I had just read these words in the predawn darkness this morning before I went out for a walk in the town where I grew up, Greensboro, NC. My 15 year old son, Preyer, and I stayed here overnight, because he's playing here in a golf tournament (what else?). I went for a walk around the neighborhood while those words, "Behold the man! Behold the man! Behold the man!" kept ringing in my ears.
I thought back to the evening before, just 8 hours earlier, when Preyer had finished his first round in the tournament at Bryan Park in Greensboro. Bryan Park features two spectacular public golf courses as well as some of the best soccer fields in the state. It is a beautiful, peaceful tree-covered locale that is green and quiet. But I wondered if any of the boys or girls playing in this tournament had any idea for whom the park is named. I seriously doubt it. And that is shameful.
A great gentleman named Joe Bryan gave the money and provided the impetus for this lovely, world-class park. All the competitors playing in the tournament had a meeting last night in a building on the park grounds that features a bronze statue of Joe Bryan with a plaque describing his remarkable life and extraordinary philanthropy. While growing up in Greensboro, our family knew this fine old gentleman--in fact, I'm sure everyone either knew him or knew of him as he was a man of incredible influence and respect. Both Joe Bryan and his wife passed away many years ago, but I still remember them well.
When my son came out of the meeting, I practically dragged him over to the statue to tell him about the man who had made this whole place possible. "He's the reason you are playing here! He's the reason there are beautiful golf courses and practice ranges and soccer fields here. You need to know about him!" Of course, he had never heard of him, and I can say with virtual certitude that none of the other boys or girls in the tournament had either. I wanted to run right into the meeting and shout to them: "Do you know why you can play here? Let me tell you about Joe Bryan!" Fortunately for my son, I restrained myself. I already embarrass him enough simply by breathing.
Such is fame and fortune and success and even respect in our world--fleeting, temporary, here today and forgotten tomorrow. Every person reading this right now will be gone in less than 100 years... or 50... or less. The most famous and successful among us will one day perhaps be names on plaques at parks or athletic facilities or college buildings, and that is great. But the people behind those names, the stories of their lives and accomplishments and who they really were, well, that will all be unknown and unrecognized. Past all recollection except to their families and the people they loved most deeply.
But towering above history's wreck of names, great or ignoble, good or evil, powerful or weak, stands One who is the hinge of history. All must one day confront Him and decide either to believe or to reject. For over two thousand years, the great call of the ages has been: "Behold the man!" Look at Him, behold Him in His Word and decide whether to believe like His tiny band of disciples or reject like the masses and the powerful religious elite of His day.
But choose wisely for all of eternity rests upon your decision.
Behold the infant born in a manger. Behold the Great Physician healing the desperate and defeated. Behold the Teacher encouraging and guiding and leading. Behold the Suffering Servant, beaten and bruised, giving His life for each of us. Behold the Risen Savior--resurrected from the grave to new life and new hope and victory over sin and death.
And behold the Lord who will one day come again in unimaginable glory and power--and at whose presence every knee in the universe will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Behold the Man. Behold the Lord. And believe.
And know that with believing, you will live forever and ever and ever with Him, in glory. Never forgotten, never forsaken. Never just an unremembered name. But alive and loved and redeemed forever--the abundant, joyous, glorious Life with a capital "L."
Might we each this day, "Behold the Man!" Throughout our lives, throughout our days, throughout our hours of every day, Father, help us to behold You and believe, and in believing, live abundantly and joyously to Your glory.
Behold and believe. To the Man, to the God, to our Savior, be all the glory.
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