Sermon Book: John

About this sermon

John begins the resurrection account while it was still dark. Mary Magdalene finds the stone rolled away and runs to tell Peter and the beloved disciple, who race to the tomb and find the linen cloths lying in order. The disciples did not yet expect a resurrection, and their careful testimony to what they saw is all the more reliable. Light dawns on the first day of the week, as it did on the first day of creation: the risen Christ is the light of the world.

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Sermon transcript

Without apology, I begin this evening’s sermon with an extensive quotation from a sermon by your dearest boss on the same text as our scripture reading tonight. I want you to realize that these are but the opening words of a rather lengthy sermon, chapel message entitled Rabboni, that was delivered at Princeton Seminary to students and fellow faculty nearly a century ago. I offer these words by way of introduction to this new section of scripture, John 20, verses one through 18.

Boss writes, our text takes us to the tomb of the risen Lord. On the first Sabbath morning, of the new covenant. It is impossible for us to imagine a spot more radiant with light and joy than was this immediately after the resurrection. Even when thinking ourselves back into the preceding moments, while as yet to the external eye there was nothing but the darkness of death, Our anticipation of what we know to be about to happen floods the scene with a twilight of supernatural splendor. The sepulcher itself has become to us prophetic of victory. We seem to hear in the expectant air the wingbeat of the descending angels come to roll away the stone and announce to us, the Lord is risen indeed.

Besides this, we have learned to read the story of our Lord’s life and death so as to consider the resurrection its only possible outcome. And this has, to some extent, dulled our sense for the startling character of what took place. We interpret the resurrection in terms of the atoning cross and easily forget how little the disciples were as yet prepared for doing the same. And so it requires an effort on our part to understand sympathetically the state of mind they brought to the morning of this day. Nevertheless, we must try to enter into their thoughts and feelings, if for no other reason for this, that something of the same fresh marvel and gladness that subsequently came to them may fill our hearts also. Whether we may be able to explain it or not, the gospel tells us that notwithstanding the emphatic prediction by the Savior of his death and resurrection, they had but little remembrance of these words and drew from them no practical support or comfort in the sorrow that overwhelmed them. In part, this may have been due to the fact of our Lord’s having only predicted and not fully explained these tremendous events.

At any rate, the circumstance shows that there is need of a deeper faith than that of mere acquaintance with and consent to external statements of truth when the dread realities of life and death assail us. Dare we say that we ourselves should have proved stronger in such a trial, if over against all that mocked our hope, we had been able to place no more than a dimly remembered promise. Let us thank God that when we ourselves enter into the valley of the shadow of death, we have infinitely more than a promise to stay our hearts upon, that ours is the fulfillment of that promise, the fact of the resurrection, nay, the risen Lord himself present with rod and staff beside us.

Now, as you look at that sermon, and you could go to careroach.com and you could see that sermon online, that’s just two little paragraphs of a sermon that goes on for quite a while in Vassa’s preaching. I ask you to remember again, it was a sermon offered in a seminary context. But what he is getting at here is that we need to get ourselves into the scene, what was happening in light of what had just happened, that is the crucifixion of Jesus and the pallor that hung over the people who loved him and had witnessed this betrayal and in turn crucifixion as they come to the tomb on that first day of the week of this, what Voss calls this new covenant week, this new creation week as it were.

So I ask you then with that by way of preparation that we turn to our text tonight and that we begin to look at John chapter 20. Let us therefore turn to the text being careful to observe details, especially as we find them here in John’s gospel. As we’ve said repeatedly, John has a unique slant, a unique commentary on the things that happened. The Johannine resurrection narrative begins with what we could call traditional material.

The women walking to the tomb. The evangelist, John, took for granted that his readers knew of this story. Remember, John is writing his gospel later. And as he tells the story, look closely at the text, he mentions only one woman. And that by name, Mary Magdalene. But notice in verse two, that when she speaks, she speaks in the plural. So John is assuming there were others there from the other gospels. We know there were other women there.

But in verse two, she speaks, we do not know where they have laid him, plural. John focuses completely nonetheless on the special role that Mary Magdalene plays in all of the events of that morning. of the first day of the week. He does not say why she went to the tomb as the Synoptic Gospel writers do. All attention here in John is immediately focused on the fact that when she arrived at the tomb she found the stone which was there to seal off the tomb had been removed.

In John 21 through 18 we find a story, beloved, that we all know. John’s account of the morning of the first day of the week following Christ’s crucifixion. But did you notice in this opening of John chapter 20, John’s mention of the darkness. It was still dark, verse 1. John’s account of the morning of the first day of the week following Christ’s crucifixion, he mentions it was still dark. Only John among the gospel writers tells us it was still dark. When it was dark, that is when darkness still enveloped everything, including those most devoted to Jesus, the disciples, the women, the followers of Christ, still in the dark, if you will. It is not as if the light has not shined. Magnificently, light has burst forth in the resurrection of Jesus.

The light, this light, was like that which burst forth once before at the very beginning of time on the first day. as you go back to Genesis 1 and think of the creation story. You see the first day of the week of which John writes reminds us of that very first day in the very first week of the original creation.

Now as then, God performs a hidden work. At creation no one but God and his holy angels witnessed what took place. Who was there to hear the Almighty say, let there be light? It is the same at the resurrection of Jesus. Here again, it’s a hidden word. And in it, God brings to life this dark world’s light.

Do you remember how John’s gospel had begun? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1, 1-5. It was still dark. for those who loved Jesus.

Remember also Jesus words to Martha in John 11 on his way to Bethany and then to Jerusalem knowing himself that Lazarus was already dead four days in the tomb when Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me shall live even if he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall live even if he dies chapter 11 Verses 25 and 26.

We know resurrection as Voss puts it. We know on this side what happened that day. But for the disciples and the others who came, the women, the woman, Mary Magdalene, it was still dark. Now as we read the narrative of John 20, we already know that Jesus is raised from the dead.

But those who came to the tomb that Easter morning do not know it. Remember that. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and seeing that the stone had been taken away, she came to the naturally logical conclusion, quote, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. End of quote.

That discovery is reported also by the other gospels. but they have the women come closer and they encounter angels and all kinds of things happen in the Synoptic Gospels. But here we read of Mary Magdalene that when she came and found the stone rolled away, that she ran immediately, apparently without entering the open tomb or even looking inside.

She concludes that Jesus’ body has been taken away and she runs off to Peter and to the beloved disciple. in order that she might tell them this shocking news. And I ask you to look closely there again. She ran, came to Simon Peter, verse two, and to the other disciple.

She says more than she can prove. They’ve taken his body away. Her entire conduct betrays the special ties she has had and she has with Jesus. What she has seen makes her fear that some have not been able to leave Jesus’ dead body alone, but they have removed it from the care of those who would be definable as his own, his beloved. Somebody else has intruded and done something with the body of Jesus.

So she goes to Peter and to the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. Undoubtedly on account of their special position among the disciples. These are two of the chief disciples of Jesus after all. Some think in that context of verse two that the repetition in the verse of the preposition, small thing here, to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. Do you see the repetition of two in both places?

She didn’t go to Simon Peter and the other disciple. She went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. And they have taken that to suggest that Peter and the other disciple probably weren’t in the same place. That she had to go get one and then she went and got the other one. And that Mary ran first to Peter and then to the other disciple.

We’re not told where they, that is Peter and the other disciple, had gone. After having been in proximity to the court of the high priest, you remember Peter and John outside in the court, Peter’s denials and so on. We’re not told where they had gone after Peter’s denial, Peter after his denial, or after the beloved disciples presence at the cross. What did he do after Jesus was crucified and they had taken his body away?

But now the two of them, Peter and the other disciple having been summoned, they are both now going to the tomb, and the two we are told were running together. It is indeed remarkable how graphically the evangelist describes the two disciples going together, running together, and then being together at the tomb. We’re told something seemingly so insignificant as the other disciple, presumably John, the other disciple ran faster than Peter.

He came to the tomb first. He stooped. He looked in. He saw the linen wrappings lying there. But he did not go in, we’re told. But Peter, who was running a little bit behind, comes, true to his impetuous form. He’s the first one to go into the tomb. Perhaps it’s even the case that this other disciple even waited for Peter. I want you to have first opportunity or let’s go in together. To give him the priority at least not to enter the tomb without him that the two would be there.

Something is repeated here that can be observed over and over in the relationship between the two men. The beloved disciple has a unique position alongside that of Peter. These are two of the disciples. And in some respects, this other disciple stays ahead of Peter, but without in any way diminishing Peter’s special place among the disciples. Small detail, but keep it in mind.

