Lent Exercises: Behold - Seeing Jesus Afresh in his Passion
Adapted from Wait With Me; Meeting God in Loneliness.
“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”[1]
Jesus’ trial is a mockery of justice. He is brought to Pilate as a would-be messiah, king of the Jews, but there is no evidence presented. Tom Wright comments,
“Pilate doesn’t understand, and doesn’t want to understand, the ins and outs of the odd ways (as they would seem to him) in which the Jews organize their life. But he knows what kings are, what kingdoms are, where they come from, and how they behave. And he knows that it’s his job to allow no such thing on his patch. So out he comes with it. ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’
The idea is, of course, so laughable that he knows, within his own frame of reference, what the answer is. He sees before him a poor man from the wrong part of the country. He has a small band of followers and they’ve all run away. Of course he’s not the king. But … maybe he thinks he is. Maybe he’s really deluded.” [2]
Jesus has not simply been abandoned by his friends, but as his hour has come, he is abandoned by his people. Pilate represents the Roman occupation, an enemy of the people of God, a ruthless governor, and a pagan. After a fascinating conversation about the nature of power, kingship, authority, and truth, Pilate has him flogged. Jesus’ vulnerability has escalated, now he is not only relationally abandoned, but physically beaten. Flogging was a painful, but non-lethal way for the Roman government to exercise its power. Roman citizens could not be flogged without a trial and sentence, Jesus has no such citizenship. He is flogged as a public nuisance, an exercise designed to show everyone, including the victim, who’s in charge and to discourage any challenge to Roman rule. As a non-citizen, Jesus has no court of appeal. He simply must endure the beating.
The symbols of robe and crown are intentionally distorted to increase the abuse. Rather than a crown of laurels, which would have been a symbol of honor and victory, Jesus is given a crown of thorns. The wreath around his head announces failure, dishonor, and shame. Purple cloth was associated with royalty. By dressing Jesus in it they are mocking his claim to kingship. The whole ordeal is designed to symbolically shout to the whole community, “this is what Rome does to your pitiful kings.”
As I look on this scene I’m horrified by the violence, but also by how easily it is harnessed against someone who simply, ‘fits the description’. Jesus is clearly no political threat to Pilate or to the Roman Occupation. He is beaten anyway. Jesus’ protection from imperial violence, if there was to be some, would come from his people who were afforded some liberties and entrusted with their own judicial system. Jesus’ is offered up by his community instead.
After being bloodied, beaten, and mocked so that Jesus’ public humiliation would smash any hope of revolutionary zeal, Pilate brings Jesus out to the crowd. It’s a moving scene. Jesus is clearly defeated. His seditious ideas, if there were any, subverted and crushed. Now, Jesus, is taken out so that the crowd can tremble before Roman imperial power and beg for mercy on behalf of their bloodied and bruised son. This is how the political game worked. Rome was a bestial regime of total military domination to her enemies but saw herself as benevolent and civilizing to her subjects. All the crowd needed to do was cry out for mercy, humble itself, and Jesus would have been released to them. Even those who disapproved of Jesus could have been comforted to know that he’d been, ‘put in his place’ by Rome.
Instead of mercy, the crowd cries out for his death.
Like the last passage with the outside interpreting the inside and vice versa this passage composed similarly. Instead of two layers, there are three. The outer most is Jesus being handed over to Rome, first for examination, then for crucifixion. The second layer is a discussion between Jesus and Pilate about power, authority, and truth. And in the center is Jesus, bloodied and beaten, in a mock gown and thorny crown, standing before the crowd. This is the focus of John’s story. Pilate’s words, Ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος[3] literally, (Look, See, or Behold, the man) emphasize the point.
Imagine this scene. Allow your senses to stop and behold Jesus in this moment. What do you see?
Here’s a prayer you might consider.
Jesus, let me sit here and simply look at you. You hold, in your body, the dignity and beauty of human life and all the corruption and vileness of evil. You stare in love, a love freely given, at a crowd screaming for your blood. Grant me the grace to know you more truly and love you more deeply.
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jn 19:1–6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[2] Wright, T. (2004). John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11-21 (p. 114). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
[3] Holmes, M. W. (2011–2013). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Jn 19:5). Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature.