THE CROWNING WITH THORNS
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS3
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Following the Scourging, they took Jesus to the Praetorium, where they
cruelly stripped Him of His garments, so that they could dress Him
in a much torn and soiled mantle of purple, in order to deride and
mock Him before all the people as a counterfeit King.
Instead of a King's sceptre, they placed in His hands a contemptible reed.
They forced on His Sacred Head a cap woven of
thorn branches in such a way that many of the hard and sharp thorns
would penetrate into His skull, some of them to the ears and some
to the eyes.
Hence one of the greatest tortures suffered by the
Lord, was this Crown of Thorns.
Then all of the soldiers, in the
presence of the priests and Pharisees, gathered around Him and
heaped upon Him their blasphemous mockery and derision.
Some of them bent their knees and mocked Him, some buffeted Him,
some snatched the reed from His hands and hit Him on the head with it;
others spat on Him and all insulted Him in different manners.
Pilate, thinking that the sight of a man so bloodied and disfigured
by the scourging and the Crown of Thorns, may pacify the Jews,
ordered Jesus to be brought to the window in full view of the mob,
but even then they cried: `CRUCIFY HIM!'
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