Article April 20, 1935 Issue

"Behold the man!"

CORINNE M. MC CONNICO

After Pilate had brought Jesus before the surging, inimical crowd with the exclamation, "Behold the man!" he was torn between two great fears, the fear of gaining a reputation for disloyalty to Caesar and the fear of unjustly dealing with a man in whom he could find "no fault." There is reason to believe that Pilate had at least dimly beheld something of Jesus' true character. To his question, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" Jesus replied, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above;" and we read that "from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him." But his human sense and desire were not sufficient to empower Pilate to defend that righteous man from his persecutors; and so Jesus was delivered for crucifixion, in compliance with the Jews' demand, "By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

"Behold the man!" If the onlookers could have beheld the majesty and power of Jesus' true his real being, how different might have been the result for themselves and the history of Christianity! But, blinded and deafened by prejudice, materiality, scholastic dogma, and their hate and fear, they saw only what their own warped mentalities pictured—an aggressor, oppressor, and impostor. But how different the real man, which the Master must have seen in the place of each distorted face before him; for, as Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 476, 477), "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals." His heart must have yearned to still that sea of hate and animosity, but they would not accept his gift. What blessings were in store for them, had they been ready to yield their prejudice and unbelief and "behold the man" as he really was—the Son of God. Surely they did themselves the greatest wrong by this failure to relinquish their false concepts.

"Persecution of all who have spoken something new and better of God has not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from them the true idea which has been presented. To misunderstand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he taught" (ibid., p. 560). Likewise, ignorance of and prejudice against Christian Science and its Discoverer and Founder have robbed many of the health and joy which might have been theirs, had they been willing to listen to and investigate for themselves the spiritual facts of being presented in our Leader's writings. Personal prejudice, prejudice against persons, places, and things—how they stultify and deprive men of the good that might otherwise be theirs!

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