Humiliation by the Soldiers

I don’t know that I have ever really paid attention to what happened to the Savior after Pilate delivered Him to be crucified and before He actually went up to Calvary.  But Matthew’s account records for us the terrible humiliation He was given to suffer through.  After scourging Him, Pilate delivered Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified, and they clearly knew that He was thought by some to be the king of the Jews and used this fact to mock Him.  Matthew recorded, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.  And when they had plaited 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! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head” (Matt. 27:27-30).  So they took Him in some area in front of a lot of people (“a whole band of soldiers”) and then pretended to dress Him up like a king.  They took off His clothes, put a pretend royal robe on Him, placed a crown of thorns on His head, and put a reed in his hand as if it were a royal staff.  Then, in front of this large crowd, these soldiers pretended to worship Him like He was a king: they bowed down before Him and made fun of Him as the king of the Jews.  After this pretended reverence, they spit on Him and smote Him with the reed they had just placed in His hand.  This terrible cruelty is all the more remarkable because the Savior had the power to stop it but didn’t.  He did not have to suffer this complete humiliation before the people, but He did as part of His great offering.  He suffered through this unbelievable treatment, as a completely innocent victim, without reviling or seeking to defend Himself.  He was indeed a perfect mild Lamb taken to the slaughter who opened not His mouth. 

               This whole scene seems to have been prophesied six hundred years in advance by Nephi and helps us understand the significant of it.  He wrote, “And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men” (1 Nephi 19:9).  Though this statement perhaps could have referred to multiple parts of the Savior’s life, it fits perfectly with the description of Matthew 27:26-30.  First Pilate had Him scourged, and then the soldiers spit on Him and smote Him with the reed.  That is what Nephi prophesied: scourging and smiting and spitting.  And Jesus suffered through it all willingly as had been foretold.  Nephi also wrote in these verses that Jesus would be judged a “thing of naught,” which is exactly how these soldiers judged Him as they mocked Him in front of so many people.  Nephi’s description also gives us the why for the Savior’s response to the injustices: Christ was willing to suffer such pain and humiliation because of His loving kindness and longsuffering before the children of men.  Simply put, He was willing to suffer anything that was required so that He could bless the lives of all those who would follow Him.