I.N.I
Good
Friday - John 19:5 “Behold the Man”
“So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and
the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”
Adam
was THE Man! The original man! One of a kind. There had never been another like him
because…He was the original man. God had created the Man in His own image. He had created all the earth and the fullness
thereof for the Man to rule over and to subdue.
God even created a suitable helper for the Man. God’s perfect love for the Man was seen in
the perfect state that He had created for the Man. All He asked of the Man was for Him to fear,
love and trust in Him. So for a moment,
the Man enjoyed the perfect beauty and splendor of God’s creation. There was no strife or discord. There was no bloodshed or warfare. There was no pain or suffering. Everything that the Man and the Woman saw was
good and yet even that was still not good enough.
The
Man fell. The Man was not satisfied with
the gifts that God gave. The Man did not
trust in God above all things. The Man
sinned. But God promised that the
offspring of The Man and The Woman would come to rescue The Man. The Man who would come after would be the
kind of man that The Original Man was supposed to be. So when the Man lay with The Woman and their
union bore fruit, there were great expectations. What kind of man would this be? Would this man be greater than the original
man? Would he be the kind of man that
the Original Man was supposed to be?
Those expectations are heard the words of the woman after giving
birth. She declares, “I have gotten a
man, with the Lord’s help.” Not a
son. Not a child, but a man. Luther even reads into Eve’s words a bit to
suggest that she expected that this child would be the fulfillment of the
Messianic prophecy. But this Man that
the Woman had gotten was hardly the Man for whom she hoped. Cain was his name, taken from the Hebrew word
for gotten. He was not greater than the
original man. In fact, he was a flawed
sinner just like his father before him.
This Man was the kind of Man who killed his own brother in a fit of
jealousy and rage.
So from
Cain on, the descendants of the Original Man had been the embodiment of
sin. Their hands were stained with
blood. Their mouths opened to spill
forth lies. Their eyes were not ever on
the Lord, but glistened with lust and desire.
Contentment could not be found in the descendants of the Man because
they always wanted more. They were
enslaved by an insatiable appetite and thirst for more.
The
prophet Nathan came to King David, a descendant of the Original Man, and the
ruler over God’s chosen people. God had
given him everything and if that had not been enough He would have still given
Him more. After David’s adulterous
affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, the prophet Nathan tells him of a
rich man who steals from a poor man.
When David flies into a rage at the story, Nathan pierces David with the
poignant words, “You are the Man.”
Let’s be
very clear about who you are this evening – “You are The Man.” Ladies, you too. You are the fallen sinner. You are the murderer and the adulterer. You are the liars and the cheats. You are the ones who hate and hurt, who cook the
books and exchanging lust-filled looks.
Like Adam and Eve, like David and Bathsheba, like all those who have gone
before us, You are the Man! You are the
sinner!
But
Pontus Pilate brings Jesus out before the crowds, covered in blood and sweat
from his head to his feet, with a purple robe of mockery draped over him a
thorny crown pulled down piercing his brow.
Pilate presents him to the throngs of people and declares, “Behold the
Man!” The King of Glory humbles Himself
by taking on the servant’s form and being numbered with sinners. This place of judgment is where sinners
belong and yet Jesus takes Adam’s place.
Behold the Man! He becomes the
substitute for Cain and Abel, for David and Uriah! He becomes the Man that you never could be in
keeping the Law perfectly, but He also becomes the Man that you have always
been by suffering our punishment and bearing the weight of our sin! God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for
us. Behold the Man! Jesus became the Man of sorrows for us, to
save us and to give to us forgiveness and life.
Like
Adam, Barabbas was the Man! He wasn’t
the kind of man that he was supposed to be, but he was the man! A notorious criminal. A scoundrel.
A wretch. He found himself imprisoned
and that is exactly where he deserved to be.
And yet this man’s place is taken by Jesus. “A criminal they save, the prince of life,
they slay.” Barabbas was the Man, but
Jesus took his place and He became the Man for Barabbas! When Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd and
sends him off to His death, it is not just Barabbas’ place that Jesus takes,
but all of ours. This is why the cross
tops steeples and hangs on walls. It is
why it covers facebook pages and marks foreheads and hearts, for it is in the
cross that our salvation is realized and we become the Man and the Woman that
God intended as we trade our sin for Christ’s righteousness.
St. Paul
distinguishes between the Original Man and the Perfect Man in Romans 5. He writes, “But the free
gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass,
much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man
Jesus Christ abounded for many.” Thanks
be to God that Jesus became the Man for us!
And through this One Man, grace abounds for you. Jesus, true God and True Man, for you! Behold the Man!
S.D.G.
Rev. Dr. Lee Hagan
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Concordia, Missouri
April 18, 2014
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