“And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3 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

From the perspective of the Roman soldiers, Jesus was potentially a leader of what in our generation might be considered a terrorist cell group. They probably had seen fellow soldiers hurt or maybe even killed by insurrectionists in the past. And having someone in custody Who claimed to be the rightful King of Israel and Who had a following of men like Peter capable of armed resistance was in their minds a golden opportunity to crush a dangerous faction, and even to have some fun in the process. They didn’t realize they were pawns in a diabolical chess game.

Jesus took their abuse in silence. He was in fact the chess Master sacrificing Himself to lure his enemy into a stunning checkmate situation. Jesus suffered the indignity of being mocked by the devil’s people in order to win the devil’s people over. When someone comes to Christ it is a cosmic defection. Jesus suffered and died so that we can go free. Have you been rescued from the domain of darkness and “transferred into the Kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13)? He is still looking for a few good women and men and boys and girls.