Toronto UBF Bible Study : THE GLORY OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

Bible Materials

THE GLORY OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

by Joshua Lee 07/30/2023 John 19:16~42

Message

THE GLORY OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

John 19:16-42

Key Verse: 19:30

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Thank God that we can study this wonderful passage together just before 2023 ISBC. The title of the conference is “His Glory” and the title of this passage is “The glory of Jesus on the cross.” How does Jesus’ death on the cross reveal his glory? John wrote in 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of One and Only…” The Incarnation truly reveals the glory of Jesus, displaying his humility and the truly humble God. John saw this glory. But how could he see the glory of Jesus at the humanly tragic death on the cross? According to his account of Jesus’ death on the cross it was full of the fulfillments of God’s prophecies. God made this happen as the most significant event in all human history, revealing that he is truly the God of love who saves sinners at the sacrifice of his own Son. So Jesus’ death on the cross is truly glorious in the history of mankind. Let’s survey this glory together so that our hearts be filled with the glory of Jesus in the love of God.

Verse 16a says, “Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.” This was totally against Pilate’s wish. He tried to release Jesus, for in his careful examination Jesus was not guilty at all. But when 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” and the chief priests said, “We have no king but Caesar”, Pilate yielded to their frenzied, utterly unreasonable demand. Even in such a craziness of the Jews and Pilate’s wrong judgment due to his no courage to stand for the truth, the hand of God is there. Pilate’s judgment at Gabbath, the Stone Pavement, is the start to the execution of Jesus on the cross.

In verse 16b it says, “So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.” These are certainly the soldiers of Pilate, Roman soldiers, as Jesus prophesied that he would be mocked and fogged and crucified, not by the Jews, but by the Gentiles (Mt 20:19; Mk 10:33-34; Lk 18:32).

Verse 17 says, “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).” From Gabbatha to Golgotha, this is the simplest expression among the four gospel accounts. John omitted what happened on the way of the long route to the execution site, Simon’s carrying the cross in the place of Jesus, people’s offering Jesus wine mixed with gall and Jesus’ refusing it and women’s weeping. Carrying his own cross he went out to the place of the execution. The punishment of crucifixion was invented by Persians and perfected by Romans. Tens of thousands of criminals had been crucified. Yet, no one was willing to go to that place. They had to be dragged and pushed up again and again. However, as for Jesus, he went out to the horrible place, carrying the heavy cross, 200 to 300 pounds according to the estimation of some. Isaiah 53:7 says, “…he was led like a lamb to the slaughter…” He followed silently in obedience to God’s will.

Verse 18 says, “Here they crucified him.” Interestingly, John wrote that the time of judgment for Jesus, his being sentenced to death, is the sixth hour (19:14). It’s around 6:00 in the morning by Roman calculation. And according to Mark 15:25, the time of Jesus’ crucifixion was the third, which is 9am according to the Jewish reckoning. Then from the prison and judgment to the execution, the duration was less than 3 hours. The Jews were supposed to wait days before the execution of one they found guilty by their own law; and the Roman law required two days between a sentence and an execution. It was for somebody to bring evidence, or provide a defence. But in the case of the Lord Jesus, He went right from judgment to execution, straight from Gabbatha, the Pavement, to Golgotha, the place of execution. He went from prison and judgment to execution. Isaiah 53:8 says this: “He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who will declare His generation? for he was cut off from the land of the living” (KJV). There was no interval of days between his judgment and his death. We see that each step, every move, and every act of Jesus on his way to the cross is according to God’s plan and design and time, violating all the laws of justice among the Jews, and even the Romans.

“Here they crucified him.” It is also very interesting that Jesus’ being crucified is mentioned five times in this passage (16, 18, 20, 23, 41). The way for Jews to kill the violators of the law is by stoning and by throwing them down. But Jesus said of the kind of death he was going to die three times (Jn 3:15; 8:28; 12:32; 18:32). That is by being lifted up by crucifixion. No Roman citizen would die in that way except by personal order of Caesar himself. It was a death reserved for salves and bandits and prisoners of war and rebel. It was too cruel and inhumane, and the death by crucifixion was too shameful. But Jesus had to die in such a way as he had spoken.

