Today we go into the heart of darkness, and the heart of
light. The death and burial of Jesus Christ, John 19: 16 – 42.
From the time John the Baptist cried out, ‘Behold the Lamb of
God’, through to when Mary anoints Jesus’ body for burial, so the writer, in
every chapter, tells us that Jesus must die.
And now the most famous death in human history – happens.
The first scene is poignant (v.17). Jesus ‘went out bearing
his own cross’. The sin bearer, going alone to where God has sent him. There is
no mention in this Gospel of Jesus collapsing and needing Simon of Cyrene to
help him, as in the Synoptics. No doubt this happened later, but our writer prefers
to keep the camera on Jesus going out alone to ‘The Place of A Skull’. The
shape of the hill, known as Golgotha, and Calvary in Latin, says it all: this
is about death. There was a tradition that Adam’s skull was buried there, and
so, the second Adam goes with his cross to atone for the first Adam’s sin.
In v. 18 we read, ‘There they crucified him’. There is no
lingering over the violence and brutality of crucifixion, but instead we are
asked to look at Jesus between two others. He is at the centre with the
sinners. This is his throne, these are his subjects.
We then have four verses about the notice that Pilate had put
up over Jesus’ head (19-22) For the Romans this was important. They wanted
people seeing the crucifixions to know what the crime was that deserved such a
terrible punishment. Jesus’s crime is sedition, that he is the king of the
Jews. So this is written in three languages – Aramaic, the language of the
Jews; Latin, the language of the Romans, and Greek, everyone’s language. And so
three times we read that Jesus on the cross is ‘The King of The Jews’. As in
the last lesson, we are back to irony and identity.
There is irony that Pilate was very weak about a matter of
great importance – the innocence or guilt of Jesus; but stubborn when it came
to this matter of what to write on this notice: ‘What I have written, I have
written.’ There is also spiteful revenge. The Jews had humiliated Pilate, he
now wants to humiliate them with this notice. And of course, identity: Jesus is
King. And again irony, the king’s throne is a cross.
The notice is in three languages, so the Jews from the Diaspora
gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover would be able to read it. That is Pilate’s
reason for writing the notice out in three languages. Ironically then this unscrupulous
politician proclaims to us all that Jesus of Nazareth is not just king of the
Jews, he is king of every living being.
We now come to what happens when Jesus is on the cross, The
first event is about the soldiers and Jesus’ clothes (23 – 24). Crucifixion is
not just about physical pain and death. It is very much about humiliation, the ripping
away of all human dignity. So, the victim is stripped naked and then nailed to
the cross.
It was normal for the soldiers to take the clothes for
themselves. What is different here is that one piece of the clothing was
seamless. Rather than tear it up, the soldiers decided to throw lots for it –
and this was exactly according to the prediction in Psalm 22: 18. ‘They divide
my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots’. The writer again
reminding us about who is controlling events: the God who inspired the Old
Testament.
Some have suggested that the seamless tunic is a reference to
the robe the High Priest wore. This is not certain. But, as we saw during the
trial, the writer was wanting us to ask – who is the real high priest here? And
on the cross, Jesus was a priest, bringing man to God through his own
suffering.
At the end of v. 24 we read, ‘So the soldiers did these
things’ They gambled for Jesus’ tunic. It is a picture of rough, hardened men
doing their job.
Then we have a very different picture (25 – 27). We have four
people who love Jesus. The writer wants us to see this contrast as the reality.
Either we are like the soldiers, not caring for who Jesus is, just wanting to
profit from his suffering; or we are like these four, wanting to be near him.
The first is Jesus’ mother, whom we first met in Chapter Two.
The second is another Mary. She is his mother’s sister and the wife of Clopas. In
Mark this woman is called Salome, and in Matthew she is called the mother of
John and James, the sons of Zebedee. So, John Zebedee was Jesus’ cousin. The
third is yet another Mary, Mary Magdalene. There is no introduction given about
her at all. Just her name. Again this shows that the writer expects his readers
to have read the Synoptics where there is more about Mary Magdalene. And the
fourth is the Beloved Disciple, the writer of this Gospel. He has followed
Christ to Annas’ house, now he is here by the cross.
We can understand why the Roman soldiers allowed three women
to get near the cross. They posed no threat. But why did they allow a man to
come near? There are stories of friends trying to pull down the person being
killed on the cross. Perhaps the soldiers thought he was not a threat, or, more
likely, they saw that the Beloved Disciple was a very important figure in
Jerusalem – known to the High Priest as we learned in Chapter 18 – and so they
allow him to be there.
Jesus sees his mother, and is concerned for her. What a
terrible scene for any mother. So from the cross, he seeks to comfort her: ‘Yes,
I, your son, I am going, but here is your son. The Beloved Disciple becomes
Mary’s son and she becomes his mother. They become family, and he takes her to
his home.
What of Jesus’ brothers? They were not believers. That will
happen later, after the Resurrection. Jesus wants his mother to be looked after
by one of his followers, not by his brothers who did not believe in Him.
