The Crowd, the Silence and the Crown of Thorns

We are told that when Pilate wanted to release him, all the people cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” The prophet Jeremiah foretells this too, speaking in the person of the Lord himself: “My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has raised its voice against me; therefore I have hated it. And therefore,” he says, “I have forsaken and left my house.” And again in another place: “Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you let loose your tongues?” When he stood before his judge, it is written that “he kept silent.” Many Scriptures testify to this. In the Psalms it is written, “I became like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.” And again, “I was like a deaf man and did not hear, and like one who is mute and does not open his mouth.” And again another prophet says, “Like a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” [a]

It is written that a crown of thorns was put on him. Hear about this in the Song of Songs, the voice of God the Father marveling at the wickedness of Jerusalem in the insult done to his Son: “Go out and see, you daughters of Jerusalem, the crown with which his mother has crowned him.” Another prophet also mentions the thorns: “I looked for her to bring forth grapes, and she brought forth thorns; and instead of righteousness, a cry.” But so that you may know the secrets of the mystery: it was fitting that he who came to take away the sins of the world should also free the earth from the curse it had received through the sin of the first man, when the Lord said, “Cursed is the earth in your labors; thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you.” For this reason, then, Jesus is crowned with thorns, so that the first sentence of condemnation might be canceled. He is led to the cross, and the life of the whole world hangs on the wood of which it is made. I would point out how this too is confirmed by testimony from the prophets. You find Jeremiah speaking of it like this: “Come, let us put wood into his bread, and crush him out of the land of the living.” And again Moses, mourning over them, says, “Your life will hang before your eyes, and you will be afraid day and night, and you will not believe your life.” But we must move on, for we are already going beyond the measure of brevity we set ourselves, and stretching our “short word” into a long discourse. Still, we will add a few words more, so that we do not seem to have passed over altogether what we undertook.