[Jhn 19:1-3 KJV] 1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged [him]. 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put [it] on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, 3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.

Considering this morning, the crucible of flesh, the clay pot that we live in, and wherein all that we know is under constant and severe test, ground and broken down into it’s basic and irreducible constituent, which is Christ in us, our hope of glory. Jesus arrived at the absolute knowledge of who He was, is and was to come:

[Jhn 13:3 KJV] 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

[Jhn 18:4 KJV] 4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

[Jhn 19:28 KJV] 28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

The image that Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar bore down with all of it’s weight, power, authority and sheer gravity bound downward force. The book of Revelation refines and clarifies the nature of the image, listing in greater detail, all of the things that the world system values and predicates itself upon, expounding in the matter of the point on which all are perched, the thing of least value to the system, the very souls of human beings. In completely contrary fashion to the world and it’s system of ‘values’, Jesus was/ is completely concerned with the salvation of said souls, to the disregarding of every other thing represented in the image. The point of contact, the field of conflict, the mind of every man and woman, where the knowledge of the truth must be presented. The truth is, that Jesus is King of kings, the only Potentate, the only wise God, the Heir of all things. This truth must be arrived at in every singular mind to which it comes. And with the knowledge, immediately comes the crucible, the crown of thorns.

Once asked by the disciples, “what must we do to work the works of God?”, Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”. The question was in the plural. The answer in the singular. All that one might do going forward must spring from the work of God.

Jesus was filled with absolute knowledge, and in the process of his mockery and murder, crowned with a crown of thorns. Thorns represent many things in scripture. The reluctance of the world to simply yield pleasant fruit of one’s labour. The flesh rending authoritarian systems of man’s systems of government. The temptations of flesh. The constant effort to keep one’s treasure in heaven, so that the heart may reside there too. As Jesus faced the un-faceable, everything He knew He was, and was to be, was challenged in His mind by the fact that all of the thorns now gouged and rent at His mind, in an attempt to dislodge Him, if possible, from His task. Knowing that there was no possibility of ‘this cup’ being taken from Him, it was inescapable that He must drink it. And through it all, He had to retain His knowledge, that He came from God, He went to God, and that God had given all things into His hands.

In Him, the first crack appeared in the bound-but not mixed, iron-clay interface. In in Him was set into being and motion, via the coming of the Holy Spirit of Promise, the repeated process of separation by knowledge, of a multitude of individuals, a generation in whom He would fulfill all things, a new people, newly created, gathered out of every national, religious or genetic distinction of humanity; gathered out of all, and belonging no more to any.

This knowledge of who and what you are, sealed to you by the Great Seal of the Holy Spirit of Promise, in the day that you believed, will be tested as it was in Him. It is inescapable, but not unbearable. And with it comes the promise of great reward. Let no man take your crown, the seat of knowledge and understanding. Though all of the fallen Adamic race would wind it’s crown of thorns about your head, to make it a painful mental conflict at times, rest in the knowledge of who you are in Him, and He in you. The crown of life will devour the crown of thorns.

[Isa 61:1-3 KJV] 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.