Holy Week 2015, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries: The Crowning with Thorns

The moment we stand up for something, we find ourselves mocked and ridiculed. Our arguments are turned into straw men, parodied, and held up for scorn.

Our Lord's Kingship is treated in precisely this fashion. He is not the King of Heaven, He is merely King of the Jews, an empty title for Israel is under Roman rule; an empty title for Herod holds that privilege; an empty title for none of rhe civil authorities would see that in an itinerant preacher; an empty title for this is not the Kingship He claims.

The straw man is decorated with thorns and reeds to demonstrate His lack of substance and credibility to the world. The teaching of  a fool does not need to be refuted, just ignored, and what greater fool than one who would seek to make fools out of the wise men of the world by pointing out their misreading of the Holy Scriptures?

The Mystery here is that the "straw man" has more substance than any who dress Him up and parade Him in His fragility. It is a Mystery in which we partake when we refuse to rest with appearances and seek the love that lies beneath the thorns, purple robe, spittle and bruise. We too must be laughed at for our belief because if the world were to listen, it would stumble and fall exposing its true lack of substance to all.