Behold Man & King

John 19:5

“Behold the Man!” 

John 19:14

“Behold your King!” 

Jesus’ Roman interrogation by Pilate the Roman Prefect took place Good Friday morning. Even though Jesus admitted to Pilate that He was a king, the Roman ruler didn’t think Jesus was much of a threat. He directed his soldiers to scourge Jesus, torture him physically and shame Him mercilessly. They then dragged Jesus out and Pilate declared to the crowd, “Behold the Man!” He was no danger to public order or the Roman Empire. “I find no guilt in Him,” Pilate concluded (John 19:6).

After additional questioning and torture of Jesus, Pilate returned to the pavement in front of the Governor’s place and displayed Jesus again, wearing a purple robe, a crown of thorns and a mantle of His own blood shed through the beatings and scourging. Pilate was making the clear point to the people of what happens to people who make a claim of authority outside of the Roman sphere of influence, while simultaneously insulting the Jewish people: “Behold your King.”

Pilate was right both times.

Jesus was fully a human, just as we are. But He was also King and represented another realm. “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The Roman Ruler could not have people wandering around claiming to be king apart from Rome. I think that he probably thought that the beatings were enough to dissuade Jesus of His royal claims. But the Good Friday crowd, whipped into a frenzy by religious leaders who told them what they would lose from following Jesus’ subversive teaching, were afraid. And so, they cried for Jesus’ death. And Pilate acquiesced “Wishing to satisfy the multitude” (Mark 15:15).

We too are just people. We are no real threat to any earthly power so long as we go with the flow, acknowledge Caesar, and kiss the cultural ring. But we are at the same time citizens of heaven where we “eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20, with “Savior” and “Lord” being titles typically attributed to the Roman Emperor). And so, we operate – or should operate – by different rules.

Increasingly the times require us to make hard choices.

After His resurrection, Jesus our King told His disciples “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). The Via Crucis, the way of the cross is not an option. It is the path that Jesus walked. But it was not the way of fear. To those of us attempting to follow Him today He says as He did to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36).

May we remember this Good Friday the King who gave Himself wholly for us and for His Kingdom.

He bids us walk the Way with Him.