STUDY THEME: ONE SOLITARY LIFE: THE LIFE OF JESUS 7-08-01

UNIT 6: THE PERFECT SACRIFICE: IT IS FINISHED.

JOHN 19: 16-18, 28-30, 31-34, 38-42, 35-37.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 19.

In last Sunday’s lesson we accompanied Jesus and His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane where He was betrayed by Judas and forsaken by all the other disciples. He was taken before sunrise first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the High Priest that year. Annas was actually the power behind the throne in Jerusalem.

There was an informal examination by Annas, probably giving time for the members of the Sanhedrin to hurriedly gather together at the home of Caiaphas. The denial of Peter is recorded by John in John 18:15-18 and 25-27. In the courtyard of the High Priest Peter denied his Lord three times and then went out weeping as the cock crowed. John 18:24 says, “Then Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas.” Because, if Jesus was to be brought before Pilate for execution, the legal accusation must be brought by the current reigning High Priest, Caiaphas, in his capacity as chairman of the Sanhedrin. The consensus of the Sanhedrin was hurriedly reached to send Jesus to Governor Pilate. John 18:28 says “Then they led Jesus, still bound as a common criminal, from Caiaphas to the Prietorium, and it was early Friday morning.

The Roman phase of Jesus trial began with a first examination by Pilate to establish the charges in John 18:28-38a and then Herod Antipas interrogated Him in Luke 23:6-12. Lastly, Jesus appeared again before Pilate in John 18: 38b to 19:16 where our lesson begins today. No one can read this story without seeing the sheer majesty of Jesus. Never was He so regal as when men did their worst to humiliate Him.

1. PLEASE READ JOHN 19: 16-18.

In chapter 18 we had the Lord before Pilate’s judgment bar, but in this section we have Pilate before Christ. The trial was practically over when the judge himself went out to the people and said, “After careful examination, and after hearing all the charges, I find in Him no fault at all.” That was really a judgment of acquittal. Jesus had been tried and found innocent of the charges brought against Him. Pilate should have dismissed the case, and Jesus should have gone out free.

In Luke 23:6-12 Pilate, having learned that Jesus was from Galilee sent Jesus to Herod Antipas. His scheme failed, however, because Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate when Jesus would say nothing before Herod. Pilate and the Jewish religious authorities were playing a neat game of “hot potato” with Jesus. The chief priests wanted Him dead, but did not want the blame for His execution. They wanted to manipulate Pilate to do their dirty work for them. Thus if the people became upset by the death of Jesus, they could point to Pilate and say “He did it.”

By the same token; Pilate knew that Jesus did not deserve to die. So he tossed Jesus back to the religious authorities.

Pontius Pilate was appointed by and responsible to the Emperor of Rome, Tiberius Caesar. His main duty was to see that the imperial taxes were gathered and sent to Rome. His second main duty was to maintain peace by any means necessary. All the Gospels suggest that Pilate wanted to be honest and fair with Jesus but Roman politics told him clearly what the Emperor wanted—peace and tax money. Pilate served ten years as Procurator for Rome, 26 AD to 36AD.

We know that Pilate was hated by the Jews and that he hated the Jews. He possessed civil, military and criminal jurisdiction, and so there was in him the power of life and death.

Before Pilate the charge of the Sanhedrin made no mention of blasphemy. That would have meant nothing to Pilate. Instead, the charge presented was “We have found this Man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.” The last word in the accusation interested Pilate. He questioned Jesus, saying in John 18:37 “Are you a King then?”

To appease the people and free Jesus Pilate offered them their choice of a person to be released. Barabbas, a notorious rebel and murderer, or Jesus. The mob, led by the Priests, chose Barabbas. To gain the sympathy of the crowd for Jesus, Pilate turned him over to the Roman soldiers. They scourged Jesus, and abused Him to where He was no longer recognizable. Pilate brought him out wearing the purple robe and crown of thorns. When he presented Him before the mob he said ‘Behold the Man.”

One would have thought the sight of that patient suffering One standing there with the thorny crown pressed on His brow, and the purple robe on Him, and with a reed in His hand, and blood pouring down His face, would have been enough to soften the hardest heart and break down the strongest opposition. But there is that in the heart of the natural man which leads him to hate that which is holy, to hate perfect righteousness.

Instead of moving the sympathy of the people, the scourging of Jesus only made them more bloodthirsty. Pilate then is left with the dilemma, “What then shall I do with Jesus?” The mob replied “Crucify Him”. So Pilate compromised all that he knew to be right and ordered Jesus to be crucified. Some say “Self Interest” is the basic sin that crucified Jesus. Yet Luke writes in Acts 2:23 that the Suffering Servant Messiah was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” But sinful, lawless men were guilty. And each one could say “Who Me? No! I just live and let live. They did it.”

