JESUS CRUCIFIED.
John 19:1-37.
1). BEHOLD YOUR KING.
John 19:1-16.
JOHN 19:1. The nineteenth chapter of John’s Gospel opens in the midst of the ridiculous drama of Pilate’s darting back and forth between the hypocritical Jewish leadership on the doorstep, who refused to come into the judgment hall of the palace ‘lest they be defiled and unable to eat the Passover’ (cf. John 18:28), and the prisoner indoors. Pilate wished to wriggle out of the responsibility of condemning an innocent man, as he three times ruled Jesus to be (cf. John 18:38; JOHN 19:4; JOHN 19:6), but nevertheless had Him scourged to appease His accusers (JOHN 19:1). Thus was fulfilled the prophecy, ‘by His stripes we are healed’ (cf. Isaiah 53:5).
JOHN 19:2-3. Jesus had been arrested by His own people without a reasonable charge, and was now exposed to the cruel indignities of the Roman garrison. The cruel crown of thorns, which they would have thrust upon His head causing it to bleed; an old cast off purple robe to parody His kingship; the striking of His face with their hands, crying ‘Hail, King of the Jews’ in mocking disgust (John 19:2-3). Is there no end to the malice which a fallen world feels towards their Creator?
JOHN 19:4-5. Pilate went outdoors again, to inform the Jewish leadership that he was bringing Jesus out to them, and that he “found no fault in Him.” The spectacle continued with Jesus coming behind him, a pitiful sight with the crown of thorns on His head, His mangled bleeding body wearing the purple robe. And Pilate announced, “Behold the man” (John 19:4-5). Yes, Pilate, ‘the man Christ Jesus’ (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5-6).
JOHN 19:6. If it was Pilate’s intention to shame Jesus’ accusers into sympathy with their victim, he was sadly mistaken. The chief priests and the officers (the temple police) cried, “Crucify, crucify.” Pilate still wished to metaphorically wash his hands of the whole affair - a metaphor that he acted out in Matthew 27:24 - and suggested that they should crucify Him since they were the ones who wished Jesus dead (John 19:6).
JOHN 19:7. It seems that the conversation was going round in circles. Pilate had already told them to judge Jesus by their own law, to which they had replied that it was illegal for them to put anyone to death (cf. John 18:31). But now the Jewish leaders argued, “we have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). Yet the Jewish law would have required death by stoning (cf. Leviticus 24:16).
Jesus had already prophesied by what death He was to die (cf. John 3:14; John 12:32-33). It was prophesied, too, in the Old Testament: ‘they pierced my hands and feet’ (cf. Psalm 22:16; cf. Zechariah 12:10). The curse of the law; the curse that is upon mankind as a result of his eating of the forbidden tree, is borne away by Jesus becoming a curse for us by ‘hanging upon a tree’ (cf. Galatians 3:13).
JOHN 19:8-9. When Pilate heard the accusation that Jesus had claimed that He is the Son of God, he became even more alarmed. He took Jesus indoors and demanded of Him, “Where do you come from?” Jesus kept His dignity, and refused to answer (John 19:8-9; cf. Isaiah 53:7).
JOHN 19:10-11. Frustrated, Pilate threatened, “Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you?” To which Jesus did reply, “You could have no power against me unless it were given you from above: therefore he that delivered me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:10-11).
JOHN 19:12. The Jewish priesthood should have known better, and therefore had the greater sin than Pilate. Now Pilate tried again to release Jesus, “but the Jews cried out, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar: whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar’” (John 19:12).
Pilate did hold an honorary title given to him by Tiberius Caesar, which was “Friend of Caesar.” The man who had nominated Pilate to receive this title had since been stripped of the title himself, so the last thing Pilate wanted to do was to upset his Emperor. At the same time, the Levitical priesthood was gradually stripping itself of any entitlement to be termed ‘friend of God’!
JOHN 19:13-14. Pilate brought Jesus forth, and sat in the judgment seat. John reminds us that the season was Passover. Paul would later write, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7). Pilate now presented Jesus once more to the Jews: “Behold your King!” (John 19:13-14).
