Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.  They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.  After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 25:27 – 31

From Jewish hands to Roman hands, Jesus did not defend himself.  So, now before the highest Roman court, the Praetorium, the Romans stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.

Image the scene, Jesus had no official standing among the Jewish nation.  He was just a troublemaker as far as they were concerned.  Jesus certainly did not come to overcome Rome.  Many he hoped he would at least try.  I suppose the ire of the Romans reached such a peak that they went way beyond reason – no trial, no sentence, no mercy!  They seemed to believe that Jesus wanted to rule the Jews.  They would have none of that.  So they dressed him and poured out their Roman fury on him, placed a crude thorn crown on his head, gave him a staff to hold, knelt before him mocking him, reminded all that they were torturing a person who dared to wish to be the king of the Jews.  The Jews at that time had no king.

They dressed Jesus something like a comic king and in jest bowed before him, mocking, “Hail, king of the Jews.”

When they had spent their rage on poor Jesus.  Having mocked him horribly, they redressed him in his usual dress.

On to the Cross!  It is difficult to even begin to imagine all that was happening.  We know that Jesus was winning for us our salvation at a cost to himself beyond telling.  Let us stand with him in that hour, as he stood and died for us.