In his own conscience Pilate knows that Christ should go free, yet he didn’t have the courage to make the right decision and do the right thing. Pilate had sold his soul for the approval of the world, but back of it all was the thought of the insecurity of his own position, so he cries “Behold the Man!”

. It was then the chief priests and officers of the Sanhedrin cried out, saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Then Pilate said unto them, “Take Him, and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him”. The Jews replied, “By our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." ”When Pilate heard that saying he was the more afraid.” He took Jesus back into the judgment hall and questioned Him again. “And from henceforth Pilate sought to release Him,” but the Jews reminded him that if he let the Man go, he was no friend of Caesar. The most astonishing thing the Jews said that day was “We have no king but Caesar.” The Jews were prepared to abandon every principle they had in order to eliminate Jesus. John gives the most dramatic account of the trial of Jesus found in the N.T.

It was about 6 A.M. when Pilate finally gave up and surrendered Jesus to the mob to be crucified. Of all the travesties of justice in human history, the crowning example is what Jesus experienced after His arrest at Gethsemane. Unfounded charges were trumped up against him, and the Jewish religious leaders violated all judicial protocol to get what they wanted—a death sentence.

Carrying the cross Jesus made His way down the Via Delarosa to a place which in the Hebrew is called Golgotha, and in the Latin Calvary (the place of a skull).It is likely that the place received its name because it was on a hill shaped like a skull. So Jesus went, wounded and bleeding, His flesh torn to ribbons by the scourging; carrying His own cross to the place where He was to die. It was there the tragedy of all the ages was to be enacted. There they crucified Him and two others with Him, and Jesus in the center. It is now 9 A.M. when the Sacrifice of which the offerings of the O.T. were types was presented to God on our behalf.

John simply stated that they crucified him, but those words are paced with much detail and pain. There was no more terrible death than death by crucifixion yet none of the Gospel writers give the details of the crucifixion of Jesus. Other writers tell us that Jesus was laid on the cross, and a soldier found the depression in His wrists, where he drove a wrought-iron nail into each wrist. The cross was raised, and one wrought-iron nail was driven through the arch of both feet. A man crucified in this position sagged under his weight, and the nails pressing against the nerve in the wrist caused fiery pain in the hands. The victim would raise himself up to relieve some of this pain, but the agony would be transferred to his feet.

This constant raising and lowering exhausted the victim’s arms, and cramps would set in. With the onset of cramps, the person would lose the ability to raise up and breathe. Ironically, he could get air into his lungs, but he couldn’t exhale. When the cramps would spasmodically subside, he could raise himself upward to exhale.

For Jesus, the raising and lowering against the rough wood caused great agony because of the wounds in His lacerated back. After hours of hanging in such a position, His pain deepened in the chest as the pericardium filled with serum and compressed on the heart Increasingly, Jesus’ heart had to work harder to pump.

At noon when that dread darkness spread over all the scene, it was a symbol of the spiritual darkness into which Jesus went as the Man Christ made sin for us that we might have the righteousness of God in Him. It was then that God laid on Him the iniquity of us all—that his soul was made an offering for sin. It was because He took our place and endured the wrath of God that our sins deserved. This was the cup from which He shrank in Gethsemane; now, pressed to His lips, He drained it to the bitter dregs.

Surely the greatest agony for Jesus, though, was His separation from God the Father. The mental and spiritual torture of isolation drove Him to cry out to His Father about being forsaken. Just as the darkness was passing He cried out in Matt. 27: 46 “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” In the first three hours Jesus addressed God as “Father.” But in the last three hourse He addressed Him as God. For it was God as Judge who was dealing with His Holy Son on our behalf as Christ too the sinner’s place. 2 Cor. 5:21 says “God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jesus was not the only one enduring such a horrible and excruciating execution. Placing Jesus between two common criminals may have been Pilate’s way of insulting the Jews. God saw it another way; Jesus was hanging between two sinners. The thieves too cast the same belittling and ridiculing taunts at Jesus. From the very gates of hell one turned to Jesus and cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom power.” To him Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.” This is the only case of “death bed conversion” recorded in the Bible. One was saved upon the cross that none might despair—and only one that none might presume. Men can be saved in the final hour—but not many.

Pilate had written the inscription that hung on Jesus Cross in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” It was as much as to say He was being crucified for setting Himself up as King in rebellion against Caesar. When the Chief Priests protested Pilate replied “What I have written, I have written.”

PLEASE TURN TO VERSE 28.

