Good Friday

John 19:5

“Ecce homo!”

These are the words of Pilate to the crowd, “Ecce homo!”

Meaning, “Behold, the man!”

If you were standing among the crowds that first Good Friday, what image would form within your mind as you heard these words of Pilate?

How would you see Jesus?

Would He still be your Savior?

Or, as the blood dripped down His brow, was He, as Pilate said, simply a man?

Pilates’ words are those of mockery, emphasizing the perception of Jesus’ weakness and vulnerability. They are to say, “Look at this poor fellow here.”

But there is a sermon for us in these words of Pilate, “Ecce homo!”- “Behold, the man!”

This sermon must have its genesis at the beginning of Holy Scripture when God creates Adam and places him in the midst of the Garden to tend and care for it.

You see, the meaning of the name Adam is “man.” And this man was created in the perfect image of God.

But as you know the creation story, you are aware of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin – which signifies that you understand how humanity lost the image of God in which we were created. For this reason, the face of mankind became unrecognizable and marred by sin, a sin that still separates us today from our Father in heaven.

Yet, God the Father speaks to Adam and Eve, declaring that a seed and offspring of the woman shall come into this world not only to defeat the great tempter of God’s children but to redeem His creation.

For this reason, the Psalmist writes,

            What is man that you are mindful of him,

                        and the son of man that you care for him?

            Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

                        and crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:4-5)

Here, the Psalmist foreshadows Jesus’s humility as the incarnate one takes on your flesh in Mary’s womb and becomes a man. He breathes your poisoned air as He departs the womb, bears your sins and transgressions, and fulfills His Father’s will so that He might restore the image of man.

But to do so, Jesus must, as the Psalmist wrote, be crowned in glory and honor.

And this is where tonight leads us, to Christ’s enthronement and exaltation, to His cross and Passion.

As Jesus stood before the crowd and Pilate declared, “Ecce homo!” The words of Isaiah are fulfilled,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

            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. (Isaiah 53:2b-3)

Just as the disciples ran and hid from Christ’s cross and Passion, you too have rejected Him and cannot bear to look to His image now as He hangs upon the cursed tree, nor see His sorrow or your guilt reflected in Him.

Because upon the cross, Jesus is a mirror of your image. When you look to Him this night, you see yourself - a poor fellow, a sinner.

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV)

Isn’t that something, the One who knew no sin, nor possessed even a sinful motive, had our iniquity placed upon Him? This was done so that you might become righteous, reconciled, and redeemed in Christ Jesus.

So, yes, hear these words of Pilate tonight and look to the cross, see the Man, see yourself, a new Adam, a new man, whose image has been redeemed and restored by the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you. +INJ+