ly. The inability of Jesus to
bear His own cross to the place of execution was no doubt chiefly due
to the exhaustion produced by this infliction; and this is a better
indication of the degree of severity than mere conjecture.

After the scourging the soldiers took Him away with them to their own
quarters in the palace and called together the whole band to enjoy the
spectacle. Evidently they thought that He was already condemned to be
crucified; and anyone condemned to crucifixion seems, after being
scourged, to have been handed over to the soldiery to be handled as
they pleased, just as a hunted creature, when it is caught, is flung to
the dogs. And, indeed, this comparison is only too appropriate;
because, as Luther has remarked, in those days men were treated as only
brutes are treated now. To us it is incomprehensible how the whole
band should have been called together merely to gloat over the
sufferings of a fellow-creature and to turn His pain and shame into
brutal mockery. This, however, was their purpose; and they enjoyed it
as schoolboys enjoy the terror of a tortured animal. It must be
remembered that these were men who on the field of battle were inured
to bloodshed and at Rome found their chief delight in watching the
sports of the arena, where gladiators butchered one another to make a
Roman holiday.

Their horseplay took the form of a mock coronation. They had caught
the drift of the trial sufficiently to know that the charge against
Jesus was that He pretended to be a king; and lofty pretensions on the
part of one who appears to be mean and poor easily lend themselves to
ridicule. Besides, in their minds there was perhaps an amused scorn at
the thought of a Jew aiming at a sovereignty above that of Caesar.
Foreign soldiers stationed in Palestine cannot have liked the Jews, who
hated them so cordially; and this may have given an edge to their scorn
of a Jewish pretender.

They treated Him as if they believed Him to be a king. A king must
wear the purple. And so they got hold of an old, cast-off officer's
cloak of this colour and threw it over His shoulders. Then a king must
have a crown. So one of them ran out to the park in which the palace
stood and pulled a few twigs from a tree or bush. These happened to be
thorny; but this did not matter, it was all the better; they were
plaited into the rude semblance of a crown and crushed down on His
head. To complete the outfit, a king must have a