YouTube video sermon
John 19:1-30
Behold! That’s an old biblical word that means, “Stop and look.”
There are a couple of times a year when the body of Christ comes together to stop and look. To sit. To stare. To stop and gaze. Christmas and Easter are two of those quiet, holy, time-stilling moments of the church. Holy Week is a time for stopping. When you read the Gospel of John, you find Jesus talking a lot about “His hour” and the “time that is coming.” John tells us over and over again, “His hour had not yet come.”
But beginning in chapter 12, the narrative slows down and crawls through the next 36 hours. Jesus talks to His disciples in the Upper Room. He comforts them. He challenges them. He provokes them. And then the hours pass by as Jesus goes from the Garden to the palace and then to the hill where His heart will stop beating.
Can I encourage you tonight – with all that’s on your mind – to simply sense the stopping of time, and to remember the moments at the heart of our faith. To marvel at the Word of God… To listen for the Old Testament echoes… To catch the Old Testament overtones… To look at Jesus – the One crucified in our place, who loved us and died for us.
In the precious few moments left this evening, I want us to simply consider the three “Behold” statements that we encounter in John 19. Hopefully, we will find a new beauty in the cross as we hear these three statements and what they mean.
Behold the Man!
That’s what Pilate says in John 19:5. And strangely enough, we ought to obey Pilate this week. We ought to stop and stare at the Man he’s pointing to.
Put yourself in the sandals of a first-century Jew. There you are in the throng of people outside the palace. It’s Passover. You’re celebrating the deliverance of your forefathers from Egyptian oppression. You’ve been hearing about this Jesus, the One everyone says is the Messiah. But it appears to you that He’s just a man. You’re disappointed. He’s a man of skin and blood. (And presently you see a lot more blood than you do skin, now that He’s been flogged!)
The soldiers have whipped Him and lacerated His skin. They’ve mocked Him by placing a crown of thorns on His head. They’ve put Him in a purple robe. And now He stands before you… before Pilate… before the crowd… and Pilate says those three words: “Behold the man!” Do you see Him in your mind’s eye? Look at Him. Here’s the guy – the One they say is the Messiah.
Hold that image in your mind for a moment and let’s go back to the beginning of the Bible – back to Genesis. After all, that’s where John’s gospel begins. Remember? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That’s where John started, so that’s where we’re going – back to the opening pages of Genesis.
God, the Creator, makes the sun and moon and stars, the birds and fish, the plants and animals. On the sixth day of creation, God made man in His image. He created Adam, named him, and commanded him to rule wisely over the rest of creation. He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being. Here he was! The glorious fulfillment of all God’s creative plans and activities. A real, live human being!
You can imagine (can’t you) God stepping back on that first Friday, admiring His handiwork. That first Friday of human history was the first of the seven days of creation when God said that His work wasn’t just good, but very good. Something about the creation of humanity changes the description from a good world to a great world. “Behold the man!” The masterpiece of God’s creative work.
Of course, it wasn’t long after this creative work that this first man and his wife disobeyed the Creator and sin entered the world. So, God, in His infinite mercy, told our original parents that He would give them a son – a man, a true human being, who would come to crush the head of that crafty serpent. A second Adam would come to put right what went wrong.
That brings us back to John. The Word would take on human flesh and dwell among us. Live like us. Live with us. All of His life would be a preparation for His death. Now go back and grab that first image – the one of Jesus standing there with Pilate in front of the crowd. Do you know what day of the week it is? It’s Friday. The same day that God created the first man, Adam. And now the second Adam was undoing the first Adam’s sin. What did God say about that first Friday in human history when He created man? He called it very (what) good. What do we call this day? Good Friday. Coincidence? Not a chance.
Adam was always meant to wear a crown. Now Jesus would wear one. Adam had been sentenced to toil among the thorns. Now Jesus would have those thorns twisted into His brow. Adam was ashamed of his failure and sought to hide behind fig leaves. Now Jesus would wear the purple robe and hear the taunts of the mockers. The hands of humanity that reached out for the forbidden fruit were the fists that beat the face of the precious Savior. “Behold the man!”
Behold your King!
The history of the world is told in the tales of kings and kingdoms, people grappling for or holding onto power. The authority God invested in Adam is twisted into abuse and domination, with everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. We need a king. Someone to put things right. Someone to lead us.
On that Friday the crowd cried, “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!” What they failed to realize was that everyone has a king. We all live according to the dictates of someone or some thing. It may be money. It may be pleasure. It may be reputation. It may be power. It may be ourselves. But make no mistake. We have a king. The only question is – who is the rightful king? Who should be king?
The Jews didn’t see Jesus as the kind of king they wanted. So, they decided He should be put aside. If they couldn’t get Pilate to crucify Jesus by claiming He made Himself God, then perhaps they can convince him by saying that Jesus made Himself a King. A king who rivals Caesar.
