Friday, April 22, 2011

Ecce Homo


“Behold the man!” shouts Pilate to the crowds gathered round. He emerges before the mob, barely able to walk after being scourged, beaten, and spit upon, a crown of thorns thrust into his scalp and a purple robe thrown upon his shoulders in mockery. He stands before the crowd, bruised and bloody, and his silence is pathetic. The crowd lifts up their voices in unison at the sight of the man, crying “Crucify him!” Behold this man, a king of the Jews, standing before his people in shame, mocked by the very people he has come to save.

Behold the man, as a heavy cross is forced on his shoulders, the weight of our sin to bear.  He stumbles and falls several times under the load, his strength dried up through the beating and scourging. Behold him as he climbs to the place of the Skull, the hill that waits to receive his offering of blood and water. Behold the man, the Messiah who has come to save the world, but cannot even save himself.

Behold the man, lifted high upon the cross at the top of that hill. As he slowly suffocates under the weight of his own body hanging from nails, he hears the shouts of derision coming from the soldiers below him and the criminals beside him. Behold him upon the cross, who is mockingly identified as “The King of the Jews” by the sign above him, as he slowly and painfully enters the darkness of death.

And behold the man, as he cries out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”, quoting the ancient psalm of suffering as he takes the suffering of all of the world upon himself. And behold, as he breathes his last, and darkness covers over the land, and the curtain of the temple is torn in two. As the centurion standing guard beheld this, he proclaimed “Truly this man was the son of God!”

Yes, behold the man, the Son of God, the sacrificial Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world, who with the giving up of his spirit proclaims to us that, now and forever, “It is finished.”

Come and behold the Man, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the One by which all the heavens and the earth were made, the manifestation of the fullness of God Almighty, as He is crucified for our sins. Behold him, as the work he has done is for the salvation of the world. Behold him, as your sins are laid upon him, and you are washed white as snow.

Behold. This is your salvation. 

Friday, April 8, 2011

On Counting the Cost

To take his yoke upon us means that we are content
That he appoint us our place and our work,
And that he himself be our reward.

Christ has many services to be done:
Some are easy, others are difficult;
Some bring honor, others bring reproach;
Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
Others are contrary to both.
In some ways we may please Christ and please ourselves;
In other we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all things is given us in Christ, who strengthens us.

Therefore let us make this covenant with God our own,
Trusting in the eternal promises and relying on divine grace.

--John Wesley, Methodist Covenant Service