Monday, March 26

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) 

and called together the whole company of soldiers.  They put a purple 

robe on Him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on 

Him. And they began to call out to Him, “Hail, King of the 

Jews!”  (Mark 15: 16-18) 

 In these passages, we can get a sense of the atmosphere of the time.  

The soldiers, mostly non-Jewish, took Jesus to their headquarters and 

put a purple cloak and thorns on his head. Purple was a color of 

royalty and the crown was most likely made of a common brier in the 

area. I suppose they wanted to poke fun at Him, so why not have 

even more fun and dress Jesus up as royalty and then mock Him by 

yelling, “Hail, king of the Jews!” What great fun and sport the soldiers 

must have had. 

So, how can this relate to our lives today? Thinking about the purple 

cloak and its meaning of royalty, do we dress differently for different 

things? We are taught from a young age what clothing is acceptable 

for school, church, sports, business, etc. The interesting thing is that 

this sense of “acceptable” changes from generation to generation and 

from community to community. We dress to fit in, we dress for 

success, and we dress for identity (for example a particular white 

collar is a dead giveaway for a priest). We clothe ourselves almost 

automatically in a manner that we won’t be subject to ridicule or 

thought ill of. How do you act when your eyes take in an individual 

that does not meet your expectations of the “dress code?” Do you 

treat them differently? Do you secretly make fun of them to yourself 

or whisper to a family member or best friend, “Did you see what so 

and so is wearing today?” Can you really judge what is happening 

with a person by what they put on their body? Can you read the joy 

or pain they may be experiencing? Is it right to “judge a book by its 

cover” without even opening a page and reading a chapter? We all do 

it even if we won’t admit it. Therefore, I challenge everyone this 

Lenten season to be honest with yourself, recognize when you pass 

judgment before opening that book, and then pray to God at that 

very moment to give you the guidance and strength to change. You 

may really like the person you become.   

Sandy Briggman