“Behold the Man!”

This was Pilate’s attention-grabber when he displayed the Lord Jesus to the accusing crowd after having Him mocked and scourged. The governor hoped that seeing the mangled, degraded form of Jesus would satisfy their lust for His blood. It didn’t. The sight only elicited their unabated hatred and intensified the cry for His crucifixion.

The thought of a crucified Messiah is a stumbling-block to most Jews and to many Gentiles. But what is so repulsive to some “has a wondrous attraction” for believers. We behold the Man differently.

It is not in the form of “the Master in Israel,” nor in that of the glorious Son of the Eternal Father, but in the form of the divine sufferer, that He inclines the hearts of those toward Him whom He has purchased with His blood. No sooner does He display before them His suffering form, than they begin to be astonished, and feel attracted, as by a wondrous and magnetic power; and when they hear, as from His bleeding lips, that all He endured was for their sakes, it is His purple robe they first lay hold of, His crown of thorns to which they first pay homage, and His reed-scepter to which, in joyful obedience, they bow their necks, as to that of their rightful Lord. Yes, the sight of the suffering Saviour is still the mighty power which silently changes lions into lambs, breaks and melts the stony heart, and prepares the way for His most glorious achievements….

We know that He no longer stands on Gabbatha. He has long ago ascended the throne of glory, in a different robe and a different diadem to that in which we there beheld Him. But He left us His thorn-crowned image in the gospel; and oh, the wonders it has wrought in the world, and continues to perform, whenever the Holy Spirit illumines it!

(FW Krummacher, The Suffering Saviour, p. 287)

May God open spiritually blind eyes to behold the Man whom He appointed to be the Mediator between Himself and us!

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The Suffering Saviour by FW Krummacher available from:

Westminster Bookstore | $20.30 (New Banner of Truth reprint)

Monergism Books | $21.99 (New Banner of Truth reprint)

Amazon | $12.00 (1947 Moody Press reprint)

“Behold the Man!”