Make me see Your great distress,
Anguish, and affliction,
Bonds and stripes and wretchedness
And Your crucifixion;
Make me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails did wound You,
How for them You died, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned You.
LSB 440 st. 2
“And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”
John 19:2-5
“Behold the man!” Pilate said, calling to mind another man who cried out in a similar fashion: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b). These were the words that John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, confessing the reason that Jesus had come, the very reason why He is now in Jerusalem, where the soldiers beat Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The soldiers may have been mocking Jesus, but little did they know that the words they spoke to bully and taunt were the truth. Jesus is not only the King of the Jews, but the King of all creation. Behold the man. Yet, He did not enter Jerusalem like a worldly king on Palm Sunday but came riding on a humble donkey. With one little word, He could fell Pilate and the soldiers, but He is silent, like a lamb going to the slaughter. Behold the Man. Shortly after these verses from John 19, Jesus will be taken to the cross and be crucified. Behold the man. Murdered. Slaughtered. Behold the man? Behold, the Lamb.
Let us pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent Your beloved Son Jesus Christ to endure the taunts and assaults of the devil and the world even unto death. Guard and protect us so that we too may persevere and endure against the devil, the world, and our own sinful natures, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
(Chelsie MacIntosh, Deaconess Student)