And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and struck him on the head.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:30 Go To Matthew 27
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
Here was fulfilled the word of David, "Thou hast made Me a reproach to the foolish" (Ps. 38:8). For the soldiers were foolish, and did things that befitted their foolishness: they clothed Him with a cloak as if it were the imperial purple; they gave Him a reed for a scepter and a crown of thorns for a diadem; they paid Him homage, in mockery, for this is the meaning of "bowed the knee." See how they performed every sort of insult and abuse: His face they reviled with spit, His head with a crown, His hand with a reed, the rest of His Body with a cloak, and His ears with words of mockery. But if they did these things in derision, you, O reader, must understand them also in a more spiritual manner, as something not merely done to, but accomplished by, Jesus. The scarlet cloak reveals our nature, bloody and murderous, which He assumed and sanctified by wearing it. The crown is made of thorns which are the sins resulting from our cares for this life; these Christ consumes with His own divinity, for His head represents His divinity. The reed is a symbol of our weak and crumbling nature which the Lord assumed, as David also says, "The right hand of the Lord hath I exalted me" (Ps. 117:16). By receiving insults in His ears, He healed Eve of the whispering of the serpent which had entered her ears.
