Behold the Amazing Sight

In the year 1737, Phillip Doddridge, living in Northamptonshire, wrote the first line of his hymn “Behold, the amazing sight” but what was he writing about and what was so amazing about this sight?

The first thing we need to consider is The Place where this great event happened. In the bible in Luke chapter 23 we read the location and who the sight involved.  It reminds us in verse 33 “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him..”. The sight this verse and the hymn writer are referring to was the Lord Jesus Christ who, having done nothing wrong was taken and lifted up on a cross to be crucified. Phillip Doddridge’s hymn continues from the first line – “Behold, the amazing sight, the Saviour lifted high”.

Later in the chapter in verse 48 we read “And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.”

Firstly, in this verse we can be drawn to The Gathering  – “all the people that came together”.  What a gathering this was with religious leaders, soldiers, and general men and women of the day. All had come to see this spectacle and to behold the sight that Jesus of Nazareth was to be put to death.

Varying people of different social, cultural and national backgrounds were represented at the foot of Calvary and all were drawn to watch the “amazing sight” whether in derision, pity or because of simple curiosity.

We now come to consider The Sight. The people had come together “to that sight”, and what a sight it was.  The original word for “sight” in this verse is found nowhere else in the bible.  It’s a unique word for a unique sight. We can only imagine what these people saw as they looked on “the things which were done”.  The Lord Jesus was ridiculed and rejected by men, buffeted, mistreated and the bible states his back was like a ploughed field after all the whipping and scourging of the Roman soldiers – “the plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows”(Psalm 129v3).  The soldiers had placed a crown of thorns upon his head, they had plucked the hairs from his cheeks and then lifted him up on a cross and hammered nails into his hands and feet.  Anyone looking on the sight would see a scene of hatred, violence and cruelty but in the very midst we hear words of love from the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross – “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”(verse 34).

You may acknowledge that this is truly a sight but you maybe asking what is so amazing about this sight?

The fact is that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered all this for YOU and it’s amazing because God loves you so much that he sent his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save you from your sins by dying on the cross.  His precious body was later placed in a grave and on the third day he arose from the dead.

All of us have fallen short of God’s standard and the bible says “All have sinned” (Romans 3v23) but the bible goes on to say “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5v8). 

The final point I want us to consider is The Reaction to this amazing sight.  The verse reminds us “they smote their breasts, and returned”. At the place called Calvary, after they had beheld “the things which were done”, they went away changed and there was a clear reaction to what they had seen and heard.  Earlier in the chapter the Centurion had observed “that sight” too and reacted as “he glorified God, saying certainly this was a righteous man”v47

I wonder what your reaction today is to the “the amazing sight” of Calvary, the day that the Lord Jesus Christ died for you.   Will YOU be saved? –  Romans chapter 10 verse 9 states “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Paul Cartwright