John 19

Good Morning Brothers,

We have another brother joining us from Union Pacific.  I worked home with Bill Reid from the harbor last night.  He is going to join us in our study.  Here is a tentative plan for December.  We will finish our study of John on December 3rd, then go to Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians.  On December 20th I am thinking of starting Luke, and possibly mixing in a couple of chapters from Matthew, then continuing on through Luke.  Let me know what you think, I will post more on this later.

Here is the continuation of the story of Calvary.  Pilate is in a fix trying to get out of Crucifying Jesus. 

vs. 1-6 Pilate tries another tactic, offering up Barabbas did not work.  So Pilate has Jesus scourged and humiliated by the soldiers.  Satan had a heyday here.  The scourging alone killed many prisoners. The Romans used a leather whip with bits of metal and bone attached to the end of the tongs on the whip, called a cat of nine tails.  This was a particularly brutal punishment.  See Is. 50:6; 52:14-53:6.   But the soldiers went one step further, weaving a crown of thorns and using a purple robe.  I wonder if Pilate encouraged this.  He was a master of manipulation, this was also highly illegal since no sentence had been passed on Jesus yet.  Pilate brought Jesus out hoping that the punishment already administered would appease the crowd.  "Behold, the Man!" gave the connotation of hasn't He been through enough?  It didn't work though, the crowd cried out all the more "Crucify". 

vs. 6b-12  Pilate once again tries to release Jesus, he is met by more opposition, look at the answer in v. 7.  Pilate was already spooked, his wife had warned him off, and he had not found fault in Jesus.  Along with the awareness that he had concerning the works of Jesus.  After hearing this response, the Bible says that "he was even more afraid".  Pilate was definitely on the hot seat.  Remember, the Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks, where we hear about the Greek gods.  Many of these gods had their start as humans.  Pilate could not understand why Jesus would not defend Himself, yet in Isa 53:7 we find that Jesus was to be as a sheep sent to slaughter.  Also note the answer that Jesus gave Pilate in v. 11, He told Pilate that others would bear the greater sin.  Pilate did not like this answer, and tried all the more to release Jesus.  The Jews reminded him again that the only king recognized in Rome was Caesar.  Pilate was caught between a rock and a hard spot now.  He had had an innocent man flogged, and had released a guilty man.  Notice also that the chief priests were the ones talking for the people, they were the authority figures for the Jewish people. 

vs. 13-16 The stubborn statements made by Pilate verify his view of Jesus as King of the Jews.  Pilate went against his conscience and handed Jesus over to be Crucified.

vs. 17-22 Jesus is crucified, Pilate makes a point of continuing to call Jesus "King of the Jews".  He belabored the point by writing the inscription in "Hebrew, Latin and in Greek".  Pilate stuck to his guns on this one.  He was convinced that Jesus was King.  He was tired of playing the games of the chief priests.

vs. 23-24  The soldiers divided His outer garments among themselves and cast lots over His tunic.  This was common practice for the soldiers to split up the clothes, remember clothes were hand-made, and very expensive.  Not like the clothes today.  This was to fulfill Psalm 22:18.

vs. 25-27  Jesus attends to a small detail of appointing someone to watch over Mary. 

vs. 28-30  Jesus is given sour wine to drink on a sponge which is on the end of a branch of hyssop.  Look at Exodus 12:22.   ^"You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning"  New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Ex 12:22). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.  Remember Jesus referred to the wine as His blood.  With the protection of His shed blood over us, He was able to say at last, "it is finished".  He paid the price of sin in full.  He was an innocent man, proved to be innocent by a Roman judge, who took on the sin of a nation, and of the world.  The Phrase for "It is finished!" could also be translated "Paid in Full". 

vs. 31-37   Perhaps this explains the breaking of the legs:  "Those bound with ropes often survived on the cross several days. The dying man could rest himself on a wooden seat (Latin sedile ) in the middle of the cross. This support allowed him to breathe—and prolonged the agony of his death. When the soldiers needed to hasten death by asphyxiation, they would break the legs of the victims with iron clubs so they could no longer push themselves up; the skeleton of a crucified Jewish man recovered in 1968 confirms this practice attested in ancient literature. Romans would have allowed the bodies to rot on the cross, but Deuteronomy 21:23 and Jewish sensitivities about the sabbath require that these executions be speeded up, and Romans accommodated Jewish wishes particularly during the crowded festivals. ( Josephus declares that Jewish people always buried crucifixion victims before sunset.)^[1]" Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary : New Testament (Jn 19:31). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.  Since Jesus was obviously already dead they did not go through the effort of breaking His legs.  The soldiers unconciously fulfilled other prophecies from Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20; and Zech 12:10 (NASB Cross-references) Another reason was that the Law required that if someone dies on a cross, they had to be buried the same day, Deuteronomy 21:22,23.

vs. 38-42  The body of Jesus is prepared for burial and buried. Jesus was destined for the garbage heap outside of the city since He was crucified, yet Is 53:9 was fulfilled.   Some feel that Joseph had the grave dug especially for Jesus,  he and Nicodemus had studied the scripture and were prepared to have a proper grave ready for Jesus.  This grave did not happen along.  They also defiled themselves for the Passover by handling Jesus' dead body.  Also note that Nicodemus came around to accepting Jesus as Lord.  Otherwise why would he take a risk with the Chief Priests and the Pharisees by blatantly standing against them in this situation?

Lord, As we study Your Word, I pray that each one of us will understand that we can only come into Your presence as a direct result of Your work on the cross.  Thank You and Praise You.

In Him,

Joe Turner.