However one wants to judge this matter, here the dominant emphasis is not on the differences in the conduct of these two men, But, and this was of far greater importance to the church and is of greater importance to the church, on what they saw together as two important witnesses, eyewitnesses, apostolic witnesses, what they saw together that early morning.

They saw Jesus’ tomb was empty. For that reason, verse three, after they were going to the tomb, we read the emphatic addition, and the two were running together. Verse four. The statement that the other disciple ran ahead faster may be striking, but it can hardly mean that already before he had seen anything, he knew or suspected more than Peter.

The detailed manner in which they went to the tomb is described. Yeah, it’s not a race. This is a sorrowful event, but perplexity has come. The intention of the text is rather designed to put all of the stress on the intimacy of these men’s knowledge of what they saw.

The knowledge and the reliability of their testimony, the two of them together. at the tomb. And that same precision with which John here tells the story and tells the story, we were both there and we both saw it and I was ahead but we got there and he went in first and then I went in and we both saw it. The same precision also applies to their observation of the linen cloths.

The other disciple came first, stooped down, saw them in the tomb, he looks in. But he did not enter. Peter, on the other hand, immediately, in character, went in, saw not only the linen cloths lying there, but also the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. Though it was not lying with the linen wrappings, but in a rolled up in a place by itself.

Again, details of those who were there who saw it and who testified together of it. At the entombment, these claws served to keep the hands and the feet of the body of the crucified Jesus together, to hold the head in the position with the mixture of myrrh and aloes put upon the body, preparing the body for burial. But now those claws lay there, left behind in good order, each in its own place, as two discarded attributes. that we might say, that were no longer of any use. And also with the stone that had been rolled away, those linen claws lying there lay as silent witnesses of Jesus’ victory, not only over death, but also over the grave in which the body of Jesus had been laid.

Of no less importance for the understanding of the whole further, is the manner in which the evangelist, in just a few sober words, describes and judges the reactions of the beloved, the reactions, excuse me, of the beloved disciple. After Peter had gone in, carefully surveyed everything, then the other disciple, who had come first to the tomb, entered then also, notice the text, and he saw and he believed.

That’s verse 8. He saw and believed. And so we ask, what did he see? And what did he believe? We’re not told. What did he see and what did he believe beyond the grave linens? Does he go, does he now understand all that had happened and why? That’s not in the text. Does he go away rejoicing in the resurrection, eager to tell others of what he now knows? It does not appear to be so. Yes, the tomb was empty. Yes, the burial linens had been left behind. Yes, the body of Jesus was not there.

He at least saw that much and believed that much. But read the next verse, verse nine. For as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Even still, this is after he saw and believed. He still, they still, plural, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. The dramatic conclusion here for Peter and the other disciple is on what they as yet did not understand.

And so we read in the next verse that the disciples went away to their own homes. Literally, they went away to themselves. They didn’t go out witness bearing. They didn’t go out, he’s alive. They went to themselves. Translated, paraphrased, they went to their own homes. to which we say, for them, it was still dark. And so it is at this point, the disciples, two of the prominent disciples, the would-be apostles, and they would be apostles, are removed from the scene.

And it is Mary, Mary Magdalene, who reappears in the narrative on the scene. There is Mary, still standing outside the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb herself. The narrative that began with Mary Magdalene in verse one, but was interrupted in verses three through 10, is from this point on the narrative that began with Mary was then interrupted for those verses now focuses on her experiences at the tomb.

The transition is even somewhat abrupt. Where has she been? When did she return? Surely she must have followed the disciples as they ran to the tomb. But at this point, nothing is recorded of her encounter with them. They came, they saw, the other disciples saw and believed, they went to themselves.

And Mary’s still standing there, weeping. She lingers at the tomb, weeping, weeping. For her, the darkness remains. She does not know where they have taken her Lord. She does not know where they have laid him. That’s her story, and she’s sticking to it. In her darkness, she stoops and looks into the tomb. And behold, for she meets the angels.

Then she turns and she meets Jesus himself, but she does not recognize him. And notice the question that both the angels and the Lord ask her. It’s the very same question. Compare verses 13 and verse 15. Woman, why are you weeping? And in both cases, she gives a similar answer. To the angels, I do not know where they have laid him. They’ve taken his body away. I do not know where they have laid him. And in speaking to the Jesus, yet unrecognized, she says, tell me, thinking he’s the gardener of all things, and that in itself is another sermon. But says to Jesus, tell me where you’ve laid him.

So why is it that we focus on Mary? Why is it that the text focus on Mary? Why is it that we focus on Mary who comes to the tomb while it’s still dark and who returns to the tomb weeping, weeping? Could it be? that Mary stands there for you and me, for the church of the ages. Could it be that her tears are the tears of the saints from the beginning until now? Could it be in her longing to hold on to Jesus a Messiah in our presence who will make things better for me here and now. That her tears are the church’s tears, both old and new covenant churches’ tears.

It is only the word of the risen Savior who by the way knows her by name, Mary. Tells her not to cling, that he must ascend, that he goes to the Father as he has said time and again in this gospel and in his ministry. Here is Mary. Here is the woman. Woman, why are you weeping? What she needs and what she had not yet gotten was an apostolic word, an apostolic testimony that Jesus is alive and the victory is complete.

It is finished and our sins have been paid for and Jesus has raised from the dead and he has ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of the father. Woman, weep no more. When the spirit would be poured out and the apostolic witness would begin speaking the words of the teacher, speaking it to the church. Yes, yes, Jesus is alive. What a rich text. And we’ll come back. Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we thank you for the details of the gospel, the things that were written for our instruction, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. and that believing we might have life in his name. That he is the light of the world who dispels the darkness and who dries the tears of his people. Our father we thank you for the good news. The good news that was being accomplished in the hidden purposes of God now to be revealed. And not only to be revealed but to be declared. to the very ends of the earth that the many peoples might hear and believe and be saved and have eternal life. The tears of a people languished under sin and death, the power of the evil one might be set free by the light of the world who dispels the darkness and gives life. to those who are his own, whom he knows by name. We pray in Jesus’ name.

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About this sermon

After Jesus dies, the soldiers do not break his legs and a spear brings out blood and water, fulfilling Scripture that not a bone of him would be broken and that they would look on the one they pierced. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, once secret disciples, now openly honor his body with a costly burial in a new tomb. The scene marks a reversal: the crucified one begins to draw his own to himself, as the gospel was written so that all who read may believe.

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Sermon transcript

Once again, we’re reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 31 through 42, the end of the chapter. John chapter 19. Hear the word of God. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away.

So the soldiers came, broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass. passed to fulfill the scripture, not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission, so he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. In the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

This is reading of the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let’s pray together. Heavenly God, may your word have its good effect in us tonight. We pray that we would be attentive to that word. governed by that word, believing that word, O God, and serving you in accordance with that word. We ask, Lord, that you would bless the preaching and the hearing tonight. And indeed, we would receive grace upon grace from our God, our Savior, through the work, the finished work of Jesus Christ, by whose life, death, resurrection, and ascension We have been brought to life, eternal life, in him by grace through faith. We pray, Father, now that you’ll hear our prayers and bless us. Pour out your spirit upon us. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Beloved, as we begin this evening, I am asking that you bear with me in a little excursus. For those of you who may not know what an excursus is, an excursus is something of a detailed discussion of a particular point, added as a kind of appendix, or it can be understood as something of a digression. So I’m asking you to bear with me as I digress tonight and address a couple of particular points that seemed worthy of backing up and addressing a bit. While it is certainly my intention to focus on verses 31 to 42 of John 19, and especially on verses 38 to 42, I want to back up for a little bit and address a couple of questions and comments that a few of you have raised related to passages handled in earlier sermons.

And the first of these had to do with Peter’s denials. It goes back to chapter 18, where Peter’s I am nots, if you will, two times he says in denying Jesus, I am not, in which Peter’s denials, his I am not, stood over against Jesus’s I am’s. You might recall that. That is, whereas we know Jesus in the gospel of John to be the great affirmer, I am, we understand that to be in keeping with his identity as the son of God, the second person of the divine trinity. Yahweh, I am who I am. You recall when Moses asked the Lord to identify himself as to what he should tell the sons of Israel in Egypt. If they ask him, who sent him? What if they ask, what is his name? What shall I say to them?

And God readily identifies himself as Yahweh, I am who I am. Then we think of Jesus. In John chapter eight, that’s back a ways, telling the Jews of himself in an exchange over there, he’s called them children of the devil. Their father is not Abraham. Telling the Jews of himself to their great dismay, we might add, before Abraham was, I am.

Well, it was particularly in John 18, that Jesus, at the time of his arrest, repeats that affirmation quite clearly and distinctively, I am. And when he does declare himself in that first instance to those who came to arrest him, those who came to arrest him hearing him say, I am, we are told in the text that they drew back and fell to the ground. Surely this is intended to reveal something of the divine majesty and authority at work in the man the chief priest and officers know merely as Jesus the Nazarene. Two more times in that same context of those verses, Jesus affirms, I am.

And it is in that context immediately thereafter that Peter immediately following what we read of Jesus I Am that we read of Peter’s threefold denial. And it seems textually clear that Jesus’ threefold affirmation, I Am, is set over against Peter’s threefold denial. Heightened, of course, by Peter actually using the words two times in the first and the second denials, I am not. in contrast to Jesus I am.

You can look at chapter 18 verses 17 and 25 and see Peter saying I am not. Well the question that was raised back then was whether we might take Peter’s I am nots and find in them a providentially placed affirmation, if you will, that distinguishes Peter from Jesus in such a way and to such an extent that we have Peter himself denying for himself and denying to himself the title of a Pope and reserving for Christ alone the honor that is due unto him.

I’m not the Christ. In fact, he wants to say I’m not even associated with him in this case of his denial. But the suggestion that was made that Peter may well be saying something about himself that ought to resonate, ought to ring across the ages. I’m a man. I’m not the Christ. I’m not the head of the church. To a certain measure, your pastor resonates with the suggestion that was made to me.

Peter is not someone meant to be set on a pedestal. The case for the papacy offered by the Roman Catholic Church has holes in it. And this is a major one. Peter, an apostle? Of course. Peter, the first Pope and earthly head of the church? By no means. To digress or digress even further in the gospel, we might think of John the Baptist. And again, I think this is intentional and clear. John the Baptist, who was adamant in chapter one, in verse 20, in confessing, he confessed and he did not deny, confessing, twice fold for emphasis there, I am not the Christ. I’m not. When asked, are you the Christ? And when they ask him, are you Elijah? His answer, I am not. Ask, are you the prophet?

He says clearly, no. I’m a voice crying in the wilderness, he says. Make plain the way of the Lord, preparing a people for the coming of God. Well, with an equal adamacy, albeit a sinful adamancy. Peter is saying for the sake of the annals of redemptive history, I’m not the Christ either. He would call himself an apostle, read his letters. He would even describe himself as a fellow elder with others. 1 Peter chapter 5.

But does he affirm his own supremacy among the apostles? Absolutely not. by no means, and neither does he or any other apostolic writer pave the way for such an office among mere men. There was and is and always shall be only one head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it seems very plain that John’s gospel is intent on saying that from beginning to end.

Well, so much for Peter and that particular point of our excursus. There has been a more recent point of inquiry and comment coming from the congregation that arose in reference to chapter 19, verse 25. Our excursus continues. And in that chapter 19 verse 25 is a question or a comment concerning the Marys, plural, at the cross.

And the question is, is there some special significance that we have the mother of Jesus and Mary the wife of Clovis and Mary Magdalene, we might say we have three Marys standing by the cross, is there some significance? to those three Marys. Well in a manner similar to the situation that we’ve just described with Peter, please notice that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is not mentioned by name. There are three persons there who bear the name of Mary, and as highlighted in a previous sermon and recapitulated last week in our sermon comments on verses 26 and following. It is clear from verse 28 how much meaning the gospel writer attaches to Jesus’ words to his mother and to his beloved disciple in the framework of the work of salvation that he had been sent to accomplish. Again, reminding you that the disciple here, whom Jesus loved, goes unnamed. And the woman, the mother of Jesus, is likewise unnamed. Though we all know her name, we know it’s Mary. Our attention immediately goes to Mary. We think of Mary. But for some reason, the gospel doesn’t include her name. but prefers to leave her unnamed instead.

And so we have an unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, and we have an unnamed woman, though we clearly have a sense of both of their actual identities. We think likely the gospel of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved is John, and the mother of Jesus is Mary. But these two persons, though we know who they are, are set before us, we have argued, representatively in a redemptive historical fashion.

The disciple then is any disciple. He is every disciple. He is every son of the woman. Think not only of the Johannine letters, 2nd and 3rd John in particular, but also think of Revelation, where is they’re the woman and her offspring, the woman and her seed. Think in those terms here presented in the gospel so that the disciple is any disciple, every disciple whom Jesus loves and the woman, the elect woman of second John is the church collectively, corporately. represented as the woman does even in creation, in the marriage, as the wife or the bride of Christ. To the disciple whom Jesus loves, the church is his mother. To serve and to care for, to love the church and give himself for her as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. to the church, to the elect woman, the elect lady, the disciple, whomever he is, every disciple is her son, her child, her covenant child to love and to nurture, to feed and care for, to pray for, and to embrace. This communication of Jesus from the cross saying to the beloved disciple behold your mother and to the woman unnamed behold your son.

This communication here in John’s gospel constitutes the concluding act of Jesus’ work. It is finished. All is accomplished we’re told. And it leaves nothing more for the completion of that work to occur. He has, Christ has established his church by way of his own life and death, having given himself up for her and for his disciples.

You will note, then, how the relationship of the woman and her children are worked out, as we’ve said, in the epistles of John, in terms of truth and love, and worked out in the book of Revelation, as well, in various ways. Well, in terms of our excursions here, and in terms of how this is somewhat comparable to Peter, by way of emphasis meant to capture, to catch our attention, of those who stood by the cross, two Marys are mentioned. The other one we know to also be a Mary, but she’s not named on purpose. And it seems apparent that the text is drawing us away from the mother of Jesus, drawing us away from Mary as Mary. but as mother, the woman, you see, that we might see her intentionally as the unnamed woman, along with the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved. And so thus, here too, we are being prompted by the text itself to think in redemptive historical terms. And once again, we are being taught by the spirit of Christ even before it commences the evil of Mariology, of putting Mary in a special place, or what has been described as Mariolatry.

This text isn’t asking us to honor Mary as Mary, but to see her representatively as the woman along with the son. the church and her child, her children. What has been prescribed by Catholicism in reference to Peter, what has been prescribed in reference to Mary, and what men have raced to confess, the scripture, it appears to me, particularly in John’s gospel, has gone at length to emphatically deny not Peter the Pope, not Mary the great mediator and comforter of the afflicted. But yet what the scriptures have affirmed, men have raced to confess. And what the scriptures have affirmed, the sinful men continue to deny. What the scriptures deny, they confess. What the scriptures affirm, they deny.

The text is not asking us to exalt Mary, I say again, to elevate her to the status of a mediator rivaling Christ or expressing a tenderness that he cannot express by no means. Mary, in the Bible, is a sinner like us, in need of a Savior like us, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. Peter is not the head of the church, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Peter is a sinner like us. Mary does not confess herself to be what she is not. She is the handmaiden of the Lord, uniquely privileged to be sure, but she, like the others, is one of us.

Well, that’s been our excursus. And this evening, we will continue to deal with individuals in representative and redemptive historical terms. in keeping with the scriptures own intent. In particular in what remains tonight we shall be dealing with the figures of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in their roles in the gospel story and in reference to the burial of Jesus. Look then in the gospel chapter 19 verse 38 With the words that appear in verse 38, after these things, the account of Jesus’ burial begins. And the account of his burial concludes the passion narrative and forms in this position, textually, the transition to and preparation for the resurrection narrative. What stands out here is the special care that is devoted to Jesus’ body, 38 to 42, along with the honorable character of the burial he receives.

The description in verses 32 to 37, especially in the scripture citations we find there, the verses just preceding, the description of those verses of the reversal that has now begun and has begun immediately following the it is finished and Jesus death the reversal that is begun there is continued through the end of this chapter in this transition. What kind of reversal are we talking about? A reversal that occurred when Jesus doesn’t have to have his legs broken like the others do. He’s already died A reversal that occurs when they pierce his side in accordance with the scriptures and it flows out blood and water. A reversal that will carry itself now into the burial story as it relates to Joseph and Nicodemus.

John’s report here in this section of the gospel of the burial of Jesus largely agrees with that of the synoptic writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Both John and the synoptics include the initiative of Joseph of Arimathea to take the body, to bury it. Both reveal the burial in an as yet unused tomb, similar stories. Both the synoptics and John speak of the imminent Sabbath that is at hand, that hastens the burial of Jesus.

So there are similarities among the Gospels. But there are also important differences. One, for example, the involvement of Nicodemus. He’s not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke here. The involvement of Nicodemus along with Joseph. The mention of a large amount of myrrh and aloes by these two men brought by Nicodemus for the burial. It’s not the women bringing the spices and the burial ointments on the first day of the week. No, this is before Jesus was buried. And this is John’s contribution to what happened. And there are no women mentioned here in John’s account. There were women at the burial of Jesus in the synoptics as well.

