Deeper Reflection
Jesus Christ, the Son of Man in Daniel 7, is the only true and ultimate King, whose Kingdom is everlasting and indestructible. One must be crowned to be king. How was Jesus crowned? Not in the way any human king in the world is crowned.Jesus, who embodied the Kingdom of God (Mk 1:15), was crowned in God’s way. The mocking of Jesus was His enthronement and the cross was His throne.³⁸ Being dressed up in a “purple robe”, Jesus was crowned with a “crown of thorns” and hailed as “King of the Jews” (vv.17-18). Here is an irony. Jesus was mocked as a pretender when He was in fact the real King. Capture here the subversiveness of the God of reversal. This is also God’s way for the followers of this King who will reign with Him (Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12). The soldiers “kept beating” and “kept spitting” at Jesus while they “kept bowing” before Him (v.19). Spitting was meant to shame and demean.³⁹ “Kneeling and bowing” before Jesus and “beating” and “spitting” at Him were two sets of incongruent acts. But they were meant to sharpen and intensify the mockery. In this divine way of enthronement, we hear the voice of the obedient Servant of the Lord in fulfilling the Scriptures: “I offered My back to those who beat Me, My cheeks to those who pulled My beard; I hid not My face from mocking and spitting” (Isa 50:6).The kingship of the Son of Man is characterised by utter humility and total self-giving servanthood. This is God’s kind of politics.

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³⁸ James A. Brooks, Mark, The New American Commentary (Broadman, 1991), 253 ³⁹ Mark L. Strauss, Mark, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Zondervan, 2014), 658