TITLE
John 19:17-42 – The Crucifixion
EXPLANATION
Now we come to the singular event in all of history;
the crucifixion of the Son of God. This
stands as the most paradoxical moment of all time. It was a day of heinous evil, because the
precious God man, Jesus, was executed unjustly.
It was a day of glorious goodness, because His death became the perfect
timeless atonement for the sins of every person in the world who would put
their faith and trust in Him.
The Romans took Jesus out of the city to a place
called Golgotha. He was crucified there,
along with two other men. Pilate had an
inscription written to place above Jesus’s head. It read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews.” The Jewish leaders wanted Pilate
to change the inscription to “This man said, I am King of the Jews.” They did not want to appear to give any sort
of credence to Jesus’s claim of Messiahship.
However, Pilate refused to change the sign. At this point he was probably frustrated with
the Jews for forcing his hand in the matter of Jesus’s crucifixion. After Jesus had been crucified, the soldiers
divided His clothing among themselves.
But, His tunic they gambled for.
Standing nearby, watching, were several women who had
followed Jesus, including His mother, Mary.
John was there as well. One can
only imagine the intense anguish Mary must have experienced, in watching her
firstborn son treated so horrifically.
Jesus, even in the midst of His pain, still thought of others. He made sure that John was going to take care
of His mother, now that He was going to be gone shortly. Eventually, Jesus surrendered His spirit and
died.
The Jews wanted the condemned men disposed of quickly,
because it was the day of Preparation for the Passover. So, the Romans came to break their legs, so
that they would quickly suffocate to death.
However, when they came to Jesus they realized He was already dead. They pierced His side with a spear to make
sure, and both blood and water came out of His body. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who both
seemed to have been disciples of Jesus by this point, arranged to have the body
taken down, prepared for burial, and placed in a new tomb.
APPLICATION
There are two elements I think we should focus on in
considering the crucifixion of Jesus.
The first is the amazing fulfillment of prophecy that surrounded His
death. As one reads the text, John the
author really tries to drive home how prophetic this entire sequence was. He repeatedly writes “to fulfill the
Scripture” or something similar. In this
passage alone, as John recorded it, no less than five Old Testament prophecies
were fulfilled, in verses 23-24, 28, 33-36, 37, and 39. And, that is not to mention the other
prophecies that John does not mention.
These include Isaiah 53:9, fulfilled in verses 18 and 41-42, as well as
the manner of His death, by crucifixion, which was itself a fulfillment of
Jesus’s own prophecy of His impending death in John 3:14, that He drew from
Numbers 21:8-9.
It was not only Jesus’s death, of course, that
fulfilled prophecy. Every step of the
way, from His birth, to His childhood, to His adult ministry was saturated with
prophetic fulfillment from the Hebrew Scriptures. It is good for us to dwell on this, to remind
ourselves of the sovereignty of God in which He meticulously planned and
executed every detail of the life of Christ.
This is the same God who is in charge of our own lives. If He was this careful with Jesus’s life and
death, should we not expect Him to exercise similar care and concern for our
lives?
It is certainly true that we are not the Christ of
God. So, some might reason, God does not
exercise the same attention to detail with our lives that He did with
Christ’s. Yet, Scripture is abundantly
clear both that we are in Him (Gal. 3:26-28) and are heirs of all that He has
(Rom. 8:17). As such, the implication is
that we are important to God as well, and worthy of His attention. This is both a privilege and honor that we
can scarcely comprehend the value of. At
the very least, we should be massively encouraged and lifted out of depressed
states by this glorious truth.
The second point I want to mention is simply the
horror of Jesus’s death. It has been
recorded in many other places, by people vastly more qualified than myself,
just how terrible a Roman crucifixion was.
But, I want to spend a few moments dwelling on it because I think it is
important to gain some understanding of what Jesus went through for us, so that
we can appreciate His sacrifice.
In the previous section John recorded that Jesus was
scourged. This was a barbaric
practice. The goal was to exact
punishment on the human body that was as cruel and painful as possible, while
not causing death. The guards used what
was called a flagrum. It was a short
handled, multi-thonged whip. Each thong
had bits of metal or bone embedded in it, so that when the whip struck the body
of the prisoner it would rip out enormous chunks of skin when pulled back. The express purpose of this tool was to
remove as much flesh from the body as possible, as quickly as could be done.
The crucifixion itself was no less dreadful. The condemned person was stripped naked, so
as to maximize their shame and embarrassment.
If they had been scourged first, of course their body was a wrecked mess
of blood, missing skin, and exposed organs.
They were nailed through the wrists and feet to a large wooden cross
that was then mounted in the ground so that the prisoner was in a vertical
position. The body’s weight, pulling
down upon the wrists, would produce excruciating pain. In addition, this unnatural position produced
extreme difficulty in breathing. So, in
order to relieve the pressure on the wrists as well as facillitate breath, the
crucified person would instinctively push up on their feet. This of course caused agony in the feet
because they were nailed to the cross.
The result was a situation in which the condemned alternated between
extreme pain in the wrists and the feet, punctuated by asphyxiation. They could not rest, they could not escape
the pain, and the will to live only prolonged their agony, sometimes for
days. If they had not already expired
from a variety of other medical trauma, eventually the prisoner would not have
the strength left to lift up any more, which would lead to death.
This is all horrific enough. And it is probably the aspect of Jesus’s
execution that we can identify with the most.
Not that most of us have endured this level of pain and humiliation. But we do at least have a concept of physical
pain. However, I believe there was
another side of Jesus’s death that was even more terrible for Him. And, it is one that we have a difficult time
grasping. That is, God the Son was, for
a time, separated violently from God the Father. This might not seem like such a big deal to
us. But consider. These are two persons of the Trinity, who
have always existed in perfect harmony and unity. If you are married, think of the best day
with your spouse that you have ever had.
There were no fights, no arguments, both of you agreed on everything you
wanted to do, you complimented each other by completing tasks in unison,
etc. Perhaps you have never had a day
like that. But, try to imagine it. Now amplify that image by 10,000. Then try to conceive of every day, from the
moment you met, to the day you both died together, like that. That might give us a taste of what it means
for the Father and Son to be one.
Now imagine that you were violently ripped away from
this other person. Even with our finite
minds, we can grasp the concept of becoming used to another person to such a
degree that when they are gone there is a massive emotional and mental hole
that they used to occupy. Furthermore,
this would be worse than their death.
Because, you are separated from them due to the fact that they planned
ahead of time to personally torture and kill you. You agreed to this, submitting humbly to
their will. And, during the torture,
they poured out all the anger they had ever experienced in their life into the
ravaging of your physical body, as if they had bottled up every drop of wrath
and saved it for you. Can you even
imagine the intensity of this emotional and spiritual horror? Is it then any wonder that Jesus cried out,
while hanging on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus obviously knew ahead of time what the
plan was. He knew what the outcome would
be. Hebrews 12:2 says that He knew the
joy that was before Him. Yet, in spite
of this knowledge, the terror of what He was going through was of such
magnitude that it caused Him to scream at His Father.
With all this having been said, I do not have a deep
theological point to make with this application. But, what I hope is that by dwelling for a
time on what Christ endured on our behalf, we can in some small way appreciate
His sacrifice for us, and worship Him in heartfelt gratitude. I think that is the deepest of theology in
itself, and it is the very least that Jesus deserves from us, His adopted
brothers and sisters.
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