But even in what John has in common with the synoptics, for example, the mention of Joseph of Arimathea, Even in something that they share, the details are different and John’s own unique perspective and purpose stand out in his account. Joseph’s request to Pilate for permission to take care of Jesus’ body is reported first, as in the Synoptics, there’s a similarity. The phrase of Arimathea evidently refers to This Joseph agreed as his place of origin, not to his place of residence. Mark and Luke actually mentioned his membership in the Sanhedrin.

So he sat in the council in Jerusalem. Matthew indicates that the tomb in which Jesus is placed actually belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. So good indication that he’s a, he’s a, he’s a Jew. He’s, he lives in Jerusalem. He may have his origins in Arimathea. But he’s a Jew. And apparently, as a council member and in the manner in which he is able to approach Pilate, he is apparently a man of some prominence, having a fairly wealthy tomb in a particularly prominent place, in a garden there in proximity to the place of the crucifixion. But here is where John stands out, as John is apt to do.

John tells us, identifies, describes him as quote, being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews. That language is not new in John’s gospel. That language has some precedent earlier in the gospel specifically namely in John chapter 12 verses 42 and 43 where it says Many, even of the rulers, believed in him.

But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. So we’re given to think in terms of the descriptions that John himself has included, that Joseph was one of those kind. I believe But I’m not believing so much that I’m going to go out on the limb to believe lest I be put out of the synagogue a man who loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. It doesn’t speak real well, real highly of Joseph of Arimathea in terms of this description found in John 19. He was one of those secret believers who wasn’t going to go out on the limb for Christ.

But here, in the place of reversal. Joseph comes forward. He stands out like a sore thumb in Israel on that day. Just like we saw, Jesus’ legs weren’t broken. Death has come quickly. We’re moving on now. The blood and water have come out of his pierced side, suggestive of the redemptive efficacy of his death. The blood is poured. The cleansing flood has come out of his side. We’re moving in the realm of mission accomplished. It is finished. Debt has been paid.

And there too we read the Zechariah prophecy about them looking upon whom they have pierced. and if you look in Zechariah chapter 12 around verse 10 in that context we suggest that they will look upon whom they have pierced and in that context it is indicated that there’s going to be a pouring out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace. The one whom they pierced there’s going to be an outpouring of grace upon whom they now look with mourning and sorrow for what they have done. Now see then, a secret disciple comes forward, not ashamed to be identified with the bloodied body of the crucified Jesus. And soon thereafter, Nicodemus, Also, Nicodemus, look in the text, John 19, the end of our chapter, what does it say about Nicodemus?

He was that disciple who came to Jesus, how? By night. One of those stealthily touching Jesus, you see. I don’t want anybody to know this. I come to him by night. And then you understand in that third chapter of the gospel, you see Nicodemus as one who was quite dull. D-U-L-L. In his ability to understand spiritual things like the new birth. What do you mean? Do I have to go back into my mother’s womb a second time? You know Nicodemus. Well, here’s Nicodemus in a time of reversals coming and bringing the sizable amount of a mixture of myrrh and aloes to help in providing a more than decent burial, a burial, look at the text, after the custom of the Jews. Again, while it is still day, it’s not night, Nicodemus, it’s daytime, before the beginning of the Sabbath at sundown, here is another Jew openly having to do with Jesus, albeit his body, his crucified body.

And these two men then are to be seen as representatives, representatives of the new Israel. Again illustrating even more strikingly the gracious reversal that is afoot. Hours before none identified with the scorned King of the Jews. Now here are two men giving Jesus an almost royal Jewish burial. in an unused, influential rich man’s garden tomb. You see? Not sparing on the spices nor the linen.

The report, perhaps also the site of Jesus’ death has given Joseph the courage he lacked earlier to stand up for Jesus as his disciple. Proof that Jesus’ power as the one pierced extends even into the Sanhedrin. And that the inscription on his cross, the King of the Jews, will from now on make itself felt in its true divinely intended meaning. the true King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in the new Israel. At an hour, remember, at an hour when even Jesus’ closest disciples are still powerlessly looking on at what is happening, or are not to be found because of their still unconquered fear of the Jews, Joseph comes forward first, and then Nicodemus.

Joseph approaches Pilate, who had no authority over Jesus except what had been given him from above, the power to execute, the power to release. But Pilate now willingly, and in accordance with divine working and the divine necessity, Pilate now gives up the body of Jesus. He can’t hold him captive. Joseph willingly, despising any shame that may have now been attributed to him, does not hesitate.

He comes and he takes that body away and gives it a decent burial. And so Nicodemus comes also, a member of the Sanhedrin as well. Once by night, now in the open, a change, a reversal has occurred. Seeing signs. You remember, no one can do these things except God be with him. He has seen signs, but that didn’t bring him out from the nighttime. Seeing signs had not changed him, but the death of Jesus changed him. There is power in the cross. There is power in that pierced side. The Jewish day of preparation has been completed. And a new day is about to dawn. And in that new day, there will be light. A new creation day. Let there be light. a day of power that will mean life not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles. Redemptive history has come to its most dramatic crossroads.

The gospel of Jesus Christ would soon be preached and as you know is now being preached to the ends of the earth. For if this one, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Son of Man is lifted up he will draw all men to himself. Even Jews who once would not come for fear of being ostracized from the synagogue. He will draw all men from every nation, tribe, and tongue to himself.

And so, beloved, we who believe are not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God and the salvation. To them who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing have life in his name. So we’ll preach Christ and him crucified, having determined to know nothing else.

Let’s pray together. Oh, Lord, we thank you for the beauty, the power, the gospel. Thank you, Father, for the manner in which that gospel points us to those things yet to be fulfilled and accomplished in the outworking of the ingathering of the sheep from other folds, from the nations, and that in consequence of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Father, we thank you for your great love toward us, that we might know and that we might understand, that we might believe and confess and not deny Jesus is the Christ, that we might, as those who believe in Him, have life in His name. Believing that if we confess Him before men, He will confess us also before the Father. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

John’s account of the crucifixion stresses that everything happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus is delivered over, crucified as King, and dies having accomplished his work; “It is finished” announces that the Father’s work is complete. He gives up his spirit by his own royal act. The unbroken bones mark him as the true Passover lamb, and the blood and water from his pierced side testify to a real death that brings life to all who believe.

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Sermon transcript

Let’s turn together in John’s gospel this evening. Our scripture reading is John chapter 19, verses 23 to 42. Again, John’s Gospel, chapter 19, beginning with verse 23. This is the gospel word of God. Give your attention. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece, so they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon it. branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Then the Jews, because of the day, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. These things came to pass to fulfill the scripture, Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, who at first had come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight.

So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Since the reading of God’s inspired word tonight. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we are thankful for the faithful and true witness that we have in the gospel. We are thankful, Father, for the scriptures as a whole, as they have come to their fulfillment and their expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are thankful, Father, that we here now might hear this gospel, might we embrace it, receive it by faith, and receive the one who is revealed here, the one who is the Christ. very Son of God, and that in believing in Him we might have life, eternal life, in His name. Bless, then, the preaching and hearing of your word tonight. We might receive it as it is, the very Word of God, for our encouragement and instruction in the things of the faith. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In the course of John’s narrative of the crucifixion, we note various things are said to have taken place in order that this or that scripture might be fulfilled. In the first place, in verses 23 and 24, the soldiers dividing of Jesus’ garments was done, quote, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. In verse 28, in order that the scriptures might be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty.

In the manner in which Jesus’ legs were not broken, But that the soldier pierced his side, we are told, verses 36 to 37, for these things came to pass that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture that would be fulfilled, implied in the text, says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But the agents, the agents who did these things, that is, divided the garments, chose not to break Jesus’ legs, the soldier who pierced his side, had no idea that they were fulfilling Scripture. Their actions were providentially overruled and superintended for Scripture’s fulfillment. But there is one case in our text this evening where Jesus is the agent, however, and the situation is different.

It goes without saying that he was actually thirsty, to be sure, and he craved something to drink hanging from the cross. Exposure on a cross to the Judean sun must have caused rapid and exhausting dehydration. But as he uttered the words, I am thirsty, he knew that in doing so, he was fulfilling the scripture. The particular scripture in question appears likely to have been Psalm 69 verse 21. For my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Although Psalm 22.15 also comes into view where we read in Psalm 22, the great suffering psalm of the Christ, my tongue cleaves to my jaws, it says there. John does not want to give some sort of theatrical impression of our Lord’s utterance in order to put on a show in keeping with that psalm.

His words were, no doubt, unreservedly spontaneous and intentional. Indeed, the more really expressed and the more spontaneous they were, the more truly was the scripture fulfilled. In other words, not just that he said he was thirsty, but he really was thirsty. He really did fulfill the prophetic word of the Old Testament Psalms.

As we have already highlighted in our sermon last week, in the comments we made on verses 26 and following, it is clear from verse 28 how much meaning the gospel writer attaches to Jesus’ words to Mary and his beloved disciple in the framework of the work of salvation that Jesus had been sent to accomplish.

In that exchange of verses 26 to 28, you remember Jesus saying to John, behold thy mother, and to the woman, behold thy son. the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, so identified here, he’s not called John, the unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved, and the unnamed woman, Jesus’ mother, though we have a clear sense of their actual identity, we declared last week that they are set before us representatively in a redemptive historical fashion.

The disciple whom Jesus loved is any disciple, every disciple whom Jesus loved, whom Jesus loves. And the woman, the unnamed woman, is the church collectively represented in her. And so then to the disciple, the church is his mother to serve and care for her. And to the church, the disciple, the beloved disciple of Jesus is her son. to love and to nurture.

And so we see in the completion of Jesus’ work on the cross, the setting forth in this testamental way of the church and her children in the completion of the work of Christ on the cross. And we noted that this communication in John’s Gospel is particularly located as the final act of Jesus’ work in that declaration of setting the church in place and declaring the relationship that she is to bear to her members and the members to her collectively. The communication as the concluding act of Jesus’ work, leaving nothing more for him to do for the completion of that work in terms of his earthly ministry.

You will note how the relationship of the woman and her children do not end here. It’s not just a one-time deal with John, but they are actually worked out in the epistles of John in terms of truth and love. I’m particularly thinking of the love that we are to have for those whom God loves in 1 John, but also in terms of the elect woman and her offspring, her children that are mentioned in the second epistle of John and in the third. You see, there is those things being worked out even more graphically in detail in recognition of the ongoing ministry that continues after the resurrection of Christ.

And so we left off there last time in terms of that completion of work, that finishing that took place. And so nevertheless then, in between the reference in John 19, 28, to Jesus knowing on the cross, knowing that all was now finished or accomplished, knowing that he had completed the work. And then in his own statement in verse 30, it is finished. It is in that context of having had this exchange with the woman and the beloved disciple and the final word from the cross, it is finished.

It is in that framework of the finished work of Christ that is inserted the passage about Jesus thirst. I am thirsty. Mark and Matthew also mentioned Jesus thirst to be sure, but there are no words from Jesus on that. account, nor is there any reference to Scripture. But here, in John, it is the reference to Scripture that stands in the foreground as the motive of Jesus crying out, complaining of thirst, as it were.

In order, quote, that Scripture should come to its fulfillment. We might insert there that the Scripture should come to its final fulfillment. For here in these contexts of where we have these three instances that the scripture would be fulfilled here uniquely, the word that is translated fulfillment is a derivative of the word telos, meaning end or destination. And so the word that the scripture should have its full fulfillment or a final fulfillment or come to its destination is closely related to the words in verses 28 and 30. It is accomplished. It is finished. He knew that the work was finished. And then the declaration, it is finished. It is finished. It was accomplished. The scripture is coming to its destination. It is finished. The threefold emphasis that John gives us.

The other context or the other places where we have the word fulfillment in our English text here, that the scripture would be fulfilled, is actually the word plerao, not the word talos, but the word of filling up. In other words, fulfillment in the sense of coming to the fullness of what had been intended from the beginning. And so the intent is not to add something to the proceeding that all was now finished, when Jesus says, I thirst, all was now finished, but to show how Jesus, even in his final moments, when there was nothing more left for him, quote, to do in terms of the redemptive work, still in his thirst, one of the most terrible torments of death by crucifixion, he purposely fulfills the scripture in speaking of his thirst. Though it would appear Psalm 6921 is clearly in mind, we quoted it before, they gave him vinegar to drink in the midst of his thirst. It’s not quoted here specifically, but the scripture might be fulfilled in a fullness in the sense of coming to completion. And while the text is not quoted, it may be suggesting then that the reference is not to the fulfillment of a specific detail, but to the entire picture. of the suffering righteous one of whom there is mention or is who has spoken of in Psalm 69.

A Psalm that John, the gospel writer, has cited elsewhere. We think of the occasion in cleansing the temple in Chapter 2, the verse of Chapter 2, verse 17, zeal for thy house will consume me. That’s from Psalm 69. We can also think of John 15, 25, where Jesus, where John says of Jesus, the fulfillment of the scripture, they hated me without a cause, Psalm 69. They gave me vinegar to drink, Psalm 69.

And so in the sense of coming to the fullness or the completion, the fulfillment of the end of the suffering of Christ. And so in describing the depth of Jesus’ sufferings, Here, the fourth gospel in its unique kind of way. Here, nowhere comes any closer to the final word on the cross that we have in Matthew and Mark. You know the text, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, which is the last words of Jesus spoken in Matthew and Mark by Jesus in the crucifixion. But here, for John, in his concise and his intentional, purposeful, theological kind of way, he simply says of Jesus here, or quotes of Jesus, I am thirsty. You compare that to the fullness of the picture of Jesus suffering on the cross. Although it is probably characteristic for the fourth gospel that the word of extreme forsakenness of Psalm 22 is not here.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? From verse 28, it is again evident that the regal power and authority of Jesus, which is so prominent in the gospel of John, with which Jesus accepts his suffering and goes out to meet his enemies, as you recall in his arrest, is in no way, it no way means that John or Jesus is fundamentally immune to suffering and passes through it unaffected, but rather John is putting before us the kingship of Jesus. This intentional, purposeful, decisive, authoritative, royal fulfillment of the scriptures is coming to pass.

Even in his suffering, you see, there’s a sovereignty in the one who no one takes his life from him. but he lays it down of his own accord in order that he might take it up again. Jesus suffers. John is not overlooking or downplaying his suffering. but he is putting it in the theological context of Jesus the King, who suffers according to the scriptures, according to the purpose and the plan of the Father, as Jesus drinks the cup that the Father has prepared for him. Jesus says, I am thirsty. It’s not offered here just simply as a proof of how strictly Jesus fulfilled scripture, but it is in fact a lament rung from him out of the depth of his suffering. Consider it in all of its fullness and the extent of the suffering of Jesus in which he, in his solidarity with those who had lamented their suffering in scripture of the Old Testament, he is now taking that suffering to himself and it consists above all in the fact that he and His people took their suffering to God, laid it out before Him, that Jesus knew better than anyone else before or after Him, that in His suffering He was fulfilling a divine calling, is evident then from His last word, His very last word on the cross in verse 30.

It is finished. It’s filled up with suffering for Himself. But this in no way detracts from the deep reality of that suffering, of his solidarity with his own people. It is rather the very foundation of Jesus’ last word. I have stood with them in their suffering. I have taken it to myself, and I have fulfilled it for their redemption.

The details described here, specifically of the sour wine that is offered Jesus, again, referring to Psalm 69, 21, for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. In the psalm, the presentation of this drink is an act of hostility paralleling the offering of gall for food. The two are in the same verse side by side. They offered me gall or poison for food and vinegar to drink.

But here in John 19.30, it evidently doesn’t have that connotation of offering them, offering him a poison or offering something undesirable.

But all of the stress is on the thirst of Jesus and the soldier’s response to it. Admittedly, the manner in which the drink is offered does depict the extremity of Jesus’ situation. A sponge soaked in the sour wine, attached to the top of a stalk of hyssop, so held up to Jesus’ mouth, is the only way to give him a drink. Again, consider the extremities of his sufferings.

This that is here in John’s gospel is not to be confused with the synoptic gospel in Mark, for example, where the wine was mixed with myrrh, where Jesus refused what was offered to him as he arrives at the place of execution. In other words, that which is spoken of in Mark was a sedative provided by someone who was trying to numb the pain and numb his senses. a way of dulling the sense of the victim to relieve something of the agony that he was about to face, where there Jesus resolved to die with unclouded mind, he refused the offering.

But here it says it was touched to his lip and he received it. And said, it is finished, having drunk that sour wine. Here in John, the sour wine is brought to his mouth, he receives it, and with that the end came. And after saying, it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Gave up his spirit, mind you.

Again, the purposeful, sovereign, authoritative, royal. He died of his own volition. This whole scene typifies his death as a final act and a decisive underscoring of that word. It’s something he did. Yes, passively submitting himself to the cross, but actively. in a kingly fashion, putting himself in the place of redeeming his people. A final act of self-offering done after he had finished the work that God had given him to do. It is also this act that the all of verse 28 refers.

All had been accomplished. All was finished. Accordingly, we cannot weaken then the statement of Jesus. It is finished. By hearing it only as a sigh of relief, oh, it’s finally over. No, that’s not the word of Jesus here. It’s not some personal completion of saying, oh, well, I’ve reached the end of my journey now. This is it.

But it is precisely as a reference to the task that the Father gave the Son Jesus to perform. that this cry, it is finished, indicates for him not only the end of the road that he had to travel as a son of God, but also the completed work of redemption, of salvation that he has now accomplished, that he has now finished for his own as the new foundation laid once for all for the life of the world, for those whom he loves. Then what follows after that declarative word, Jesus bowing his head, giving himself to death, giving up the spirit. And what follows in the remainder of the chapter, here of chapter 19, as we read John’s narrative henceforth, he is anxious among other things to leave his readers in no doubt, leave us in no doubt at all, that Jesus really and truly died. And that his death was wholly within God’s purpose and design. The evangelist again tells us things here in his gospel, in his uniquely designed narrative, separate from the other synoptic gospels.

For John, it was doubly important that the bodies of the crucified men not be permitted to hang on the cross beyond the end of the day, since the day of crucifixion was a Friday, and the next day was not only a Sabbath, but also this year, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread of the Passover.

The Jews therefore asked Pilate for the men’s legs to be broken, to ensure their death in time, for removing their bodies before the Sabbath would begin. Pilate, as you know, readily complied with their request, and the soldiers were sent upon their errand. But when they came to Jesus, they found that he was already dead, having given himself up, as you know. His legs, therefore, were not broken. But to be certain of the death of Jesus, in his case, having died seemingly sooner than usual, one soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a spear.

Then, John, the report of an eyewitness strongly emphasized at this point is that blood and water issued forth from the womb. The evangelist expresses here his conviction that the incident, like the others, as the crucifixion itself, could be seen as fulfillment of Scripture, the things that God had intended. The last scene here of the dying of the Lord Jesus comes when Joseph of Arimathea sought permission from Pilate to bury the body of Jesus. That permission being given, Joseph and Nicodemus put the body in a tomb in the garden near to the place of execution, using a large quantity of spices in doing so. It was evident their intention that after the Sabbath they would move the Lord’s body to some permanent grave.

And the report that is given here by John, specifically and intentionally and solely by John, is that blood and water should have come out of the pierced side. And that testimony, that testimony that he alone brings, has evoked much attention. Medical experts have debated what’s going on here, what’s the significance. The opinion is divided as to what was the cause of death and how that came to be. But for John, it’s not the cause of death that’s of first importance, but the fact of death. with which he is most concerned. For John, it was important that the reality of Jesus’ death, and therefore the reality of his manhood, was so objectively established.

This was sufficient answer to those forms of docetism that were current when he would have written his gospel, which held that Christ didn’t really die. We can even recognize the persistence of this view being reflected in the Koran. Yes, the Islamic Koran that quotes, they did not kill him, neither did they crucify him. It only seemed to be so. John refutes it in his epistles as well as in the gospel. He really died and the blood and the water issued forth. Here, John, in this context, applies two different Old Testament passages related to the death of Jesus.

One coming from the Exodus concerning the Passover lamb, that its bones must not be broken. And one from Zechariah, that God will pour out his spirit upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem when they look upon him whom, quote, they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child. If these two text, if these two scriptures that are brought to bear here are applied to the emphasized action of the soldiers in not breaking the legs of Jesus on the one hand and in piercing his side on the other, it becomes fairly clear what the evangelist is trying to state. In the case of the first prophecy, he is saying that Jesus Christ may be considered as the true Passover lamb, the fulfillment of that which was spoken of old. Slain at the proper time for Passover lambs to be slain and like a proper lamb for the feast without any broken bones, according to the Exodus prescription for such things.

And in the case of the Zechariah prophecy, the evangelist is predicting that they will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn, they will mourn the death and the killing of Jesus, which is to say John sees a day and envisions the final triumph of Jesus in the conversion of the Jews and the gospel being received by all men, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Here, truly, is the King of the Jews. Here is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, whose death means salvation to all who believe. The blood and the water then, speaking of true death, are not then left without meaning beyond the fact that Jesus died. The blood certainly stands for the life of the Lord Jesus, given in sacrifice for his people, for men, as that comes to be symbolized even for us in the Lord’s Supper as we Remember the blood that was shed for our redemption. And we think of the water that flows from his side as the water indicating and symbolizing the gift of the spirit that will be poured out on all men for the cleansing of the nations and the accomplishment of the salvation to the ends of the earth. That which is symbolized for us in baptism, pouring out of water upon a people, indicating the outpouring of the spirit that comes from this one in whom it is finished. it is accomplished. For here is the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who baptizes not in water, but in the Holy Spirit.

Truly, this is the Son of God. This is the accomplishment of our redemption. Herein are the scriptures fulfilled and brought to their completion, to their destination in him and in the church. Let’s pray together. Holy Father. Help us to read the gospel as it asks us to read it. As the spirit who moves the writer to write, might we see what it is that we are to understand.

That we would embrace Jesus in the fulfillment of his role as king, as the messianic son of God, son of man, who had come into the world to save his people from their sins. The good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, the sovereign one, from whom no one takes his life, but he gives it freely for the redemption of his people, his own, and entrusts his own, oh, Father, to the care, the nurture of the church, entrusting her with the responsibility of loving those whom he loves, for whom he gave his life, and that those who are loved of Christ would count as their own the very church that Jesus purchased. Our Father, we pray, thanking you that even in the thirsting of our Savior, thereto are the scriptures fulfilled in the suffering servant who gave himself up to the full in order that we might be saved to the full. Our Father, we thank you even now. in the consideration of these things, pointing us to the Lamb of God, pointing us to that Messianic King, that one who would pour out his spirit upon the peoples, and we would look upon him and receive him and believe in him and be saved.

Lord, thank you for the worship of your people. Thank you for the gathering of the saints here this Lord’s Day. Thank you for the reminders that come to us in Holy Scripture fulfillment of those things found in Jesus Christ and in him alone. In his name we give thanks. In that name we praise. Amen. Let’s sing together hymn number 80, shall we? Let’s stand together, shall we? How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He hath said, You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled, You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled, have fled.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, I, I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I’ll strengthen thee, help and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters I call thee to come, The rivers of woe shall not be overflowed. Thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest distress. And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall guide, My grateful sufficient shall be thy supply.

I trust to consume and I go to refine. I trust to consume and I go to refine. Even down to old age, all my people shall prove my sovereignty. Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born. Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. I’ll never, no never, no never forsake. I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Look up, then, and receive the blessing of our great God. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for those who believe.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

At the cross Pilate’s inscription proclaims Jesus King of the Jews in three languages, the soldiers divide his garments as Psalm 22 foretold, and Jesus entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple. That exchange is no mere family arrangement. In his final hour, with all things nearly accomplished, Jesus provides for his own and forms a new household of faith. He loved his own to the end and laid down his life for them.

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Sermon transcript

Beloved, this is the word of God. So he then handed him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

It was written, Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold, your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold, your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Thus far the reading of God’s inspired word. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray together, shall we? Our Father, we ask that the words that are written here for our instruction would be light and life to us as they speak to us of Christ and all of his, oh God, glory and honor and power and wisdom and grace and the love with which he loved us even to the end. Father, we pray for the insight and grace of your spirit to illumine our hearts and minds to understand and believe those things that are here written. We pray for that same spirit to be active in the preaching of the word and the hearing of it together tonight, that we might in Christ grow, become strong in faith and doctrine. We pray these things now, giving the glory and the praise to you through Jesus. In that name we pray, amen.

The last part of the passion narrative in John’s gospel here opens with the account of Jesus’ crucifixion. In contrast with the rather lengthy account of the trial before Pilate, which we read in chapter 18, verse 12, through chapter 19, verse 12, and in contrast with the synoptic account of the crucifixion, This last part in John is very concise and selective. Here again, John’s intentional selectivity and uniqueness in gospel writing are evident. Solely in John do we find the dispute between the Jews and Pilate over the inscription. Only in John do we find Jesus’ last will with respect to his mother. and the lengthy account of his death that will follow in verses 31 to 37, we’ve not read yet. Especially striking is the mention in verse 26, in this context of the crucifixion, of the disciple whom Jesus loved.

So it is, immediately after Pilate’s decision, the decision is carried out. Jesus is handed over, he is delivered to them to be crucified. And you’ll note in the sermon title, we’re focusing upon some of those words that appear in the course of this gospel portion. Delivered, crucified, fulfilled, finished. Well, here in the opening verse, he is delivered, he is handed over to them to be crucified.

