Behold the Man! - Part One

These words were spoken about 2,000 years ago by A Roman Governor to a crowd of Jews at Jerusalem in Judea. The condemned man was a Jew.

What was this man on trial for? It was a question of Jewish law, not a question of breaking the laws of the Roman Empire. So why was this man brought to the Roman Governor for trial? Surely the Jews could have sorted this problem out themselves! Why did they have to bring the matter to the Roman Governor? 

Let's look at John 18:29-31 "(29) Pilate then went out to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this Man?"

(30) They answered and said to him, 'If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.'

(31) Then Pilate said to them, "You take Him and judge Him according to your law." Therefore the Jews said to him, 'It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death'."

Now let's look at Leviticus 24:16 for the background to the Jews actions. "And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death."

Luke 22:66-71:

"(66)  As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying,
(67) "If You are the Christ, tell us." But He said to them, 'If I tell you, you will by no means believe.
(68) And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.
(69) Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.'
(70) Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?" So He said to them, 'You rightly say that I am.'

(71) And they said, "What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."

Any Jew found blaspheming the name of the LORD was to be put to death by stoning. however, under Roman rule the Jews no longer had the authority to do this. The man the Jews were seeking to have put to death was Jesus of Nazareth. The Jewish rulers and elders considered Jesus to be a blasphemer of their God because He claimed to be the Son of God and the Christ - their Messiah. Therefore they wanted to stone Him to death. However, because they were under Roman rule they were not permitted to carry out this action.

John 18:33-38:

"(33) Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, 'Are You the King of the Jews?'

(34) Jesus answered him, "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?"

(35) Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?'

(36) Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here."

(37) Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

(38) Pilate said to Him, 'What is truth?' And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, 'I find no fault in Him at all'."

John 18:39-40:

"(39) But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"

(40) Then they all cried again, saying, 'Not this Man, but Barabbas!' Now Barabbas was a robber."

John 19:1-6:

"(1) So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.
(2) And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.
(3) Then they said, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they struck Him with their hands.
(4) Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him."
(5) Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!"

(6) Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, 'Crucify Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."

The four Gospels reveal that Pilate three times stated that he found no fault in Jesus of Nazareth. Yet for political expediency and to save face he released Barabbas and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion; all the time knowing that he was condemning an innocent man to death.

Now I want to focus our attention on the moment that Pilate brought Jesus out to the crowd and said "Behold the Man!"  Take note that Pilate had already scourged Jesus; His back was ripped open from the flagellum used to scourge Him. On His head was the crown of thorns. He was wearing a purple robe (in mockery); possibly a Roman officer's military robe.

Let's now look at some Old Testament Scriptures that prophetically reveal more of the cruel treatment meted out to Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

Isaiah 52:13-14:

"(13) Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

(14) Just as many were astonished at You, so His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men."

Isaiah 53:2-6 :

"(2) For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

(3) He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

(4) Surely He has borne our griefs  and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted."

(5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Is it any wonder that the people gathered at Calvary were repulsed by the physical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth? His face, his countenance, "was marred more than any man." His body, His physical form, was also marred "more than the sons of men." Their reaction to Jesus was, "And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him."

John 19:14-15:

"(14) Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!"

(15) But they cried out, 'Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar!'

(16)Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.(17) And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,

(18) where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the centre.

(19) Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

Let us never forget that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah - the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God was crucified on a Roman cross for your sins and mine. "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

That well known verse in John 3:16 tells us "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Romans 6:23 informs us, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This concludes Part One, in the next blog post The events at Calvary, also known as Golgotha, will occupy our attention. 

Jon Peasey

Biblical Perspectives blog www.jon-peasey.blogspot.com

Ebooks author page https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JRPeasey

[All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James version; unless otherwise noted. Words enclosed in [ ] are inserted for clarity. Words in bold type emphasise a point. You may notice some verses are quoted with ... at the beginning, ending or elsewhere in a verse. Only the relevant part or parts of the verse, that relate directly to the current subject matter is quoted.

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