They were striking His head with a reed, spitting in His face, and kneeling down, they were worshiping Him.
The soldiers’ mockery becomes more brutal: they strike Christ’s head with a reed, spit in His face, and kneel before Him in false worship. The reed, which in a mocking sense was like a royal scepter, now becomes an instrument of beating. The spitting and the false worship reveal the sinful human heart’s contempt toward holiness. They mock His kingdom, but in truth the true King is standing before them, before whom one day every knee will bow. Christ silently endures this humiliation, so that through His dishonor He might take away the shame of human sin and set them before God as accepted and cleansed.