The Gospel According to John Chapter 19

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The Gospel According to John Chapter 19

The Bible Text from https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.19.NIV

The Worldly Judgement on the Son of God;

Injustice, Humiliation, Suffering, and Death of Jesus

Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. (Finally Pilate gave Jesus up to the soldiers.)

2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. (The crown is a symbol of royalty so the thorny crown symbolizes the suffering King.) They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. (The purple also means kingship. The soldiers were mocking the King of the Heaven while treating the unjustly condemned Jesus.)

4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” (Pilate gave his final judgement on Jesus to the crowd; Not Guilty.)

5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” (And gave Jesus up to the crowd.)

6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” (The Jewish leaders requested Pilate to crucify Jesus. It was a level of revolt against the Roman rule.) But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” (Pilate still insist the innocence of Jesus.)

7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” (The Jews insisted that Jesus should be guilty of death because of blasphemy of Jesus according to their tradition.)

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, (Pilate was afraid of the Jews because they were notorious in the Roman Empire with their religious passion.) 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. (Pilate asked Jesus where His origin is from. Jesus came from the above 3:13. But Jesus didn't give him the answer, because the answer is beyond of Pilate's understanding.)

10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” (Pilate showed up his power to Jesus who's refusing to answer.)

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. (Jesus said that Pilate, in fact, he couldn't judge Jesus by himself because he didn't have the divine authorization to judge Jesus. 10:17-18) Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” (So the Jews who handed Jesus over to the worldly authority should be guiltier than Pilate whom being used by the Jews.)

12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, (Pilate still tried to release Jesus, maybe due to unknown fear.) but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” (The Jews even pretended to be loyal to the Roman authority asking the death of Jesus. They prioritized the death of Jesus, for their own glory, more than the ethnic dignity as Jews.)

13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).

14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. (Pilate handed over Jesus to the Jews trying to avoid the consequential responsibility.)

15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” (But the Jews were persistent trying to put Jesus to death.) “Shall I crucify your king?” ("Even if He is the King of your own? If He is your awaited Messiah?") Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. (The Jews, who've been waiting for the Messiah for a long time, but denied Jesus, the Messiah, insisting to be the law-bounded people of the Roman Empire. The ethnic pride of the Jews was useless for their fame and gain.)

16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. (So, Pilate finally gave up Jesus to the death on the cross. He is guilty of losing the justice to the mass. Ex. 23:2)

The Crucifixion of Jesus

17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). (Jesus was moved to Golgotha carrying the crosse.(1,Via Dolorosa))

18 There they crucified him (with nails and ties), and with him two others- one on each side and Jesus in the middle. (Jesus was crucified with two criminals; so much humiliating.)

19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. (Pilate had a notice on the cross, saying: "Nazarite Jesus, the King of the Jews." Indeed, regardless of the true intension of Pilate, it is the right description for Jesus.)

20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. (So the people who were there could read the notice which was written in the common languages of the time.)

21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” (The chief priest objected the word King because that was what Jesus claimed to be.)

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” (But Pilate didn't yield to him, keeping it as it is.)

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” (The soldiers shared Jesus' clothes, but one seamless piece was remained intact.) This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did. (The intact piece was foretold in Ps. 22:18)

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (There were the four closely related ladies, including Jesus' mother, at the crucifixion.)

26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (Jesus asked the disciple there, probably John, to take care of His mother after His death.)

The Death of Jesus

28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” (He was thirsty loosing body fluid; blood and water.)

29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. (The soldiers gave a sponge soaked with sour wine on the hyssop stalk, maybe for sedation.)

30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Finally Jesus gave His breath. The completion of His salvific death on the cross. He got into the different world of death.)

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. (He came to the final court of Pilate in the early morning of Friday, hanged on the cross at 9am, the heaven was darkened at noon, and died at 3pm.) Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. (The Jews didn't want to keep the body of Jesus during the Passover, and asked Pilate to kill Jesus forcefully and take the body down from the cross.)

32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. (The soldiers forcefully finished the lives of the two criminals.)

33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. (But they did not break the leg of Jesus who already died.)

34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (Instead they pierced the side of Jesus, and the blood and water were shedded through the wound.)

35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. (The man, probably John, saw all these in close proximity to be able to testify all these later.)

36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” (Ex. 12:7, Num. 9:12, Ps. 34:20) 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” (Zech. 12:10) (The intact bone of Jesus, and a side of Jesus being pierced are all foretold in those texts.)

The Burial of Jesus

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea (a wealthy, and respected member of the Sanhedrin) asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. (Joseph secured the body of Jesus from Pilate secretly.)

39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. (Nicodemus also joined the preparation of the funeral of Jesus.)

40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. (They did the needed funeral procedure.)

41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (They rushed the procedure to finish the funeral before the beginning of the Passover, and laid Jesus in the nearby tomb.(2,The Holy Sepulchre))

(1,Via Dolorosa) (Google AI)

The Via Dolorosa ("Way of Suffering" or "Sorrowful Way") is a 600-meter (0.37-mile) route in the Old City of Jerusalem believed to be the path Jesus walked to his crucifixion. It features 14 Stations of the Cross, beginning at the Antonia Fortress and ending at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (You may search for more informations.)

Map from: https://www.holylandsite.com/via-dolorosa

(2,The Holy Sepulchre) (Google AI)

The Holy Sepulchre (or Holy Sepulcher) refers to the tomb where Jesus Christ was buried and rose from the dead. It is located within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, a major Christian pilgrimage site built over the site of his crucifixion (Calvary) and resurrection. (You may search for more informations.)

My Reflection

This is the most difficult chapter for me to read through because of the unjust suffering of Jesus Christ our Lord, even with the hope of foretold resurrection, and even with the hindsight.

The Son of God came to the world as the Son of Man, suffered and died in such humiliation for our salvation. (Ps. 22:1-18, Isa. 53:1-10, Phil. 2:5-6)

Our endless thanks to God for the love, and to the Lord for the grace.