I was listening to a sermon by Don Perkins. As part of his talk on end times predictions, he mentioned Jesus’s crown of thorns. I’ve read about His crown of thorns at least a 100 times, but it struck me differently this time and sent me down a rabbit trail of what the Bible says about thorns. I originally thought I was going to do an exhaustive search, but the Bible mentions thorns so many times, I had to pare it down a lot, so my post didn’t get crazy long.

The first time thorns are mentioned is after Adam and Eve first sinned and disobeyed God’s one and only law—to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then gives His judgment to Satan, Eve, and Adam.

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19) {emphasis mine}

In God’s very good creation, plants grew easily. There were no weeds, drought, or pests. Adam did some tending, but the work was pleasant and food was plentiful. After Adam sinned, things changed. The work became hard (“By the sweat of your face you will eat bread”). Thorns grew and choked out the food plants and caused pain when Adam and his descendants tried to pull them up or even accidentally brushed against them.

Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not indeed make it grow? But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns, Because they cannot be taken in hand; But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, And they will be completely burned with fire in their place.” (2 Samuel 23:5-7) {emphasis mine}

When David gives his last words before dying, he praises God’s blessings on him and his descendants, but uses thorns as an analogy for those who are worthless and cause harm. The thorns are also an analogy for sin.

• Sin is worthless. It causes nothing good.
• Sin should be thrust away like thorns. Don’t even approach it because the thorns can grab and injure if you try to approach it.
• Sin cannot be taken in hand. People think they can have a little sin without getting hurt, but once taken in a little, it frequently catches the sinner and hangs on to them. They get caught in the thorns of sin and cannot get loose.
• We need to be armed offensively and defensively (see the armor of God, Ephesians 6:13-17) to defend against sin’s hold.

Throughout the Bible, thorns are one of the primary signs used to illustrate God’s curse on mankind or a nation. For example, in Nahum’s oracle against Nineveh, about a century after Jonah, these words were spoken.

Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice. Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered. (Nahum 1:9-10) {emphasis mine}

Although Nineveh had repented at Jonah’s preaching, they had quickly returned to their sins and rebellion against God. They became useless, like tangled thorns that prevent anything good from growing or entering. The only way to get rid of thorns like this is to burn them.

Proverbs compares humility and the fear of the Lord to thorns and snares.

The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches, honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards himself will be far from them. (Proverbs 22:4-5) {emphasis mine}

Once again, sin is compared to thorns. Thorns are not only painful, but they block the growth of good plants and block entry into an area. Likewise, sin causes pain to those who commit sin and to those around them. Sin also blocks us from doing what is right. Thorns catch on our clothing and don’t want to let go. Breaking loose of this grip typically causes tears in our clothing or our skin. In the same way, sin, once embraced, does not like to let go. Breaking loose can be painful. Sometimes it leaves only minor injury, like a tear in our clothing, but other times it cuts us worse.

With that background, we get to what inspired this post.

The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him. (Mark 15:16-20) {emphasis mine}

We’ve been reading how the thorns represent our sin and the curse of God. What did the soldiers put on Jesus’s head? They put on a crown of thorns. They figuratively put all of our sins (a crown of thorns representing all mankind’s sins) and the judgment of God, while God was actually putting our sins on Jesus and pouring out His judgment on Him. The crown of thorns was not just another cruel punishment. God was showing us physically what was happening spiritually.

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24) {emphasis mine}

Jesus took our sins upon His body, just like He took the crown of thorns upon His head.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14) {emphasis mine}

Jesus took the curse of God, that we rightfully deserved, upon Himself, just as He allowed the crown of thorns upon His head. God controls every last detail exactly according to His plan. This wasn’t just some Jews and some Romans turning against the Son of God. This was God’s redemption plan from the very beginning, being fulfilled exactly according to God’s specifications and prediction. God is in control.

** Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe**. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” (John 19:5-7) {emphasis mine}

Jesus took upon Himself our sin and the curse that we deserved as represented by the crown of thorns, but He also conquered sin and death and is, was, and will always be King of Kings and Lord of Lords as represented by the purple robe of royalty.

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4) {emphasis mine}

I picked this verse because of the description of Jesus “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” but liked how John 19 and Romans 8 line up. In John 19, the Jews said, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die.” We know Jesus died and on the third day rose again to live forever. Romans clarifies, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was.” The Jewish leaders couldn’t keep Jesus dead. The Law was too weak. It could not keep our Creator and Savior in the grave.

Jesus took our sins upon Himself. He experienced the curse of God that our sins deserved. He fulfilled all “the requirement of the Law” as our kinsman redeemer, so that we can know God’s mercy and love for all eternity.

May you have a right view of your sinfulness and trust in the Savior for salvation from sin and the curse of sin. May His mercy cover you and draw you to Himself. May you faithfully follow Him all the days of your life on earth until He calls you home to Himself to be with Him in Heaven for all eternity.

Trust Jesus

If you do not yet know Jesus, I beg you to trust in Him. Below are some verses that will tell you what you need to know to be saved. If you have any questions, I’d love to answer them. Just message me on Substack.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)

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For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

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But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

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that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; (Romans 10:9)

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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:9-10)

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For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

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He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

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But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.