So at one level this is about Jesus showing love to his
mother. But there is another level. We have a cross in the middle of two
others, and there is a garden nearby (v. 41) and we have a man and a woman in
front of that cross. Many see here a new Adam and Eve, in front of another tree
of life.
From the cross Jesus is ordering the start of a new people, a
new family – this is your mother, this is your son, this is your sister, this
is your brother, and we already know from the teaching Jesus gave what the rule
of that family is to be, it is to be the rule of sacrificial love. Mary to love
the Beloved Disciple as Jesus loves them now – from the cross, the Beloved
Disciple to love Mary as Jesus loves her now – from the cross. The start of the
church is at the foot of the cross, and it continues in a home, v. 27.
Our next section is Jesus’ death and the piercing of his side.
(28 – 37).
In the three verses that the writer uses for Jesus’ death,
the writer wants to emphasize the authority of Jesus. It is Jesus who knows
when he is going to die – not the soldiers, nor Pilate as we will learn later.
And it is Jesus who bows his head and He gives up his Spirit.
And again the writer wants us to understand the importance of
Scripture being fulfilled. The ‘I thirst’, is again a reference to Psalm 22 –
this time v. 15.
When Jesus says ‘I thirst’ the soldiers give him sour wine.
This was not to help Jesus, this was to make his pain worse. Some say there is
a reference to the Passover here. For in the Exodus story every Israeli had to
put the blood of that lamb over his door. This was done using a hyssop branch. That
is what the soldiers use here.
There is much painful irony here – and much kindness
Jesus is the one who gives the water of life so we may never
thirst; remember John 4. But here, the giver is the one who suffers the most
terrible thirst. We drink the water of life because He became thirsty. And
Jesus is the one who gives the best wine, remember John 2.
But here he is given the very worst, sour wine. This is tragic irony, but also
we are astounded at the generosity of Jesus. He gives all, we take all.
After taking the sour wine, Jesus says, ‘It is finished’. What
beautiful words. It is accomplished. The work of salvation of every human being
has been achieved. Jesus has completed the work his Father gave him to do, he
has drunk the cup to the bottom.
In the Greek it does not say that Jesus gave up His spirit,
but the Spirit. Some believe this is a reference to the Holy Spirit. This is
suitable because throughout the Gospel there has been a connection between the
death of Jesus and the giving of the Spirit. So John the Baptist says ‘Behold
the Lamb of God’, referring to Jesus’ death, but he also says, I saw the Spirit
remain on him’. With Nicodemus Jesus must be lifted up – his death – and
Nicodemus, all of us must be born again of the Spirit. Perhaps the clearest
reference is in Chapter 7: 37 – 39 when Jesus says that all who will believe in
Him will have rivers of living water in their hearts, and then the writer
explains that this will happen – after his death. And throughout the Farewell
Discourse Jesus keeps on saying, it’s better that I go away, it’s better that I
die, because then the Paraclete will come. So the Greek makes sense. Jesus gave
up – the Spirit. As he died, so the Spirit is given.
John is the only Gospel to tell us about Jesus’ side being
pierced. It is very important. Jesus was crucified on the Friday, the next day
– which started on Friday evening – was a high Sabbath, because of the
Passover. When someone was crucified it could take a day or two for them to
die, and then the corpses would stay on the cross to be eaten by vultures. This
helped the Romans , for the longer the victims were on the cross, the longer the
warning to others was there. So this was the normal practice. However, the Jews don’t want the grisly sight of three bodies
on three crosses to cast a shadow over their Passover. They want Jesus and
those two thieves taken down and buried – that would be in a common grave for
criminals. So they come to Pilate to ask him to give orders for the legs of the
three to be broken. This would mean the weight of their bodies would collapse
their lungs, they wouldn’t be able to breathe, and they would die. Pilate gave his
permission and so the soldiers come to break the legs of the victims.
But Jesus is already dead.
There was no need for anything else to happen. His body just
had to be taken down and buried. The soldiers had no other duty. So it seems to
be completely a matter of chance that one soldier decides to pierce Jesus’ side
with a spear.
The writer then brings the camera very close and says look,
now look at what happened. Blood and water came out. Medically this is very
likely, you can read about that. But it is not the science the writer wants us
to take in. He wants us to understand the significance of blood and water
coming from the broken body of Jesus Christ. This is not just another detail.
This is something he wants us to take in, to believe, for this is at the heart
of our Christian faith. That is why he says – ‘I was there, I saw this with my
own eyes. This is not a made-up story. This happened.’ (v.35)
Why is this so important?
One reason is that, again, the writer is underlining how
Scripture is being fulfilled. This soldier, who had no reason to pierce Jesus’
side, he was fulfilling two Scriptures. One is Psalm 34:20 that no bone of
Jesus would be broken, and the other is Zechariah 12:10, that we would look on
him whom they have pierced.
We should be in no doubt, the death of Jesus of Nazareth
happened because this was the will of God – in every detail.
