The Gospel of John Chapter 19
19 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands.
4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”
THE SCOURGING:
First point: IT WAS PART OF PROPHESY
The plowers plowed on my back;
They made their furrows long.” Psalm 129:3
I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 50:6
But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions,
He was [b]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes[c] we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
JESUS HIMSELF PROPHESIED:
and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And on the third day He will be raised to life.” Matthew 20:19
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SCOURGING:
I have heard many sermons, teachings read commentary of the whipping or scourging of Jesus.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST MOVIE attempts the capture the potential brutality of it.
MANY teach He took 39 stripes on His back.
once heard there were 39 major disease identified….1 for every stripe Jesus took.
THERE IS NO HISTORY NOR SCRIPTURE saying Jesus took 39 stripes. EVER.
UNDER JEWISH LAW: Deuterononmy 25-criminals were forbidden to be given more than 40 lashes as punishment.
BUT JESUS WAS NOT WHIPPED UNDER JEWISH LAW, He was whipped under Roman Law and by Romans.
ROMAN PRACTICE:
- whipping was the usual precursor to crucifixion.
it was meant to weaken the criminal for a quicker death.
THE VICTIM would be stripped and arms tied around a post.
short multi-stranded whip with iron balls and sometimes pieces of bone was used.
history records say that blood would be drawn upon the first strike.
Some victims died as a result of a sever whipping.
Victims backs would be left with ribbons of open flesh.
The fact that Jesus struggled to carry His cross beam…falling to the ground…shows that His whipping was severe and took its toll.
Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock.
NOT ONLY PROPHETIC THAT IT WOULD HAPPEN,
BUT THERE IS DOCTRINE IN IT.
- the stripes of Jesus covers our spiritual healing
- the stripes of Jesus covers physical healing.
But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions,
He was [b]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes[c] we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose [g]stripes you were healed I Peter 2:24
16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.”
Matthew 8:16
POINT: Though the Gospel’s record the fact of Jesus’ scourging is minor detail….we know that the stripes on His back were part of the REDEMTION process.
THE CROWN OF THORNS:
This act was a mockery by the roman soldiers…
THE THORNS typical to the region, if still fresh…have a toxic sap in them that make being jabbed by one excruciationly painful…a burning sensation.
MOST OF OUR IMAGES of the crown of thorns is a perfectly, aesthetically women crown….
BUT THE SOLIDIERS DID THIS HASTILY….
it would have been a crude, almost thrown together circle of thorns….and a nearby and handy garment (scarlet or purple)…..a soldiers garment….thrown over Jesus’ shoulder.
A simple reed put in His hand…(it could also be a reed used by Romans and Jews for discipline…
5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”
Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”
7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to [b]our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
PILAT: USING LAW AND REASON absolutely found no fault in Jesus that He should be punished under any law.
HE IS WILLING TO put Jesus back into the hands of the Jews. with the permission to carry out the execution.
PILATE seems to want to be free from the guilt of punishing an innocent man.
THEY CRY: CRUCIFY HIM.
Pilat told THEM to crucify….however, under Jewish Law…blasphemy is punishable by stoning.
They didn’t want to carry out the stoning….but wanted ROME to carry their style of punishment: crucifixion.
ACCORDING TO PROPHECY:
For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; Psalm 22:16 (Psalm of the cross)
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 12:10
CENTURIES BEFORE Crucifixion became a standard form of execution…or introduced through the empire by Rome…
about 2 hundred years before Christ the Romans began the practice…having learned it from the Carthigians.
IMAGINE what anger….what hate…the Jewish leaders must have had that they CRIED AND DEMANDED His Crucifixion.
THEIR ULTIMATE ACCUSATION: Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.
PILAT hears this and wants to inquire more.
VERSE 8-16:
Pilate’s claim:
“No one who has power to condemn is without power to acquit” (Justinian Digest of Roman Law 50.17.37
VERSE 11:
the Greek shows the expression of Jesus for the word “power” in the neuter form…thus the entire statement is about authority.
THE POINT Jesus makes is that all government is from God….and there is no one who is smug enough to claim governmental authority to themselves. In a sense…Jesus is putting Pilat in his place.
GOD IS A GOD OF GOVERNMENT
Romans 13 Paul makes a strong statement about Christians obeying laws, and respecting authority…paying their taxes etc…
- to be a good example.
