John 19:5-6
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.”
Surely it was a pathetic sight. Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd with the hopes that it would be enough. Flogging was an insanely brutal form of torture and left a man in tatters, if he survived it at all. The whip used had a short handle and generally two or three long thick thongs, each weighted at some distance from their extremity with lead balls or mutton bones. In action, the thongs cut the skin, while the balls or bones created deep contusions. The result was significant hemorrhage and considerable weakening of the vital resistance of the victim. In compensation, if one may call it that, this weakening shortened their agony on the cross. The prophet Isaiah had foretold that the Messiah would be beaten so badly that he would be “beyond human semblance” (Is. 52:14) …and so he was.
“Behold the man!”
In a strange twist of fate, Pilate spoke for Jesus’ Father to the assembled crowd…and the LORD still speaks these words today. In using the word “behold,” Pilate urged them to careful consideration…and the LORD still does so today. Pilate presented a man so abused and belittled that surely he could be no real king, nor a real threat to any kingdom or religious establishment on earth…and that same foolish thinking still prevails today. The chief priests and officers were well acquainted with Jesus’ teachings and claims of divinity and they simply had heard enough…and most people still feel the same way. When you acknowledge The Truth—Jesus as Lord and Savior—there is a host of accountability that comes with it, and most people just don’t want to go there.
“Crucify him, crucify him!”
The bible teaches us that to those who are perishing—people who choose to reject God—we (Believers) are the aroma of death (2 Cor. 2:16). Jesus was the aroma of death to the assembled crowd back then and we still carry that “stench” with us today. To acknowledge Christ as King is to acknowledge and accept everything that he stands for. To agree with his laws and statutes. Fallen mankind hates all of that—and everyone who represents it— because “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (Jn. 3:19). As a result, humanity is still attempting to “crucify” Jesus by attacking the bible or belittling Christians or claiming that science has completely undermined the Christian worldview. As Solomon said, there really is nothing new under the sun.
The answer to all of this is the same as it was on that fateful day. Like Pilate did with the roaring crowd, we must do also. It is incumbent upon us to speak of our LORD and to say to family, friends, neighbors and co-workers…
“Behold the man!”
What they do with Him is between them and their Creator.
