Ecce Homo

Pilate in the gospels is portrayed as heartless and opportunist who did not mind saving his own skin at the expense of letting an innocent man die on the cross. But it would be injustice if we branded him heartless, just because he understood Jesus was innocent, and it may be hard for us to fathom the inner conflict he was going through to the extent he wanted to escape from condemning Jesus to death. His washing the hands as a mark of disowning the guilt of spilling innocent blood speaks volumes about the man that Pilate was.

But I would like to see in the man, who found Jesus as an excellent pawn to settle scores with Caesar and with Jesus, another quality which stands out in the episode of Jesus’ condemnation. The governor was able to see in Jesus, the perfect image of humanity. His pithy words to describe Jesus as “homo” (man in Latin) have opened up several layers of interpretation. The Son of God and Son of Man now stands before Pilate and the Roman soldiers as a man with no additional attributes, and Jesus is quite comfortable with the situation.

Ecce Homo – behold the man! Every person born in the world is an incomplete product of God’s creativity. There is no one who is the fullness of humanity, endowed and lavished upon him/her. Jesus is an exception. In him we see all the human aspirations finding fulfillment. We try our best to move towards the fulfillment, but without success, to be human, wholly and utterly, is no mean thing, this may be the hardest thing for us, to strip ourselves naked and find ourselves enrobed with the clouds and limitless oceans. That is the marvel of being truly human, and who else could be the perfect human person, but Jesus.

Jesus does not seem to dislike his identity as a man to the least. If he were in a lighter mood, he might have asked Pilate, how he managed to recognize him. The perfect man, who had come to throw the mantle of honor and majesty on the fallen humanity is silently acknowledging his role as the perfect man, and Pilate was just presenting this man to us to emulate, when he said, Ecce Homo. I look at the man with a crown of thorns and a purple robe. This is the man who resembles the first of God’s creation, Adam; it is in him that I can find my perfect resemblance, image and likeness of God.

As I behold the ‘new’ king, who is bleeding, and bearing the violence the world had inflicted on him, and look at my body, which has the potentiality to bear his own likeness. And still how far am I from his nature and intent? Today I too need to be scourged and bear the crown of thorns on my head, and the purple robe on my bleeding body, to bear the likeness of the ‘man’ who is prepared to bridge the gap between the heaven and the earth. Here is an invitation for me to become truly human, for that is where I can encounter my true identity, with the God who had become a man like me!