John Chapter 19 - Commentary

1-16 Jesus Is Condemned

[2] Crown of thorns

Thorns represent the curse caused by man’s sin (Genesis 3:18).

[5] The “man” who stood in for us

Christ’s humiliation and pain was for us. He was the suffering servant, abased and defiled by his mocking captors – as was predicted in Isaiah 52:14-53:6.

[9] Jesus gave no answer

By refusing to tell Pilate where Jesus came from, He fulfilled Isaiah 53:7.

[10] The true source of power

Pilate only had the power to make a stand for what is right. If he really wielded the political power he said he had, he wouldn’t have been making compromises with the Jewish leadership. Always be mindful where your supposed “power” comes from. We are servants who serve a master – which master is the only real decision we have the power to make.

[14] “We have no king but Caesar”…

This is the formal denial of the Messiah, offered by God to the nation of Israel. This rejection is the reason for the destruction of Jerusalem in 70A.D., a particular offense to God that could not go unpunished.

17-27 Jesus Is Crucified

[17] Jesus Bore Our Cross, too…

This fulfilled two “types” of the Old Testament. In Genesis 22:1-6, Isaac carried the wood on his back on that very same hill for the sacrifice to be provided by God. Now that event, foreshadowed in 2,500 years before, is being fulfilled literally by God’s chosen Lamb. This also fulfills the sacrifice of the sin offering (described in Hebrews 13:11-13) that occurred outside the camp of God. Golgotha was outside the walls of the city.

[23] They divided My garments…

This fulfills both Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53: the humiliation and tragedy of sin borne on the Perfect Sin Offering….

28-37 “It Is Finished!”

[28] Note the irony, the “Water of Life” is thirsty…

This is a paradox, the water of life now bearing our sins thirsts – probably in more ways than we can imagine. The other Gospels note Jesus fulfilling Psalm 22 with a cry out to God who had forsaken Him to bear our sins. Psalm 69 may also be fulfilled at this time:

¹⁹You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; My adversaries are all before You. ²⁰Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. ²¹They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

[29] Hyssop Branch

An detail that John mentions that has a relationship to the Passover – Hyssop branches were used to sprinkle the lintel and door posts of the homes of Hebrew slaves in Egypt to protect the firstborn.

[30] It Is Finished!

The work of redemption – the payment for all sins for all who accept His payment, for all time, has been transacted, and the most traumatic event in the history of the universe occurs – the Immortal dies, not by force, but He gave up His spirit.

38-42 Jesus is Buried

[38] Jesus receives a funeral

This was not according to Roman custom – criminals who were executed by crucifixion had the rites of a funeral intentionally withheld. Bodies of the victims were thrown unceremoniously into the trash heap outside of town called ‘Gehena’, where the fires burned and the worms never died. However, Jesus was accorded a special privilege by Pilate, who allowed His body to be removed and cared for by those who loved Him.

[40] The Gospel

Burial is part of the Gospel I Corinthians 15:

¹Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, ²by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,…

The burial is significant in two respects:

1 – He truly died – one doesn’t bury the ill – this destroys the “swoon” theory. and

2 – this marked the end of the humiliation and suffering.

There remains the resurrection and glorification of Christ, as He ascends to take the rightful throne at the right hand of the Father. This death and burial is symbolized by believers who partake with Jesus in the death, burial and resurrection through the act of baptism.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.