Beloved congregation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The tension has now reached the straining point. The man of Caesar, the shepherd of Rome, is looking at this lamb standing before him, and he knows that the man has done nothing wrong. And he knows in his heart, he's a Roman, that he needs to let this man go. But he's a politician, and he's been sent there to keep the Jews down, and it's a Passover, and there's hundreds of thousands of people who are there. He is going to have a real problem if he doesn't give the Jews what they want. He's had bad experiences with the Jews, as we saw last time, more than a couple of times. They stubbornly did what they wanted to do and got Pilate to cave. And Pilate doesn't know what to do. He's offered Barabbas. Barabbas has spilt the blood of the Jews. We remember last time, it's Passover. We're remembering, I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Fathers, tell your children, look at that lamb. Remember that the lamb's blood was painted on the doorpost, and I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the bondage of Pharaoh. And now I will, Pilate says, let you honor that day, and I'll let you have a prisoner, and let him be released, sort of as an honorarium of the day that you're in. And they say, no, we don't want him. Crucify Jesus Christ. What is a man to do? I just read this weekend a book, and in that book they were talking about what are the gospels? And in that, a writer, who generally I quite appreciate, said that the Gospels essentially are biographies. Now biography, bios is life, graphos is written. It's a story about the life of somebody, but it's much more than that. The Gospels are, in fact, gospel. It's a way of writing. The facts are put into the actual fact. Everything we read this morning has happened. It did happen exactly the way that it says that it happened. But there's a meaning beyond it. There's something greater going on than some upstart carpenter who's raised a bunch of Jews into a frenzy and a cowardly politician who doesn't know what to do. The Lord's anointed has come. We've sung of it. He has come to bring salvation. He has come to redeem the heavens and the earth. He has come to restore the creation and to restore broken sinners and his kingdom will grow and increase and of it there will be no end. And God is there and Satan is there and the promise is there. I will put enmity between your seed, God says to the serpent, and her seed and he will crush your head. And you will bruise His heel. Everything of the earth in the world history, everything is moving to this moment where the King has been crowned as a clown. Our King. It's disturbing. If you read this with me, and you are faithful, And if you read this with me and you're sincere, I hope you haven't read it for some of you older people so many times it doesn't move you anymore. Every time I read it this week, and even as I read it now, I'm filled with remorse. I'm filled with disgust. I'm angry about what happened to Jesus. I'm angry what they did to them. I'm angry with the Jews, but I cannot look in the mirror this morning and not be angry with me. I cannot read the Ten Commandments. Oh, and I can write it off. I'm tired. My back is sore. I got a headache. You know what? I get to do whatever I want to do, or God will look the other way, and then I see Jesus standing there, his head bleeding, and a crown of thorns shoved on his head, wearing a horrible purple robe. Hail the King of the Jews, Ecehomo, Iduho Anthropos, behold the man. Well, beloved, we've got to behold the man this morning, and we've got to see who he is, and we've got to understand what God is doing, that the King of the Jews, who is the King of the world, is being condemned by the Jews and by the world, and in fact condemned by Almighty God, that you and I might not be condemned. And at back of this is the gospel of Genesis. And we've seen how Genesis moves. Genesis 1 and John chapter 1. In the beginning, God creates and all things are created through the word. And everything's moving together now as God brings everything to its zenith. For history must be fulfilled. Promises made to you when you're baptized now must be fulfilled. God is going to save us. First of all, we'll see then the humiliation of the Jews. Really, the three points, I guess I could have put the humiliation of the Jews, the humiliation of Pilate, and the humiliation of Jesus Christ. And I think you'll see there that there's different things going on. So we start reading there that they didn't want Jesus Christ to be freed, to be let go. No, they wanted Barabbas. So what does Pilate do? Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. He whipped him. Now the Romans have two ways of whipping one of their prisoners. The first one, often done during a court case, was to soften the man up a little bit, was to get him to admit a few things. Of course, under that kind of duress and that kind of pain, a man is very likely to admit anything so that it will stop. The whip is made of strands, made of animal hide, of leather. And the first whipping, it had shards and pieces of metal in it. It had little pieces of seashell, and it had hooks. And a Roman soldier was trained. And by the way, Roman soldiers were known for their brutality. They were not known for their sentimentality. They could kill somebody. They could horribly kill somebody. And it's not like they were snipers sitting on a roof somewhere shooting at a president that they can hardly see. These men fought face to face, toe to toe, hacking off limbs. hacking off other things, stabbing. They could smell, they could feel the blood, and yet they would do it, battle after battle after battle, and there were some of those who enjoyed that. And there were those who were chosen from that group to whip people. And so they would go back, strong of arms, strong of back, strong of thigh and of