One of the sweetest Easter illustrations I've heard of recently

"The Grass Crown or Blockade Crown (Latin: corona obsidionalis or corona graminea) was the highest and rarest of all military decorations in the Roman Republic... It was presented only to a general or commander who broke the blockade around a beleaguered Roman army, thus saving a legion or the entire army. The crown was made from plant materials taken from the battlefield, including grasses, flowers, weeds, and various cereals, such as wheat; it was presented to the general by the army he had saved."

According to Pliny:
But as for the crown of grass, it was never conferred except at a crisis of extreme desperation, never voted except by the acclamation of the whole army, and never to any one but to him who had been its preserver. Other crowns were awarded by the generals to the soldiers, this alone by the soldiers, and to the general. This crown is known also as the "obsidional" crown, from the circumstance of a beleaguered army being delivered, and so preserved from fearful disaster. wiki




It's amazing to see the parallels of this in Christ's Crown on Thorns, especially as drawn out in Why a Crown? by Brock and Bodie Thone.

Christ was presented a crown of thorns at His death, at His victory over sin, in which he rescued a besieged army, mankind. He rescued them from an enemy greater than Roman occupation and earned a crown other than the one the crowd wanted to offer Him a few days earlier. While it was presented as a statement of scorn, the killers offering it were unknowingly the rescued allies, offering the crown to their delivering general. The corona obsidionalis was made from thorns, the plants from the field of this battle against God that mankind has been fighting since the fall.