This morning the news reported a story about two boys hugging each other as they looked around their homes destroyed by the fire in Hawaii. When we’re in pain, like the boys, it can be very difficult to think about anyone but ourselves and our pain. Jesus, like the boys, shows us that it is possible, even important, to care for others when we are in pain.
As we saw in the previous post, Jesus’ heart to heart with Pilate seems to reach Pilate, at least somewhat, but the situation is past the point of no return. There will be no stay of execution. Look at what happens next in John chapter 19, starting at verse 12,
“From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’ 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). It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’ ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked. ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.”
Hear what the Jews said, “We have no king but Caesar”? That’s revealing, isn’t it? They did have a king other than Caesar. God is their king. But they say the Roman Emperor, Caesar, is their king because they are entirely focused on crucifying Jesus. They have lost sense of perspective, of truth. They are enslaved to their viewpoint, unwilling to see things any other way.
It is astounding how we can allow the ends to justify the means. In this case, of course, the Jewish leaders were wrong about the ends and the means. They certainly didn’t think so, though. They believed they were right, that Jesus needed to die. So they were willing to do anything to make it happen. For them, their faulty interpretation of Jesus led them to pursue an end goal, his death, and anything justified the means to get there, even saying they have no king but Caesar, when God was their king.
That seals Jesus fate. Look at verse 17.
“Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 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. 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.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” 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. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” 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. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”
John is rather sparse in his details of the actual crucifixion. Jesus carried his cross just outside the city. The soldiers crucified him there. That’s all he tells us. As I mentioned before, he had already been severely beaten. Lost lots of blood. Now they lay him on the wood beams and nail him there. Large nails hammered through the wrists, and one through both feet. He would have to push on those nails to raise himself, opening his torso so he could breathe.
Some people could hang there for days, which is why the Romans would break their legs, making it next to impossible for the crucified person to rise up and breathe, hastening their asphyxiation. But Jesus had been flogged. He was already in really bad shape.
In this very intense scene, with Jesus bloody and heaving, John draws our attention to a few specific features.
First, I love that while the Jewish leaders were adamant that they had no king by Caesar, Pilate unwittingly makes the truth known for all to see, Jesus is the true King. Pilate posted the sign as a joke or to be sarcastic, or to show that the mighty Roman Empire can easily dispose of any other king. But Jesus is the one true king. In his kingdom, death brings life, as we will see.
Second, the soldiers divvy up his clothes. That not only fulfills prophecy, but also means Jesus was likely totally naked. I doubt he had that little covering around his waist like nearly every image of the crucifixion includes. His nakedness meant this was a deeply humiliating, painful, awful situation. It seems the vast power of the Empire is dominating.
Third, John tells us something shocking happens in the middle of the grotesque scene. Some of Jesus’ followers are there. Four women and the disciple John. One of the women is his mother, Mary. Jesus sees them and tells Mary and John that they are family now. Jesus is still caring for his mom! Jesus creates a new family that did not previously exist. It’s a blended family! A blended family forms at the foot of the cross. This is a very Jesus thing to do. He is literally hanging by a thread. He is the one who is dying! His family and friends are there to care for him. But even in his desperate moment, he is still seeing others and thinking about their needs, and then caring for their needs.
Engaging Scripture 