One of the sufferings of Jesus on this Holy night is the crown of thorns being placed on His head. Obviously, the Roman soldiers doing this are continuing the mockery started by the Temple soldiers and at Herod’s palace of Jesus being the King of the Jews. Jesus didn’t say He was the King of the Jews. He said He was a King and that His kingdom is not of this world. But this crown holds much more significance than mocking Jesus’s kingship. It’s no accident that thorns were used. The soldiers meant it as another way to inflict pain and humiliation, but for Jesus and for us, it means much more. Jesus’s crown of thorns was a physical symbol of an incredible spiritual reality—His taking on the curse of man for us. And yes, I’m using “man” specifically. Jesus becomes the second Adam.
Only Jesus, as a man, could take away the curse that was pronounced on the first man, Adam. It is a curse that affects us women too, but it was a curse pronounced on the man. We read from Genesis 3 this evening. God confronts Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden after they have broken God’s one command not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The first curse is pronounced on the serpent, who would now slither in the dust and have enmity with the woman “and with your seed and her seed.” But part of the serpent’s curse is the first great promise of a Redeemer. “He shall bruise or crush your head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” There has only been one “seed of a woman.” That is Jesus Christ, Son of Mary.” Satan bruised the heel of Jesus in His sufferings, trying to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. Because the death of Jesus, instead of being a victory for the devil, was the sign of Satan’s sure defeat; for in His death, Jesus paid the atonement price for all humanity. And by rising from the dead, the serpent’s head was crushed. We know the end of the story that one day, the devil and his angels will be cast into the lake of fire. The first part of the curse was being broken, just as God promised to Eve’s consolation and the serpent’s chagrin.
But it is the 3rd curse being broken symbolized by the crown of thorns. It is the ground that is cursed because of Adam. Instead of growing everything needed easily, the ground would now produce “thorns and thistles” and have to be cultivated with effort. Jesus allows the thorns to be placed on His head, showing that He is taking all of the curse, for the ground as well as the ultimate curse of death! We sing about this in the hymn, “Joy to the World!” –“No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” Christ’s reign undoes the curse wherever it is found. Most women still experience pain in childbirth, farmers work hard even with modern technology, and it’s becoming even more of a challenge these days. We still have to deal with thorns and thistles! The thistles especially are growing rapidly right now, and we still die. Romans 8 tells us all creation is groaning for the Day of Redemption, but our hope is sure! As sure as Christ rose from the dead, He is returning to complete the reversal of the curse.
But even now, we see the curse being undone. Our I Corinthians passage tells us what it means for Christ to be the last Adam. Because of Adam’s disobedience, we all die, but in Christ, all will be made alive. We will all be resurrected. Verse 23 tells us Christ was the firstfruits—He rose on that Feast, and after that, those who are Christ’s will be raised at His coming. And if we read Revelation, those who are not in Christ will be raised after that. Then those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life will get to live with Him forever in the new heaven and new earth, and those who are not will go into eternal destruction. And then there will be no more death! Jesus, the second Adam, the last Adam is a “life-giving spirit.” Paul exhorts us in I Corinthians 12:49, that even now, we, as new creations in Him, are called to bear the image of the heavenly even while still bearing the earthly image.
When I was at Antioch Presbyterian Church, I was doing a lot of elder training in preparation for their departure to the EPC, which uses the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms as its sole confessions, along with the Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds. And those confessions hold more authority than our Book of Confessions. We vow to be guided by our Confessions, but they vow to accept and abide by the Confessions, and any scruple must be defended, so it’s crucial to know this confession inside and out! When we were going over the lesson on anthropology, the doctrine of humans in relationship to God, the concept of Jesus as the second Adam came up. We of course, looked at this I Corinthians passage. One of my elders said, “I have never heard Jesus called the Second Adam or Last Adam before.” I replied, “Really? We sing it every year at Christmas in “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and proceeded to quote the verse you have printed at the end of tonight’s service. They all looked at me strangely. Sure enough, even though I had been pastoring that church for almost 4 years, their hymnal did not have that verse, so most of them had not grown up singing it. Our hymnal doesn’t have it either. And even though I’ve had this verse memorized since childhood, it’s not in a lot of newer hymnals, even 30-year-old hymnals! And yet the theology is so rich! Jesus is the woman’s Conquering Seed, whom we implore to crush the serpent’s head in us. Yes, we still fall prey to the devil’s wiles and temptations, and we need to ask Jesus to break the power of the curse in us, to free us from patterns of sin. Erase in us the “old man” as Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4:and instead, mark us with Yourself, Jesus, so that we look like you. Second Adam from above, in Your love, put us back into your good graces! Make us Your children.
The crown of thorns points to the day when all things will be rightly ordered once again. We will dwell in a new heavens and new earth without plants that will cause us harm. Tending the earth will be a joy. Jesus will have many crowns, diadems we give Him, and none of them will be made out of thorns. Jesus wore the crown of our curse, taking the curse of Adam upon Himself. Jesus broke the generational curse of death to give us life. He wore the thorny crown for us!
The following was added at the very end of the service just before reading the Galatians 3 text and was followed by the singing of verse 4 of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".
Friends, it
is Good Friday. Jesus has been
crucified, and He rests in the tomb. But
it is Good Friday. His death and
suffering were not in vain. Everything
He went through, every injustice, every type of suffering, has deep meaning and
significance. Nothing was by chance or
is incidental to the story. Jesus had to
fulfill all things, all Scripture, to take all of God’s wrath for us. The work He accomplished was Good! And It is Finished! We have one more Scripture telling us what it
means that Christ took the curse of Adam on our behalf. And then we will sing that 4th
verse of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.
As we contemplate Christ’s death tomorrow on Holy Saturday, may we do so
with reverence and thanksgiving, so that we can fully celebrate with great joy
on Resurrection Sunday. Here these words
from Galatians….
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