And surely we should see that this is the new temple. Jesus
told us this back in Chapter 2: ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will
rebuild it’ (2:19). We were told in Chapter 4 that the different temples the
Samaritans and the Jews were using were not important (4:21). In Chapter 5 we
saw that the temple could not bring healing to the crippled man, and in Chapter
7 Jesus is in the temple when he talks about rivers of water. He was saying,
the water does not come from this temple. It comes from the temple of my body.
Two things happened in the temple; and one thing outside. In
the temple the wrath of God is satisfied by the blood of the sacrifice. That
then means, secondly, there can be fellowship with God.
When the writer says – ‘I saw the blood’, that is what he is
saying. In this temple, the blood deals with the wrath of God, in this temple
there can be fellowship between man and God.
And then on the outside, water is meant to flow. This is what
we read in Ezekiel 47. There we have a vision of a river of life flowing from
the temple. There was no river flowing from the temple in Jerusalem full of
life for others, there was just nationalism there.
But here, at the cross of Jesus, the writer says – ‘I saw the
water, I saw the water flowing from the broken body of Jesus Christ.’
The cross of Jesus Christ – the place of cleansing for our
sins, and the place the Holy Spirit gives us new life.
So we come to the burial in v. 38 – 42. The account starts –
as it does in the Synoptics – with Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, seeking
permission from Pilate to deal with the body. This was courageous of Joseph. It
was also kind. Without Joseph’s appeal to Pilate, Jesus’s body would have been buried in a
common mass grave for criminals Shame would
have followed him to the grave. Joseph does not want that to happen. He wants
Jesus to be buried with dignity.
And why did Pilate agree for this to happen? Because he knew
that Jesus was not a criminal. He knew he deserved a decent burial. And – as
with the notice on the cross, he knew this would upset the Jews. They wanted
Jesus of Nazareth to be buried with all the other criminals.
While this account is similar to what we have in the
Synoptics, as is so usual with John, we are told more. We are told that Joseph
was a ‘secret follower’ of Jesus; we are told that Nicodemus – whom we last
heard from in Chapter 7 is with Joseph of Arimathea; we are told that Nicodemus
brought a lot of spices with him; and we are told that this new grave – was in
a garden.
Each detail is important, and enriches the story. Let’s look
at them – Joseph and Nicodemus, the spices, and the garden. For the burial of
Jesus, the writer brings not just Joseph into the story, but Joseph and
Nicodemus. Both of them were members of the Sanhedrin. You will remember that
Jesus called Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. They were important people. That is
why Joseph could visit Pilate when most surely his office was closed.
What is the significance of these two important men coming to
bury Jesus? There are two things here. The writer called Josephus a ‘secret
follower’ then he reminds us that Nicodemus first came to Jesus at night – also
in secret. But both of them – even while in the Sanhedrin – had been drawn to
Jesus. The significance? The writer is saying anyone can follow Jesus,
anywhere. Never make the mistake that just because someone is working in a
particular situation they cannot follow Jesus. Church history is full of people
like Nicodemus and Josephus.
And then secondly, while they were secret believers for a
season, perhaps that was wise, eventually, at the end of the story, they must
come out of the night, and they must show their devotion to Jesus. Being a
secret believer is always a temporary situation.
Now let’s consider the spices which we don’t hear about in
the Synoptics. Nicodemus brings a lot with him: 45 kilos. These were to keep
the body from decaying. Perhaps so much was needed because of the Sabbath, but
many suggest that here the royal identity of Jesus is being underlined, because
an extravagant amount of spices was used for a king.
Throughout the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion the author
has always wanted to show that Jesus is the suffering King. Now surely he is doing
the same – two rulers of the people come to bury him with spices in a tomb
nobody has used. This is the burial of a king.
We come to the last detail John tells us that the Synoptics
don’t. The garden. This is one of those hidden doors. We push and there is
quite a lot behind this word. Man is created and put in a garden. Man is then
tempted to disobey God and disaster happens - in that garden. Man is expelled
from Paradise, and there are angels to make sure he cannot come back.
Then there is another garden, the garden of Gethsemane and
here a man decides to do God’s will, not his and so we have another tree of
life. Paul calls the cross, a tree.
So now we are told that this grave is in a garden. This means
that the garden story has not finished. We sense that something is going to
happen. And something will happen in that garden in the next chapter.
Chapter 19 is not an easy chapter, but it ends in a garden
and this brings hope for gardens are places where new life bursts forward.
As always, what a blessing that we have John’s account of
Jesus’ burial. It enriches us.
What to say in a conclusion? Maybe this. Let’s return to the
cross. Jesus said, ‘It is finished’. That in Greek is one word. It is the word
you write on a bill when it has been paid. The price for our salvation has been
paid. It is finished. The blood has been shed, it cleanses us from all sin. And
the water of life – right now is flowing from the broken body of Jesus Christ.
And of course there is more. See here -
https://sternfieldthoughts.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-gospel-of-john-resurrection-john-20.html
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