04/11/20 Jesus’ Crown of Thorns—When I was pastor at my first church, we had some kind of locust trees in our backyard. The trunks especially were loaded with large clusters of long, sharp, sturdy thorns.

          As Easter approached, I hatched a plan. I (very carefully) removed several clusters and stored them in a small box which I put on a shelf in my office at church. As the sermon time began on Sunday night I sent a young teenage boy to fetch the box for me. I specifically told him, in front of the entire congregation, NOT to open the box or try to handle any of its contents. Since I used to be a boy, I knew what would happen. He came back in a very few moments with the box in his two very bloody hands! He exclaimed that these things were dangerous! The effect was so dramatic I repeated it several other springs. Disclaimer: No children were seriously hurt in this activity!

          Many experts think that the “crown of thorns” the Roman soldiers twisted and shoved onto Jesus’ head (Matthew 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2) was from a locust tree, maybe just like ours! If so, it would have caused considerable pain and much loss of blood. And ALL His sufferings were to pay the heavy price for the many sins of each and every human being, yours and mine included! Praise the Lord!