John Chapter 19 Series

John Chapter 19

Verses 1-5

If Jesus was innocent, He should have been set free.

If Jesus was guilty, He should have been crucified; but to scourge Jesus was unlawful.

Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged because he thought this would please the Jews.

The soldiers took this opportunity to have fun with Jesus before they crucified Him.

The soldiers could mutilate Jesus and do anything they wished with Him.

One of the games the Roman soldiers often played with their prisoner was to blindfold the prisoner and all but one soldier would hit the prisoner as hard as he could.

Then they would remove the blindfold, and if the prisoner was still conscious, he was to guess which soldier did not hit him.

We can assume that Jesus was beaten within an inch of His life.

“Here is the man!” should be translated, “Behold, the man.”

Jesus is more than a man; He is the Son of God; He is the Savior of the world; and John has written these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name (John 20:31).

Verses 6-16

Pilate is not satisfied, so he takes Jesus inside again to question Him (verse 9).

Perhaps those who delivered Jesus over to Pilate were guilty of the greater sin, but Pilate is not exonerated either, even though we can be assured that Pilate believed Jesus was an innocent man.

The Jewish religious leaders had Pilate over a barrel, for they were ready to report Pilate to Rome, accusing him of permitting subversion.

Pilate didn’t want any negative charge against his political record with Rome, so he let his political position overrule his justice and good reasoning.

The “Stone Pavement” or as it is pronounced in Hebrew “Gabbatha” is an actual place in Jerusalem that still stands today and is about 15 feet below the present level of the "Ecce Homo Street."

The "Stone Pavement" is a place where Julius Caesar pronounced his judgments.

Notice in verse 14 it was about the 6th hour, which is the number for man, when the religious leaders were forced to make a choice.

They made their dreadful choice for man in verse 15, saying, “We have no king except Caesar.”

Then Pilate delivered Jesus to them that Jesus should be crucified.

Let’s take a quick look at 5 different viewpoints of the crucifixion of Jesus.

1. From the viewpoint of God:

From God’s viewpoint, the cross is the mercy seat where God can extend mercy to you and to me.

The cross is the place where full satisfaction was made, so that a holy, righteous God can reach down and save sinners.

The very throne of God, the place of judgment, the cross; is transformed into the place of mercy where you and I can find mercy instead of the eternal judgment we so rightly deserve.

At the cross, from the viewpoint of God, Jesus Christ bore our guilt, and God is completely satisfied!

2. From the viewpoint of Jesus Christ:

From the viewpoint of Jesus, the cross is the ultimate sacrifice.

Jesus is the Savior, and He makes Himself an offering for sin.

At the cross, Jesus “humbled Himself becoming obedient until death, and death of a cross” (Philippians 2:8, Greek).

3. From the viewpoint of you and me:

From the viewpoint of you and me, Jesus was our substitution, taking my place and your place upon the cross.

Jesus was the sinless One suffering for sinners, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep gone astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (I Peter 2:24, 25).

4. From the viewpoint of Satan:

From the viewpoint of Satan, the cross was both a triumph as well as a defeat.

It was a triumph for Satan to bruise the heel of the woman’s seed as it had been foretold back in Genesis Chapter 3.

It was a defeat for Satan because the head of Satan is yet to be crushed, “…so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil… (Hebrews 2:14).

5. From the viewpoint of the world:

From the viewpoint of the world, the cross is nothing but another human death.

The world sees only Jesus the man, Jesus the Nazarene; the world cannot see Jesus the God-man.

Therefore, the world led Him away to be crucified, which fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 94:20, 21:

“…they band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.”

Verses 17-27

John does not give us a detail picture of the crucifixion.