloak and a crown of thorns, beaten with a reed and spat upon, whereupon they pay him homage on bended knee. The humiliation of body is the more shocking, but the humiliation of heart the more terrible. We have shamed him.
