Crown of thorns
But by wearing the crown, Jesus transformed thorns into a symbol of His glory. As Emily Dickinson so aptly described it:
One crown that no one seeks
And yet the highest head
Its isolation coveted
Its stigma deified.
(The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 703–4.)
Crown of Immortality
“Through endurance he overcame the unjust ruler and thus received the
crown of immortality.”(Martyrdom of Polycarp, 19:2) This conclusion to
the suffering and eventual death of Polycarp at the hands of persecuting
Romans, illustrates perfectly the Christian perspective on the death of
a martyr. To “endure” is glorified as a value in Roman culture, and
specifically to endure suffering, as Jesus demonstrated, shows great
esteem and faith. The imagery added in this brief passage referencing a
crown is also reminiscent of Jesus’ crown of thorns. Again the author
takes something we would associate with pain and equates it with
Godliness: “thorns of immortality”. Polycarp was not the only martyr in
these readings to die in a similar glorified fashion as Jesus. The death
of young Blandina in “The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne”,
mimicked the serenity found in death and torture of Jesus on the cross
in the crucifixion story of Luke in which Jesus, unlike the Gospel of
Mark, before dying remains steadfast in faith, “Father, into your hands I
commit my spirit.” (Lk. 23:46) When Blandina is subjected to a
multitude of horrendous tortures that leave her body weak and mangled
and her own torturers beaten from exhaustion she “grew in strength as
she proclaimed her faith, and found refreshment, rest and insensibility
in her suffering…”(Ehrman, 136). From the depths of weakness she again
proclaims her faith. This horror continues for the young female martyr
as she is brought into the arena and suspended in Christ like fashion
for beasts to eat away at her, but she does not die. Displayed within
her demonstration of fearlessness was “the One who was crucified for
them” (Ehrman, 138) Similarly to Thecla, this female heroin goes
untouched by the beasts an her continued life a metaphor for the
immortality that God brings for those who believe in salvation through
Jesus Christ. These arena sized spectacles gained favor because the
Christians were a threat to arena sized numbers. Pagan Romans believed
their Gods upheld Pax Deorum, and their sacrifices to those
Gods, in civic and household realms, upheld good relations. When weather
changed, or unrest broke out, the non-practicing Christians were an
obvious target for not keeping the peace; not only for their
unwillingness to pronounce the greatness of the Emperor, but for their
determination to proselytize and missionize to the majority who
themselves practiced pluralism and tolerance. By not worshipping the
gods that maintained peace the Pagans “blamed the atheist Christians for
natural disasters.” (Lynch, 81) A way to forcefully create Peace then
in the Empire was through the elimination of this threatening minority.
By creating a spectacle out if it, they were killing two birds with one
stone; killing Christians, and converting Christians back to Emperor
worshipping Pagans.
And to Adam he [God] said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
In God’s originally perfect creation Adam and Eve, when created on Day Six, were placed in the Garden of Eden. Here, they were given one commandment; they were not to eat from ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 2:17). In the above verses from Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God’s command, thus bringing sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12), God explained to them some of the fuller consequences and effects of their sin: the Curse. The Curse was not merely imposed upon them, but upon all creation, over which they had been given dominion. Contained within this Curse is a specific reference to the introduction of thorns and thistles into the now fallen creation. In the immediate context—that is, Adam and Eve and the predicament they now found themselves in—“Adam’s sin has spoiled his environment, and it suffers along with him”. As Henry Morris wrote, “The earth which had previously cooperated readily as the man tilled and dressed it (Genesis 2:5-15), now became reluctant to yield his food. Instead it began to yield thorns and noxious weeds, requiring toil and sweat and tears before man could eat of it.” The effects of the thorns and thistles have continued from that day to now, as any farmer or gardener well knows. Before the Fall and Curse, all would have worked together in perfect harmony. Adam could have taken pleasure watching plants grow with ease and producing an abundant source of food. However, what would have been a joy-filled task for Adam in the Garden of Eden now became laborious, requiring toil and struggle.
Curse incompatible with millions of years
Symbolism of thorns in Scripture
As well as thorns and thistles being a very real physical component to the cursed world that we all now live in, they carry further symbolic negative overtones throughout the Bible, firmly pointing back to the Curse in Genesis. Their symbolic meaning also creates problems for those who do not read Genesis as a true historical account, as the negative biblical overtones associated with thorns and thistles are integral to their historical origin at the time of the Curse. Without the connection to their historical origin, their symbolic meaning becomes empty and vague.
The numerous references to thorns and thistles5 throughout the Bible remind us of the historical Original Sin and Curse that followed. The negative biblical overtones associated with thorns and thistles after Genesis 3:18 are demonstrated in their representation as obstacles, punishment, or serving as a reminder of sin and its consequences. For example:
- In Numbers 33:55, God warned the Israelites that if they did not drive out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, allowing them to remain, the Canaanites would be an obstacle to them. They would be, “thorns in your sides”. Proverbs 15:19 again uses the imagery of thorns as obstacles, saying, “The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.”
- In Isaiah 34:13, when God is speaking of the consequences of His judgment on the land of Edom, thorns feature as part of their punishment: “Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.”
- The New Testament also uses thorns and thistles in reference to the inner workings of the worldly heart, corrupted by sin. In the parable of the sower, Matthew 13:3–8, some seeds “fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them” (v. 7). Also, the outward expression of that worldly heart which apostatizes from Christ is likened to a barren wasteland, which, “if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned” (Hebrews 6:8).
Jesus’ thorny crown
The ultimate fulfilment of the symbolism that thorns and thistles have in the Bible is found in Matthew 27:29:“[A]nd twisting together 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!’ ”Here the governor’s soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, to mock him as the King of the Jews. Oh, if only they had known both what they were doing and the symbolism that their actions entailed! Thorns were not present in the original very good world, but the Roman soldiers didn’t have any trouble finding thorns to place on Jesus head. Thorns that were a direct result of man’s original sin are now found in abundance in a world that is steeped in sin. What the soldiers unwittingly did was hugely significant. There is nothing random in the Bible; every word that has been written in its pages is significant. The crown of thorns vividly symbolized the curse of sin being placed on Jesus’s head. It immediately takes the reader back to Genesis, reminding us of why Jesus went to the cross, to take the penalty for sin on our behalf.6 He died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, so that the Curse that God had pronounced upon this earth because of sin, can be removed for those that believe in him, and that ultimately creation itself can be redeemed. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). Christ’s actions will blunt every sharply pointed thistle and thorn as well as the other effects of the curse. The Christian can shout, “O death, where is your sting?”
While the Roman soldiers may have mocked Jesus, just as many others do today, He is indeed the King of Kings, Creator and Lord of this universe. He conquered sin and death through his death and resurrection, so that all those who repent and believe on Him can be saved. This is good news to all people. Amen!
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