John 19 - Final. Complete. Finished.
- Chad Werkhoven
- Dec 28, 2022
- 2 min read
As you wrap up 2022 and prepare for 2023, be reminded that your most pressing need is finished.
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John 19 (ESV)
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.
2 And the soldiers
twisted together a crown of thorns
and put it on his head
and arrayed him in a purple robe.
3 They came up to him, saying,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
and struck him with their hands.
4 Pilate went out again and said to them,
“See, I am bringing him out to you
that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
5 So Jesus came out, wearing
the crown of thorns
and the purple robe.
Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out,
“Crucify him,
crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him,
for I find no guilt in him.”
7 The Jews answered him,
“We have a law,
and according to that law
he ought to die
because he has made himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.
9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus,
“Where are you from?”
But Jesus gave him no answer.
10 So Pilate said to him,
“You will not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have
authority to release you
and authority to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered him,
“You would have no authority over me at all
unless it had been given you from above.
Therefore he
who delivered me over to you
has the greater sin.”
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him,
but the Jews cried out,
“If you release this man,
you are not Caesar’s friend.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
13 So when Pilate heard these words,
he brought Jesus out
and sat down
on the judgment seat
at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.
14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover.
It was about the sixth hour.
He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
15 They cried out,
“Away with him,
away with him,
crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus,
17 and he went out,
bearing his own cross,
to the place called
The Place of a Skull,
which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
18 There they crucified him,
and with him two others,
one on either side,
and Jesus between them.
19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.
It read,
“Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews.”
20 Many of the Jews read this inscription,
for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city,
and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
“Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’
but rather,
‘This man said,
I am King of the Jews.’ ”
22 Pilate answered,
“What I have written
I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his garments
and divided them into four parts,
one part for each soldier;
also his tunic.
But the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from top to bottom,
24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.”
This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things,
25 but standing
by the cross of Jesus
were
his mother
and his mother’s sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw
his mother
and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby,
he said to his mother,
“Woman, behold, your son!”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus,
knowing that all was now finished,
said
(to fulfill the Scripture),
“I thirst.”
29 A jar full of sour wine stood there,
so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,”
and he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit.
31 Since it was the day of Preparation,
and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day),
the Jews asked Pilate
that their legs might be broken
and that they might be taken away.
32 So the soldiers came
and broke the legs of the first,
and of the other who had been crucified with him.
33 But when they came to Jesus
and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs.
34 But one of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear,
and at once there came out blood and water.
35 He who saw it has borne witness—
his testimony is true,
and he knows that he is telling the truth—
that you also may believe.
36 For these things took place
that the Scripture might be fulfilled:
“Not one of his bones will be broken.”
37 And again another Scripture says,
“They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
38 After these things
Joseph of Arimathea,
who was a disciple of Jesus,
but secretly for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate
that he might take away the body of Jesus,
and Pilate gave him permission.
So he came and took away his body.
39 Nicodemus also,
who earlier had come to Jesus
by night,
came
bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about seventy-five pounds in weight.
40 So they took the body of Jesus
and bound it in linen cloths with the spices,
as is the burial custom of the Jews.
41 Now in the place where he was crucified
there was a garden,
and in the garden
a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation,
since the tomb was close at hand,
they laid Jesus there.
Previous DIG DEEPER posts on John
John 19 Summary
Jesus now begins being flogged and tortured by Roman soldiers.
He's just told Pilate that He was a King (John 18:36), so the soldiers begin to mock Him with 'royal robes' and a painful crown of thorns. John notes that Pilate, who as the top official in charge should have been the most feared person in the land, was even more afraid (v8) when the Jews said that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.
Once again, John notes the irony. Pilate says I have the power to either free you or to crucify you (v10), but then John writes that all Pilate could do was to 'try' to set Jesus free.
Pilate capitulates to the mob and turns Jesus over to be crucified. Notice how John is careful to note how the Old Testament is being fulfilled as Jesus dies: His clothes are gambled away (v23-24 / Psalm 22:18), and how Jesus died relatively quickly so that His bones did not need to be broken (Crucifixion could often take days, so in an effort to hasten the process, the victims would have their legs broken so they could no longer push themselves up to breathe. This fulfills Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Psalm 34:20).
Dig Deeper
There are seven phrases that Jesus said while hanging on the cross recorded in the four gospel narratives, but the final saying John records is perhaps the most famous: It is finished (v30). This is one word in Greek:
Τετέλεσται
What makes this word so significant is that it represents much more than the crucifixion process being finished, or even Jesus' earthly life being done. What Jesus means here is that His entire mission is finished. He fully accomplished a life of perfect obedience and in His death He fully paid the price for the sin of those who put their faith into Him. There's nothing left to do. It is finished.
As you finish up 2022 and prepare for a new year, dwell on these final words of Jesus.
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who foreordained all that's come to pass, including the awful death of His Son for our sake.
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that the Holy Spirit will continually remind you that everything required for your salvation is finished.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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