JOHN 19:15. But they cried out, “Away with _, away with _, crucify Him.” Pilate’s response was, “Shall I crucify your king?” To which the chief priests, answered “WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR!” (John 19:15). All thought of the theocracy had departed from their minds!
JOHN 19:16. So now at last ‘the sceptre had departed from Judah’ (cf. Genesis 49:10). And in one fell swoop, the Levitical priesthood had unwittingly forfeited their position in favour of a new and better priesthood (cf. Hebrews 7:14-17). Pilate had Jesus led away to be crucified (John 19:16).
2). THE CROSS AND DEATH OF JESUS.
John 19:17-37.
JOHN 19:17. “Went forth.” The ultimate sin-offering, outside the gate (cf. Hebrews 13:12-13).
JOHN 19:18. “Where they crucified Him.” Typology of the brass serpent (cf. John 3:14). A hanged man is cursed by God (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23), and Jesus became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law (cf. Galatians 3:13). Others crucified with Him (cf. ‘numbered with transgressors,’ Isaiah 53:12).
JOHN 19:19. Jesus was crucified as “King.” This writing, and what (and who) it represented, ‘blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross’ (Colossians 2:14).
JOHN 19:20. The three languages proclaim the universality of His kingdom (cf. Matthew 2:2).
JOHN 19:21. “The chief priests of the Jews” versus “the king of the Jews.”
JOHN 19:22. “What I have written I have written.” Having yielded already to them, Pilate will yield no more. ‘Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain’ (cf. Psalm 76:10).
JOHN 19:23-24. The soldiers’ parting of His garments unintentionally serves to verify Scripture (cf. Psalm 22:18). “These things the soldiers did” is the Apostle John’s eyewitness testimony.
JOHN 19:25. The women at the cross. Their courage and perseverance (cf. Romans 12:12). Such hope rewarded later at the tomb.
JOHN 19:26-27. Jesus’ compassionate care for His grieving mother. “The disciple whom Jesus loved” is the Apostle John’s own signature (cf. John 13:23; John 20:2; John 21:7; John 21:20).
JOHN 19:28. After this, we read, Jesus knowing that all things, literally “have been finished.” (This is the same verb as the one word statement in John 19:30.) “That the Scripture might be fulfilled,” said, “I thirst” (cf. Psalm 69:3; Psalm 22:15). Everything about His death, you see, was ‘according to the Scriptures’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4), both foretold in word of prophecy and prefigured in typology in the Old Testament.
JOHN 19:29. The use of a hyssop branch to reach a sponge full of vinegar to our Lord’s lips (cf. Psalm 69:21) reminds us of that used to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to the doorposts just before the exodus (cf. Exodus 12:22). David’s famous prayer of repentance contains the words, ‘purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean’ (cf. Psalm 51:7).
JOHN 19:30. “Finished!” translates as “It has been finished” (cf. John 17:4). His work for our salvation is completed, ‘to finish transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy’ (cf. Daniel 9:24). Jesus was still in control, to His very last breath (cf. John 10:18), and now at last “bowed His head” and literally “delivered up the spirit.” Read John 10:11 and Philippians 2:8.
JOHN 19:31-33. The leaders of the Jews now requested of the Roman Governor, because it was the day of preparation before the Passover sabbath, that the legs of the executed men might be broken to smithereens in order to speed up death, and the bodies taken away from their crosses. But when the soldiers came to Jesus, they were surprised to find that He was already dead, and so had no need to break His legs.
JOHN 19:34. Instead, one pierced His side with a spear, but instead of a gush of blood alone, as they might have expected; there was a pouring forth of “blood and water,” medically explained as an efflux of blood clots and serum. In other words, Jesus’ heart was ruptured, broken. Symbolically, ‘a fountain is opened, for sin and uncleanness’ (cf. Zechariah 13:1). John refers to the water and blood elsewhere (cf. 1 John 5:6-8).
JOHN 19:35-37. John bears witness to what he has seen. These are facts of our faith, and he shares them that we might believe (cf. John 20:31). John quotes two more Scriptures in verification of the fact that “a bone of Him shall not be broken” (cf. Numbers 9:12), and “they shall look on Him whom they pierced” (cf. Zechariah 12:10).
