Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" (John 19:5)

"If this belief from heaven be sent, if such be Nature's holy plan, have I not reason to lament what man has made of man?"

Wordsworth was no Christian, but how true his words echo in our minds as we contemplate the scene recorded here in John 19. Pilate has twice now proclaimed that there was nothing condemnable in Jesus' character. His last attempt to persuade the crowds to set Jesus free comes at the cruel hands of Roman torturers. They beat Jesus, ripping the very flesh from His body. The King of Glory was consecrated with a plaited crown of thorns pressed deeply into His brow. His torn back was covered with a heavy, purple robe in mock royalty. What a sight Christ must have been as He stood before the Jews that day. His face had been disfigured by the beatings endured up to this point. His hair was in a tangled, matted mess from the sweat and coagulated blood from His brow. As His heart pumped with exertion from being moved from station to station, fresh rivulets of blood burst forth only adding to the grime upon His swollen face. Jesus' limbs shook with sheer exhaustion and the loss of blood He had sustained. "Behold the Man!"

I suppose that the image of Christ before Pilate is an adequate reminder of the deplorable nature mankind finds itself in. As we contemplate the effects of sin, one cannot help but to see the disfigured mess that we become as sin ravages our lives and our souls. We stand before God, spiritually speaking, as pitiable a sight as Christ ought to have been on this day. Oh, what a terrible realization as to what man without God has made of man. No one but God could love such a mess.

Yet here is no ordinary man before the crowd. Pilate rightly proclaims, "Behold the Man!" Now I feel quite sure that Pilate did not understand the depths of his proclamation. While he knew there was something unique in the character of this man, there was nothing overt that would suggest to him that Jesus was anything but a man…yet Pilate calls Him the man. At this point, Christ had been associated with an overwhelming amount of human suffering compressed into a few short hours. His disfiguration now paralleled our own disfiguration in sin. Yet He was without sin. He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the Christ child born that first Christmas day, God with us, the Word in the flesh. He was the man! Yet He was not as man was, but as man ought to be. Such was never the intention of God for mankind to suffer so needlessly.

I pray that you would see this disfigured Savior and know the tragedy of your own personal sins. I hope that His face would shock you, yea, mortify you in your flesh. I hope you feel uncomfortable contemplating this abuse; He did this for you. His broken countenance is as if looking into a mirror for our own lives. What a mess we have made of our lives without God. What senseless, unnecessary grief we bear in sin. Behold the Man, Christ your Redeemer! It is by those stripes you are healed. I urge you to exercise that saving faith in Jesus today. "If this truth from heaven be sent, if such be God's holy plan, have I not reason to hope in what God can do for man?"