Throughout the Lenten season this year, we have talked about some of the saints, the holy people, those set apart in Christ by faith in Him.  In the end, we remember them not because of the accomplishments that they made, or their mark on history. We remember them because of Christ and His work for them and through them in their lives.  We remember them because they are ones for whom Christ suffered and died.

Tonight, we heard again the Passion of Christ, and we are reminded that this was not for those who were better believers, those who did fantastic things worthy of the history books, but that Jesus died for sinners.  Sinners like you and me. The perfect Son of God, the Light of the world, snuffed out because of our sinfulness, hung on the cross in between two criminals, identifying with us, and being punished for it.  This is how much God hates sin, that He would send His own Son to die because of it.  This is also how much God loves His children.

Pilate brought Jesus out before the murderous crowds near the end of Jesus’ trial and he proclaimed, “Behold the man.”  This mockery emphasized Christ’s weakness and vulnerability. St. Paul writes in Philippians 2, “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).  Behold the man, stricken smitten and afflicted.  Behold the man dying on the tree.  Behold the man, innocent in the sight of God and before men, yet suffering for the guilty. Behold the man who lived the perfect life that God’s people could not. Behold the man, who dies the death all humankind deserves. 

It's very fitting that we hear these words today, as well, because this year March 25 is not only Good Friday, it is also the Feast of the Annunciation.  This coincidence will not happen again for another 141 years.  The Annunciation is when the angels appeared to the Virgin Mary to announce to her that the she would be the mother of Jesus. Luke 1:31-32a, 35 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

Now, the reason why this is significant is that it nicely ties in Jesus’ conception and His death, the beginning of His incarnation and His atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.  For this is the reason why the Son of God became man, so that He could die for all men and for our salvation.  We behold not just the man.  Behold the Son of God made man, the Holy One of God, incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, and who now lives and reigns to all eternity. Behold the Son of God made man, the Holy One who took the wrath of God upon Himself that you might be declared justified in the sight of the Father, pure and holy in the eyes of God. Behold the Son of God made man, for when God looks at you, though your sin be as scarlet as the blood that flowed from Jesus’ side, He beholds Christ. God sees not your sin, but holiness of His Christ in you.

Behold, the life giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the world.  Jesus was made to carry His cross that He would be crucified on.  Physically, emotionally, that must have been a horrible burden.  He’s carrying the very thing He was to be killed on.  But spiritually, it was even worse.  Because He lifted the weight of more than a wooden cross.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  He bore the weight of all my sin, of all of your sin, of all the sin that has ever been committed and ever will be on his back as He climbed up to Golgotha, onto Mt. Calvary. 

So here we are, guilty as charged.  Like the women and the disciple whom Jesus loved stood before Jesus as he was hung on the cross, we behold the man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.  We have nothing to offer to God except our sinfulness.  That little white lie you told the other day might as well have been the hammer that drove the nail a little deeper in Jesus’ wrist.  Those bad thoughts you had about your spouse, or parents, or the guy who cut you off while driving, those might have well been the thorns that dug deeper into His head.  When you did that thing you knew was wrong, and yet were all alone and you knew that nobody would ever find out it, that might as well could have been your chant, “Crucify Him.  Crucify Him.” 

When we come face to face with the presence of sin in our lives – no matter how carefully we have sought to conceal it from ourselves, from others, and from God – we are afraid, too. None of us are untouched by sin. We all have a desire to be considered better than we really are. We all want to be valued for what we are able to do. We have nothing to deserve Jesus taking our place.  And yet God the Father gives us God the Son to stand in our place.  This is the God that we have.  A God who offers His own Son to die in our place so that we might live. Through faith in Him, Christ puts us on His body, because He carried the punishment for our sins, and pours the Gospel in our wounds, He then binds them up, covers them and forgives our sins. (Chemnitz, quoting Melanchthon, Loci Theologici I, 492)

Behold, the man, the Son of God.  On the cross, Jesus hung and died, finishing what He came to do.  On the cross, Jesus purchased our way into eternal life.  On the cross, in earthly suffering, God offered spiritual healing.  On the cross, in physical death, God offers eternal life. John 6:68-69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.”