Father, we pray that prayer.
World depart.
Let Jesus in.
God, as we come now to hear another reading from your word,
would you help us to grasp with fresh eyes
and a humble heart
the reality of Jesus, your Son, our King.
We pray this in his name and by your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Amen.
So our next scripture reading comes from John 19, verses 1 through 16.
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.
And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns
and put it on his head
and arrayed him in a purple robe.
They came up to him saying,
Hail, King of the Jews,
and struck him with their hands.
Pilate went out again and said to them,
See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know
that I find no guilt in him.
So Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
Pilate said to them,
Behold the man.
When the chief priests and the officers saw him,
they cried out,
Crucify him,
crucify him.
Pilate said to them,
Take him yourselves and crucify him,
for I find no guilt in him.
The Jews answered him,
We have a law,
and according to that law,
he ought to die,
because he has made himself the Son of God.
When Pilate heard this statement,
he was even more afraid.
He answered his headquarters again
and said to Jesus,
Where are you from?
But Jesus gave him no answer.
So Pilate said to him,
You will not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have authority to release you
and authority to crucify you?
Jesus answered him,
You would have no authority over me at all
unless it had been given you from above.
Therefore, he who delivered me over to you
has the greater sin.
From then on, Pilate sought to release him.
But the Jews cried out,
If you release this man,
you are not Caesar's friend.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.
So when Pilate heard these words,
he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat
at a place called the Stone Pavement
and an Aramaic Gabbatha.
Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover.
It was about the sixth hour.
He said to the Jews,
Behold your king.
They cried out,
Away with him.
Crucify him.
Pilate said to them,
Shall I crucify your king?
The chief priests answered,
We have no king but Caesar.
So he delivered him over them
to be crucified.
Well, consider with me tonight
Pilate's words in verse 5.
Behold the man.
What sort of man, I wonder,
do you see?
Do you behold
when you behold the crucified Jesus?
At this moment in the Passion narrative,
in John 19,
the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem
have arrested Jesus,
questioned and condemned him,
and then drug him before Pilate,
the Roman governor.
These authorities behold in Jesus a threat,
a blasphemer,
to be gotten rid of.
Pilate, for his part,
not seeing in Jesus any real danger,
has him flogged and mocked,
and then drug out before the crowd again,
saying,
Behold the man.
Pilate's words, of course,
are dripping with sarcasm
and with scorn.
Don't you hear it?
He's saying there,
So here's the man you find so dangerous,
so threatening.
Look at how I've beaten him.
Look at how he wears his crown of thorns.
Look at his purple robe.
Can't you see he's harmless,
even ridiculous?
Behold the man.
But you know,
in John's gospel,
again and again,
the characters often speak better
than they know.
There's a deeper irony
and meaning in Pilate's words.
Behold the man.
On Pilate's lips,
they're mocking words.
But in the sweep of John's gospel,
they ring out
with a deeper truth.
For as John's gospel shows us,
Jesus is the true incarnate man.
God become flesh,
dwelling among us.
Behold the man.
So as we behold the man,
Jesus,
what are we meant to see?
Especially at this moment,
on the verge of crucifixion,
standing condemned.
Well, it would seem that we're meant to see
at least two things.
First,
we see here that Jesus
is a real man.
In becoming flesh,
Jesus hasn't just taken
sort of a little sip
of our humanity,
but he's drunk it down
to the very bottom.
He has experienced
the depths
of being human,
and especially,
he has entered completely
into our human sufferings.
friends tonight,
do you know
physical suffering?
So does he.
Behold him,
beaten,
bruised.
Do you know
relational suffering?
So does he.
Behold him there,
his own people,
rejecting him,
his friends having abandoned him,
and denied him.
Do you know
emotional suffering?
So does he.
Think of the shame
and humiliation
of this moment.
Behold him
as he stands there
mocked and scorned.
Jesus knows
our human suffering.
Listen again
to the prophet Isaiah's words
written hundreds
of years before,
but perfectly fulfilled
in the incarnate
and crucified Jesus.
Isaiah writes,
he had no form
or majesty
that we should look at him
and no beauty
that we should desire him.
He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief,
and as one
from whom men
hide their faces,
he was despised,
and we esteem him not.
You know,
in our suffering,
we can often feel
like God
is very far away,
but tonight,
behold the man.
in your suffering,
God is not far away.
In fact,
Jesus is closer
to you there
perhaps than ever before,
like the friend
that sticks closer
than a brother or sister.
So did you bring
any sorrow
with you tonight?
How heavy
does it weigh upon you?
The gnawing ache
of being alone
or being forgotten
by friends,
the shame
of public humiliation
or wrongful accusations,
the physical pain
of old age
or perhaps
chronic illness
when you
should still feel
so young.
Do you bring
any sorrow
with you tonight?
If so,
behold the man.
Do you see
in the crucified Jesus
a God
who can indeed
sympathize
with all your weaknesses
and who willingly
came down
to be with you
not just
in your joys
but even
in your sorrows?
