Bluecollar: Behold The Man (3)

Reflections on John 19:1-5, part two

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

Yesterday we considered the scourging that Jesus endured, spoken about in John 19:1. Now, let us consider verses 2-3:

"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."

I went to Israel with a church group in 1981. While in the area of what was the Temple site we were led by our tour guide into a room believed to be the very room where Jesus suffered all of this treatment at the hands of the soldiers. The tour guide then pointed to the floor. On the floor there was a long line scratched into the stone. He told us that this probably was the very line that the soldiers made Jesus walk, while blindfolded, as they played "The game of The Kings" with Him. He said that the soldiers would make a prisoner walk down this line while they bowed to Him in mock worship and adoration. They would spit on Him and punch Him as He made His way down the line. The thorns in this mock crown would be some twelve inches long. The soldiers would delight in pounding them down deeper into His head as He walked by.

Picture Jesus, wearing that purple robe, the blindfold and the crown, being made to walk that line amongst those jeering soldiers who took joy in spitting and punching Him and pounding that crown down deeper.

He did that for you and me.

The cross was just a short time ahead. While on that cross He bore our sins and the Father's wrath upon those sins.

What love is this? Just days earlier He was walking to Jerusalem,IN ORDER TO SUBJECT HIMSELF TO THESE EXPERIENCES, and the cross. While on that road He told His disciples, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem," and then He described what He, The Son of Man, would experience,"and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." Mark 10:33-34.

What love is this? Just hours earlier He was in the garden, sweating as it were great drops of blood, and crying, "Abba, Father, not my will, but thine be done".

What love is this? For Isaiah said, " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities...And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Is.53:5-6.

What love is this? For again Isaiah said," He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth". Is.53:7. One can picture Jesus enduring this terrible punishment without uttering a word or even a groan of pain. He offered no resistance.

It was love that drove Him in that long walk to Jerusalem, knowing full well what awaited Him there. It was to suffer these things that led Him there in the first place. All that the prophets had written was about to happen. And still, He walked on, closer and closer. The mocking, the thrashing with that horrible whip, it was all just ahead. They would pull His beard out, spit at Him and punch Him. Then the vast crowd would call for Him to be crucified. Why? He had done no wrong, only good. Ah, but sins had to be paid for. God's love for a lost race had to be revealed.