Soul Snack 9/75 ... Exchanging Crowns
His crown of thorns, adorning visible evidence to the reality that Jesus was ruled by pain.Piercing His scalp, drawing His blood and torturing His temples, He never removed it. This man crowned by pain did not seek to remove the thorns. It would be for another to release Him from the searing pain.
Still today, surrounding the heads of so many are crowns of thorns, puncturing their very vessel of life.
These crowns can be so positioned on people by those who rule them. The prevalent pain of accusation, anger and abuse lands like darts. The ill will received, and the resulting despair - the humiliation, and the resulting indignity, all emotions that the Lord knew well from the cross.
The pain of such a crown delivers death to the body and misery to the soul. Yet, paradoxically the same pain brings life to the spirit.
... that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit 1 Peter 3:18b
This is life that no earthly pain can remove. This is life worth the piercing because it engages the Eternal.
A head surrounded by impermanent thorns on earth mirrors the 2000 year old bowed head 1st crowned in thorns. Soon it will be released by He who now lives, exchanged for a permanent crown of glory.