And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. John 19:2-3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Often people question their existence and whether their existence continues or ceases with the grave.
“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8.
But here is your definitive answer to those questions: I AM your reason to be. I AM your eternity. All are alive to Me. Your reason to be and your life are forever for I AM forever. It is all within Me. And it all comes in My Son who draws you with Him into the very depths, into My heart, into My bosom.
Lord (Adonai), You have been our dwelling place (secret place) in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:1.
The designs of My heart are for every generation.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Psalm 33:11.
You exist because of Me and you live eternally with, in, and through Me. I AM. And I have put that same timelessness of present in you, I have put eternity in each person’s heart. You are made in My image and according to My likeness which is forever. When Moses asked My Name, I simply told him that I AM who I AM. And I memorialized it as I AM the One who IS, who WAS, and who is TO COME. LORD (יהוה).
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” Revelation 4:8.
My Name in Hebrew is three tenses of the verb “to be,” that is, of existence, hayah, hoveh, and yiyeh. Present, past, and future, I AM. I AM the reason you exist. All life is from Me and all are alive to Me, life is held in a continuum of which I am the center, which like the number line, has no beginning and no end, there is always more in either direction. I am the direction, the reason, and the driving force. I am life. And that is why My Words are life—creating, sustaining, maintaining, healing, renewing, restoring, invigorating, and resurrecting life. My Word made flesh is the resurrection and the life. And that is why in seeing Him, you see Me. The closer you are to Me the more life there is in you and the more like Me you are. And you draw closer and closer to Me the more you keep My Word and make it your own way of thinking, speaking, and walking.
Do not worry about who you are or why you exist, you, like Me, are love and love is forever. Love is real and tangible. Love is accompanied by joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is the fruit of the Spirit, one fruit of love filled with all that is good. Most of you have never really known love in all its depth, height, breadth, and length because you have never really known Me. To really know love you must be filled with Me, for I am love and apart from Me there is no true love that will remain through eternity. Without love, you cannot exist. Without love there is no will in the person to live.
But the good news is that you can be filled to the overflowing with love and that is the abundant life My Son came to give you. To abide in My love all day and all night here and in the eternal kingdom of Light forever is your existence, that is your substance, that is where you rest in peace now and forever. It is a busy place but a grace-filled place.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 14-19.
When people came into the presence of Jesus there was power there that they felt.
And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all. Luke 6:19.
Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when He spoke the words, “I am,” the soldiers fell to the ground. But I am speaking more about the power of love, the compassion and goodness, that attracted people to Jesus and made them reach out to touch Him. The children ran to be embraced by Him. They could feel the love tangibly like a magnet.
And love heals. My healing power was present wherever He was. Luke 5:17. This same power was in Peter and John when they healed the man lame from birth at the beautiful gate of the temple, and when Peter’s shadow fell upon people in his path, or cloths touched to Paul, were shared by others. And that same power is in you, it is My love poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus has baptized you in Him and that same power of love that brought about your redemption, justification, and glorification is now in you who are in Christ Jesus as your Lord.
But sin and evil reject love, they repel it and will not come into its light, for once in the light they will be transformed into light. And once Satan has taken you captive and blinded your eyes to My light with his lies, it is hard for you to let go. Malice and deceit are ugly things, but the sinner holds them tight.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3:19-21.
The fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. If you are in the darkness, the answer is get in the light, and Pilate was seeking this when he asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The revelation of the truth gives light, and the only absolute truth is My Word. My Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. It is the Light of the world. And Light was the first Word I sent forth in creation. Life for the light of men. Your existence is light and love everlasting. If you are looking for meaning you have no further to look than Me. Just lift up your eyes and see is there any god besides Me?
Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His Son’s name? Surely you know! Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion. Proverbs 30:4-8.
And what is your portion? My Son has released you from your sins by His blood and made you a kingdom, priests unto Me. And I was the portion of the priests under the Old Covenant. I AM your portion, I AM your life. I AM your reason to be and I AM your now and your eternity. All I AM (healer, provider, helper, sanctifier, savior, redeemer, exceedingly great joy, refuge, fortress, peace, protector, deliverer) is yours and you are Mine.
