John 19

CHAPTER 19THEME: Death of Jesus at Golgotha; burial in the tomb of JosephIn this chapter we will see a great miscarriage of justice. Rome was noted throughout the world for its justice. On every Roman official’s desk there was the little figure of the two-faced god, Janus. One face looked forward and the other face looked backward. (It is from this word that we get the name January for the month that looks back to the old year and forward to the new year.) Janus was to remind the judge to look at both sides of the question. Rome ruled the world for nearly one thousand years. When the Romans took over a people, they promised them good roads, law and order, protection, and peacebut life would be under a dictatorship.

Rome ruled with an iron hand. In Roman courts the innocent got justice, and the guilty got justicenot mercy, but justice. The interesting thing that makes this such an anomaly is that the trial of Jesus was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice.

John 19:1

DEATH OF JESUS AT GOLGOTHAIf Jesus was innocent, He should have been turned loose. If He was guilty of the charge brought against Him, He should have been crucified. To scourge Jesus was entirely unlawful and wrong. Pilate did it because he thought this would placate the Jews. The soldiers took this opportunity to have their fun with Him before He was crucified. When it says “they smote him with their hands,” it means they played a cruel Roman game with Him. They could mutilate Him and do anything they wished with Him. All the soldiers would show the prisoner their fists. Then they would blindfold the prisoner and all but one would hit him as hard as they could. Then they would remove the blindfold, and if the prisoner was still conscious he was to guess which soldier did not hit him.

Obviously, the prisoner could never guess the right one. They would continue this until they had beaten the prisoner to a pulp. I believe that the Lord Jesus was so mutilated that you would not have recognized Him. “As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isa_52:14).

John 19:4

Now they come outside again. I think that if you had seen Him then, it would have broken your heart. He had been beaten within an inch of His life. Don’t think He looked like the artists picture Him. “Behold the man!” If you have said only this that Pilate said, you haven’t seen Him at all. He is more than a man. He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world. John has written these things so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name.

John 19:6

It may have been at this point that Pilate called for the basin of water and washed his hands. The water would clean his hands but could not cleanse the guilt of his heart. The oldest creed of the church states that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

John 19:7

Pilate is not satisfied, and so he takes Him inside again to question Him.

John 19:10

There are differences of sin and differences of judgment. Those who delivered Jesus to Pilate had the greater sin because they had more light than Pilate did. However, that does not exonerate Pilate at all. He is guilty.

John 19:12

From thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him. Because he believed in Him? No. Because he knew that the Lord Jesus was an innocent man. Jesus is now in the hands of a cheap politiciannot the judge of Roman justice that Pilate should have been. These Jewish religious rulers are prepared to report Pilate to Rome accusing him of permitting subversion. That would be treason, and Pilate doesn’t want such a charge against him. Pilate will let his political position overrule his justice. It is a terrible thing, even today, when government, whether it be church or state government, gets into the hands of men who are hungry for power and do not regard either God or man.

John 19:13

The Pavement was the Lithostrotos. It was the place of Roman justice. Julius Caesar always carried a moveable one with him so that anywhere he went, the Lithostrotos was set up, and there he pronounced his judgments. This Gabbatha is one place in Jerusalem which I think is accurately identifiable. It is about fifteen feet below the present level of the Ecce Homo Street. There is the worn stone which I think may well be the Pavement, the Gabbatha.

John 19:14

Notice the dignity of the Lord Jesus through all this. Notice that He is not the one on trial. Pilate is forced to a choice. Will it be Jesus Christ or Caesar? The religious leaders are forced to a choice. Will it be Jesus Christ or Caesar? They make their dreadful choice, “We have no king but Caesar.” The day will come in the future when they will have to make another choice. Jesus Christ or the Antichrist? Friend, listen; every man must make his choice about Jesus Christ. He says, “He that is not with me is against me …” (Mat_12:30). The minute you make a decision against Christ, you make a decision for “Caesar.”

John 19:16

We speak so often of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that it becomes almost trite for the average believer. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is one of the most dastardly, infamous points in history. Yet, this is our redemption. We need to pause here and look at it from various points of view. From the standpoint of God, the Cross is a propitiation. It is the mercy seat where God can extend mercy to you and to me. It 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, is transformed into the place of mercy where you and I can find mercy instead of the judgment we deserve. Jesus Christ bore our guilt, and God is satisfied. From the standpoint of the Lord Jesus, it is a sacrifice. He is the Savior, and He makes Himself an offering for sin. He is a sweet-smelling savor to God. It is also an act of obedience for Him. Paul tells us in Php_2:8 that he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. From the standpoint of you and me, believers in Christ Jesus, it was a substitution. He took my place and He took your place. He was the sinless One suffering for the sinner. He was the just One suffering for the unjust. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1Pe_2:24). From the standpoint of Satan, it was a triumph and also a defeat. It was a triumph for Satan to bruise the heel of the woman’s seed as had been foretold way back in Genesis 3. It was a defeat because the head of Satan is yet to be crushed: “…that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb_2:14). From the standpoint of the world, the Cross is nothing but a brutal murder. They see Jesus of Nazareth. They see the man. They see the injustice. So they led Him away to be crucified. This fulfills Psa_94:20-21: “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.”

John 19:17

John does not give us a picture of the Crucifixion. He mentions the place but gives very few details. General Gordon, never satisfied with the spot inside the city walls which is pointed out as Golgotha, decided upon a rocky, skull-like formation outside the city walls, called Gordon’s Calvary, which I believe to be the actual Golgotha. You will recall that every bit of the sin offering was taken outside the camp into a clean place (see Lev_4:12). Just as the Lord Jesus fulfilled prophecy concerning Himself, so He also fulfills the types in the Old Testament. Our sin offering, the Lord Jesus Christ, was taken outside the city. The writer to the Hebrews emphasizes the fact that our Lord suffered outside the gate (see Heb_13:12).

John 19:19

You will notice that I have made no attempt to harmonize the other Gospels with the Gospel of John. They are each different, and each is written for a different purpose. You need to put all four of them together to find the complete statement written on the Cross.

John 19:20

It was written in Hebrew, the language of religion. It was written in Greek, the language of culture and education. It was written in Latin, the language of law and order. Thus, it was written for the whole world to see that He died for all. This is the gospel that is to be preached to the world. This is the hope of the world.

John 19:23

“When they had crucified Jesus.” No Gospel writer describes the death of Christ. There are things about the Cross and the Crucifixion that are hidden from us. God pulls down a veil on many of the details. Darkness covered the land so the people couldn’t see. First of all, God is not going to give us morbid details simply to satisfy our idle curiousity. Secondly, there was a transaction between the Father and the Son taking place there. It was a transaction for the sins of the world, which is beyond our comprehension. The only thing that we can do is to accept by faith the forgiveness that is made ours through Christ’s death on the Cross. That is the only way you and I will ever penetrate that darkness, my friend. Apparently His garment is a peasant’s garment but a good one. Someone had made it for Him. The soldiers cast lots for itshot dice at the foot of the Cross. Although these Romans do not know it, they are fulfilling the Scriptures: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (Psa_22:18).

John 19:25

Jesus calls Mary, “Woman,” just as He had in John 2 at the wedding at Cana. His hour is come. He is to die, but He will rise again. He is to be glorified. His relationship to His mother is to be severed. To her, as well as to us, He is to be the glorified Christ. His resurrection will clear her name forever. Her reputation will be vendicated. But she must come to Christ in faith just as every other believer comes. While He is dying for the sins of the world, He will not neglect her. We know that Mary will be praying with the disciples in the Upper Room after His resurrection (see Act_1:14), and after that she drops out of the picture. As long as she lived John would keep her in his home and care for her, as the Lord Jesus asked him to do.

John 19:28

John carefully shows us that scripture is being fulfilled. There are chapters in the Old Testament which are especially concerned with the Crucifixion. I would list Psalms 22, Genesis 22, Isaiah 53, and Leviticus 16. There are twenty-eight prophecies fulfilled while He was hanging on the Cross. “I thirst” is the fulfillment of Psa_69:21. “It is finished!” What was finished? Your redemption and my redemption was finished. In His report to the father He had said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (Joh_17:4).

John 19:31

The first prophecy which John mentions was fulfilled. It says “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Psa_34:20). The second one still awaits fulfillment. “…they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son …” (Zec_12:10). He has been pierced! That part has been fulfilled. But Zechariah says that He shall return again, and when He comes, then they shall look upon the One whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him.

John 19:38

BURIAL IN THE TOMB OF JOSEPHWe are dealing with facts, the great historical facts of the gospel. What is the gospel? Paul defines it for us. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1Co_15:3-4). These are the central facts of the gospel. Our salvation is based on our relationship to those facts and to the person of Jesus Christ. Do you trust Him? Do you have faith in what He did for you when He died on the Cross? Do you believe that He died a vicarious, substitutionary, redemptive death for you? The two men who handle the body of Jesus are both prominent men. Joseph of Arimathaea is a rich man, and Nicodemus is the ruler of the Jews who had come to Jesus by night. They were both secret disciples, but now they come out in the open for the first time. Let’s not be too critical of these men. They had stayed in the background but, now that the Lord’s disciples have all scattered like sheep and gone under cover, these two men come out in the open. Because the children of Israel had lived in Egypt, some believe that they were the ones who perfected the method of embalming that the Egyptians used. The child of God in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament has always believed that the body will rise again. It is sown in corruption; it will be raised in incorruption. It is sown in weakness; it will be raised in power. It will be a glorified body. For that reason, the child of God has a reverence and a care for the body. The custom was to use about half the body weight of spices; so we can guess that the Lord Jesus weighed about two hundred pounds. They would prepare the body by rubbing it with myrrh and aloes, then wrapping it with linen strips. That would seal it and keep out the air. They would begin with a finger, then wrap all the fingers that way, then the hand, the arm, and the whole body. In other words, they wrapped the body of the Lord Jesus like a mummy. Now John mentions specifically that they wrapped the body in the linen cloth using the spices, because this is a very important detail for him. You remember that on the resurrection morning, when John saw the linen lying there and the body not in it, he understood that the Resurrection had taken place, and he believed.

John 19:41

They had to hurry because of the approaching Passover, and apparently they didn’t get the embalming process completely finished. This explains why the women bought more spices and planned to come to care for the body of the Lord after the feast day. This moves us into the next glorious chapter.