Good Friday

March 30, 2018

The next day, John saw Jesus coming and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”

John 1:27

And Pilate said to them, “Behold the man.”
John 19:5

Two men knew Jesus. Each has a different perception.

John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit from birth (according to the Scripture), saw Jesus coming toward him in a crowd of people and immediately knew – by divine inspiration – that this was the Christ. This was just before Jesus’ baptism, before the beginning of Jesus’ ministry but after John had become famous enough for great crowds to go out to the desert to see him.

“Behold the Lamb,” he said. He certainly was not talking about just any lamb. He knew that the Messiah would come. He knew that lambs were sacrificially used by the Jews, in accordance with God’s command, as atonement from sin. He knew that a sacrificial lamb had been offered in every Hebrew household in Egypt on the night of their deliverance from bondage. He knew that every doorpost and lintel that was covered by the blood of that lamb was protected from the hand of the Angel of Death, that the first-born within that home would not die because of that sacrificial lamb.

When he looked up and saw Jesus coming, he didn’t recognize him as his cousin (Remember Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Elizabeth, John’s mother, were cousins.), but instead he proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb.” Did he know what he was saying?

And then there’s Pilate. He had heard about the miracles of Jesus. He had been fed a lot of lies by those who wanted to get rid of Jesus. He had listened to all the charges against this quiet man who now stood before him and had recognized that the charges were lame, would not stand up in a legitimate court. Pilot’s wife had dreamed about Jesus and warned her husband that there was something unusual about him. Pilate was a little awed and perhaps frightened. But he had no courage, no insight, so all he could say was, “Ecce Home,” “Behold the Man.” The things Pilate had heard about Jesus were indeed extraordinary, but to Pilate, Jesus was just a man.

What about us? What is our perception? As we look at Christ Jesus on this dark, Good Friday of 2008, what do we see? Just a man? Even a man who bore a death too horrible to imagine? Or do we see “The Lamb of God who [has taken] away the sin of the world?” “The Lamb” sacrificed for our own individual sin? Both are true! Behold the 100% man who understood our frailty and need! Behold the Messiah, 100% God, who allowed himself to be The Lamb to our sin! Look closely! Behold the God-Man, our Lamb!

Prayer: Father, it is so difficult for us to comprehend what Jesus did for us on that first Good Friday. Cause us this day to see Jesus in all his complexity! Cause us to know with fresh awareness what our salvation cost. Cause us to fall down in gratitude as we celebrate this most generous of gifts that you have given for our restoration to fellowship with you. Amen

Holy Week Devotional
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, March 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

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