Chapter XIX

Verses 1-5. The opening verses of this chapter bring us face to face with the sufferings of our blessed Lord and the shame which was heaped upon Him. We behold Him scourged, crowned with a cruel crown of thorns, mocked, dishonored, smitten and then made a public spectacle. For the heart of every child of God this is a deeply affecting scene.- As we read it and mediate on it the eyes fill with tears, the very innermost soul is moved, and we praise Him that He suffered thus in our stead.

What an awful sentence — “then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him!” The scourging of criminals, beating them with rods, floggings with whips, have been in use among many nations, and are still used as penal measures among civilized nations. Cruel Rome outdid all others in the ancient world in torturing their helpless prisoners with the scourge. According to. Josephus and other sources, Rome tormented malefactors in every possible way before they were put to death. In many cases the scourging with a cruel, knotted scourge in which sharp pieces of iron and nails were embedded, continued till the bones were exposed and the victim died. When we think of the body of our Lord, the body which knew no sin, the body which was never racked by disease, that tender body, which He yielded in our behalf, we cannot even imagine how painful this scourging must have been to Him. Some have taught that Pilate did the scourging himself, because it says that he took Him and scourged Him. The statement means that he gave command that this be done. Rough, half-barbarian soldiers were His tormentors. As they hated the Jews, they were only too willing to treat Him with the utmost cruelty. The place where it was done was the common hall (Matt. xxvii:27), a filthy guard room. The loving substitute of sinners suffered stripes in our behalf (Isa. liti:5; 1 Peter ii:24).*

After the scourging was over, which Pilate had commanded as a compromise to save the Lord from the death penalty (Luke xxiii:16), the soldiers began their mocking torments. They had heard of the accusation and the claim that He is the King of the Jews. When they were through with their bloody work, and their victim stood bleeding before them, they began their cruel sport. One perhaps suggested a coronation. ‘Let us crown him king.” “But what crown is He to wear?” “Make it a crown of thorns!” Thorns are very plentiful in Palestine, as the silent witnesses that God’s curse rests upon the land. It did not take long to gather thorns and to weave them into the form of a crown. Then they pressed this instrument of torture upon His blessed brow, so that His precious blood streamed down His face.

But little did these soldiers know what they were doing. They only had one thought, mocking the King of the Jews

*The teachings of certain “divine healers” including the Pentecostal

leader, Mrs. McPherson of Los Angeles, that our Lord was scourged

for the physical healing of our bodies, is a miserable, unscriptural invention, and venting their hatred in cruelty upon Him. They did not know that they were witnessing through their vicious action to the fact that their victim was bearing the curse of sin upon His head. Thorns are the emblems of the curse which rests uponcreation. Thorns came into existence after man’s fall (Gen. iii:18). Unknowingly the rude soldiers demonstrated with their crown of thorns that the Lord Jesus is the curse-bearer.

What became of the crown of thorns? We do not mean what became of it after it had served its purpose. Hundreds of Romish churches in Italy, Spain and Mexico claim to possess pieces of the original crown. If we were to collect them we could form a thorn hedge a few miles long. What we mean is, was the crown of thorns at once removed when the mock scene had been ended? Or did this crown remain on His brow? We believe some of the master painters, who were godly men, had the right conception when they pictured Christ crucified with the crown of thorns still on His head. It was on the cross He bore the curse.

They also put a mock royal robe upon Him. It was a purple robe, for purple was the color of Roman imperialism. In the examination in Luke xxiii:l, we read that before Herod, He was likewise mocked by soldiers, who arrayed Him ina gorgeous robe, in which He was sent to Pilate. We do not know if it was the same garment which was now put upon Him. It was done in mockery; the vile soldiers showed their contempt. It was a Roman custom whenever a new emperor ascended the throne to greet him with the two words ‘‘4ve Imperator” — Hail Emperor! This custom they imitated, mocking the Lord with their “Hail, King of the Jews.”

From the other Gospels we learn that they bowed their knees in mock worship and also put a reed, as a mock sceptre, into His hands. Finally they spit upon Him. Oh: what awful hatred they manifested against the Holy and Spotless One. Man was shown what he is, and what he is capable of doing through the power of Satan, which was manifested in this scene, in both Jew and Gentile. They also smote Him with their hands. This was also probably done with a rod, so that He was bruised afresh — “‘bruised for our iniquities.’ One act of scorn and contempt followed the other. All man could do to Him was done under the energizing power of the prince of this world.

The commentators of the early Church applied all these sufferings, and the shame connected with it, to us for whom He suffered. He wore the crown of thorns that we might wear a crown of glory. He was clothed with a robe of shame and contempt that we might wear the robe of righteousness and glory. He bore all the contempt so that we might wear all the glory.

Then Pilate appeared again before the Jewish mob. He made an announcement: “Behold, I bring Him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in Him.” For the second time the Roman Governor bears witness to the innocency of the Lord Jesus in the same words as he did before, “I find no fault in Him.” After this testimony had been given the Lord Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. “And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man!” Artists have painted this great scene, but no brush could depict Him as He was led forth from the filthy guard room, with His face marred, His back a mass of wounds, the blood trickling down His face as the crown of thorns remained on His head. If angels can weep, all heaven must have been in tears, while demons laughed and sneered.

Behold the Man. Ecce Homo. Was it contempt or was it pity? Perhaps it was more the latter than the former. Pilate had watched the patient sufferer.

Just as Isaiah had predicted, He opened not His mouth. While others, who were scourged and tortured cursed their tormentors and uttered fearful shrieks and groans, the Lamb of God was silent. Pilate knew He was guiltless. Thus pointing to Him, the thorn-crowned, bleeding Man of sorrows, clothed in the mock robe, the Roman tried to awaken contempt and pity in the hearts of the clamoring crowd. Like the soldiers who were ignorant of their doings, so Pilate did not know what he was saying. “‘Behold the Man.” This is the message which would be sounded all over the world — Behold the Man — Behold Him, the Lamb of God!

Verses 6-11. Pilate, who evidently tried to avoid the condemnation of the Lord, because he knew He was innocent, had miserably failed. His attempt to produce contempt for such a miserable king had failed. Greater still was the failure to create pity. Here were hearts of stone, hearts which knew no pity, but under the influence of the murderer from the beginning, these hearts would not be content with anything less than His death. As soon as He appeared and they laid their eyes on Him, a mighty shout arose, led by the chief priests and their attendants — Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! Let it be noticed that the chief priests were the foremost in raising the cry for crucifixion. It is a painful fact that in every age, none have been such hard, cruel, unfeeling, and bloody-minded persecutors of God’s saints, as the “‘ministers of religion.”

Then Pilate, in order to be relieved from the task of condemning an innocent person, said, ‘“Take ye Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” He seemed to be vexed and irritated. In his anger he said, “do it yourselves.” If they had taken him at his word he would have been unable to permit it, for it was against the law for the Jews to put any criminal to death. For the third time he uttered the significant verdict, “‘I find no fault in Him.’’

When the chief priests discovered that the political accusation had been a failure they appealed to their own law. ‘“‘We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made himself the Son of God.” ‘The law which they had in mind is the law concerning a blasphemer (Lev. xxiv:16). The penalty demanded by the law was death by stoning. As we have learned in the study of the Gospel of John, three times before the Jews tried to stone Him, and each time when He claimed equality with God. They changed therefore the charge to blasphemy. It frightened the superstitious pagan when he heard that the man whom he had scourged, who had been tortured and mocked by his soldiers, might be after all a supernatural being. The warning his wife had sent to him may at this time have come back to his memory. If he was afraid before, he became the more afraid now. Therefore he went back to the hall and spoke once more to the prisoner.

Having heard from the chief priests that He claimed to be divine, Pilate asked the Lord, ‘Whence art thou?”

The question suggests that he was eager to hear from His own lips who He is, from where He has come. Pilate knew undoubtedly Roman and Greek mythologies, that gods visited the earth; he was acquainted with these superstitious beliefs. It may be that his question was put to ascertain whether the prisoner was not after all a supernatural being. Perhaps he hoped to hear something positive from the lips of the Lord Jesus which would enable him to dismiss the whole case and thus deliver Him from the hands of the Jews.

But he was doomed to disappointment in this expectation. Jesus gave him no answer. He stood silently before the man who was to be His judge. Why did our Lord keep His lips closed at this extremely critical moment? Though our Lord was now delivered unto the Gentiles and had been scourged and mocked, He was still the omniscient Lord, who knows all things. He knew what was going on in the heart of Pilate; He knew the state of his soul. The Lord had given him the truth. He had rejected it. In spite of the conviction that the Lord Jesus was without fault, Pilate had Him cruelly scourged, and permitted the soldiers to crown Him with a crown of thorns, to spit in His face and to bruise Him. He deserved no further notice. He was unworthy of an answer.

But there is another reason why our Lord was silent and refused to answer the question. Pilate was an instrument of Satan. He belonged to the seed of the serpent, and the old serpent whose chief aim has always been and still is to prevent God’s eternal purposes in redemption, would, have liked to use Pilate in keeping back the Lord Jesus from going to the cross, where Satan would be stripped of his power. He had tried this before. It was his aim on the mount of temptation, when he offered the kingdoms of the world to the Lord. When Peter said, after the Lord Jesus had announced His coming death, “Be it far from Thee, Lord” it was the same being who used Peter to keep the Lord from the cross. The Lord knew who stood behind Pilate and what would have happened had He answered Pilate’s question. Supposing He had told him, “I am the Lord, God is my Father; I am from above”; and at the same time manifested some of His hidden glory, it would have probably impressed Pilate in such a way that he would have refused to go a step further and never permitted the crucifixion. The Lord knew His hour was come. He was subject to the Father’s will. It was His will that He should now be obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He knew the Father wanted Him to be silent and refuse the answer to Pilate’s question.

It is plainly to be seen that Pilate was very much vexed at the silence of his prisoner. “Speakest Thou not to me? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?” And now the Lord answers him in a calm and dignified manner. He had spoken of power to crucify and power to release. He gives him to understand that he could have no power whatever except it were given to him from above, that is from God. It was the will of God which permitted the use of this power, for all that the Prophets had spoken concerning His sufferings and His sacrificial death was now to be accomplished. God’s will had to be done. But this did not leave Pilate guiltless. But the sin of the Jews, the sin of Caiaphas, of Judas, along with the other chief priests, was greater. They were not like the pagan Pilate, in ignorance as to who He is, for they knew the display of His divine power and grace in their midst, as well as the testimony of their own Scriptures concerning His person. “On account of this he that delivered Me up to thee hath greater sin.”

Verses 12-18. Evidently a great impression had been made upon the Roman Governor. We do not know what meaning Pilate attached to the words which the prisoner before him had just spoken. It is evident, on account of what our Lord had said, Pilate sought to release Him. More than ever he seemed to be convinced of the innocency of the meek sufferer. We do not know what means he employed when he sought to release Him. The Jews were aware of his attempt. They knew of Pilate’s determination to release Him whom they hated. A great uproar followed Pilate’s weak effort. Behind the Jews stood Satan’s power and he inspired them to speak as they did. “If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.” The words the Jews spoke were sheer mockery. The people who hated the Roman government and its emperor, suddenly make it appear that they wish to defend the Caesar in Rome and stand up for his rights, in order that He who is of their own race might be condemned to death. What hypocrisy! And Pilate now fully manifests his abominable character.

Who was Pilate? It is supposed that he was a freedman. About the year 26 A. D. he had succeeded Valerius Gratus as procurator of Judea and Samaria. This position he held for ten years. Josephus records the fact that he hated the whole Jewish race. He also was tyrannical toward the Samaritans. They entered a complaint against him and he had to go to Rome to defend himself. Before he arrived, Tiberius Caesar, whom he feared, had died. According to the historian Eusebius Pilate committed suicide.

Pilate knew that the Lord Jesus was innocent. He had made a number of times a public declaration to this effect. “I find no fault in Him” was the verdict of the Roman judge. Finally this conviction had become so strong that he sought to release Him. Then came the threatening cry of the Jewish mob. His mind must have worked fast. He knew that the Roman imperator whom he served, Tiberius Caesar, was a very suspicious monarch. As Tacitus and Suetonius, the Roman historians, record Tiberius feared constantly a revolt against him, and any suspicious character among his appointed officers was dealt with by him with utmost cruelty. Pilate also knew the maliciousness of the Jews, that they would report the case to Rome; he knew they would use it as an evidence that he is no friend of Tiberius in permitting a conspirator to plot against the government. He realized that Tiberius would be displeased, and that in all probability if the report reached Rome it would cost him his position, if not his life. Perhaps he glanced once over at the prisoner before him and then he trampled upon his conscience and his convictions and fell in line with the Jewish murderers.

He did not speak a word. Jesus is brought forth while he took his place upon the judgment seat, called in Hebrew, Gabbatha. The judgment seat consisted in an elevated platform in the open air. The pavement mentioned was a tessellated or mosaic square upon which the judgment seat, the Bema, stood. The word Gabbatha means a raised place. What a solemn moment it was! The Son of God, the Lord of glory stands bound, crowned with the crown of thorns, His blessed visage marred and bleeding before Pontius Pilate. A hush of satisfaction must have come upon the Jewish mob of priests, scribes and elders as they realized that the moment had come when their satanic plottings were to be crowned with success. Angels looked on while demons sneered.

It was the preparation of the Passover. This means that the day was set apart for the preparation of the Passover Sabbath. John therefore marks very accurately and precisely the day of crucifixion. It was the day preceding the Passover Sabbath, also called the great Sabbath. And He who is about to be condemned is the true Passover Lamb. It was about the sixth hour. If we read the account of Mark we find that he states it was the third hour (Mark tvr29).

This presents a difficulty and the fact that Mark mentions the third hour and John the sixth hour has been held up by critics, modernists and similar infidels, as a glaring contradiction. We acknowledge the difficulty but not the contradiction. Many attempts have been made to solve this problem. It has also been pointed out that five manuscripts, called uncials, and four cursives read in the original or in corrections ‘the third hour.” However, the most ancient manuscripts read the sixth hour. The most satisfactory solution is that Mark reckons according to Jewish time and John employs the Roman mode of reckoning, which was from midnight to noon, as we do. That this must be correct may also be adduced from the fact that Pilate’s wife sent a message in which she spoke of suffering much ‘“‘to-day in a dream because of Him” (Matth. xxvii:19). Furthermore, we must also notice that John says ‘‘about the sixth hour”; it was about that time when the cry to crucify Him was raised, while Mark gives the third hour as the actual time of the crucifixion itself. John undoubtedly uses in his Gospel record the reckoning of time according to the civil day. (See chapters i:39; iv:6, 52.)”

It was about the sixth hour when Pontius Pilate opened his lips again, saying, “Behold your King!” Why did he speak thus again, when in his heart he had fully decided to put Him to death? Was it the final, feeble attempt to have Him released, or was it mockery? We believe it was the latter. It was sarcasm addressed to the Jews whom he despised so much. Look at Him! This thorn-crowned figure, torn and bleeding, helpless and harmless — this 1s your king! His mockery and sarcasm was followed by a tremendous outburst. “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Poor blinded mob headed by their own religious hierarchy! If they had but known their own Scriptures they would have seen that they were fulfilling what their prophets had predicted (Isaiah xlix:7; liii:2).

We can see the sneer on Pilate’s lip as he said in his final word, “Shall I crucify your king?’ Then the voices of the chief priests were heard above the rest of the murderous rabble, “We have no king but Caesar!” And so to-day the leaders of the Christ-rejecting rabble are the alleged and accredited preachers and teachers in Christendom, who deny the Master who bought them. Fatal word it was, “We have no king but Caesar!’ With this brief sentence they renounced the faith of their fathers and the truth God had given to them, and even God Himself. Their fathers, when they asked for a king in the days of Samuel, had rejected God from being their King. After the mad king had proven a failure God gave to the nation David, the man after His own heart. In him and his kingdom, as well as in Solomon his son, God foreshadowed the true King and His kingdom. That promised King was to come from the loins of David, David’s son and David’s Lord. Prophet after prophet spoke of that King and the glories of His kingdom. Generations after generations waited for Him to come. When the fullness of time had come He came, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matth. i:1). He came as King, offered the promised kingdom to Israel, manifested His power as King and witnessed to His kingship. And now the chief priests declare with one utterance that the only king they know of is the Gentile ruler in Rome. It was the complete evidence or their apostate condition. Their declaration has come upon their own heads, for ever since the Gentile world power has domineered over them and the nation has had her well deserved history of blood, tears and sorrow as Jerusalem has been trodden down by the Gentiles. Nor will there be a change till the day arrives when the rejected King returns and a believing remnant welcomes Him as the Redeemer-King.

Perhaps it was at this point that Pilate washed his hands in their presence saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it”? (Matth. xxvii:24). And their answer was, “His blood be upon us and on our children.”

Pilate then delivered Him to be crucified. Luke tells us that Pilate pronounced the death sentence. “Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required” (Luke xxiii:24). He delivered Him to their will and the willing victim was led away, led as a lamb to the slaughter and never opening His mouth, as Isaiah had predicted over 700 years before.

It was the custom of that day that condemned criminals had to carry the instrument of torture and of death. And so our Lord bore His cross. What kind of a cross was it? We know that four times the cross is spoken of in the New Testament as a tree (Acts v:30, x:39, xiii:29; 1 Peter ii:24). Then in Gal. iii:13 it is also stated, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’ We know from classical literature that often a forked tree was used instead of a manufactured cross. To this must be added the meaning of the Latin for cross-bearer, which literally means “forked-tree bearer.” It seems there is some ground for the view that it was a forked tree making a cross. On the other hand the universal tradition of the Church and art of the earliest day is that it was a piece of wood with a transverse piece fixed across it. There is no discrepancy between John and the Synoptics. The latter tell us that Simon the Cyrenian was compelled to bear it instead of the Lord. The cross was laid upon Him and He probably dragged it along for some distance till the executioners, the rough Roman soldiers feared that He might break down and succumb under the burden. We do not say that He might have succumbed, but that the soldiers probably feared it and therefore pressed the Cyrenian into service. é That our Lord bore the cross fulfills another type. Abraham put the wood for the burnt-offering upon the back of Isaac. The Hebrew commentary Bereshith rabba says that Abraham laid the wood upon Isaac “‘in the form of a cross.” He was led forth outside of the city to a place called Golgotha. Golgotha means the same as the Latin Calvaria, the place of a skull. This place cannot be located, the only thing we know is that it was without the gate, as Paul writes in the Hebrew epistle ‘Jesus suffered without the gate.” The sin-offering on the Day of Atonement was to be carried “without the camp” (Lev. xvi:27). Why the place was called “fa skull” we do not know, for a certainty. Many conjectures have been made. In many hymns and poems Calvary is spoken of as a hill, or a mountain.

There is a green hill far away

Without the city wall,

Where the dear Lord was crucified
And died to save us all.

If it was ‘‘a green hill” it certainly was not far away. But where in Scripture do we find it stated that Golgotha was a hill or a mountain? There is not a single passage which would warrant such a belief. Later in this chapter we read that in the place where He was crucified there was a garden (verse 41). It was a garden where Adam fell and where the first announcement of redemption was made. In a garden the last Adam met the penalty and fulfilled the promise.

It is noteworthy that no inspired pen enters into a detailed description of the crucifixion itself. ‘They crucified Him there.” It was indescribable. For this reason we do not attempt, as others have done, to draw upon the imagination and picture the awful scene when the Lamb of God was nailed to that cross of shame, a suffering which we cannot fully understand. John also mentions that others were crucified with Him; He in the midst. Another prophetic utterance is seen fulfilled, “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Isa. liii:12). What happened to these malefactors John does not record as the other three Gospels do. The one to the right turned to Him in the last moments of his sinful life and believing on Him was saved; the other to the left died in his sins, an unrepenting sinner, and was lost.

Verses 19-22. It was customary to bear before the criminal led away to the place of execution an inscription which designated his crime; this was subsequently nailed to the cross, as a warning to others. Pilate put over the cross of our Lord the inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” It was written in three languages, in Latin (the political court language); in Greek (the language of the Gentiles) and in Hebrew, rather Aramaic (the sacred religious language). As it was near the city many Jews who passed by, probably along the highway, read it. Here again, Pilate acted without knowing what he did. He meant it as an insult to the Jews. They were not slow to recognize this, and therefore the chief priests tried to have it changed. But the inscription showed to all who passed by that Jesus really was hanging on that cross, that He was not released, but suffered on the cross, and, furthermore, the inscription made it clear that He is the King of the Jews, the Son of David, the Messiah. Being in the three great languages of the times, Jews and Gentiles read it, and as they passed on they spread the news that one by name of Jesus, the King of the Jews, had been crucified at the time of the Passover.

But the inscription produced two results apart from the anger of the chief priests who wanted to have it written in a different way. We read in Mark’s Gospel, “The chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him reviled Him.” The inscription produced vile mockery. But it. produced a most blessed fruit. It seems to us that the thief at His right hand must have glanced at that inscription. Over the crosses of the two malefactors were written the shameful record of their crimes — thieves and murderers. Over His cross, the Man in the middle, no crime was written, but only the terse sentence, “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” And the thief must have read it, and reading, he believed that He is the King. He rebuked his companion in sin. He declared, because he believed, that the Lord Jesus Christ had done nothing amiss. Then he turned to Him with that great and wonderful request, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” And the suffering Lord answered him and his faith with the blessed assurance, “Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” In all probability the inscription of Pilate written in ignorance and out of spite helped to save the soul of the dying thief.

The final word of Pilate is, “What I have written, I have written.” Well commented Augustinus on this sentence, saying, “If a man like Pilate can say, what I have written I have written, and will not alter it, can we think that God doth write any in His book and blot it out again?”