Jesus was crucified with two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. The place of execution called the Skull was outside the city of Jerusalem, though near the city. He would be offered to God as a sin offering. The Jews had tried to stone Jesus in the city. But that would never happen, because he had to be offered outside the city, as all of those offerings had to be. Hebrews 13:11-12 says, “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate…”

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 this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” The sign is in Matthew 27:37 “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”, in Mark 15:26, “THE KING OF THE JEWS”, in Luke 23:38 “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” So the full title is, “THIS IS JESUS OF NAZAREHT, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” What Pilate wrote is very significant: “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JWS.” The King of the Jews is the promised Messiah and King, King of the Jews and of the entire world. This is the title of the sin by which Jesus was sentenced to death. Yet, what a fitting title to reveal who Jesus is. The sin title exactly reveals the person. The sin title became the person’s title. Human Jesus and divine Jesus are so excellently presented. It is the similar confession, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” According to John, Nazareth was really an utterly unimportant, insignificant town way off in the hinterlands above the Sea of Galilee. From that town nothing good would come out (Jn 1:46). So this title was really humiliating the Jews and irritated them. Probably Pilate did this out of sarcastic vengeance for the Jews, who cornered him to make such an unwanted decision to crucify Jesus he might fear as the Son of God. So the chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate. However, this time Pilate was inflexible, saying, “What I have written, I have written.” The sign was written in Aramaic/Hebrew, the language of religion, Latin, the language of power, and Greek, the language of culture of that time. It was the proclamation to the world that Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews.” This sign truly reveals the glory of Jesus.

John continues to carefully describe this event of Jesus’ crucifixion. In verses 23-24, “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his garments, dividing them into four shares one for each of them, with the tunic remaining. The tunic 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.’” The seamless garment was the one the high priest wore. John carefully observed the action and the words of the soldiers. Why such a mean and indifferent act and word without even a hint of the seriousness at the terrifying deaths of people! Humanly it was not understandable at all. But John found there something amazing. He says, “This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said in Psalm 22:18, ‘They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.’” Even such acting and speaking was the fulfilment of the Scripture. God was in control of the solders, how they had to act and what to speak. What a glory of God and the glory of Jesus! John stressed it, saying, “So this is what the soldiers died.”

In verses 25-27 John describes the compassion of Jesus on the cross: “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 his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” Those who stood near the cross of Jesus were different from the soldiers. They were believing and loving Jesus to the end. Jesus was not too carried away by his own pain and suffering on the cross to see his mother and his own. In one’s own pain and anguish it is not easy to care for others. But on the cross Jesus cared for his mother and his own. Yet, here we should clearly know the relationship between Jesus and his mother. Since he began his public life as the Messiah, his relationship with his mother was changed into the relationship between the Saviour and a sinner. We know that when his mother and brothers came to him with a family affection, Jesus said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice” (Lk 8:21). Jesus did not ignore the family union, but regarded the spiritual union above it. Also, in John 2 when Mary his mother brought the problem of wine-lacking in a wedding, at first Jesus said, “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). Now his time indeed came for him to die on the cross for God’s salvation purpose to save sinners. He was dying as the Son of God, not as a son of Mary. He said, “Dear woman, here is your son” indicating John. In this completion of God’s redemptive plan, hanging on the cross Jesus showed his sympathy to his mother surely including those standing there near the cross. This humanity shows his glory in God’s redemptive love. In this redemptive love, Christ Jesus cares for his own, not forgetting them in the midst of his own pain and suffering. What a beauty and glory of Jesus!

Then in verses 28 and 29 it says, “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’” Who can imagine his extreme thirstiness at this moment of his death on the cross? The dehydration was more than one could say. We know that on the cross he could bear all the sufferings except the pain of separation from God. However, he said, “I am thirsty” not out of his extreme thirstiness, but out of awareness of the Scripture which had to be fulfilled. This also reveals his glory, adding another fulfilment of the Scripture of Psalm 69:21 through his own lips just before his death, the truthful lips of Jesus. He not only spoke the truth, but also fulfilled the truth of the words of the Scripture. The mouth of the soldiers fulfilled the word of the Scripture unwittingly in an evil way, but the mouth of Jesus fulfilled the word of the Scripture willfully in a good intention. What a truthful and glorious mouth of Jesus!

