Midweek Lent – Vicar Anderson homily
Text: St. John 19:4-6

In Christ Jesus, who was scourged, beaten, and crucified for you and by those wounds you are healed, dear fellow redeemed:

When a verdict is reached in a court case that gathers national attention, the media is waiting for the press conference to hear about the outcome. Sometimes at those press conferences, more people than just the media will look to gather there. If the verdict was that the person was innocent, the press conference will go into detail about how they were able to prove that their client was innocent. Now how would the world react if that innocent client was brought out of the courtroom beaten and unrecognizable? They were pronounced not guilty! How could this happen?! The Jews could not provide any evidence against Jesus to have him executed. Pilate tells them this. He’s looked at the charges and there is nothing. The Jews tell him that Jesus is a threat to not only the Jews but the Romans. Pilate takes that into consideration in his ruling. Pilate knows his verdict is right, and he wants the Jews to know it as well.

Jesus body is a shadow of the teacher that He looked like only 24 hours ago. He was teaching His disciples. He had instituted the Lord’s Supper. He was arrested in the garden. It only got worse from there. Pilate now brings Him out to reveal to the Jews what has happened to Him. Jesus was taken from the public’s view and was subject to Roman torture. He had endured a scourging and a mockery so harsh that He must have been unrecognizable. Many people die from this torture. Jesus walks out, very badly beaten and abused, wearing a purple robe and a crown of thorns wedged onto His head.

It was known how cruel Pilate could be with the Jews, they see again his cruelty as Pilate brought Jesus out after His beating. Did he do this to rouse pity from the Jews, to show them that Jesus was not a threat to the Jews or to Rome? We don’t know Pilate’s thoughts, but we do know this, he knew that Jesus was innocent. This was unjust.

“Behold the man!” said Pilate. If Jesus was a king, Pilate wanted to show the Jews how weak their king was. If the Jews felt threatened by Jesus, Pilate hoped they would be satisfied by the beating He had already taken. “Behold the man!”—the weak, pitiful man. No one who looked at Him would have known this was God in the flesh. He had humbled Himself so completely. He was despised and rejected by men.

And this is how we are tempted to think about Him too, as nothing more than a man, a weak man. That is how we act when we put our trust in the powers of the world more than in Jesus. That is how we act when we are confronted by our friends and the world about our beliefs. It is so easy to join in with what they say and think instead of defending Christ. If we defend Christ, what will our friends and the world think of us? They might even leave us. So, it is easy to look at Jesus as just a man and what can that man do for us? Like what some of our friends and the world might think, it sure looks like He doesn’t do much at all.

Just like the chief priests and officers, the people of the world act like they are in control over Jesus. The religious leaders call out for His crucifixion. What can He do about it? They feel very powerful. The unbelieving world also has no time for a dying Savior. The world responds to power, fame, and influence. Like many followers then, they thought Jesus would lead a rebellion against Rome. Many want a worldly, reigning on earth Savior if they even want one at all. When the world denies Christ and ridicules His followers, we can forget who it is we trust in. We can forget who Jesus really is—the Son of God in the flesh, who is not suffering against His will, but according to His will.

Pilate did not know this plan and was very conflicted about what was happening. Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. What is he to do? Does he do his duty to preserve law and order? Pilate is already on thin ice with Rome regarding the Jews. He cannot risk open rebellion, especially when he is vastly outnumbered. He also despises the Jews; they need to know that he is in charge. Pilate shows them that death is up to him. He points out that Jesus is just a man in his eyes. Jesus is not a threat to Rome. And as Pilate washes his hands, he hands Jesus over showing the Jews that this is only happening on his command. When we continue in our sins and put our trust in the things of this world, we also wash our hands of Him. We join the world and Pilate pointing at Jesus saying, “Behold the man!”

As all human beings are responsible for the inhumane torture of Christ, we do “Behold the man!” Unlike Pilate’s “sermon theme” of Jesus being only a man, we behold a man who is the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. As He was shown hate and loathing, Jesus teaches mercy and sacrifice. He didn’t say a word to them. He didn’t defend His innocence. This is why it was necessary for our Savior to be true man. He was true man in order to be obligated to obey the law and to perfectly fulfill the law for us, and to have a body and soul, which could suffer and die in our place.

He went with the soldiers to be flogged. As He was mocked, ridiculed, and almost unrecognizable, Jesus recognizes us, lost souls that need to be saved. Our sins covered us, but Christ shed His blood on the cross to wash away our sins. The ultimate suffering that we deserved. That is what it took for us to be saved. The sacrifice was needed. Christ was never conflicted about the plan of Salvation; He didn’t debate whether or not save us. Jesus pitied us. He wasn’t thinking about Himself like Pilate, like we think about ourselves. Jesus gave up His life, suffering the pain and punishment for the sins of the whole world.

It is sometimes hard to see what Christ has done when you have given in to sin and have been ashamed of Him. You see how much He has done for you, flogged, beaten, humiliated. How do you defend your Savior? You won’t do it perfectly. You will sometimes give in and be ashamed that you know Him. Your Savior witnessed this, He felt this, and He forgives you. You were responsible for His suffering, but that is what He came to do. He took on your suffering so that you would be saved.

No one wants to be found guilty and serve time for something that they didn’t do. We have been found guilty of our crimes against God. There should be no way out of this verdict. However, when the gavel comes down and we hear the words “Not guilty”, we look over and there stands our suffering Savior. That should be us. Jesus was an innocent man. He wasn’t only an innocent man, but He was, He is the Holy Son of God. As Pilate says, “Behold the man”, we do behold Him. He is not only a man. We behold our beautiful Savior, who was scourged in our place. As “Behold the man” was said in jest, it sounds like another statement recorded by the same gospel writer. The apostle John writes, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The lamb of God in whom we find hope. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

+  +  +

(picture from “Ecce Homo” by Antonio Ciseri, 1871)