Verses 23-24. The account which John gives of this incident is more complete than the account in the synoptic Gospels. (See Matt. xxvii:35; Mark xv:24; Luke xxi: 34). After the bloody work of crucifixion had been done the four soldiers (called a quaternion) detailed to do this work remained. It seems it was a Roman custom, as it is still in some countries, that the executioners received the clothing of the condemned. They divided therefore the garments of our Lord into four parts, so that each soldier received a share. What these garments were we do not need to specualte about, for it is of little interest. But one garment is specially mentioned in the record, the seamless coat woven from the top throughout. In the eyes of the soldiers it must have had some value. It was probably the outer garment, and it is possible that the soldiers knew that people had touched the hem of this garment and had been healed. If they knew of this it may have increased the value of the coat in their eyes. The coat was probably a gift of some of the women who ministered unto Him (Luke viii:1-3). They agreed not to tear this seamless coat into four parts but to gamble for it. Dice were extensively used among the old Romans, as they are still used for the same purpose.

This incident shows the awful hard-heartedness of man, the vile depths into which sin has plunged him. A little distance away stood the cultured, the religious scribes and priests sneering, mocking and insulting the crucified One.

Their hearts just as vile and wicked as the hearts of the four soldiers. These gambled right beneath the cross. They sat down cooly under a dying man to wrangle for His garment, and arbitrate their avaricious differences by casting dice for His tunic, with hands spotted with spattered blood, warm and yet undried upon them. If they but had known that that precious blood flowing from the veins of the crucified Lord was shed in their own behalf! What became of the seamless garment? No one knows. In Treves dark, heathen, lying Rome exhibits the so-called “holy coat,” claiming to be the seamless robe of our Lord. It is one of the scandalous deceptions of the mother of harlots and the mother of ignorance. No sane person will believe such humbuggery practiced for filthy lucre’s sake.

But all was done in fulfillment of prophecy. A thousand years before the Holy Spirit witnessed in the xxii Psalm as to this incident. It is one of the many evidences of the marvelous and minute fulfillment of prophecy. The very minuteness of it bears witness to the accurate reality of prophecy.

Verses 25-27. This incident of His loved ones standing by the cross is not recorded by the other Gospels. It is a most blessed scene. Mary the mother of Jesus, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene had taken their places by the cross, surrounded by the taunting Jews and the gambling soldiers, to show to the very last their unswerving affection for Him. When we remember that our Lord was a condemned criminal, peculiarly hated by the chief priests, executed by Roman soldiers, the faithfulness and courage of these holy women can never be sufficiently admired. As long as the world stands they supply a glorious proof of what grace can do for the weak, and of the strength that.love to Christ can supply. When all men but one forsook our Lord, more than one woman boldly confessed Him. Women, in short, were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb.*

Mary the mother of our Lord is mentioned the only time here in the passion of our Lord. Rome canstantly speaks of

*Expository thoughts on Joho, her as the “Virgin Mary,” a title which is not used in Scripture, but she is always called, the mother of our Lord. Only once more is she mentioned in Scripture, in the first chapter of Acts. It is evident that the Holy Spirit anticipated the idolatry which apostate Rome would practice with her person and therefore He has but little to say about her person. She probably had come from Galilee to attend the annual Passover feast and may have been also a witness of other phases of the suffering of her virgin-born Son. She was, of course, no longer young, as she is so frequently pictured by artists, but must have been close to fifty years. What she must have suffered when she looked up and saw Him to whom she had given birth, hanging in agony on that cross of shame can hardly be imagined. Old Simeon’s prediction was then fulfilled. ‘‘A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also” (Luke 11:35).

A still more touching scene follows. John the writer of this Gospel stood there also. In true humility he mentions himself last and then not by name, but as elsewhere in this Gospel, as the disciple whom Jesus loved. While our Lord suffered as the sacrificial Lamb, He manifested perfect human affection and sympathy. As He looked upon the little group, so faithfully sharing His rejection also, He knew what was going on in the mother heart. His mighty love and sympathy was not altered by His intense physical suffering. He had prayed a little while before, ‘‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He spoke to the dying thief words of love and assurance. And He now addressed His suffering mother. ‘Translated literally it is: “Woman! Look! Thy Son!” and to John “Look! Thy mother!” In these words He made gracious provision for His mother. This certainly is sufficient evidence that Joseph, the husband of Mary had died and also that she had no one else to take care other. The Lord therefore commended her to the care of the beloved disciple. It is also highly significant that our Lord did not address her as “Mother,” but spoke to her in the same term He had used at the marriage supper of Cana, “Woman.” Bishop Ryle remarks on this: “I cannot help thinking that, even at this awful moment, He would remind her that she must never suffer herself or others to presume on the relationship between her and Him, or claim any supernatural honor on the ground of being His mother. Henceforth she must daily remember, that first aim must be to live the life of fait as a believing woman, like all other Christian women. Her blessedness.did not consist in being related to Christ according to the flesh, but in believing and keeping Christ’s word. I firmly believe that, even on the cross, Jesus foresaw the future heresy of ‘Mary-worship.’”? A German commentator says: “Our Lord’s design was not to provide for John, but to provide for His mother”; while Dean Alford observed: ‘The Romanist idea that the Lord commended all His disciples, as represented by John, to the patronage of His mother, is simply absurd.”

And John obeyed at once and ever after he took care of Mary, the mother of our Lord. Where John lived, how long Mary lived, are questions which cannot be answered, though many traditions are about, but they are unreliable.

Verses 28-30. John does not say anything about the three hours of darkness and the momentous utterance which came from our Saviour’s lips: ““My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This is passed over by John. Nor is any mention made of the rending of the veil, the earthquake, the centurion’s confession. ‘These omissions have often been pointed out by critics as demonstrating a human and fallible authorship. In reality they are evidences of verbal inspiration, for the Gospel of John shows our Lord in His essential Deity and as the Eternal Life. As the Son of God, the maker of all things in fellowship with the Father. His sacrificial death is set forth in the fourth Gospel. The omissions are for a very good purpose. But we shall point out more of that as we meditate on this section.

What John reports now must have followed the three hours of darkness. That is immediately after He had commended His mother to the care of the beloved disciple, the darkness, the mysterious darkness enshrouded the cross. Out of that darkness came but one utterance, so awfully deep that no saint has ever sounded its depths.

What a majestic statement it is which we find in verse 28! “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, thirst.” All through His suffering He was perfectly conscious, and He knew all He had to suffer beforehand and all which was to be accomplished by His suffering and death. He knew the betrayal of Judas, His arrest in the garden, the trial, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the shame and physical suffering connected with the cross. He knew that in the three hours of darkness He would be made sin and drink the cup of judgment in the place of guilty and lost sinners. And now, the three hours passed. He knew all things were accomplished. One Scripture He knew was still unfulfilled. It is written in Psalm Ixix:21 “* * * in my thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” He knew this had also to be accomplished. In Matthew xxvii:34 we read that they offered Him vinegar and gall, which He refused. It was before they drove the nails through His blessed hands and feet. As it was a stimulant to deaden pain He refused to drink it. But now He suffered intense thirst. It was prophetically described a thousand years before by David’s inspired pen. “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to My jaws, and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death” (Psalm xxii:15). The two little words “I thirst”’ tell us of the physical agony through which He passed. This simple statement shows what He must have suffered. His suffering was not miraculously overcome, but He suffered really and in a manner which was indescribable. A commentator says: ““The torments of hell are represented by a violent thirst, in the complaint of the rich man who begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. To that everlasting thirst we had all been condemned, if Christ had not suffered on the cross, and said ‘I thirst.’”’ He suffered thirst that we might thirst no more but drink the water of life freely. And He spoke thus expressing His intense agony, that at the same time the Scripture might be fulfilled. A soldier, perhaps moved with pity, filled a sponge with vinegar, which was in a vessel nearby, put it on hyssop and reaching up put it to His mouth. Here too is a deep allusion to the sacrificial work of the divine sufferer. Hyssop was used in sprinkling the door posts with blood in the Passover night. It was also used in sprinkling with blood and water the book of the law, and the people (Heb. x:19). So small a thing as hyssop was not overlooked in the fulfillment of His redemption work.

Immediately after He had received the vinegar He said: “It is finished!’ and He bowed His head and delivered up His Spirit. The synoptic Gospels do not record this majestic, unfathomable utterance. Matthew writes: ‘‘Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Spirit” (Matt. xxvii:50). Mark records the same. Luke states: ‘When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit, and having said thus He gave up the Spirit” (Luke xxiii:46). From the testimony of the synoptic Gospels we learn that our Lord must have uttered the word which John records, “It is finished!’ with a loud voice. In the Greek it is one word — Tetelstat. As He uttered this one word with a loud voice it means a shout of triumph and of victory. With every phase of His redemption work a shout is connected. As the risen One, He greeted His disciples with a shout of Joy — All hail! which means literally “Rejoice!”’ He went up with a shout, and some day He is coming back with a shout (1 Thess. iv:16-18).

But who can tell what this one word “It is finished!” means? It is as glorious as it is inexhaustible and unsearchable. Never before and never after was spoken such a marvelous word, which means so much. No Saint is able to measure the depths of this triumphant shout. It means that His great sacrificial work, the sin-bearing, was now finished. All that needed to be done to satisfy the righteousness of God and to vindicate His holiness was finished; peace was now made in the blood of His cross; all that God in His eternal counsel had purposed was finished; prophecies and types relating to His matchless atoning work were finished. Yea, all was finished to reach down to man in his deepest degradation and to save him to the uttermost, so that the lost, the guilty, the hell-deserving sinner becomes, trusting in Him, a child of God and an heir of glory. All is finished to put on the side of the believer every spiritual blessing which an infinite God is able to bestow. But all these statements we have made are but the A. B. C. of the meaning of this great utterance of the Lamb of God.

At the close of the Twenty-second Psalm, the Psalm which tells out so fully His suffering and His glory, we find a word which is equivalent to the exclamation “It is finished!” There we read “That He hath done.” If we ask what has He done or finished we find an answer in the preceding verses. There we read that Israel will yet accept Him and the ends of the world shall turn to the Lord. All this was done by Him on the cross. Twice in Revelation we find the same expression. In chapter xvi:17 there is heard a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “‘It is done.” The seventh angel poured out the vial; the complete end of man’s day has come and the day of the Lord with millennial blessing and glory is now ushered in. The foundation for all these blessings was laid by Him in His finished work on the cross. One more we read the same statement in Revelation. “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. JI am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely’? (Rev. xxi:5-6).

And after the triumphant “Tetelstair” — “It is finished,” He bowed His blessed thorn-crowned head and delivered up His spirit. In Luke’s Gospel we read that our Lord said: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” John does not record this for He writes of Him as the Son of God and as such, one with the Father, unforsaken by the Father (Chapter xvi:32) He did not need to commend Himself to the Father. The expression “He delivered up His spirit” is nowhere else used in the Bible of a dying person. We die because we cannot help it, but His death was a voluntary action. He delivered up His spirit by His own free will.

