Ecce Homo!

What does it mean?

ECCE HOMO! Pilate exclaimed to the crowd I.e. “BEHOLD THE MAN!” 

You ever see a picture of gruesome injury and wince, or better, an injury that someone willfully inflicted on another person? The reaction you have is our biological empathy, our mirror neurons at work. As Christians, we have seen the same man under the worst of tortures and forget just how appalling it is. "See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high. Just as many were astonished at him so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals- so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate." (Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53 continues with this image and for the sake of space please look up and read it as desired.) This is what love in dialogue with our corruption looks like. Christ had come to save us, He came to be love to a people with broken hearts and corrupt loves (John 1:10-11). We could not accept this, in the name of blasphemy against the Who we thought God was, we tore him down in all of the worst ways, we took His very life, Who gave us life. “Ecce homo” comes from the Latin for “behold the man”. This image and the Latin quote come from the appearance Jesus made before the crowd after his mocking and scourging. This command given by Pilate, has the literal meaning He meant it in, and it has a deeper over tone as well.

First, the literal meaning of the statement, speaks of the crimes of what corruption does to something radically pure. Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him who is destroyed, look at what we have done to this man. Pilate, who had a sense of justice (this is good because he was judge and jury as well as an executive) but not the strength to follow it, had permitted the scourging to make the people come to their senses concerning His innocence. So He loudly and angrily, points to this suffering Christ, Love Itself in a sinful world and demands "Behold the man". Tragically, the angry mob chanted the words that Pilate did not want to hear again, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him”. Indeed, our sins and apathy chant the same things, “Get rid of this imposing lover, and His incessant demands toward the good! Death to Him! Make an example of Him!”.

Second, the deeper less obvious meaning of the word, speaks to the reality of humanity done right, a perfectly unified man to God. A man who was to be love to others in all ways, objective and subjective. Jesus, so obedient to the Father’s will in particular and the general commandments in general, accepted evil upon evil not only without retaliation but also with love. He knew the hearts of His assailants, and in a way, He models for us what it means to love a sinful person, with patience, understanding, and resilience. Not despairing at acts committed against oneself but upon the one thing necessary, obedience to the Father's Will to which all else is noise and distraction. He did not forsake what is true nor did He condemn us sinners. Rather, He received every blow, knowing His greatest loss would become His, and those who loved Him’s greatest victory. Not only is the perfect example He is the foremost metric of masculinity, but it is also to endure all things in the name of good and right (not deriving such from what anyone else thinks but God), knowing one's God-given role, loving with intense gentleness with great restraint amid great strength, living a balanced life, joyful with nuance, looking enemies in the face and loving them, being a man for others, and living example proportionate to teaching.

In conclusion, when we love each other (humans), we are loving a reflection of the suffering Christ, a corrupt reflection. The tricky thing here is that it is not like a mirror, in which the image we find is not actually a participant in what it signifies i.e. a son/daughter of God nor is this reflection a clearly accurate one. This is to say when we look at this image of Christ, we see our reflection and that of others i.e. the image of fallen humanity seen for what it is something good and beautiful trampled under lies. It still remains that what has been trampled is not like anything else in existence for it is a son/daughter of the Most High, the Creator of all. We can interpret, for the sake of meditation "Ecce Homo", in one sense to mean, looking at the truth of us broken people, tripping over ourselves and others grasping for the life we lost, considerably destroyed by our bad choices and the newfound hurts our own actions and those of others create. What does it mean to love someone who is broken? To see everywhere they struggle, where they hurt, and where they sin, and think this is Christ in His passion, struggling to bring salvation, collapsing under the weight of it all. Christ does not commit evil so there needs to be an adjustment there knowing that Christ was God-they are not, sin weakens what is good in us, and though they are so destroyed, they are a product of Divinity, one in which that dignity subsists. So what is the meaning of this statement and this painting? God loves us beyond Himself "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.", We are called thereby to "love one another as I have loved you.", and "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news”(John 3:14, John 15:12, Mark 1:15). It answers the Who, What, How, Why, and When. The Where is answered in us.