And what is the food I feed you with that is your portion? My Word, so open your mouth wide and I will fill it, for I have put My Word in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of My hand and put My Spirit in and upon you. And I feed you with the body of My Son. That is the food that is the portion of you who believe and have confessed Him as Lord. And all this is Covenant. Isaiah 59:21; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him; it will be told of the Lord (Adonai) to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it. Psalm 22:29-31.
Now let us continue our walk of the Eucharist, and this is the walk that the two disciples of Jesus took with Him, raised from the dead, on that road to Emmaus on the first resurrection Sunday. Jesus on that walk revealed to them all passages of Moses, the prophets, and the Scriptures that referred to Him and then He broke the bread and gave the cup to them. And their hearts burned, were quickened, were transformed from death to the life that is life indeed as they walked the Scriptures with Him.
So let us continue our walk to the cross and beyond. When you partake of His body and blood, do not stop at the Passover seder meal of the Last Supper, though that is a good place to be, but go on with Him and in Him to the garden of Gethsemane, but don’t stop in awed wonder there as He accepts yours sins imputed to Him, go forward to the betrayal, the trial before the Sanhedrin, the abuse, the trial before Pilate, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection, and the glory. It is all a seamless whole in the One who came to reconcile you to Me from eternity to eternity, the One who joins humanity and divinity into One.
Pilate had Jesus scourged. But the goodness, the power, He felt in the gentleness of Jesus made him keep declaring to the crowd that he found no guilt, no guile, nothing deserving of death in this man. But he was weak in the face of opposition from those who could ruin him or keep him in power by reports to Caesar.
The soldiers, however, had a disdain for the Jewish people, had no respect for the gentleness in Jesus. There were envious of His great popularity with the people. They went after Him with a vengeance. People of no authority in themselves, when they have the opportunity to mock one whom they believe they have the upper hand over, do so with no pity. But if Jesus had taken back up His authority, which He would not do because He had set His face like flint to save you and fulfill Scriptures, He could have leveled them all to the ground by simply taking away their life breath.
They all wait for You to give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their breath, they expire and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground. Psalm 104:17-30.
But He had willingly set aside His powers as God and humbled Himself even unto death on a cross.
Thus, seeing an opportunity, right after Pilate had Jesus scourged, the soldiers took Him away, with His back torn and bleeding, 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 His head and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They kept beating His head with a reed, driving the thorns deeper into His head, 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.
All that happened here is very significant for your redemption and justification.
First, they dressed Him in purple, the fabric of royalty and nobility. The name for mankind in the beginning was simply “Adam (אָדָ֛ם),” including the male and the female, “dam (דָּם)” is the Hebrew word for blood, and the word for red is Adom (אֱדֹם), spelled with the same Hebrew letters as “Adam” but given a different vowel sound when spoken. What am I telling you this for? Man is defined as red blooded so the color that represents man is red. Next, the color that represents Heaven is blue. And it is obvious why, just look up at the sky, but also you will note that I instructed the Israelites to put a blue thread in their tassels on the corners of the garments to remind them to keep My commandments which are from Heaven, of the Spirit, and not of the flesh.
The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD your God.” Numbers15:37-41.
I also had them make the robe of the High Priest the color of sky blue showing his affiliation to Me and the purity of Heaven.
Another color I had woven in the colors of the tabernacle of which I gave the plans to Moses besides red and blue was purple. This is the color of royalty. Why? Think of My Son as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is a King. Even Pilate and the soldiers addressed Him as such whether as mockery or not, it is the truth. He came down from Heaven as God (blue) but then He took flesh as Man (red) and the one seamless life of divinity joined to humanity combined the two, the blue and the red, and red and blue mixed is purple.
In Jesus, as partakers of His body and blood, your humanity is joined with divinity and you become a kingdom, priests unto Me. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart called out of darkness into My own marvelous light to reign in life through Christ Jesus, Romans 5:17, and forever with Me in the Kingdom of Heaven. Revelation 22:5. Hence purple. You are royalty.
The other two colors in the fabrics of the Tabernacle were gold threads, signifying My righteousness, and white linen, symbolizing your purity once cleansed by the blood (washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb) and the washing of water with the Word.
The metals you see used in the Tabernacle are bronze signifying judgment (the bronze altar for sacrifices), silver (silver pedestals for the golden covered boards), signifying redemption (standing on redemption ground), and gold, signifying My righteousness. Wood represents man, for man is like a tree planted near running waters meditating on My Word day and night, and the wood was covered in gold, representing My righteousness covering you who are standing on redemption ground (thus the gold covered boards standing on silver pedestals). And, of course, the Ark of the Covenant representing My presence among you in Jesus as humanity (wood) and divinity (gold covered) with the solid gold mercy seat on which the Blood was sprinkled. But I do not mean to go into the symbols and beauty of the Tabernacle as the plan of Salvation in this Life Lesson but it is part of the journey of the Eucharist at its roots.
My Son is the root and the offspring of David of the tribe of Judah.
But let us continue with the crowning with thorns. Why a crown of thorns? There are many layers to this. It has to do with the curse and with the worldly minded. It has to do with thoughts.
The first mention of thorns in the Bible is in the cursing of the ground after Adam sinned and corrupted all the seed.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face. Genesis 3:18-19.
Thorns were not part of the original creation. They are not friendly to man. They were of the toil of the curse. Jesus redeemed you from the curse. He took those thorns as His own.
The next mention of thorns is that the ram that Abraham sacrificed in place of Isaac as he prophesied that I Myself would supply the Lamb for the burnt offering was caught in the thorns of the thicket by its horns. Genesis 22:13. Already crowned in thorns.
The next mention of thorns is when I counsel Moses and Joshua not to permit the idols and the idol worshippers with their perverted and evil practices to dwell with them as one in the land that I was giving them to possess, the land I had promised to Abraham and his descendants by Covenant. These people would pull them away from Me to their practices and thus be as thorns in their eyes, in their sides, and in their hearts. Thorns choke off your holiness.
When My Son told the parable of the sower sowing the Word what choked off the Word in men’s hearts? Thorns.
And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19.
I also would like, however, to take you back to the vestments and consecration of the High Priest. Upon His forehead, hanging from the tiara of his turban was a solid gold name plate hung by blue cords engraved with the words “Holy to the LORD.” Why? So he could consecrate the holy gifts of the people to Me and thus remove any evil or impure thoughts that were in the minds of those offering the gifts so that they would be acceptable unto Me, deflected by the holiness of the office of the High Priest.
You shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ You shall fasten it on a blue cord, and it shall be on the turban; it shall be at the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron’s brow (forehead), and Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD. Exodus 28:36-38.
Remember My grief at the time of Noah because men, having been cut off from My thoughts and ways by Adam, conceived nothing but evil thoughts?
Jesus crowned with thorns as the blood gushed out from His head and they poked into His eyes took the punishment for and atoned for every evil, idolatrous, and impure thought conceived and entertained by man.
And in His humiliation as they beat that crown down upon His head with their rods pretending worship for Him, My Son also took the punishment and atoned for the pride of men who reject Me and raise themselves above My law. He was taking the punishment and atoning for every proud, prejudicial, and boastful thought that you or anyone from the beginning to the end of time has entertained.
They also spit on Him as I had foretold so many years before.
I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. Isaiah 50:6.
Everything written about Him in Scripture had to be fulfilled. And it was. Every word. Not one was left out. Even riding the donkey on Palm Sunday. Even being spit on. Even the disciples deserting Him and leaving Him alone. And all was right on schedule with the prophecies of the weeks by Daniel. Though it looked chaotic and out of hand, under the power of darkness, it was all perfectly ordered, orchestrated, and designed for your salvation so that you could be presented holy, blameless and beyond reproach before Me, “Holy to the LORD.”
I thank My Son for delighting to carry out My Will to save you though He went though such humiliation and pain.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2.
He is My beloved Son. And in Him, so are you!
I love you. I AM your reason to be and I AM your eternity. And I AM Love and Light. Life for the Light of men. I have everything well planned to take care of you according to My riches in glory in Christ Jesus forever. There is no need for worry or fear. All I have stored up for you is good. Great good. Showers of blessing. Draw close to Me and open up your heart and let the King of Glory in. “Take and eat, this is My body which is given for you. Take and drink, this is My blood which is poured out for you.” He has made you One with Him. He has made you as He is before Me. Do you still not understand?
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4.