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Behold The Man!
Behold the Man! 

Seven Bible studies with discussion questions

Deane Meatheringham

Rev. Deane Meatheringham

More from this author

Subject: Christ, Humanity

Book Code: 010

Pages: 38 pp, Booklet

Pub. Date: 1983

ISBN: 0 94985 137 X

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Behold The Man!In an article entitled Unearthing the Roots of Violence in America, Robert L. Vernon, Assistant Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles, California, made this diagnosis:

"It is typical for those who do not value the lives of others to have low self-esteem. I have seen it in their body language; I have noticed that they do not make eye contact; and I have heard them make overt statements describing their poor self-image."

"Jesus said, 'Love your neighbour as yourself', but detesting one's self makes it almost impossible to honour, respect or love others. From such a perspective it is then easy to extinguish or destroy something' that has little value. Additionally, unhappiness with oneself often breeds bitterness, and anger with the personality or situation one has been 'dealt'. This hostility is another explanation for the brutal, often pointless, acts of violence that occur with increasing regularity" (Christianity Today, Aug. 6, 1982).

Poor self-image and low self-esteem are often pointed to as one of the basic exacerbations in poor or broken relationships. If I cannot live with myself it is already difficult to live with other people.

The loss of self-value is linked with loss of identity and the fatalism of not having any real significance in history. The true self is not found by the inward looking into one's own self or in painting a portrait of oneself from all the confusing mirrors reflecting the cultural images of what one should be. We do not find our identity in pre-occupation with ourselves.

These seven messages and studies are aimed to bring 'us back to the truth of what it means to be a man or a woman. We do not begin with a composite pooling of that the various schools of analysis posit man to be. Rather, we will see what it means to be created in the image of God as that image is shown to us in the life and deeds of the man Jesus. In him we find the truth of ourselves as we meet our true Father. This is being 'taught in him' as the truth is in Jesus'.

'Behold the man!' was spoken at one of the most dramatic moments in history (John 19: 5). Perhaps it an expression of pity mixed with contempt, but what ever, John uses Pilate's word to announce the man. We, too, must look and see this man.