2. PLEASE READ JOHN 19: 28-30.

In the end Jesus was not alone. At His cross there were the four women named in Vs. 25. The eternal love of motherhood is exemplified in Mary at the cross. Jesus might be a criminal in the eyes of the law, but He was her son. One of the loveliest things in all the gospel story is Jesus, in the agony of the cross, committing His mother to John’s care and John to Mary’s, so they should comfort each other’s loneliness when Jesus was gone. In Vs. 28-30 John brings us face to face with the humanity of Jesus.

He emphasizes Jesus’ human suffering. When Jesus was on the cross, he knew the agony of thirst. He had been on the cross for six hours. He had become dehydrated by the sun’s heat and the loss of blood. Hours had passed without any liquid. His mouth certainly was dried out. He wanted to be heard when he shouted His victory shout. To do that, He needed some liquid to moisten His mouth. This view is supported in the first words of Vs. 30, When Jesus therefor had received the vinegar.

You will remember that when the wine had been offered earlier in Mark 15: 23 Jesus refused the offer because that wine had something added to dull the pain but it would also dull His senses. Jesus was determined to endure the agony of the cross with His full faculties intact. Ps. 69:21 says, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Jesus was not delirious when He hung on the cross. He was in full control of His mental faculties and knew that all was now completed. The divine human nature of Jesus is quite clear in this passage. As a human being He needed the drink. His divine mind compelled Him to ask for something to drink so that the scripture would be fulfilled.

Herschel H. Hobbs wrote “We have sought to emphasize the humanity of Jesus in the light of the crucifixion. This is not to discredit in any sense His deity. Rather it is intended to emphasize the depths to which Jesus went for our salvation.”

The Gospels record seven times that Jesus spoke while on the cross. John records three of these sayings in Vs. 26-27, 28 and 30. Mark 15:25 says that Jesus was crucified at 9 A.M. and in Vs. 33 he says that from noon to 3 P.M. “there was darkness over the whole land.”

3. PLEASE READ JOHN 19: 31-34.

After Jesus had received the drink, Mark 15:37 says “He cried out loudly, “It is finished.” This statement is one word in the Greek “TETELESTAI”. This was followed by “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.” Having said this Jesus breathed His last breath. Thus He died—in His own time, in His own way. He voluntarily laid down His life. Seeing this, the Centurion “praised God and said , “Truly this Man was the Son of God,” and he broke out also, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” In Ps. 22:18 we read, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots for my vesture.”

At 3 P.M. while the sun’s light faded, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Matthew added that the curtain was torn from top to bottom. God ripped it apart as a symbol that men were now free to come into the Holy of Holies as oft as they might need to come into God’s presence. The wrent veil speaks of redemption accomplished.

The “Day of Preparation” referred to Friday, the day on which the Jews prepared for the Sabbath. This was to be a special Sabbath as it was the beginning for the “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Thus the Jewish authorities did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath.

The Romans often left victims of crucifixion for days as an intimidating reminder to other would be violators. The Jewish leaders, who considered death by hanging a sign of being cursed by God, did not want the corpses of Jewish victims left exposed overnight. They appealed to Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down,. The breaking of the legs would hasten death since victims could not raise themselves up to breathe. The soldiers had to break the legs of the two thieves but not Jesus legs since He was already dead. But just to make sure Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

A medical explanation of the mixture of blood and water suggests that Jesus’ heart had ruptured. Blood had flowed into the pericardium where it coagulated and mixed with the serum. The soldiers’ spear then pierced the pericardium and released the mixture of fluids. This was even further proof that Jesus had died physically. No faked death. No swoon theory. No false identification. Jesus was dead.

John’s concern in recording this event was to establish clear evidence that Jesus had really died, a fact being denied by Gnostic heretics, at the time John wrote. Interestingly, the Koran of the Muslims denies it too. It says, “They did not kill him, nor did they crucify Him, but they thought they did.”

To John, the fluid that flowed from Jesus’ side was more than a proof of the divine/human nature of Jesus. It was a symbol of the two great ordinances of the church. There is one ordinance which is based on water—baptism; and there is one which is based on blood—the Lord’s Supper with its cup of blood-red juice.

AS Toplady wrote and we sing:

Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From the riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

4. please read John 19: 38-42

Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in the account of the burial of Jesus in all four Gospels, (see also Matt.17:57-60; Mark 15: 42046; Luke 23: 50-54.). Joseph was a rich man and a member of the Sanhedrin . He was a disciple of Jesus, who was looking for the kingdom of God. He had been a secret disciple until Jesus’ death. Then he acted boldly in asking Pilate for Jesus’ body. Pilate gave permission. Then Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus’ body, anointed it, and placed it in a new tomb, which was actually the property of Joseph.