But Jesus didn’t make Himself a king. He was a king before He came… He was a king as He stood before Pilate… and He’s the King of Kings today. That’s why it’s no surprise that Pilate again says more than he realizes: “Behold your king!”
Usually, a king would say “Away with them!” when he wanted the hall cleared of his subjects. But this time, it’s the people that want to put the king away. “Crucify Him! Enthrone Him on the cross! Show the world we have no king but Caesar. Show the world that this is what happens to all who challenge Caesar’s throne.”
So, King Jesus is judged and condemned by His people. He’s enthroned on the cross, with other criminals on His right and left. A sign is placed over His head that says “King of the Jews” in three languages – Aramaic, Greek, Latin. Greek, because it was the language of the world. Latin, because it was the language of the empire. Aramaic, because it was the language of God’s people.
John also wants us to remember that this was the Day of the Passover. This was the time of day when the lambs were being slaughtered.
In the book of Revelation, we’re introduced the striking image of a lamb on a throne. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is the King who deserves to sit on the throne as judge of all people. He’s the Lion and the Lamb. That image of a lion’s authority, paired with a lamb’s meekness – the weakness of a bleeding lamb, paired with the strength of a powerful throne. That’s the image we see at the cross. This is where Jesus redefines power and authority.
Consider the irony of this moment. The night before He died, Jesus called His disciples “His friends.” Now, the Jewish leaders tell Pilate to condemn Jesus in order for him to be Caesar’s friend.
Who’s the stronger friend? Jesus or Caesar? Who would you follow? Who would you bet on? Surely, in the moment, Caesar looks strong and Jesus looks weak. But it’s through this weakness that Jesus will conquer the world. No one is worshiping Caesar today. But billions bow the knee to King Jesus.
Caesar ruled by conquering lands and subjugating people. Jesus ruled by conquering sin, death, and the grave. Our King bore the full weight of God’s anger and judgment towards the evil and sin of this world. Then He rose again to new life. “Behold your King!” The Lamb slain for your redemption.
Behold the Son!
The final picture… The final image… The final canvass takes us to the Son’s final breaths. At the foot of the cross where the sins of the world are being condemned and judged and the Savior is down to His last breaths, the soldiers are casting lots for His clothing. They divide and rip up His clothes, but they take care not to sever the tunic. Meanwhile, the body of Christ hovers over them, torn and bloodied.
What love! Christ stripped naked on the cross, so that we might be wrapped in His robe of righteousness. Our sin for His righteousness. His death for our life. And it’s in this moment… In this snapshot that Jesus forms a new family. He looks down at His mother. The frightened teenager who told the angel, “May it be as you have said.” She’s now the widow watching the life of her beloved Son slowly slip away. But Jesus doesn’t leave her without a family. He says, “Behold your son!”
And for a moment, I suppose Mary must have thought, “I am beholding my son. I’m watching You now, wishing I could hold You in my arms the way I used to, wishing I could sing to you the songs of our people’s hope the way I once did, wishing we could go back to Nazareth and pretend none of this ever happened, wishing the prophecy of old Simeon in the temple that a sword would pierce my heart too was never spoken.”
But Jesus wasn’t talking about Himself. He was talking about one of His disciples. “Behold your son.” And then to the disciple He loved, “Behold your mother!” A new family was born.
As Jesus died upon the cross, all those who trust in Him become part of His family. We are one with Him, united to Him in His death and resurrection, ushered into the family of God. Jesus didn’t die merely to save you as an individual. He also brought you into the fellowship of His family. United to the Son, we have a relationship with the Father. We’re brothers and sisters in Christ. We have fathers and mothers in the faith. We’re not alone.
Behold the Son of God, thirsty and dying. At the beginning of John’s Gospel, we saw Jesus turn water into wine. The wine was so good everyone commented on it. But now, here at Calvary, the wine that’s offered is sour. It fails to soothe the pain, and it certainly doesn’t delight the tastebuds. The contrast is palpable: Jesus gave us His best and now He’s taking our worst.
Later, we see Him meet the woman at the well, a Samaritan who offered Him a drink. Jesus turned the tables and said, “Drink from Me and you’ll never thirst again.” Little did she know that the only way for her to never thirst would be for Him to experience her thirst by dying in her place.
Then, in the middle of John’s Gospel, Jesus stands up at a celebratory feast and says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink! Streams of living water will flow from the one who drinks from the well I offer.”
This is the One who turns water into wine, who offers water that quenches thirst forever, water that never runs dry. Yet now, He thirsts. His lips are parched. His throat is raw. He’s thirsty, so that we don’t have to be.
“Behold the Son” who completes the work of new creation. Remember, it was the sixth day when all of creation was complete. Now Jesus – the spotless Lamb – cries out from the cross, “It is finished!” The price for humanity’s sin had been paid. And God saw that it was good… or was it Friday… let’s just call it Good Friday.