“They…Mocked Him”
The soldiers mocked Jesus by hailing him as “King of the Jews” while treating him as if he was anything but a King; indeed, they treated him as if he was subject to whatever insults and abuses they wished to inflict on him.
Give us courage, O God, to face up to whatever ways, be they obvious or subtle, that we mock Jesus by calling him our King while at the same time behaving in ways or by giving in to motivations that dishonor him.
Give us the grace to think thoughts and to carry out actions that reflect our service to and our following of Jesus Christ our King; give us the grace to mean what we say when we call him “King,” to live lives that match our words, to say words that match our lives, and to have spirits that lead us, when it comes to Jesus, to true words and true actions.
Amen.
“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.” (Matthew 27:27-31)
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