John 19:5, So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”“Behold, the man!” Kind of a strange phrase; one that I always wondered at. Why call Jesus “the man” and stop there? It seems misplaced, incomplete, or maybe too generic. But on closer inspection, this serves as one of those instances in Scripture and history where God sovereignly moves through the mouths of people to speak something into existence that the speaker may not intend or even fully understand, namely, in this case, declaring Jesus Christ to be the new man, the second Adam, the one through whom a new creation will be associated, and who will have true, full dominion over everything as King of the universe.
Gerald Borchert in the New American Commentary on John, says about this verse: When Pilate came out of the Praetorium again to face the crowd of Jews who did not want to defile themselves, he must have thought that the sight of the emaciated looking Jesus would have been sufficient to justify his desire to release Jesus. What problem could such a pathetic figure engender among these rebellious Jews? Surely he was harmless. Pilate’s forceful introduction of Jesus in “Here is the Man!” is therefore loaded with sarcasm toward the Jews. Undoubtedly, however, John found this statement to be a powerful, ironic theological announcement that Christianity has preserved in its Latin form of Ecce Homo. As such it is also a theological affirmation that Jesus was indeed “the man,” the second Adam, God’s Son, who dealt with the sin of the world introduced through the first Adam (cf. Rom 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:22).
Connecting Adam and Jesus is not something unique to the rest of the New Testament. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:45, “The first Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
So how does this relate to Hebrews 2:5-9? Really, in every way. The author’s argument is that one like a son of man has come into history, fulfilling the “ideal” of Psalm 8, lowering himself below angels for a little while (incarnating himself into human flesh and “tasting death for everyone”), then being raised up from that state to a place of power, honor, and glory (resurrection, ascension). In short: Jesus is the ultimate human. And through his death and resurrection, humanity is renewed and re-created to a place of honor and glory. Sin is taken away, and righteousness is restored.
In this, “Behold the man!” is a wonderful gospel-saying that’s worthy of repeating in worship, instruction, and other forms of exhortation. As we sing in How Deep the Father’s Love For Us: “Behold the man upon the cross, our sin upon his shoulders!” And in exhortation: behold, the man, the instigator of eternal life, a new heavens and new earth—the one through whom we find refuge and salvation!
Thank you God for re-making, in the image of your Son, a wretch like me!
Chris