The anonymous they, in verse 16, who are they, to whom he is delivered, in verse 16 and also verse 17 and verse 18, who take the initiative in the crucifixion, can only be the Roman soldiers who are mentioned specifically in verse 23 following thereafter.

Although the antecedent to the pronouns they and them in these opening verses of our section would appear to be the Jews handing them over to the Jews. Surely the Jews are implicated. It was their demand that secured the crucifixion. It was Jesus’ prediction that they would deliver him up to be crucified, you see.

And so there is even in the intent here, subtly perhaps, an intent for us to be thinking about the Jews even while we recognize that the actual act of crucifixion is a Roman act. Though the Jews do not actually perform the crucifixion, the text seems intent on tying them in as accomplices. The Jews only watch, but it is their desire that is being satisfied here. Jesus, carrying his own cross, then, goes out of the city to the place of the skull, which is called Golgotha, so named for its round, bare shape. looks like a skull.

And there we read, they crucified him. The execution itself, an extremely cruel procedure as you know, is not described here. Simply the fact that two other men were crucified with him. With Jesus prominently at the center. He was, after all, the king of the Jews.

Pilate has an inscription placed on the cross stating the reason for Jesus’ execution. A sign indicating the crime would be hung around the neck of a criminal on the way to execution. It was probably this sign that Pilate had the soldiers attached to the cross so that Jesus’ crime could be known to all. This matter in itself occasions still another conflict between Pilate and the chief priest. as we said, mentioned only in John’s gospel.

The inscription that Pilate ordered read, Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. And because of the proximity of the place of execution to Jerusalem near to the city, verse 20 tells us that many of the Jews in Jerusalem, including many visitors for the Passover, read the inscription that was placed there on the cross. Here the Jews are obviously not those who had been hostile to Jesus to the point of the trial. But rather, the gospel writer seems to be including now the masses of the Jews who are in Jerusalem at the Passover, many of whom were by and large ignorant of what had taken place inside and around Pilate’s praetorium, and who were thus all at once confronted not only with Jesus’ execution, but also with the disgraceful way both for him and for them, in which he was being displayed as their king.

Pilate added to the offense by, and in order to give the matter the widest possible publicity, if you will, having the inscription written up in three languages, Hebrew or a form of Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek, which would have included then the local common language in Jerusalem, Aramaic. It would have included Latin, the official language of Rome, and it would have included Greek, which was the language of common international communication in the Roman Empire. And so there they are. Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

And there is the message, Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. Pilate had given the matter, obviously, careful thought, and thus paid back the Jews for forcing his hand contrary to his intended will for Jesus. If Jesus, with his royal pretension, was indeed so dangerous that he deserved to die on the cross as the Jews demanded, then the whole world would know what his crime was, according to Pilate’s inscription. No wonder then that the chief priests came to Pilate to protest. Now it seemed that Jesus would indeed be displayed before the whole world as their king. And thus we say, in their minds, to their shame, and go down in history as such. They asked therefore that the inscription be changed to say that Jesus only claimed to be the king of the Jews.

He said so, but not was so. But Pilate was not to be pushed any further. Having agreed to crucify, he leaves the inscription as it is. He found no guilt in the man, saw him as no real threat. So Pilate’s last word, brief and to the point, was, what I have written, I have written. And having said that, he left them with their king hanging on the cross. In this remarkable detail, which occurs only in John, we see the continuation of the line that runs through the entire trial before Pilate. He can still not exercise any power other than what has been given him from above.

Verse 11, what he was unwilling to undo Let the crucified Jesus of Nazareth be identified as the Messiah, as the King of Israel, is in fact the pivotal point in the entire passion narrative. For in fact, he is the Messiah. He is the King, not only of the Jew, but of the nations also. And this is so in what follows, that God’s sovereign disposition and authority from above, in what follows as Pilate and the Jews recede to the background, the focus is shifted to the crucified Jesus himself, who is now being lifted up and who is accomplishing that which was intended from the beginning.

As we see again and again in this text, for the scriptures had not yet been fulfilled in him, verses 23 to 25, and he had not yet said and done everything that he would say and do before he knew that all things had already been accomplished or finished.

Look at verse 28 with me for a moment. We are moving toward the place where Jesus knows that all things had been accomplished. And he will in fact declare in verse 30, it is finished. And I draw your attention to verses 28 and verse 30, because it’s the same word in both places. It is that same word finished. Jesus knew that things were finished. And then he declares it is finished from the cross. And then he bows his head and gives up the spirit. We’ll come back to that in just a bit. In verse 23, The soldiers are mentioned explicitly for the first time since verse two.

After they have crucified Jesus then as their last item of business, they divide his garment among themselves, which they are entitled to as those who have carried out the crucifixion. Jesus’ inner garment is mentioned separately because it was seamless woven in one piece. literally woven from the upper part through the hole. The soldiers decided to leave that inner garment intact and so to cast lots for it.

And here again is a detail not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels, mentioned only by John, nor is in the Synoptics mentioned that the fact that the fulfillment of Scripture takes place here in John 19 verse 24 in that very deed. The fourth gospel writer, however, is concerned not only to include it, this detail about the garment and the fulfillment of scripture, in his briefer account as one of his intentional details, we’ve said he’s chosen carefully what he includes, but he draws attention to it and the fulfillment that goes with it, the fulfillment of Psalm 22, verse 18, that they cast lots for his garment. If you look then at verse 25 and you read the therefore that is found in verse 25. The therefore of verse 25 following on the heels of what the soldiers have done draws our attention to the fact that these four unknown soldiers who divided in four parts his outer garment and then cast lots for his inner garment.

These four unknown unnamed soldiers fulfill the Lord’s sovereign disposition They did what they did therefore, you see, because they were fulfilling what God intended. And we say again how God’s sovereign disposition is what is at work and what is on display in these events. Things go according to God’s plan here. Even in the hour of Christ’s deepest humiliation, this is one of those things that had to be done to Christ. Had to be done. to fulfill the scriptures, and to demonstrate the sovereign God who is bringing these things to pass for his own glorious purpose.

And even as we say that of that event, so too the next event, verses 25 to 27, is something that Christ had to do, had to do, regarding his mother and the disciple whom he loves. Jesus’ mother and the other women, we are told verse 25, were standing by the cross of Jesus. And that when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he speaks, and there’s a therefore in that verse 25, Jesus therefore seeing his mother and the disciple, he speaks those familiar words of verses 26 and 27. Again, noting these details, these verses are uniquely recorded in John’s Gospel and recorded for a purpose. He says to his mother, woman, behold your son. And to the beloved disciple, behold your mother. When he saw them, therefore he said what he said.

Now many interpreters particularly Protestant interpreters, have restricted the significance of this little event, the significance of this passage to Jesus personally caring for his mother, a tender act. Even in the midst of the agony of the cross, Jesus is seen here as the caring son. Jesus is mindful of the sorrow and the loneliness that lie ahead for his mother, putting her need in this hour ahead of his own. And thus Jesus here by commentators is put forward as a moral example of love, of concern for the widow, for the mother who is in great need, not neglecting of his obligation to his mother, even at the point of his deepest distress.

Of course, some commentators have gone in a more Roman Catholic direction here. And they particularly make of Mary the subject, make of her a subject of devout meditation. We want to reflect on the sorrowful woman, the sorrowful mother at the cross who is standing by. And so she is seen as the object here of what is in view in what John writes of her.

Some have wrestled with the question, some commentators have wrestled with the question, why John? Why does Jesus give Mary, his mother, to John after all? Indeed, he is the disciple whom Jesus loved, but after all, did not Mary have other children? Blood relatives with a responsibility to care for their own? who should have shouldered the responsibility for her future care. So people have tried to think, well, perhaps there was some negative attitude on their part towards Mary. After all, had they not been among those who did not believe in Jesus, at least for a time, John 7, 5 says so, even his own brothers didn’t believe in him. So maybe there was some reason why John, the beloved disciple, rather than one of her actual blood relatives who may have cared for her.

In that John, the gospel writer, chooses this as the final incident before his climactic verse 28. Look at verse 28. We believe that there is more going on here than the personal familial element. There’s more than family love here in an earthly sense.

We read in verse 28 that after this, that is after this exchange with his mother and with the beloved disciple, after this, having said these things, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I am thirsty.

And thus he is given the sour wine and he received it. And then comes the final, final, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. So we look at this incident, this exchange with his mother and with the beloved disciple, and we see it in this unique position of things not yet finished, now having said what he said, it’s finished. Things have been accomplished, you see. And so we must look back, or we must back up, and we must look more deeply at the exchange with his mother and the disciple whom he loved. What makes it the final event such that Jesus, having said these things, now knows, now knows it as all things already being finished. Something has happened here. Compare again, verse 28, verse 30, and we have the same word.

