John 19

When Jesus was being questioned by the priestly authorities, He was slapped by a guard. The thought of something like that happening is so jarring, because of who Christ is and what He has done for us. He is the eternal Son of God who was willing to take our hell upon Himself in order to bring heaven and earth together again. The mission that He accomplished is so big, and He is personally so far from having any fault in Himself, that it is repulsive to think about a person deciding to lift His hand against Him and actually strike Him in the face. But that action was only the beginning of revolting indignities perpetrated against our holy king. And though Pilate had Jesus flogged, and the soldiers mocked Him and caused Him pain, we cannot forget that He was in this spot because of us. He was there to atone for our sins.

There was no guilt in Jesus Christ. Pilate knew at least a part of what these words meant. Yet somehow he permitted this all to take place. Did he imagine that this kind of humiliation and degradation would satisfy those who were against Jesus? If so, he was wrong. The chief priests and officers demanded His crucifixion. The governor was trying to avoid any responsibility for whatever the crowd might do, yet he seemed to permit the worst, though He knew Jesus did not deserve the cross according to the rules of Roman law. The Jews knew this as well, but they first tried to make the case that He deserved death as a blasphemer according to Jewish law since he claimed to be the Son of God.

The use of this title was somehow alarming to Pilate. He went back into his headquarters and spoke to Jesus again, attempting to question him further without any real success. He said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” This is just the matter that caused such controversy among the Jewish leaders earlier, that Jesus said He came from heaven, from His Father who reigns in that place. But Jesus would not speak to Pilate about this. He had previously stated that His kingdom was not of this world. The governor was puzzled by Jesus’ lack of interest in any answer that might induce Pilate to free Him. This kind of behavior had to be very unusual. Pilate had the power of life and death over people. Yet Jesus testified to the truth that Pilate was under the sovereign authority of Almighty God. That point was proven soon by the fact that Pilate was trying to release Jesus, and was unsuccessful in his efforts, since someone greater than Pilate was in charge here.

The way that the leaders of the Jews seemed to achieve their aim to have Jesus put to death according to Roman authority was by making the case that Jesus was a threat to Roman order. This did move Pilate, since there were those who were clearly willing to make the case that unless he consented to this death by crucifixion, he was no friend of Caesar. Their reasoning was interesting. Jesus was clearly presenting himself as some king. This seemed to be generally accepted. Any unauthorized king in Palestine was by definition a threat to Roman authority there. Therefore, Jesus was an enemy of Caesar, and if Pilate was a friend of Caesar, he would agree to the crucifixion of Jesus. The error in this argument is that Jesus was not leading a rebellion against the civil authority of nations. As He had stated, His kingdom was a different sort of kingdom than the kingdoms of this world. Pilate delivered Jesus over to be crucified.

Then it actually happened. Jesus was put on a Roman cross. Psalm 22 was fulfilled, a psalm that described this crucifixion with some definite but veiled details centuries such a punishment was apparently used by any nation. Pilate’s inscription stood. Here was the King of the Jews, punished for us on a Roman cross. Even the detail of the dividing of His clothes among the soldiers took place according to that Scripture, and this was done by soldiers, not by followers of Christ trying to make Him look like the suffering hero of Psalm 22.

Jesus took care of one remaining detail as a son of Mary, and further fulfilled other passages from the Hebrew Bible in His words and actions, and then it was all over. The Son of God, the great Teacher, the powerful Healer, the hope of the world, was dead. He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. He was gone. There can be no doubt about this. The soldiers confirmed it. There were observers of these events who testified to them. John saw blood and water come from His side, which had been pierced by a soldier’s spear. Reliable witnesses from the ranks of Jewish leadership, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, saw to the burial of His body with the permission of Pilate, and they laid the body of the Son of Man in a borrowed tomb.

Here we mourn, at least for a time. Though we have come to rightly boast in the cross, we cannot help but feel that what was happening here was horribly wrong. He was innocent. He could have stopped this. He was powerful. But now He was gone. It is the resurrection that reassures us that He was right in allowing this greatest of all disgraces to be committed against Him. This was what was necessary for our salvation. It was not enough for Him to be slapped, beaten, mocked, stripped, and pierced. He had to die, because the wages of sin is death. It was the will of the Father that the Son would pay those wages for us. It was, in some sense, the will of the Lord to crush Him, according to Isaiah 53.

Much good came from this one death. We could never have know resurrection without the death of Christ occurring first. The blood that showered forth from this Lamb has now become for us a fountain of cleansing water. We are healed. We are clean. We are restored. We are forgiven. We are alive.