Behold The Man!

MESSENGER OF PEACE—APRIL 2, 1883

 JOHN XIX 5

The man was Jesus, into stood there with a purple robe; crown of thorns, and a reed in his hand. Who can imagine his deep humility? It is like a lamb in a slaughterhouse. He is like poor, dumb sheep in the hands of his shearer. The Governor had scourged him, and the people had spit upon him and smote tutu. Oh, how that sea of people hated him and thirsted for his blood. They said turn loose Barabbas, who was a vile robber but crucify Jesus. “He made himself of no reputation.” Oh, if the people had known him, or if he had assumed the same glorious appearance he had on the Mt. of transfiguration or had summoned a host of heavenly warriors to guard him, the people would not have done so, for if the princes of this world had known him they would not have crucified him. It is it stupendous thought that man, thus humiliated and abased, is the only begotten Son of God. As we look at his marred countenance, and survey his robe of mock royalty and crown of thorns pressed into his sweet temples, and hear the low, fierce growling of the enraged people; who can grasp the thought that, “In him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, &c.” He made the hosts of earth, air and water, and by him they all consist.

The infinite hosts of the planetary heavens were moving on in their silent, eternal and awfully sublime revolutions, all ordered and upheld by him, and yet here he stands, hissed at, hated, cursed and afflicted by his creatures, no poor wretch earth ever stooped, or was put lower. Oh, I said--if the people had known him; but that would have thwarted his purpose here, and defeated the errand of our Savior. Christ crucified is the sinner’s only hope, and the fullness of the gospel. Hence we read: “Ought not Christ to suffer these timings?” I think the meaning is he ought. Many scriptures prove he ought, and that his crucifixion was a matter of predestination, that it was a cup that could not possibly pass, but that he must drink it.

Had he displayed his glorious character, as he will when he comes again, the people would have let him alone. His enemies would have fled in wild dismay before his face, and cried for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from his presence, and his poor, discouraged disciples would have run over with indescribable delight, but no, he must die. God will not spare his oven Son when justice demands his death. God’s eternal purpose to save sinners cannot be annulled, and there is no other way of executing that purpose. Hence, he is delivered according to the determinate council and foreknowledge of God to be taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain.

It is wonderful to think that life and immortality are brought to us by means of his suffering. I have tried to study “the cross.” I have enquired, how can that scene affect me? Why should I look to that! How is it that the precious blood that ran down from his wounds has power to cleanse from, sins! We sing,

“Dear dying Lamb; Thy precious blood,
Shall never lose its power;”

Oh, I must think that our pins were laid on him, that the iniquity of us all was laid on him. “The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” This is a thought hard to comprehend, and yet I cannot think of any other principle upon which I may hope to be rescued by “his cross.” He is nailed to the cross and left to die, surrounded by foes, in the midst of two thieves. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” I suppose our sins was the real reason why he was forsaken of God. He must endure the curse due us, so he dies that we might live, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

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