Verse 29 says, “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.” John specifically wrote “a stalk of the hyssop plant.” The hyssop plant was used in the Old Testament to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animals. At the very night of the Exodus the Israelites killed the Passover Lamb and dipped a bunch of hyssop into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe (Ex 12:22) so that they would not be killed along with the Egyptians, which was according to God’s promise, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Ex 12:13). The stalk of the hyssop plant indicates that Jesus was dying as the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, as John the Baptist exclaimed in John 1:29, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” and again in John 1:35, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

In verse 30, “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” At the time of man’s fall, God promised to send a Saviour through the offspring of a woman. Once when man’s sin reached its climax, God poured out the flood on the earth. After the flood judgment, God said after receiving Noah’s offering of animal sacrifice, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Ge 8:21). In this promise God was making a long-range plan to deal with man’s sin in another way. That was to do away with sin by sending his Son as the Lamb of God. Since then, numerous animals were sacrificed beginning with the Passover Lamb, which was the shadow of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Now at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross man’s sin problem was solved. The long lasting problem of sin was finally resolved and finished. What a tremendous work finished! The redemptive history of God has pointed to this moment of the death of the Lamb of God. The era of sin is finished, for the Son of God took away the sin of the world by dying on the cross as the Lamb of God. The ransom price was paid. Jesus said, “Tetelestai!”, completely paid. Man’s sin was atoned. So the author of Hebrews said in Hebrews 9:26, “…But now he has appeared once for all at the end of ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” John says in 1 John 2:2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the world.” He also says in 1 John 4:10, “this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” What a marvelous love God through the atoning death of his Son as the Lamb of God! “It is finished” implies the full and perfect salvation and in the perfect love of God. We are reminded of John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” May we dwell in this amazing love of God and truly live for him, who died for us! No longer selfish life but sacrificial life of our Lord Jesus. No longer selfish and family-centred life but Christ-centred life. We pray for this.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s last words were, “More light, more light!” Mark Twain seemed to live an enviable life, but on his deathbed, full of regret, saying, “If I could live one more time…” But Jesus said, “It is finished.” What a victorious and glorious word of our Lord Christ Jesus! Truly it reveals the glory of Jesus.

“With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Amazingly he was in control of his death. He did not die helplessly, but he chose to die giving up his spirit. This is as he said in John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down for my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” This is the display of his love for sinners as his glorious death.

In verses 31-36 there were more fulfilment of the Scripture even after his death. Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews 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 soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 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. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.” (Ex 12:46; Num 9:12; Ps 34:20; Zech 12:10). What a fulfillment of the scripture even after his death. God was in a total control over the soldiers’ actions of how to use a hammer sand a spear, not breaking his bones with hammer, and piercing his side with a spear. What a detailed account of Christ Jesus on the cross! Truly Jesus’ death on the cross is an act of God, the act of love for sinful mankind.

John wrote, “bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” Yes, this was the confirmation of his death. From that time on his blood flows from Calvary, Golgotha as healing stream to all sinners who believe. As a hymn song (“Near the Cross”) says, “Jesus keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain, Free to all a healing stream, Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain….” This blood of Jesus is the confirmation of his death. Furthermore it is the essence of his death, the essence of the love of God, and the essence of all the promises of God. His blood reveals the glory of Jesus and so the glory of God. 1 John 1:7 says, “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” and Revelation 1:5, “He has freed us from our sins by his blood.” The blood is the glory of Jesus. Praise God! Praise Jesus for his promised and glorious blood shed on the cross at Golgotha.

Even at the time of burial the prophecies of God were fulfilled. In verses 38-42, “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 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. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 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. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” This could be the shortest burial, shortest from the time of death, in human history, done in less than three hours. He was not thrown into a desolate place. God prepared a tomb through Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent and rich man, fulfilling the promise of Isaiah 53:9, “He was assigned a grave…with the rich in his death.” The Jews were in a hurry to make sure that he would die before the Sabbath so that they would keep the Sabbath holy. God was in a hurry that Jesus would die and be buried on that Friday so that he would be in the grave for three days according to what Jesus said, “he would be three days...in the heart of the earth” and “after three days I will rise.”

Praise God for revealing his glory and the glory of the Son through Jesus’ death on the cross. This is the presentation and manifestation of his marvelous, sacrificial love through his Son Christ Jesus. In this love of God may we live for his glory, knowing that the life of sin is finished and looking at the Lamb of God at each moment and following him wherever the Lamb he goes (Rev 14:4), the way of self-denial and personal cross-taking.

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