John 19
CHAPTER 19
So Pilate had Jesus scourged. 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple garment. 3 And they came to him, and said: Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck him with their hands.
4 Pilate went out again to the Jews, and said: Look, I bring him out to you, so you may know that I find no crime in him. 5 Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And Pilate said to them: Behold the man! 6 When the chief priests and the servants saw him, they cried out: Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them: Take him yourselves and crucify him. For I find no crime in him. 7 The Jews answered him: We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
8 When Pilate heard this he was even more afraid. 9 And he went back into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus: Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate said to him: Why do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the power to release you and have the power to crucify you? 11 Jesus answered him: You would have no power against me unless it was given to you from above. So the man that delivered me to you has the greater sin.
12 Upon this, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying: If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone that makes himself a king speaks against Caesar! 13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews: Behold, your King! 15 They cried out: Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them: Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar! 16 Therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified.
The crucifixion
17 So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one and Jesus between them.
19 Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And there was written: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. 20 This title many of the Jews read, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Do not write, The King of the Jews; but that: He claimed, I am King of the Jews. 22 Pilate answered: What I have written I have written.
23 The soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24 They said to each other, Let us not tear it but cast lots for it, to determine whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said: They divided my garments among them, and for my robe they cast lots.
25 These things the soldiers did. There was standing by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother: Woman, behold your son! 27 Then he said to the disciple: Behold, your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now finished, so that the scripture might be accomplished, said: I thirst. 29 Nearby was a vessel full of vinegar. So they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon a hyssop stick, and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said: It is finished! And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 The Jews, because it was the preparation day, and so that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the Sabbath (for the day of that Sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs be broken so that they might be taken away. 32 Therefore the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other that was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they did not break his legs. 34 However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out of his side. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things happened so that the scripture might be fulfilled: A bone of him shall not be broken. 37 And again another scripture says: They shall look on him whom they pierced.
The burial of Jesus
38 And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus (but secretly for fear of the Jews), asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. Therefore he came and took his body away. 39 And there came also Nicodemus, he who came to him at the first by night; but now he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as it is the custom of the Jews to bury. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb wherein no one had lain. 42 There, because of the Jews' preparation day, they laid Jesus (for the tomb was nearby).
Commentary
19:11 Let’s remember that all our abusers are ultimately in the hand of God. The power of evil men is ultimately from God, seeing that ‘Satan’ doesn’t exist.
19:15 No king- The Old Testament clearly taught that God was Israel’s King and they were therefore His Kingdom. Therefore by saying this, the Jews were declaring themselves no longer God’s Kingdom.
19:20 Written in Hebrew, in Latin, in Greek- This explains the slight differences between the Gospel records in the descriptions of the title on the cross.
19:26 Jesus would’ve motioned with His eyes towards John- Mary was to see John now as her son. But tragically and so painfully, when Mary first heard the words, she would likely have understood them to mean ‘Look at me here’. If we find our lives tragic, then think of Jesus crucified, with men gambling over His one valuable possession, i.e. His coat, which probably His mother had made- and she was watching it all.
19:29 Hyssop isn’t very long, therefore Jesus was not lifted up very high above the earth, contrary to the impression given by Catholic crosses and architecture.
19:36 We are the body of Christ, His bones (Eph. 5:30).
19:38 Only close relatives could ask for the corpse of the crucified. Beholding the cross motivated Joseph to ‘come out’ openly for Jesus, feeling as part of His family.
19:39 This is a huge amount, more than the Caesars were buried with. The cross motivated Nicodemus to spend his wealth to honour Christ.
