Friday, April 6, 2012

Turning Thorns into Crowns

UV 371/10,000 Turning Thorns into Crowns Mathew 27 v 28 Mat 27:29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! The physical thorns that pierced into the scalp, forehead and head of the sinless One- Jesus are a symbol of the pain, the mental agony, the worries, the anxieties, the fears, the deceit of riches and the three types of lust that afflict humanity. Jesus by wearing the crown of thorns transformed our mental, physical and spiritual thorns through His suffering on the cross into a crown of righteousness, the crown of life and eternal life that adorns our heads as believers. The crown is a symbol of triumph, of royalty and of power. No more if we truly believe and we do not want to mock Jesus again for bearing our thorns, the thorns that hurt our spirit, mind and flesh , should we subject ourselves to worries, fears, deceitfulness of wealth and lust. Every time we do so, we are mocking Jesus like the Roman soldiers afresh. All our kneeling and praying would almost seem like in jest as if we believe that He has not overcome all these on our behalf. When we continue to wallow in anxiety and worries, or indulging ourselves in evil desires or in the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye or pride of life, we are kicking against the thorns like King Saul did. Pilate focused on the charge that He claimed to be the King of the Jews as Pilate was only concerned with if there was a political threat to Roman rule. The Jewish priests were concerned that He claimed to be the Son of God. The Jewish people bound themselves and subsequent generations to a curse by saying that “ let His blood be upon us and our children too.” They had put a reed in His right hand as a mock scepter to show that He was as weak as a reed. Yes, He was so gentle in the face of such harshness and cruelty that He would not break a reed. People may see us too as weak as a reed and mock us. But, as we kneel in His presence and recognize that He was not a mere political head or King of the Jews but Lord of the universe, that even the waves and winds would obey Him, that demons would flee at His command at the mention of His Name, that life threatening diseases would be healed by His touch, that the dead would be summoned back to life, that the infirm and paralytic would walk, then we would be as assured and calm as Jesus is. We must take an account of the thorns that cause us to sorrow in our lives and place it not on the head of Jesus but cast it at His feet and He would turn it into crowns or sources of strength, power and celebration. He would consign our thorns that torment us to fire and destruction. He would turn us into a royal diadem and a scepter of righteousness to execute His will on earth as it is in Heaven. As the scepter of righteousness, one of the objectives we must give priority to as a church is to pray for the redemption of Israel, for the lifting of the curse and spiritual blindness and hardness of hearts of the Jewish people. Prateep V Philip

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