In 2012, an elderly woman named Cecilia Giménez noticed that a beloved fresco of Jesus in her small Spanish church was flaking and fading. The painting—Ecce Homo, “Behold the Man”—showed Christ crowned with thorns, on his way to the cross. Cecilia loved that image of Jesus. And so, with good intentions and very limited skill, she decided to help by restoring it herself.
What emerged was not a careful restoration but a face so misshapen that the internet exploded with mockery. The image went viral. People laughed. Memes spread. Cecilia, already in her 80s, was humiliated. She wept. She stopped eating. She was described in headlines as a “crazy old woman” who had ruined a priceless work of art.
By every human measure, it was a failure—a public flop. And yet, something unexpected happened. Tourists began showing up. First dozens. Then thousands. Then more than 150,000 visitors from around the world. The struggling town of Borja came back to life. Restaurants survived. Museums flourished. An opera was written. The church became a place of pilgrimage. And Cecilia—once scorned—became a beloved figure.
The painting she botched was called Behold the Man—a picture of Jesus on the way to being mocked, beaten, and humiliated. The Christ who knows what it is to be laughed at. The Christ who turns shame into redemption.Cecilia didn’t plan any of this. But Jesus took her mistake and folded it into a larger story of mercy and life.
Preaching Angle: The gospel does not promise that failure does not get the final word. In the hands of Jesus, even our worst missteps can be made to serve his good purposes.
