“Christ: A Worm and No Man!”
NKJ Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
I. Christ may be called a worm in regard to the great degree of disrespect shown Him – Psalm 22:6b
1. This is something we see in other prophecy – Isaiah 53:14; Isaiah 53:1-6
2. It is obvious in the fulfillment of prophecy:
A. Soldiers mocked Him – John 19:1-3; Mark 15:16-20
B. A notorious prisoner was preferred before Him – Matthew 27:15-18 & :20-21
C. They crucified Him, the cruelest most dreadful painful of deaths – Matthew 27:22-23 & :35
D. While He was being crucified they blasphemed Him, wagging their heads – Matthew 27:39
II. Christ has been compared by at least one puritan to a fishing worm – “A fisherman, when he casts his angle into the river, doth not throw the hook in bare, naked, and uncovered, for then he knows the fish will never bite, and therefore he hides the hook within a worm, or some other bait, and so, the fish, biting at the worm, is caught by the hook. Thus Christ, speaking of himself, saith, "I am no man." He, coming to perforn the great work of our redemption, did cover and hide His Godhead within the worm of His human nature. The grand water-serpent, Leviathan, the devil, thinking to swallow the worm of His humanity, was caught upon the hook of his divinity. This hook stuck in his jaws, and tore him very sore. By thinking to destroy Christ, he destroyed his own kingdom, and lost his own power forever.”
Lancelot Andrews
III. Yet, here in Psalm 22 a very particular kind of worm is spoken of:
1. In Hebrew “towlah” also translated “scarlet” – Exodus 26:31; Isaiah 1:18, just as in English “orange” is both a fruit and a color, so in Hebrew “towlah / scarlet” is both a worm and a color.
2. In order to reproduce this worm will attach to a tree, giving birth until it dies
3. While it gives birth and dies it secretes a blood red fluid from it’s body, a fluid which the Hebrews used as a dye for their clothing, and for the scarlet color on the veil of the temple – also symbolic of Christ’s body which was torn / broken for us – Hebrews 10:19-23