There's comfort
here for the afflicted,
a God
who not only sees
but who shares
our suffering.
So can you see
in his wounds
your own?
And will you draw
near to him tonight
to find his presence
in the midst of it?
Johnny Erickson Tata
was paralyzed
at the age of 17
in a diving accident
and she recounts
in her autobiography
how she wrestled
in those early years
with anger
and depression
and even suicidal thoughts
and religious doubts.
But she also writes this.
She says,
I discovered
that the Lord Jesus Christ
could indeed
empathize
with my situation
on the cross
for those agonizing
horrible hours
waiting for death.
Jesus was immobilized,
helpless,
paralyzed.
Jesus did
know what it was like
not to be able
to move,
not to be able
to scratch your nose,
shift your weight,
wipe your eyes.
He was paralyzed
on the cross.
Christ knew
exactly
how I felt.
Same is true
for you, friend.
If you will behold
Jesus long enough,
you will see
that he has shared
your suffering too
and that will give you
strength and comfort
even in the darkest moments.
But there's more
to see here.
As we behold
Jesus,
the crucified one,
we see that he is
not just a real man
sharing the sorrows
of our humanness,
but Jesus is also
the representative
man,
the truly human one.
who can stand
in the place
not just of suffering
humans like you and me,
but of sinful humans
like you and me.
Consider the charges
being leveled at Jesus
here as we've read
this passage.
On the one hand,
he's being charged
with blasphemy.
He's made himself
the son of God,
they say.
And on the other hand,
he's being charged
with political treason.
He claims to be a king,
but we have no king
but Caesar.
What a sad moment
in the gospel narratives.
Of course,
Jesus is guilty
of none of these things.
He is the son of God
and he is the world's
rightful king.
So what's going on here
in this moment?
Is this just some
tragic accident?
Is this just simply
a miscarriage of justice
before a kangaroo court?
No.
At a much deeper level,
Jesus here
is stepping under
the sentence,
the condemnation,
not that he deserves,
but that we deserve.
Because consider,
consider these charges
of blasphemy
and treason.
Have we not all
in our own way
put ourselves
in the place of God
and committed
cosmic treason
as we seek
to live our own way,
ignoring the God
who made us
in the world
that God has made?
And in this,
are we not following
in the steps of Adam,
the first human?
Remember what we read
earlier from the book
of Romans?
Just as sin came
into the world
through one man
and death through sin,
so death spread
to all men,
to all people,
because all sinned.
And one man, Adam,
all humanity fell
and none could
right the wrong.
We all stood condemned
until Jesus,
the second Adam,
the new human,
the second Adam
who would undo
the first Adam's sin,
the righteous one
who would pay the penalty
for the unrighteous.
Again, as Romans 5 says,
if many died
through one man's trespass,
how much more
have the grace of God
and the free gift
by the grace
of that one man,
Jesus Christ,
abounded for the many.
Behold,
the man.
As Tyler mentioned,
this is why we call this day
Good Friday.
Because on this day,
our King
released us
from the guilt of sin
and the sentence
of death.
So friend,
do you bring
not just sorrows
with you tonight,
but do you bring
your sins?
Do you bring the guilt
of having fallen short
of your own standards,
of God's standard?
Do you bring with you
that weight
of a heavy conscience?
Not just
because you've hurt
the people around you,
but because you know
you've broken fellowship
with your God.
If so, friend,
then hear the good news
that Jesus
has released us
from the guilt of sin
and the sentence of death.
And how did he do it?
Not by ignoring
or making light
of our blasphemy
and our treason.
Not by minimizing
the holiness
and goodness of God.
No, he lifts
this sentence
by taking it
in our place.
By representing us
and by representing
all who would ever
trust in him.
The King dies
so that we might live.
So when you behold
Jesus tonight,
what do you see?
Tonight,
will you look at him
with fresh eyes,
with eyes of faith,
with eyes of trust?
You know,
perhaps like Pilate,
you haven't really
given much thought
to Jesus.
Maybe just another
religious leader,
just another teacher.
What's the big deal?
But tonight,
would you behold him
differently?
See in his wounds
your wounds.
See in his death
your death.
See in this man
the God who made you,
who loves you,
and who took on flesh
to redeem you
from sin and death
and to give you
new life.
We're going to sing
a song together
called,
When I Survey
the Wondrous Cross.
And the last verse
says this,
Were the whole realm
of nature mine,
that were an offering
far too small.
Love so amazing,
so divine,
demands my soul,
my life,
my all.
make those words
your prayer tonight.
Give to Jesus
your soul,
your life,
your all.
Let's pray together.
Father,
help us
to behold in Jesus
not just the one
who shares
our sufferings,
but the one
whose sacrifice
forgives our sins
and makes peace.
and may we live
tonight
and going forward
in the peace,
joy,
and righteousness
that Jesus gives
through the Holy Spirit.
Amen.