The remarks on this verse by Augustinus of the fourth century are most appropriate. ‘Not against His will did the Saviour’s spirit leave the flesh, but because He would, and when He would, and how He would. Who is there that even can go to sleep when he will, as Jesus did when He would? Who thus puts off his clothes, when he will, as Jesus unclothed Himself when He would? Who goes thus out of doors when he will, as Jesus, when He would, went out of this world?”

“It is finished!” sinners, hear it,

*Tis the dying victor’s cry;
“It is finished!”’ angels, bear it,

Bear the joyful truth on high:
“It is finished!’

Tell it through the earth and sky!

Hear the Lord Himself declaring
All performed He came to do;
Sinners, in yourselves despairing,
This is joyful news to you;
Jesus speaks it,
His are faithful words and true.

“It is finished!” all is over,

Yes, the cup of wrath is drained,
Such the truth these words discover,
Thus the victory was obtained —

’Tis a victory
None but Jesus could have gained.”

Verses 31-37. What is meant by “the preparation’’? It means the day preceding the Passover Sabbath. It was considered a high day, or, better rendered, a great day. This seems to be conclusive evidence that the death of our Lord took place on Friday. Some in order to get the three days and three nights have tried to fix the day of the death of our Lord on Wednesday, and others on Thursday. The Jewish mode of reckoning explains the apparent difficulty. On account of the approaching great Sabbath they were particular that the law of Moses should not be broken. It is written in Deut. xxi:23 concerning the man who is put to death and is hanged on a tree: ‘‘His body shall not remain all night upon the tree.” The miserable hypocrites had no scruples in murdering an innocent man, but they were scrupulous about letting the dead man hang on the cross over night. They evidently feared that the bodies of the three criminals might hang over the Sabbath on the crosses. They came therefore to Pilate and requested him that their legs might be broken and that all three be taken away. Did they fear anything else? The place of crucifixion was near the wall of the city and near the temple. It was along the highway leading into the city on which hundreds entered the city. Did they fear that the sight of the One in the middle with His bowed, thorn-crowned head, and the inscription above — ‘“‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” might arouse a mighty sentiment against them from the many who had followed Him and had been benefited by His works of mercy?.

The breaking of the legs of crucified criminals was a Roman custom to hasten death. They did not hesitate to urge the Roman heathen to resort to this barbarous custom and to add additional suffering to the dying men. They evidently did not know that the Lord Jesus had bowed His head and that His body had died. But what would have happened if they had not made the request? As far as we know all three bodies would have remained on the crosses over the Sabbath and the prediction that He would rise again on the third day would have remained unfulfilled. Furthermore, if the Jews had not made the request to break the legs of them, the prediction which is quoted from the Psalms would have had no meaning. The very hatred and malignity of these Jewish leaders, anxious to dispose of the body of the hated One, was instrumental in accomplishing the purpose of God and the fulfillment of His own Word. How true it is, as someone has said, the wickedest enemies of God are only axes, saws and hammers in His hands, and are ignorantly His instruments for doing His work in the world.

Then the soldiers began their ghastly work. Two of them started in with the two thieves and broke their legs, which was probably done with a heavy club of some kind. Then the thief who had turned to the Lord passed away and found the blessed meaning of the promise of the Lord: “To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” The Lord who had delivered up His spirit had gone before him. The other thief, impenitent to the last, also died and passed into the outer darkness.

Then they turned to the cross in the middle. The bowed head, the closed eyes, the limp body, the blanched face, told the story. He had died. There was no need to break His legs. A soldier, at random, pierced His side. There is nc ancient source which even gives a hint that such a thing was ever done before. It was not a Roman custom to pierce the side of a dead criminal. The soldier did not follow the command given to him to break the legs of the three to hasten their death; he had no authority to take the spear and pierce His side. Even he was divinely guided in doing this. The Roman government had not authorized the act, but God did, so that the most conclusive evidence of the death of Christ might be given and that Scripture also might be fulfilled.

The blood and water coming from the pierced side was in the first place an evidence that He was dead. The spear pierced the very vitals of the body, the pericardium; if He had not been dead this spear thrust would have accomplished it. So God took care that the lie of rationalism, trying to disprove His physical resurrection by saying, He had not actually died, should have no weight with any sensible being. But it was more than an evidence that Christ had died. The flow of blood and water out of His side is one of the miracles of the cross; it was a supernatural event. From a dead man no blood flows forth; the flow of blood was a special manifestation of God’s power. The Apostle John bears witness to it that he saw it with his own eyes. In his first epistle he also alludes to it. ‘“This is He that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the power of water only, but in the power of water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” (Chapter v:6). Very foolishly some expositors have applied this to baptism and the Lord’s supper, and others made the strange assertion that wine and water should be mixed at the Lord’s table. The blood stands always for atonement, the water for purification, for cleansing. This is the evident meaning of the miracle, to give an outward evidence of the meaning of His sacrificial death — justification and sanctification — typified by blood and water, and both are received by faith in the death of the Son of God.

“Thy love, by man so sorely tried,
Proved stronger than the grave;
The very spear that pierced Thy side

Drew forth the blood to save.”

And all was in fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures. How marvelously God took care that nothing should be overlooked in His Word! These wonderful fulfillments of prophecy are one of the outstanding evidences of the supernaturalness of the Book. The soldier could not break the legs of the Lord Jesus, because He is the true Passover Lamb and no bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken (Exod. xii:46). The soldier had to pierce His*blessed side not only to give sure evidence of His death and to show miraculously by the blood and water the spiritual results of His death, but to do it because Scripture demands it. It is written in Zechariah xii:10: “And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.” But let it be noticed, John avoids the word “at was fulfilled.” He did not use this term because the Scripture which predicts this was not fulfilled at that time, nor has it been fulfilled since then. It is true thousands upon thousands have looked to Him and believed on Him, and were saved. It is true

“There is life in a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for you.’

