More wisdom from Steve Ray

If you take the time to think about the Bible like a Jew would, and the early Church fathers did, what two symbolic reasons can you discover for the crown of thorns? God said to Adam, ‘Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles will grow for you.’ Not only were Adam and Eve brought under the curse of sin, but it says that the earth itself, God’s creation, nature was brought under the curse too. What was the sign of the curse of the earth? It was thorns and thistles. This is only speculation on my part, I can’t prove this, but I think that when Jesus went to the Cross with a crown of thorns upon his head, he was also bearing not only the sins of the people, but he was also bearing in some mystical way the curse upon the earth. That then made it possible, not only for us, but for all the earth to be freed from sin. Why also might there be a crown of thorns on his head? Abraham, when he was slaying his son on Mt. Moriah, heard the call of the angel, ‘Don’t do it.’ And there was a ram with his head caught in a thicket. This is the exact same location where Jesus is being crucified, and here’s the lamb or the ram of God if you want, the sacrifice of God, and what is his head stuck on in the Cross? A thicket of thorns.

—STEVE RAY from The Pain of the Crucifixion