glutes. and they would bring that lash down. But the idea of the lash was not to hit, it was to rip and to tear. And so that's what they do to our Jesus. The other kind of whipping would have been that they would have tied Jesus to a colonnade, and they would have whipped him to an inch of his life. When crucifixion was coming, either one of those was often used to speed up the death. But our Lord and Savior did nothing wrong. Pilate has no right to do this. Remember they did that to the apostle Paul? And he said, I am a Roman citizen. And the Philippian jailer knew that he was in trouble. He had no right to do this. Pilate doesn't care. Pilate is a political animal. You know what's interesting about the Gospel of John? If it really was a biography, don't you think we would have heard something about the pain that Jesus is going through? That Jesus Christ is suffering beyond imagination? That we would hear something about the screams and the groaning that would have come from him as the lash comes down? What we read about is the fact. What we read about is not now that you ought to pity Jesus, but think about why this is happening. Why is his back being turned into a bloody pulp? Because that's what's happening. You know in Psalm 22 where it says, you can see my bones? If you look at the back of Jesus, you can see his bones. And if that wasn't enough, that our Lord and Savior, an innocent man, is being whipped within an inch of his life from some pathetic Roman soldier, they think, hey, you know what? These Jews, they're making our long weekend miserable. We're having a long weekend right now. Who wants to work on their long weekend? We just want to go home and hang out and be with our families and do what we want to do. Why don't we have some fun? The King of the Jews. Whipped and beaten? The King of the Jews? Where is his army? The King of the Jews, this man has got nothing. Nothing that we would honor him, the man of sorrows. He had no comeliness that we would be attracted to him. Isaiah 53, you can hear it now, you can see it now. Hail, king of the Jews, and they slap him again. It's the second time. Caiaphas Nanus Remember their guard slapping Jesus you dare to talk to the high priest like this who do you think you are? Jesus and blood is flowing from his face, and now they're doing it again blood is flowing from his face Blood is flowing from his back. Why is that because when Adam and Eve left the garden? What did God do? Did he sew? Clothes out of cotton or out of plant material and No, he killed animals. Blood had to be shed. Remember what we said in the Bible? Yes, it's a fact that animals were killed. God took the hides and covered Adam and Eve in the hides. But he pointed that out to us, that blood needs to be shed, that our sinfulness will be covered before the sight of Almighty God. And animal blood is not enough. It's not good enough. It has to be shed again and again and again. But now the blood of Jesus must be shed. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He's bleeding now for you. He's dripping now for you. That blood that started in Gethsemane, that's been drawn from His faith in the temple, that here now in the Praetorium. So that you and I don't have to be whipped. And don't have to be humiliated in that way. and don't have to be condemned in that way. And we're not innocent. Who's praying Psalm 72 now? As our Lord and Savior stands there all alone, and a couple of guys find this old, dirty Roman robe, purple in color. You know what would be funny? Why don't we put that robe on them? I don't know if you've ever thought about that, beloved. What do you think it's like to put a dirty, filthy, heavy robe on a beaten, broken, bloodied man. What do you think that pain is when they throw it on him? And they grab a reed, a stalk, which Jesus is letting go, and they pick it up and they start hitting him with that too. And they're growing In the gardens is the date palm, and the date palm has branches and vines with thorns that are an inch to two inches long. And they weave it together like an Olympian victor crown. And they put it on the hands. And what's interesting, did you ever think about that? We know that that must have caused horrible pain. But somebody had to put that on Jesus. How did they do that? Well, they made sure that their hands didn't get poked and prodded and pricked by these terrible thorns. And then they walk around, hail, king of the Jews, hail, king of the Jews. And for the Jews who first read this, and we read this, they're laughing at the Jews. They're pointing out how pathetic the Jews really are. how pathetic you and I are, and who we really are. They've taken our king and they've made him a jester. They've taken the crowned and made him a clown. My Lord and my God, how do they dare? I, it was, denied thee. I crucified thee. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Behold, the king of the Jews. Pilate's done. He doesn't know what to do. So now he's going to bring him out to the people. He brings him out of the praetorium. And Pilate said to them, behold the man. These are perhaps some of the most famous words in scripture. They've been used in plays, Shakespearean plays, and others as well. Behold the man. Eduho Anthropos in the Greek. But famously, what Pilate would have said would have been in Latin, ece homo. Behold the man. Look at him. Some see that Pilate is saying, this is your king? Ooh, scary. I'm shaking in my boots. You think I'm scared of you if this is your king? Look what I'm doing to your king. He represents you. This is how I see you. But others think that perhaps Pilate is appealing to their sympathy. And there's being more said about that. How can you ask me to do more to this man? than I have already done. I've humiliated him for you. I've beaten him for you. What is Jesus' face showing? Silence. Courage. Loving the Lord God with his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Loving