- to live in peace and not bring reproach to the Gospel
- God is the one who is the source of governmental structure.
GABBATHA:
The open pavement where judgement was pronounced.
Some say outside the Temple.
Others say outside Herod’s palace.
Traditional site under the old city of Jerusalem.
VERSE 14:
If Passover (pascha) refers to the Passover meal itself,
This would mean that this dramatic point before Pilate’s bema occurs just as the lambs are beginning to be slaughtered in the temple.
Jesus’ death then took place while they were continuing to be killed. This setting would tie in with Jesus’ identity as the Lamb of God (1:29)
IT IS STRONGLY likely, this last supper meal was on THURSDAY at sundown….which is the official start of a new day to Jews.
Jesus arrested, put on trial that evening.
THIS THEN would fit with the idea that at the 6th hour….when the Passover lambs were being led into the Temple and being sacrificed….JESUS WAS STANDING ON THE JUDGMENT PAVEMENT AND IT DECREED HE BE CRUCIFIED…
The Jews now:
- Reject Jesus as the Son of God
- Reject Jesus as King
16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus [d]and led Him away.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7
THE CRUCIFIXION: 17-23:
The Gospel’s don’t give gory details about the crucifixion….but they do each take some time to give details.
JOHN gives us details that are powerfully and theologically symbolic.
THE SIGN OVER THE CROSS was not unique to Jesus. It is what was done according to Roman records. THE CRIME…so that others will be deterred from doing the same.
ULTIMATELY, it is the best that Pilat could come up with.
3 LANGUAGES reminds us of the cultural influences of the time. And the languages of the bible. LATIN btw, was NOT used in any of the original books of the Bible. Not until the Latin Vulgate.
THE DIVIDED GARMENTS, was common. The criminal would be stripped, and the soldiers crucifying would allowed to keep whatever they wanted.
BUY THE FACT THAT THEY GAMBLED for the garment of Jesus was a fulfillment of the Psalm of the Cross.
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.
A RCC professor posited that this was a legal act by Jesus, placing the care of His widowed mother in the hands of John….thus proof…that Jesus had no other siblings.
- There is no record that the words of Jesus was a legal decree.
- If Jesus is asking John to look after His mother…it is probably because at this point His own siblings were not believers…. (later…after His resurrection at least one…James because a disciple)
Lastly…this would seem to downplay the teaching by Catholics that Mary holds a position as MOTHER OF GOD, or QUEEN OF HEAVEN etc…
This is more of Jesus handing Mary over to a new son….HER WORK, HER ROLE WAS FINISHED.
Nonetheless….even on the cross, He is demonstrating a caring and dutiful son….while…taking on the sins of the entire world!
VERSE 28-30: THE DEATH OF JESUS
THIRST is a common theme in John.
Jesus twice uses it for the Holy Spirit.
With the woman at the well….then at the Feast of First fruit….IF ANY MAN THIRSTS….
Jesus on the sermon on the mt speaks of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Jesus also speaks of the necessity of drinking from His cup…
I THIRST refers to the physical dehydration of suffering on the cross.
IT CAN DOUBLE also of Jesus’ thirst to fulfill His mission.
JOHN mentions the HYSOP used to offer the sour wine…wine vinegar…
DOUBLE IMAGE:
It was a hyssop branch in Exodus the blood of the lamb was placed on the door post.
In the Law…purification rites were done with sprinkling using a hyssop branch.
THE CONNECTION is probable.
ESPECIALLY with Jesus’ words: IT IS FINISHED.
NOT “I AM finished.”
BUT IT…the work…the sacrifice…the plan of God….the payment for sin…the fulfillment of all the prophecies…
THERE WAS NO NEED TO LINGER any longer….He died.
VERSES 31-37:
the leg breaking: an act to speed up the process of death…preventing the victim could not push up and get a breath.
It also fulfills the PSALM OF THE CROSS that Jesus did not have His legs broken.
AND that He is pierced.
NOTE:
Water has been the common theme.
The symbology here is powerful.
- The double blessing flowing from Jesus….Cleansing…and Spirit.
- Pentecostal theology: Redemption, and Holy Spirit baptism.
- In Catholic theology: the cleansing of water baptism.
- In the Christian faith as a whole: The CLEANSING POWER OF THE BLOOD.
There is the natural cause….fluid buildup around the stress and failed heart of Jesus.
But John is intentional with every detail he gives.
