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‘Behold the Man.’
Joh_19:5
I. Jesus crucified draws us to Calvary.—We go with the crowd, we turn aside from the events of everyday life ‘to behold this great sight.’ With what feelings do we come to the Cross of Jesus? Amongst us, doubtless, there are some careless ones as there were among the crowd on the first Good Friday; those who come to the Cross and go away unsaved. There are many in the world to-day who will pass by Calvary with a jest, and mock before the face of the dying Son of God. But there are many also whose hearts are full of love and full of sadness for the sufferings of their Lord; let them pray for the scorner and the careless one and the unbeliever, that they may be drawn to the Cross and find pardon. There were some who went to Calvary on that first Good Friday perhaps scarcely knowing why they went; sad-hearted, troubled folk, whose lives were wrong, and who knew not how to cure them; and who, kneeling beneath the Cross, and feeling the precious Blood of Christ drop on them, found light and joy and peace. Oh! if there be any such here to-day, who have cried for the light and never found it, who are conscious that there is something wrong with them which they know not how to mend, let them come to Calvary now, let them fall prostrate in prayer before the Cross, let them go down into the grave of repentance to-day.
II. And now that we stand in the presence of our Redeemer dying for us, ‘let us stand in awe, and sin not,’ let us ‘be still, and know that it is God.’ Let us strive to realise that we have crucified Jesus, that our sins, no less than those of others, have given Jesus to the Cross. Let us try to feel that as the voices in Pilate’s hall cry ‘Crucify Him,’ our voices are among them.
III. ‘Behold the Man,’ and beholding, cry with the centurion, ‘Of a truth this was the Son of God.’ They part His garments among them: and there again His enemies unconsciously teach us a lesson. Adam by his sin lost the robe of innocence, and hid himself from God, ashamed of his nakedness. Jesus suffers His garments to be divided that He may clothe us sinners with the robe of His righteousness. They have pierced His side with a spear. Ah! not only the spear of steel, but the spear of man’s ingratitude pierced Him, even to His broken heart. And mark the result. Then came forth from that broken side streams of love, streams of water to cleanse us from our sin, and of blood to strengthen us for ever in His sacraments. Thus in His death are the prophecies fulfilled. ‘I am poured out like water,’ said the Psalmist, and now from the side of Jesus is poured out a river which goes forth out of Eden to water the garden of the Church.
Rev. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton.
Illustration‘There is a beautiful legend which tells us that the crown of thorns, preserved in a certain shrine, blossoms every Easter Day, and fills the whole Church with its perfume. For the faithful that thorny crown has indeed blossomed like the rose, and filled all our lives with its sweetness. For the sin of the first Adam this earth was cursed, and it brought forth thorns. Jesus, the second Adam, died to remove the curse of sin, and so He wore the thorns, the fruits of sin, as His crown.’