The man the world knows as “Father Damien” was born Jozef De Veuster in Tremeloo, Belgium, in 1840. Like his older brother Pamphile,  the young Jozef became a priest, but he longed to serve as a missionary. He is said to have prayed daily that he would be allowed to serve in this way, and when his brother –  who had been selected to serve as a missionary in Hawaii  – became ill,  Jozef was allowed to take his place.

He arrived in Honolulu in 1864, and on his ordination there he took the name  Damien. For eight years he served on the Big Island of Hawaii, but his service had hardly begun. In the early 1870’s the government of Hawaii felt forced to confine hundreds of sufferers from the terrible and then untreatable disease of leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) on a remote peninsula of the island of Molokai.   The conditions for those in the quarantined community were appalling, but Damien was the first to volunteer to go to serve these people – knowing full well that in doing so he risked his own life.

On May 11, 1873, the thirty-three year old  Damien was introduced to the colony at Kalawao on Molokai by the Catholic  Bishop  of Hawaii who told the crowd of doomed and dying that he had brought them someone “who will be a father to you … who loves you so much that ... he does not hesitate to become one of you; to live and die with you.” Damien learned the Hawaiian language and threw himself into the work of serving the colony. He immediately organized the building of a church and became  a priest to the group, but he also worked  with his hands to serve them. He built homes for the people, constructed a water system, made furniture, constructed coffins and dug graves as they were needed.  More importantly, he showed the outcast and rejected leprosy sufferers acceptance in a way no one else did. He worked directly with them,  dressing their ulcers, comforting and encouraging them daily. 

As a result of Damien’s service and the hope he instilled, the community was transformed.  Makeshift shacks were turned into painted houses, farms and gardens were established, and even schools were organized. The people of the colony came to love him greatly and when Damien had opportunity to leave the island to be replaced by another priest, he elected to stay on.  It is clear that the people he served had become his life. Even as early as six months after his arrival on Molokai Damien had written to his brother “...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.” The statement would, of course, be proven true. 

In 1884 it became clear that Damien had contracted leprosy. Despite the disease he continued to work to build as many homes as possible and to plan for the successful continuation of the community.  Damien died of the terrible disease he had  helped others live with on April 15, 1889, at the age of 49. He was mourned not only by the people of the colony, but also by many Hawaiians who knew of the work of the man they called “Papa Kamiano [Damien] o Molokaʻi.”  

Damien’s work resulted in a greatly increased awareness of the disease of leprosy and the plight of its victims worldwide.  His  life and death also remain an inspiring testimony to the potential impact of the Christian faith on even the harshest and saddest conditions that occur in this world.  

From John Ortberg, THE ME I WANT TO BE:  BECOMING GOD’S BEST VERSION OF YOU.  Zondervan, 2010, p. 21.


“How is your spiritual life going?”  

I used to answer this question by looking at the state of my devotional activities.  Did I pray and read the Bible enough today?  The problem is that by this measure the Pharisees always win.  People can be very disciplined, but remain proud and spiteful.  How do we measure spiritual growth so that the Pharisees don’t win?  

 I asked a wise man, “How do you assess the well-being of your soul?”  He immediately said, “I ask myself two questions”:  Am I growing more easily discouraged these days?  Am I growing more easily irritated these days?  

At the core of a flourishing soul are the love of God and the peace of God.  If peace is growing in me, I am less easily discouraged.  If love is growing, I am less easily irritated.  It was a brilliantly helpful diagnostic to assess the health of my soul.  

How would you answer those two questions?

Scripture: Psalm 37:3-6 –  "Trust in the Lord and do good;  dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Take delight in the Lord,  and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:  He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun."

Something to think about:  These verses from Psalm 37 are far more profound than they might seem at a quick glance.  When we read them carefully, we see they stress an increasing dedication to God and its increasing benefits.  The verses tell us that if we "trust" and "do good" – have basic faith and works – we will have our physical needs met.  They then show that if we go further and "delight" in God, He will meet our emotional needs – the "desires of our hearts."  Finally, if we totally commit ourselves to God and His way, He will fulfill our ultimate spiritual goals and aspirations – "your righteous reward."   It's worth asking: where in this progression of increasing dedication and increasing blessings are we? 

Mary (Hebrew Miryam) was one of the most common women’s names in New Testament times, and so it is not surprising that the crucifixion and resurrection narratives seem to speak of as many as five separate Marys.  These women are usually identified in some way in order to distinguish them, but in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 27:61, Matthew 28:1) one is simply called “the other Mary.” Who was this “other Mary” and why was she called by that name – if it was, in fact, a name?

