Jesus & the Roman Soldiers

A terrible scene.

The whole ordeal of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trials, beatings, death, etc. is pretty terrible, but the happenings in today’s passage seem particularly cruel. Here we see the Roman system of fear and awe at play. The soldiers have no real reason to fear Jesus as far as they know. They are not Jewish. They have no stake in Israel or a messiah. Yet they mock him with no Jews looking on (that we can tell).

There’s nothing inspiring about this passage. I’m not going to try and make it otherwise.

Matthew 27:27-31

The governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s house, and they gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a red military coat on him. They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They put a stick in his right hand. Then they bowed down in front of him and mocked him, saying, “Hey! King of the Jews!” After they spit on him, they took the stick and struck his head again and again. When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the military coat and put his own clothes back on him. They led him away to crucify him.

Prayer

God,

Humans can be cruel. I know it. I was a kid once. I was both a recipient and a distributor of cruelty. Why did you make us with such a capacity?

I wish cruelty ended with children. But like the unnecessary and violent meanness of the Roman soldiers toward Jesus, people do things every day to mock and belittle the weak, more often than not, with no one else even knowing.

God, is it weird for me to pray for those situations that I know exist, but without specific knowledge? I do. I pray for them. Give strength and deliverance to those in such situations.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.