John 19 - The Death and Burial of Jesus

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Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

What we see in the first part of the chapter more than anything is the disdain the chief priests and other Jewish leaders had for Jesus. The Roman soldiers did a good job of humiliating Jesus by dressing him up in a purple robe and jamming the crown thorns on his forehead, but at the end of the day it was the Jewish leaders and others who cried, "Crucify Him!" The cried it even louder when Pilate tried to let Jesus go. When the Jews let Pilate know that Jesus had claimed to be God, it made Pilate even more nervous. Was he going to crucify God? You get the sense that Pilate knew that Jesus was no ordinary man. He knew a true King when he saw one. 

When Pilate went release Jesus saying, "Here is your king", they cried all the louder, "Crucify him, crucify him." The Jewish leaders would not be satisfied until Jesus was hung on the cross. At the height of it all the chief priests shouted, "We have no king but Caesar". This is probably the clearest statement of their rejection of  Jesus as the Messiah. They publicly proclaimed their allegiance to the Roman king, not the King of kings. 

Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

With no other choice left, Jesus was crucified between two other known criminals on his right and left. Appropriately Pilate had a sign fastened above Jesus on the cross which read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews". When the Jews demanded Pilate take it down he replied, "What I have written, I have written." 

The irony in these events is palpable. Here you have a Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, doing everything in his power to save the Son of God, whereas the Jewish leaders were doing everything in their power to kill him. The sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek symbolizing all of the known languages in that part of the world. God had used Gentiles to fufill his plan before and in this instance Pilate a foreign ruler revealed the truth about Jesus. Jesus was fully a human, "born in Nazareth". He was fully divine, "the King of the Jews"

For the most part Jesus died alone though there were three women there and his beloved disciple John. All three were Mary's. In one his last statements Jesus made sure his mother was taken care of. 

"Jesus consciously cared for His mother to the end, showing that even on the cross His attention was directed to others and not upon Himself. If there was ever a moment when Jesus deserved to be self-focused, this was it; yet He remained others-centered to the end." - Guzik

The Death of Jesus

Jesus' last words showed once again his humanness. He cried, "I am thirsty". 

"Jesus didn’t accept a pain-numbing drink at the beginning of His ordeal (Mark 15:23), but now He accepted a taste of greatly diluted wine, to wet parched lips and a dry throat so He could make one final announcement to the world with a clear, loud voice." - Guzik

“Thirst is a common-place misery, such as may happen to peasants or beggars; it is a real pain, and not a thing of a fancy or a nightmare of dreamland. Thirst is no royal grief, but an evil of universal manhood; Jesus is brother to the poorest and most humble of our race.” - Spurgeon

There were many details in Jesus' crucifixion that fulfilled Old Testament in this chapter. 

"They cast lots for his clothing." Psalm 22:18

"Not one of his bones would be broken" Psalm 34:20

"They will look upon the one they have pierced." Zechariah 12:10

Though human actors played many roles in the crucifixion, not one thing happened outside God's sovereign plan. 

The Burial of Jesus

There were two other lesser known disciples of Jesus who came to give Jesus a proper burial. Joseph of Arimathea. Both disciples were secret followers of Jesus. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin. One of the only Jewish leaders who recognized Jesus was the true Messiah, as every Jewish leader should have known. Nicodemus, also a member of the Sanhedrin who came to Jesus at night (in John 3) also was there and brought 75 pounds of spices and aloes. 

We often don't give the burial as much attention in the gospels as the other events surrounding Jesus' death. Here are several points in that regard which make the burial so meaningful and relevant. 

This burial fulfilled the Scripture. Isaiah 53:9 says, And they made His grave with the wicked; so that meant the Messiah would be buried in a grave – and He was.

· This burial fulfilled the promise, the prediction of Jesus. Jesus said that He, like Jonah, would be buried away for three days (Matthew 12:40), and so it had to be fulfilled.

· This burial demonstrated that Jesus was truly dead; it was proof of the glory of the coming resurrection. No one could tell Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus that Jesus did not really die.

· This burial was important because burial spices and preparations protected His holy body from decay; as it was said in Psalm 16:10: You will not allow Your Holy One to see decay.

· This burial gave both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus a way to proclaim their relationship with Jesus; it called them out of their state of secret discipleship.

· This burial and the days of Jesus in the tomb tested the faith and devotion of the disciples; it made them die a certain kind of death for those days they knew Jesus lay in the tomb.

What aspect of Jesus' death and burial stand out most to you? How does it give evidence for the Christian faith? How does it show the historicity of the resurrection? Ie. It really did happen!