The irony of this incident is that this secret disciple acted with great courage at a time when most of Jesus’ disciples had fled. Joseph dared to reveal Himself as a loyal disciple of Jesus when all seemed lost and the danger was greatest. He was in danger from his colleagues on the Jewish council, and he was in danger from Pilate. The Romans ordinarily did not allow the bodies of crucified prisoners to be buried; yet Joseph asked Pilate for permission: and Pilate granted his request.

Nicodemus is mentioned only in John’s Gospel. He appears in John 3, where Jesus told him about the new birth. Nothing is said there about Nicodemus’s long-range response to this revelation. We meet Nicodemus next in a Sanhedrin meeting in John 7:50-52. He like Joseph, was a secret disciple; however, he asked the Sanhedrin whether it was fair to condemn a person without hearing him. They dismissed this objection. Perhaps this was a feeble effort to defend Jesus, but Nicodemus’s appearance to help bury Jesus was evidence that he was now an open disciple. This action was as risky as what Joseph had done.

Nicodemus brought about 100 pounds (A Roman pound was 12 ounces) of a mixture of myrrh and aloes, spices used in preparing a body for burial. This was a significant and expensive show of respect for Jesus. The spices would mask the odor of a decomposing body. He and Joseph wound the body in linen clothes with the spices. John wrote that this was done as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Then they placed Jesus’ body in a new sepulcher. This rushed burial was because it was the Jews’ preparation day. Because the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday, they acted quickly. Bodies had to be buried before the Sabbath. And the sepulcher was nigh at hand. Matt. 27:60 indicates Joseph owned the tomb. Jesus burial in a wealthy man’s tomb was a fulfillment of Isa. 53: 9.

The burial of Jesus ties together with the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, the basic content of the good news of salvation. It testifies to the reality of His death and His resurrection. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “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.”

5. PLEASE READ JOHN 19: 35-37.

After Jesus died on the cross and the soldier pierced His side with a sword, the apostle John provided a testimonial to the truth of what he had seen. The man who saw it was given testimony, and his testimony is true. Although all the disciples had fled when Jesus was arrested, John rallied and came to Golgotha. Jesus commission him to take care of His mother, and John then took her to his home in Jerusalem. John returned to the cross in time to be an eyewitness of Jesus’ death and the piercing by the sword. Not only was John fully assured that he tells the truth, but he also provided this testimony so that you also may believe. No one can believe unto salvation without accepting the truth that Jesus really died on the cross. His death was necessary for our salvation because “the wages of sin is death’” (Rom 6:23). Jesus paid the price for our sins, and, we can be saved by believing in Him and His work on the cross.

John pointed out that the Scriptures prophesied about the two events that gave evidence of Jesus’ physical death. One, there was no need to break Jesus’ bones to hasten death since He was already dead. Two, Jesus was pierced. Jesus’ bones were not broken so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” The O.T. passage in question is probably a reference to the Passover lamb. “Do not break any of the bones” (Ex. 12:46 see Numb. 9-12). The fact that the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs fulfilled God’s plan in the way His Son would die.

It was necessary for Jesus to die, but for Him to be the perfect sacrifice, He had to be whole—just as the lambs offered to God under the law of Moses had to be without defect. In another O.T. quotation, John did not say the Scripture was fulfilled, only that another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” The reason is that Zechariah 12:10 refers to the piercing of the Lord, who says, “They will look on me, the one they have pierced.” Zechariah was predicting a time of repentance and mourning on Israel’s part, a time when they will look on the Lord in faith. This will occur at Jesus’ return (Rom. 11:26-27; Rev. 1:7), but the piercing of our Lord occurred on the cross—a powerful testimony to the deity of Christ.

John uses Roman time with the hours starting at 12 midnight and 12 noon as is done today. Thus the 6^th hour in vs. 14 would be 6 A.M, ”when morning was come.”

SUMMARY:

Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers who crucified Him between two criminals. The crucifixion of Jesus revealed human sin at its worst and divine love at its best. Near the end of His time on the cross, Jesus cried out that He had completed the work of divine provision of salvation. His death was the once-for-all, all sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who had been secret disciples, showed courage in burying Jesus. Jesus’ burial set the stage for His resurrection, the other basic part of the good news of salvation. John, the writer of the Fourth Gospel, was an eyewitness of Jesus’ death. He wrote about it so people might believe in Jesus and have eternal life. The responses of those involved in the condemnation, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus, typify varying responses of people to Jesus. We may now pray, “Lord, I thank you for providing the way of salvation through the sacrificial death of Jesus.”

NEXT WEEK FROM JOHN 20 WE CELEBRATE EASTER MORNING AS MARY MAGDALENE FINDS THE TOMB EMPTY. A.V. DAUGHERTY 7-8-01

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