his neighbor as himself. Jesus, my Savior. Jesus my Lord Behold the man beloved you've got to look now. You've got to see who you are Why he's doing what he's doing Because now the pride's got to go away Anybody who thinks they can earn it. It's got to go away now him and only him and he's doing it out of love and Law came through Moses, but grace and love came through Jesus Christ. The Word made flesh as He stands before you. Behold the man! And you ought to read what the Jews say as like one of the public protests that we see today. So if we do it in English, they would have been doing it in Aramaic. It simply would have been, Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! This is the rabble that was bringing all of their people who had demons, who were sick, who were not well, and Jesus never said no. And He healed all of them. They were amazed at His teaching. They thought He was the one, Hosanna! Loud Hosanna! Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! Machiavelli calls the public horde the dumb crocodile as the meat stands in front of them and they like so many howling wolves Seek the death of the lamb that is now weak isn't that what wolves do they pick off the weak That's one thing that the people do it. The other thing is that these are the shepherds Ezekiel 33 Where God talks about the false shepherds. Where Jesus talks about the false shepherds. Who is the shepherd laying down his life? It's Jesus, the Lamb of God. Who are the false shepherds? The ones who are coming in by the wrong way, the thief. We don't hear the voice of Jesus in them. Crucify! Crucify! They don't even realize that they're being humiliated. They don't even realize that they're being used by Almighty God to bring salvation to the world. The Son of David. The Lion of Judah. The Lamb of God. It's Passover now. And pretty soon all of those lambs are going to be slaughtered. And Caiaphas and Anna have chosen the last one. And Pilate says, this lamb is perfect. This lamb has no blemish. This lamb has no spots. This lamb has no broken bones. Oh, they've wrecked the skin and he's bleeding, but he's perfect. I find nothing in the man. Behold, the man. He ought to die because he made himself the son of God. Now Pilate doesn't know what to do. He becomes more afraid. Why? Because Pilate's a pagan. Pilate is more likely able to believe that Jesus comes from the gods than these people are. Think about it. He has just spent the whole morning with Jesus. He has threatened Jesus. He has told Jesus what he can do for him. He has questioned Jesus. And he's seeing something in Jesus that he knows is different than anything he's ever seen. He can't get around it. There is that reaction that's happening in him. Will he bow the knee? Will he say, you really are the king of the Jews? I have no king, no Caesar, but Jesus? No, he's too scared. He ought to die because we have a law. Yeah, they're right. We have the right to put to death anybody who breaks the Jewish laws, especially over blaspheming. But he wants to find a way. He wants to get out of this. Why do they say that you're the son of God? Where are you from? But Jesus won't answer him. You know why Jesus won't answer him? Because Jesus is judging Pilate. You're going to ask me now? It's a little late, don't you think? As I sit here in this robe, in this pathetic crown of thorns, being beaten, being humiliated, being treated absolutely ex-lex, outside of the law, not even having the right to a decent trial. You're going to ask me where I'm from? And he just stares at Pilate. And in the same way that Peter wept and knew that he had done wrong, Pilate knows, but Pilate wants to get out of this. Pilate's trying to figure some way, but he can't. You know why he can't? Because you gotta get saved. You need your sins forgiven. I need somebody to die on the cross for my sins. The whipping's not enough. The beating is not enough. The crown of thorns, it's not enough. How can it not be enough? How can the bloody sweat in Gethsemane not be enough that it's not enough? That's how desperately wicked I am. That's how desperately wicked you are. Not fun to hear, but behold the man, beloved. And behold what Pilate will do. And to this day, the church confesses week after week, and I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, our Lord, who suffered under Pontius Pilate. Romans chapter 13, he is God's minister for our good. God declares the man innocent. Pilot now will not bend the knee you give me no answer. Do you not know I have power to crucify Do you see how pathetic? people are But even more do you see how pathetic rulers are this Pontius Pilate? Do you realize that all power is always derivative and You're only as powerful as the people who let you have the power. All it would take, every time. Isn't that, remember, for those of us who are a little older, that movie about Bugs Life? The grasshoppers would come in, and everybody would listen to the grasshoppers, because they're bigger and they have power, and finally the ants say, we've had enough, and they turn. And now they have no power. Pilot has no power. He has no power except what Caesar gave to him, and Caesar has no power except what God gave to him. I don't even have power over my own life. I don't even have power to make myself exist. I didn't even have the power to choose my own name. Do you not know I have power? Think about that with, you listen to all of these propagandist promises that are happening in the politics in the South as we get into an election year, but even in our own time here in Canada. And these little people think they have so much power and they can solve all of our problems. We need the anointed one. Pilot. Don't you know how much power I have? Don't you know what I could do for you? You're not going to answer me. And then these are the last words that Jesus will speak at the trial. And then we get to the seven words of the cross that he'll speak. You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who has delivered me to you has the greater sin. Now Jesus stands as judge. Don't you find that interesting? Our king is judging. Caiaphas has a greater sin than you because he delivered me and he knew better. That doesn't mean you're without sin here, Pilate. You have one more chance to repent, Pilate. You can ask for forgiveness, Pilate. You can wash your hands and move on from this, Pilate. Now's the time. You are a sinner in his weakest physical human moment. Jesus says, Hey, Pilate, you're the man. You're the sinner. And Caiaphas is the sinner. You have no power except that which comes from God. He is all powerful. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth, and I am the way and the truth and the life. There is no way to Him except through me. See, Jesus, what courage, what ability. And I think about that, that he doesn't react in anger. He doesn't react in vengeance. He doesn't say, I have my rights and I demand my rights. He's not sulking. He simply speaks the truth one more time to Pilate in love. You've got nothing. He continues to try. goes back to the people, let him go. There's nothing wrong. Let's do the right thing. If you are going to let him go, the Jews say, you are no friend of Caesar. We know later on that there was a group of people called the friends of Caesar. It may be a reference to that, but very likely it's simply, if you are going to support the king of the Jews and we're going to let Caesar know that this man said he was the king of the Jews, Pilate, it's going to be you hanging on that cross. So what are you going to do now? And the man values his own life. He's not willing to take up his cross. He's not willing to follow Jesus now. He's not willing to stand up. He brings Jesus out. He judges him. I find nothing wrong with him. They go to Gabbatha, the lifted place, the place of the stones, probably a beautiful mosaic, where they walked up. He sits on the judgment seat and he hands Jesus over. The king is now condemned. and he's gonna go to the cross. Beaten, bloody, laughed at, scorned, and ridiculed. Jesus, my Savior. Jesus, our Lord, do you know him? Do you see him humiliated or do you see him crucified? Behold the man, Ecehomo. Do you see Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man? Do you see Him, Barabbas, the Son of the Father? Who do you see, beloved? Because in John chapter 13, verse 1, where all of this started, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, He should depart from the world to the Father, having loved His own Son who were in the world. He loved them to the end. knowing that all authority had been given to him. Isn't that interesting? Jesus stands in authority. What did we sing from Psalm 72? Hail to the Lord's anointed, David's greater son. Hail in time appointed, his reign on earth begun. He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free, to take away transgression and rule in equity. In name forever glorious, he on his throne shall rest. From age to age victorious, all blessing and all best. Praise God who rules each nation. Tell of his deeds again. His glory fills creation. Sing praise to God. Amen. Not the humiliation of Jesus. The glorification of Jesus. Who stands before you? Elijah? Who do men say that I am? Some say Elijah. Some say John the Baptist. Is it Elijah? No, God is not going to kill the 400 false prophets of Baal. Not now. Is he Elisha? No, God is not going to send the she-wolves out and kill those youths but he is the prophet is he Melchizedek is he now Aaron is he the Levites well no because he is the one who is going to die for Melchizedek and for the Levites one greater than Melchizedek and Aaron is here one greater than Elijah and Elisha is here is he David Behold, blessed is he who comes in the name of David. Hosanna! Loud Hosanna! But he's not David. The Lion of Judah must now become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Where John the Baptist says, I am not he. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Ece homo. Behold the man. What is truth? Remember we saw last week, what is truth? Wrong question. Now finally Pilate has asked us the right question. Who? Who are you? Who do you say that he is? Because you know what's happening here, beloved? Those words are very important. Behold the man. Behold Adam. Behold the second Adam. Behold the Adam who has become like you, because I'm that one who has that crown of thorns, who is a bloody mess, who should be laughed at. Behold the king of the Jews. Behold, I wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. Behold me? No, I will become like you. I will become the second Adam. I will go to death for you. I will go to the cross for you. I am the man. Behold the second Adam, the man of God, the lamb of God, who takes away your sins and my sins. Jesus, my savior. Jesus my Lord Jesus Christ the judge of Pontius Pilate of Caiaphas and Annas Jesus Christ the judge of the Jews and in the judge of the Romans Jesus Christ our judge and when he comes do you fear his judgment please don't repent and believe behold the man turn from your wicked ways now see it see him see where you're heading without him and to an eternal humiliation and horror and pain and suffering. Or follow Him and pick up your cross and go the way of the cross into glory and marvel and beauty that waits when He comes again. Don't fear the man. Worship this man to the glory of the father Moved by the power of the Holy Spirit for to him has been given dominion Over the earth and with his bride who will speak of his descendants isaiah 53 He's going into all the world and having dominion, but it starts there to break oppression may it be that we are all filled with this radiancy divine and Truly God is our refuge and strength. Behold the man. Repent and believe. The kingdom of God is at hand. Amen.