John 19
Pilate Tries to Release Jesus
19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged severely.
This was another cheap political trick of compromise. Pilate was hoping that the crowd would be satisfied with a little blood. Roman floggings were not limited to 39 stripes, such as Jewish floggings. These Roman floggings often resulted in death. The Holy Spirit did not give the details of the floggings, so it is unbiblical for preachers to sensationalize it.
19:2 The soldiers braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.
The thorns on the head of Jesus were reminders of the curse of thorns caused by human sin.
19:3 They came up to him again and again and said, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly in the face.
Satan humiliated the Creator God of the universe.
19:4 Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation against him.”
Pilate hoped that the bloody figure of Jesus would quench the Jews hatred of Jesus. It did not.
19:5 So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look, here is the man!”
This was an insult to Jesus. Jesus was more than a man. He was the Creator God of the universe.
19:6 When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said, “You take him and crucify him! Certainly I find no reason for an accusation against him!”
Since Jesus was declared innocent, He should have been set free.
19:7 The Jewish leaders replied, “We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God!”
According to the Mosaic Law, blasphemy was death by stoning. Jesus was not blaspheming, because He really was the Son of God.
19:8 When Pilate heard what they said, he was more afraid than ever,
Pilate was a superstitious pagan who had heard stories of humanlike gods who visited men and judged them.
19:9 and he went back into the governor’s residence and said to Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
The silence of Jesus was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7.
19:10 So Pilate said, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority to release you, and to crucify you?”
Pilate had no power. He was simply a pawn of Satan.
19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”
According to the prophet Daniel, God places “the basest of men” in government positions.
19:12 From this point on, Pilate tried to release him. But the Jewish leaders shouted out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Everyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!”
The Jews accused Pilate of being a traitor to Caesar. Pilate had already botched this case. The last thing Pilate wanted was a bad report being filed to Caesar.
19:13 When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement” (Gabbatha in Aramaic).
This was the seat of judgment, but who was really being judged?
19:14 (Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover, about noon.) Pilate said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, here is your king!”
Pilate spoke knowingly in sarcasm and unknowingly in truth.
19:15 Then they shouted out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!”
The Jewish nation rejected King Messiah and accepted Caesar in His place.
19:16 Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Holy Spirit did not reveal any of the graphic details for morbid carnal Christians who enjoy the sensationalism of violence.
The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, 19:17 and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” (called in Aramaic Golgotha).
Just as Isaiah carried his own wood up Mount Moriah for his own sacrifice, so did Jesus.
19:18 There they crucified him along with two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.
One of the thieves believed in Christ and the other did not.
19:19 Pilate also had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.”
Pilate wrote this message on the cross in order to anger the Jews.
19:20 Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.
Pilate wanted to make sure that everyone could read his personal statement to the Jews.
19:21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am king of the Jews.’”
The Jews did not like this written as a statement of fact. However, the sovereignty of God was at work.
19:22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Pilate was not going to change his mind. God the Father used Pilate’s free will to perform God’s sovereign will. Even the inclinations of evil men fall under God’s sovereignty.
19:23 Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and made four shares, one for each soldier, and the tunic remained. (Now the tunic was seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.)
Clothes were very expensive during this age.
19:24 So the soldiers said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but throw dice to see who will get it.” This took place to fulfill the scripture that says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they threw dice.” So the soldiers did these things.
This was a fulfillment of Psalm 22:18. Even the Roman soldiers’ free will fell under God’s sovereignty.
19:25 Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
The broken heart of Jesus’ mother fulfilled a prophecy of Simeon: “A sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35).
19:26 So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, look, here is your son!” 19:27 He then said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” From that very time the disciple took her into his own home.
The brothers and sisters of Christ were not in a position to take care of their mother. John was the disciple, but he never mentioned his name in the gospel.
Jesus’ Death
19:28 After this Jesus, realizing that by this time everything was completed, said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty!”
This was a fulfillment of Psalm 42:1-2 and 63:1. Jesus was the water of life, but He was dying of thirst.
19:29 A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and lifted it to his mouth.
The giving of wine vinegar was a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21. Jesus was the Passover Lamb. The hyssop branch was used in the Passover rituals (Ex. 12:22).
19:30 When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The Greek word for “it is completed” is Τετέλεσται (tetelestai), a perfect passive indicative verb, meaning paid in full. Jesus did not say that He was finished. He said “it” was finished. The perfect tense means that the redemptive work was completely finished and this redemption will continue forever into the future.
Satan, demons, or men could not kill Jesus. Jesus dismissed His own spirit. He died at His appointed time. He died at 3 PM in the afternoon when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed for the evening offering.
19:31 Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs broken and the bodies taken down.
A 1968 archeological find of a crucifixion revealed that the lower legs had been shattered by a single blow of a sledge hammer. According to the Mosaic Law, (Deut. 21:22–23), a body was not to remain exposed on a tree overnight (and certainly not on a Sabbath).
19:32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the other.
If the legs were not broken, then the death would not occur until days later. A person executed on a tree was under God’s curse. If his body was left exposed, then his body would defile the land (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13).
19:33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
This was a fulfillment of Psalm 34:20, “He keeps all His bones: not one of them is broken” (Ps. 34:20).
19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out immediately.
This was a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10, “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son” (Zech. 12:10).
19:35 And the person who saw it has testified (and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth), so that you also may believe.
John was an eyewitness to these events. He wrote down what he observed.
19:36 For these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will be broken.” 19:37 And again another scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”
Jesus is the true Passover Lamb. This is why His bones were not broken (Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Ps. 34:20). Also, people in the future will look upon the One who was pierced (Zech. 12:10; Rev. 1:7).. During the last three days of the Great Tribulation, the Jews will recognize Jesus as the one whom they pierced. They will mourn for Him and then call for Him. After three days of mourning, then Jesus will return as Lord of lords and King of kings.
Jesus’ Burial
19:38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he went and took the body away.
Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin who did not agree with their decisions about Jesus. Romans usually left the dead body to the beasts of prey so that the body would be humiliated.
19:39 Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus at night, accompanied Joseph, carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds.
Jesus taught Nicodemus that once he was “lifted up,” then all men would come to Him. Nicodemus now understood this teaching. Both men had been secret disciples of Jesus, but now they revealed their faith publicly.
19:40 Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, with the aromatic spices, in strips of linen cloth according to Jewish burial customs.
The Jewish burial customs did not include removing the internal organs, which is done in Egyptian mummery. The body was cleansed, covered with cloths, and then spiced with aromatic oils.
19:41 Now at the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb where no one had yet been buried.
Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be buried with the rich in His death (Isa. 53:9).
19:42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was nearby, they placed Jesus’ body there.
Jesus died and was buried, which is the same fate of all men.