Day 41: The Victorious King

I'm Father Mark Mayer with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.
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The third sorrowful mystery is the crowning of thorns. Matthew chapter 27 verses 27 through 31.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium,

and they gathered the whole battalion before him.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him,

and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on his head

and put a reed in his right hand.

And kneeling before him, they mocked him saying, Hail King of the Jews. And they spat upon him and took the reed and struck him on the head.
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. Now Jesus' trial before Pilate, his condemnation, scourging, and crucifixion, these are horrible but ordinary parts of Roman law and Roman punishment.
Jesus being crowned with thorns and mocked was a unique evil the Roman soldiers took upon themselves to do in mockery of our Lord.

It says that Jesus was taken before a whole battalion.

So that's up to 600 soldiers.

So there's a large group of Roman soldiers there gathered.

They put upon him a scarlet robe,

which was worn by Roman military or high ranking officials. Of course, they put upon his head a crown, a sign of kingship.
They put a reed in his hand, imitating a king's scepter. And they mock him saying, hail king of the Jews.
All of this is this Roman mockery of Christ the king.

And yes, it is particularly heinous and particularly vile and particularly ugly.

We can see the demonic forces at play here in their movement to mockery.

And here they think they have Jesus in their hands

and they inspire this mockery of the Lord.

And the great irony here, of course,

is that the one whom they mock calling him a king

is in fact the king.

And he's a king already here and now conquering.

This is what Pope Benedict XVI writes

regarding Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns.

In him is reflected what we call sin.

This is what happens when man turns his back upon God

and takes control over the world into his own hands. We see Jesus here fulfilling the prophecy of the suffering servant now in Isaiah 50.
I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
We see the suffering servants. We see Jesus remaining vulnerable before the mockery, the shame, the spitting.
Pope Benedict goes on to say, but Jesus' innermost dignity cannot be taken from him. The hidden God remains present with him.
Here in Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the King of the Jews, the King of the whole world, we see the truly meek one, the truly victorious one. He remains strong before the shame, before the spitting, before the mockering, rooted in his identity as son and victorious one who even now is conquering.
What we see here in Christ, if you remember when we were reflecting on the nativity of our Lord,

according to Luke, there's all this mention of the Roman authorities and the Roman power and how they're working and they're making their decisions. But ultimately God is manifesting that he is the king of human affairs.
Here we see the Roman authorities condemning, scourging, crowning, mocking and unknowingly in all of this.

The father is still the Lord and bringing about his victory in Christ. The condemned one, the scourged one, the crowned with thorns, the one who will be crucified is indeed the victorious one.
And in John's gospel, after our Lord is scourged,

Pilate brings them before the Jewish authorities

and he says,

Ece Homo, behold the man.

Behold the man.

My brothers and sisters, as we pray today

with the third powerful mystery,

let us behold the man.

Let us behold our king.

And let us worship him.

Let us pray in the name of the Father, and the son and of the holy spirit amen our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of world without end. Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you for joining me and praying with me again today.

I look forward to continuing this journey

with you again tomorrow.

All right, poco poco friends.

God bless y'all.