John 19:1-42
Jesus is Sentenced to be Crucified
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 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. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 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. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders 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. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 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. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken, 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 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. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 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. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
It is called Good Friday...And it was a horrible day which Jesus would have to suffer...How the actual day went, I think we could call it Grieving Friday...Normally, one does not look at a tragedy as being good...
The first Good Friday, would have been one where crowds were at a fever pitch -and not in a good and happy way...The crowds would have been watching a Man first on trial...Then a condemned Man carrying His cross toward His destination of death...Roman soldiers would mistreat Him terribly...A day when Pilate would have Him beaten and flogged by Roman soldiers...And as I read these verses, it seems Pilate himself, the judge and jury, is uncomfortable sitting in his judge's seat...Pilate calls Jesus a King, no fewer than twice...First Pilate says, "Here is your King" to the crowd...Then he calls Jesus a King in the form of a question, by asking, "Shall I crucify your King?"...The Jewish leaders say that their king is the Roman Emperor, Caesar...They still did not know that Jesus was and is the Son of God...And so the soldiers would put on His head, a painful crown of thorns...Our LORD and our God being ridiculed throughout this day in this mockery of a trial...Jesus would suffer tremendously on Good Friday...He is truly the One in discomfort...Sin and evil are certainly all around Him this day...And in this we see the Passion of Our Christ...Yet, watching above is our Father in Heaven....
And as this day unfolds, and the first Good Friday plays out, how could this One so beaten and so suffering, and so alone, be our LORD and our God?...On the way to Golgotha He would be treated with dishonor, receive no respect, and be yelled at as a criminal...He was abandoned...All this gives us a powerful image of Him completely suffering, in pain, yet at the same time in His glory...Jesus knew those in charge and the One in charge of all things...He had told Pilate that he would have no power whatsoever over Him if it were not given to him from His Father above...We can see by these events that God knows what it is like to be completely alone, abandoned, and to suffer...He is left to die by Himself on the cross, for teaching others about God...
On the cross and near Him standing, He sees His mother...Also He sees His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and also Mary Magdalene...When Jesus saw His mother there He continues to show us His LOVE...He tells His mother that the disciple whom He LOVED will take care of her...Jesus says to His mother, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”...From that time on, this disciple took her into his home...
My sins, the crowd's sins, and the sins of others has put Him on the cross and left Him hanging to die...And Jesus hangs in great pain from the cross for hours until He dies...His last words on the cross are "It is finished."...Joseph of Arimathea and the Pharisee, Nicodemus, would direct His burial...Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, and in strips of linen...He was buried in accordance with Jewish burial customs...Very near the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden there was 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 in the new tomb...
It would be an understatement to say that this was a Good Day, a Good Friday for Jesus...But this is the Way of the Cross...A great humbleness is in this suffering, being abandoned and alone and having to die...This is the day He would die for the sins of mankind...He would save us this day from our sins...A Mysterious Glory in suffering through this tragedy...This was His destiny, after all...Maybe this is the reason we call it Good...Or maybe Good Friday is so closely linked to Easter, and our Master rising again -alive again on Sunday, maybe this is why we call it good...Nonetheless, it Good that Jesus would hang on the cross Good Friday, so that He would save us from our sins...