But if’we examine the passage in Zechariah we learn that it will be fulfilled in the future, when the repentant remnant of Israel in the last days of this age turns to Him and when He comes again, then they will look upon Him whom they pierced. Thomas, the unbelieving disciple, who would not believe till he put his hand into His side, is a picture of the unbelieving Jew, who always wants to see first and then believe. When He comes the second time this Scripture will be fulfilled and not before.

Verses 38-42. The burial of His blessed body is next brought before us by John’s inspired pen. It was a custom to leave crucified criminals unburied. Often they were left hanging on the cross for the vultures to feed upon. His burial had also been predicted by the Spirit of God. Isaiah wrote (correctly translated) “His grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was His tomb” (liii:9). It means this — the Jews would have liked to have His body treated as if it were the body of a wicked man, but God stepped in, and He who had said that “His body should not see corruption,” the body which knew no sin, gave His beloved Son for a resting place the tomb of a rich man. Who Joseph of Arimathea was we learn from all four Gospels. He was a wealthy man (Matt. xxvii:51). He was an honorable counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God (Mark xv:43). He was a good man and just and had not consented to the counsel and deed in condemning the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke xxiii:50). He was a secret disciple of the Lord. While in His life this noble man kept in the background, His death led him out to make a confession by his action. Being an influential man, probably well known to Pilate, he had no difficulty in getting the ready consent of the Roman official. We do not know why he acted so boldly. Many things might be conjectured. He may have been led to confess Him, when His own disciples had forsaken Him, on account of the startling events which took place in connection with the death of the Lord; or it may have been the power of God which enabled him to disregard all danger and ridicule and claim the body of Christ. However, it was an act of faith and confession. A commentator says: ‘‘When Christ was working wonders, and speaking as never man spake, all this moved not Joseph to come forth and show himself. But now, Christ being dead and in shame, he comes out. Whereunto do I ascribe this? I ascribe it to the power that comes from the death of Christ. There was never a living man in the world that had such power as that dead body had. More mighty was His death than His life.”

It is also a curious incident, perhaps more than that, that it was a “Joseph” who handled probably first the body of our Lord, as an infant, at the time of His birth in Bethlehem, and that it was another “Joseph” who handled the lifeless body for burial.

Nicodemus appears next on the scene. He is even of greater interest than Joseph of Arimathea. We read of him only in this Gospel. He came to the Lord Jesus by night, and heard the great truth concerning the kingdom of God (John iii). The next time he is mentioned is in chapter vii:10. He belonged to those in authority and when they met and were angry at the officers who returned without the hated One, whom they were commissioned to arrest, Nicodemus ventured a weak defense of the Lord. Each time, here and in chapter vii, the Spirit of God adds by way of identification “che that came to Jesus by night,” so that there might be no mistake that it was the same person. And now he comes bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about one hundred pound weight. Did he know Joseph of Arimathea? Was Joseph’s action the reason that he also came out to confess Christ? Or was it the death of Christ? These questions are unanswerable. But we have always thought that Nicodemus must have been an onlooker when our Lord was crucified. He saw Him nailed to the cross and hanging there. As the teacher of Israel he knew the Scriptures and beheld how Scripture was being fulfilled. Perhaps then the memorable words the Lord had given to him that night came back to him. ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Perhaps that very moment he believed and was born again. And now a great Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, the teacher in Israel, comes out boldly to do honor to Him who, in the eyes of the law, had died a criminal. He comes to do honor to the body of the Lord Jesus.

They took the body and wound it in linen cloth with spices, according to the manner of Jewish burial. The fine linen was provided by Joseph (Mark xv:46). This also shows conclusively that the body was dead. Strange it is that some think that the large amount of spices were used to keep back the corruption of the body of our Lord. No spices, no myrrh, no embalming process was needed for that. Corruption is in the world on account of sin. He had no sin, but gave His sinless body; therefore corruption of His body was impossible in fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm xvi.

From verse 41 we learn that in the place where He was crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre which had never been used. As we learn from Matthew, it was hewn outofarock. An ancient commentator says “It is a striking proof of our Lord’s poverty, that while He lived He had no house of His own, and when He died He was buried in another’s tomb.’’ The sepulchre was very near and there the blessed, precious body was deposited. There He rested till the dawn of the third day, the first day of the week. “Thus ended the most wonderful funeral the sun ever shone upon. Such a death and such a burial — so little understood by man and so important in the sight of God, — there never was and never can be again. Who need doubt the love of Christ, when we consider the deep humiliation that Christ went through for our sakes! To tabernacle in our flesh at all, to die after the manner of a man, to allow His holy body to hang on a cross, to suffer it to be lifted, handled, carried like a lump of cold clay, and shut up in a dark, silent, solitary tomb, — this was indeed love that passeth knowledge. What true believer need fear the grave now? Solemn as is the thought of our last narrow bed, we must never forget that it is the place where the Lord lay. ‘The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. xv:56).’’*

Matthew Henry says ‘‘Christ’s death should comfort us against the fear of death. The grave could not long keep Christ, and it shall not long keep us. It was a loathsome prison before, it is a perfumed bed now. He whose Head is in Heaven, need not fear to put his feet in a grave.”

*Expositoy Thoughts on John.