If we put the various accounts together that mention the women at the crucifixion and at the tomb of Jesus, we find:

Mary Magdalene (mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
Mary, mother of James and Joseph or Joses (mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke)
Mary, the wife of Clopas (mentioned in John)
Mary, mother of Jesus (mentioned in John)
Mary, “the other Mary” (mentioned in Matthew)
(One other woman, Salome, the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John, is also mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.)

We know who several of these Marys are – Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene present no problem.  Mary the wife of Clopas was also known as the wife of Alphaeus (Acts 1:13), the Hebrew form of which was Cleopas.

Notice what Matthew tells us regarding the women present at the crucifixion:  “Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph [Joses] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons” (Matthew 27:56). A few verses later Matthew continues:  “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb” (Matthew 27:61). 

Of these women, we know that the mother of Zebedee’s sons was Salome (Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:56), so “the other Mary” Matthew mentions would seem to be the same as Mary the mother of James and Joses.  James was one of the disciples and his father was Alphaeus – “James the son of Alphaeus” (Matthew 10:3 and Luke 6:15).  

Putting these facts together we see that it is likely that Mary the mother of James and Joses was the same person as Mary the wife of Alphaeus who was called Clopas or Cleopas.  This would mean that “the other Mary” mentioned in Matthew 27:61 was not a separate Mary, but simply the Mary other than Mary Magdalene whom he had mentioned a few verses earlier.  This would mean that Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and “the other Mary” were in fact the same person.

According to many biblical scholars, and in early Christian tradition from the time of Papias of Hierapolis (c. AD 70-163), this Mary was the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus and the wife of Alphaeus, as we apparently see in John 19:25: “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene."  So the “other Mary” may well have been Jesus’ aunt (and her husband, Clopas, his uncle).

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe  and went up to him again and again, saying,  “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face (John 19:1-3).

In these words, John summarizes the beginnings of the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew, in his Gospel, adds the detail that the Roman soldiers also put a staff in his right hand (Matthew 27:29), which clearly imitated the emperor’s scepter, just as the purple robe and crown of thorns also imitated the emperor’s other attributes.  

The mockery of the soldiers is clear. Charged as “King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37), and hence as someone attempting to take the place of the emperor, the imperial attributes of robe, scepter and crown were intended as a cruel, insulting joke.  But the mocking soldiers were doubtless unaware of how richly symbolic their parody actually was.   The crown of thorns given to Jesus was  doubtless intended as a parody of the Roman Civic Crown  given to military heroes. Like the crown of thorns, the Roman Civic Crown (Latin: corona civica) was formed of plant material: of leaves of the oak tree woven into a circle.  But the Civic Crown was granted only to  Roman citizens who saved the lives of other citizens.  So high was the honor of this crown that it became part of the  imperial regalia and was worn by all the emperors from the time of Augustus, and the emperors themselves were often hailed as the  “Savior” of the people.

Ironic or not, the richness of the symbolism that God allowed in the crown of thorns also finds much earlier foreshadowing in the Bible itself.  Not only does the biblical story of humanity’s “fall” tell us that as a result of sin the earth would produce “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:17-19), but also the crown of thorns is more specifically foreshadowed in the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, Isaac. Genesis 22:13 tells us that the sacrifice of Isaac was transferred to the sacrifice of the male sheep God provided, that was caught by its horns in a “thicket.”  The Hebrew word used for thicket is sebak, derived from a word meaning to entwine in the sense of interwoven branches.  This was perhaps the Palestine Buckthorn (Rhamnus lycioides or Rhamnus palaestinus), a bush or small thorn tree which grows on hillsides in much of Israel.  Its botanical name Rhamnus refers to its intertwined, prickly branches.  The ram “caught by the horns” in such a tree was thus essentially a sacrificial sheep with thorns intertwined around its head, and the ram became a substitutionary sacrifice for Isaac, just as Jesus became a substitutionary sacrifice for everyone. 

So the crown of thorns given to the Messiah and intended as a cruel parody to mock him was, in fact, a fitting symbol for the One who took upon himself the thorny result of our human sin, who willingly acted as a substitutionary sacrifice for all, and whose bravery infinitely eclipsed that of heroes who may have saved others (Romans 5:7). It may have been intended as a parody, but no one else ever qualified to receive such an exalted crown as the one made of thorns worn by Jesus.