Scripture
But he (Pilate) had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:26-31)
Meditation
Take a moment to reflect on the scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit to use your God-given imagination to allow you to “enter” the story as a witness to Jesus’ humiliation and torture. Don’t make it about yourself in any way. Rather, make it about your suffering Friend. Be there for him… showing your love by your presence with him… even though there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Notice what it is like to feel powerless in the face of injustice. To be helpless to stop the violence… the mockery… the hatred. Stay with it as long as you can.
Then, talk with God about the injustice, violence, mockery, and hatred you see every day in the news, social media, workplaces, churches, in the grocery line, on the highway, in the streets… and be very honest with yourself… how do you choose to participate in all this evil yourself? In large and small ways? What and whom do you laugh at? What and whom do you hate? What double-standards or hypocrisy do you support, especially if it benefits you?
These are hard questions. This is brutal honesty. But in the face of you’re the suffering of your innocent Savior… perhaps it is time for you to look at the nails and hammer you are carrying around with you every day. Is today the day you drop them at the foot of the cross?