Now he knows that things are finished, and now he says, I’m thirsty, and now he drinks the cup, and then he says, it’s finished, and declares it to all. The same word used in those two verses certainly capture our attention. And we think of Jesus drinking the cup that the father had prepared for him. As you remember Peter questioning him going to the cross, must should I not drink the cup the father has prepared for me? Well here it is, final great deed of Jesus is to drink the cup, the sour cup, the bitter wine, the glory cup, if you will, in fulfillment of scripture once again. This Coming to this conclusion, this finish is bound up with this exchange.

Woman, behold your son. Disciple, behold your mother. However deep the sorrow in which Jesus sees his mother standing by the cross, that’s not what he speaks to her about. With extreme brevity, He refrains from even calling her mother. He asked her to relinquish him as son. And he refers her to the disciple standing by her as the one she is to recognize as hers. Behold, woman, behold your son. In turn, Jesus speaks to the disciple, asking, commanding, if you will, asking him to recognize his mother. Behold your mother.

And from that hour, we read, the disciple took her into his own household. Typically, traditionally, we have understood that John took Mary home. And from that day forward, they lived together in the same house. Does that mean she now began to exercise her motherhood over John?

We note that Jesus chooses his words and John records them with the utmost care and most severe economy. And I would dare say so charging them all the more with purposeful meaning. But wait a moment. Look closely at your English text. Notice that in verse 27, the word at the end of the verse, at least in the New American Standard, that is included there as home or household is generally italicized. And if it’s not italicized in your Bible, it should be. which means that the word is not really there in the Greek, but it seems to be implied.

But I ask us to let us follow the text where it leads us and translate the sentence then, and from that hour, the disciple took her into his own. And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own. This is the second time that Jesus and Mary have met in the narrative of John’s gospel in a decisive use of the word hour. At the wedding feast in Cana, Cana, Mary had sought Jesus for a solution to the lack of wine at the wedding. And Jesus’ reply has hung over this entire gospel. Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour. has not yet come. Underscore that word hour. My hour has not yet come.

And there in that occasion, when Jesus speaks those words at the wedding to his mother, calling her woman, what have I to do with you? It’s not the family blood connection that Jesus is pointing to. It is the recognition on his part that his role as the messianic son of man has an hour in view. And that hour is in view from the beginning. He has come for that hour, an hour of glory, but that hour is not yet at Cana, at the wedding feast. The hour in which he would be delivered up, in which he would be delivered up to be crucified. An hour in which the prophetic word and the divine purposes would be fulfilled. Sermon title, listening. He would be delivered up. He would be crucified. The purposes would be fulfilled. The scriptures fulfilled and the work of redemption for which he was sent into the world would be finished.

That hour had not yet come in John chapter two. When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem in John chapter 12, he declares decisively, now that the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified has come. It’s at the time of the Passover and the crucifixion is at hand. The hour embraces, that hour embraces the cross and obediently drinks the cup which the Father had prepared for him.

What gives unique significance then to the passage involving Jesus’ mother and the disciple whom he loved at the conclusion of the crucifixion is not therefore that Jesus still regulates his earthly family affairs and relations involving John and Mary. It is rather that in these two persons, in this final moment, Jesus’ love is extended in a much deeper and wider way to those who are His own.

His own. His sheep. His disciples. His beloved. His church. As He has come to drink the cup and to be lifted up in glory on the cross, He has done so in order to care for His own. And that’s quoting from the gospel throughout. That He loved His own even to the end, you see. And he gave himself for his own. And so it is that here he is giving himself in the final moments of the crucifixion for his own. Drinking the cup which the father prepared that he would drink it on behalf of his father for his own. And he has done so in order to care for his own. And he has laid down his life for them. Beloved, he has laid down his life for us.

We are his own. so that this is then not merely a quaint, nostalgic, historical note pertaining to Mary’s place of residence after Jesus’ death, but it is a redemptive historical reference, a salvation historical reference in the manner of the fourth gospel, a reference to the new family of God. that from that hour took form as a result of Jesus finishing his work. In this manner alone can we fully understand why the evangelist has this particular incident, this particular event as the final act of the redemptive event of Jesus suffering and death. After this, after Jesus had uttered those words, we read verse 28, Jesus knew all things had already been finished, and thus does he finish the top to the dregs. So what is it that he does here? He says to the woman, behold your son, an apostle, a beloved disciple, and says to her, There’s your son. And to the man, to the disciple whom he loves, there’s your mother. Behold your mother. And from that hour, he took her into his own.

This has to do with love. This has to do with the love Jesus had for his own in giving himself up so that now an apostle is to feed his sheep and to care for his own. Along the lines of what Jesus says in the Synoptic Gospels, behold my brother and my sister and my mothers, those who do the will of my father, those who are members of Christ, those who belong to me, they are now yours. Your own are Christ’s own. His own are your own, you see. And it is then for the apostle to love the woman, to love the church, to love the members of the body of Christ who were standing by the cross. And it is for the woman represented in Mary, the church of Jesus Christ, it is for her to love the sons of the church, to love the apostles as her own and to receive them for in receiving them, we receive Jesus himself.

Jesus is handing over his church to the care of his apostles and his beloved disciples. These are mine. You take care of them. You love one another. And it’s done. And the work begins. And He’ll come back and He’ll say to Peter and John, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. They’re yours. They’re yours because they’re mine. They’re your own.

And so it is, behoving a pastor to love the church as those who belong to Jesus. We’re looking beyond individuals. to the representation of the new church that is set in motion as the Son of Man is lifted up and draws all men to himself. And it was finished. And now the work is yours to carry on in his name. Let’s pray together. help us to embrace what has revealed to us in the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

There is life in his name and that he has given life to his church, to his own, that he gave himself up for his own and that we then should make his own our own and that we should love one another as he has loved us. We love because he first loved us. We embrace the church, and the church embraces her own. We receive the ministry of those whom you have given to your church.

Behold, our sister and brother and mother, our sons, and let us love one another as the family, the family of God, the family belonging to Jesus. Our Father, indeed, as we come to the table tonight, that are reminded of what Christ has done for us, and how he has identified us, and how he has provided for our care, and what he calls us to as your people to love one another as we are. May we, O God, rejoice in the Son of Man whose hour of glory is finished, in the accomplishment of our redemption, who is now high and lifted up, who is coming again, and will receive his own to himself. hear our prayers of thanks and praise with rejoicing in the name of Jesus. Amen. Let’s sing together hymn number one. Let’s stand together.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

Pilate presents the scourged Jesus in a crown of thorns and a purple robe: “Behold the man!” The chief priests demand crucifixion, first on a charge of insurrection and then of blasphemy, because he made himself the Son of God. Pilate grows more afraid, yet Jesus tells him he has no authority except what is given from above. To keep Caesar’s favor, Pilate hands over the true King of the Jews, at noon on the day of preparation for the Passover.

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Sermon transcript

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Gospel of John chapter 19, beginning with verse 1. Give your attention. May God bless these words to your hearing. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged him. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, put a purple robe on him, and they began to come up to him and say, Hail, King of the Jews. give him slaps in the face.

Pilate came out again and said to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man. So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify. Pilate said to him, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. Jews answered him, we have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me, do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.

Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, behold your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he then handed him over to them to be crucified. This is the word of God.

Let’s pray together. Our Father, as we consider Jesus Christ, his humiliation, might we, Lord, be ever mindful that these things of which we read occurred at just the right hour, according to plan, your divine plan, a plan that indeed, O God, brought to pass the great salvation that we know as our own. We pray, Father, that we would listen with spiritual ears, hearing and understanding those things that are herein contained. May we be found wise and faithful in this evil generation, shining forth as children of light, children of the day, who know and serve and love our King, even Jesus Christ. Bless now the reading, the preaching, the hearing of your word in our midst. You would be glorified in it. Grant power from above by the Spirit, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Since Pilate had decided that Jesus was not guilty of the sedition with which he had been charged, Pilate hoped that Jesus’ accusers would be content if he inflicted a lighter punishment. The infliction of any punishment on one who had been convicted of no crime was an act of injustice to be sure. but ordinary residents in the province, such as Jesus was, not a Roman citizen, did not enjoy the legal protection extended to Roman citizens. Pilate probably reckoned that Jesus had been indiscreet in his public utterances and needed to be taught a lesson. Here again, John’s narrative is in line with that of the Gospel of Luke, according to whom Pilate said to Jesus’ accusers, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

I will therefore chastise him and release him, Luke 23, verse 15 and following. The severest form of beating was not normally inflicted as a punishment by itself, but as a prelude to crucifixion or the like. Thus, in Mark’s passion narrative in chapter 15, verse 15, Jesus is sentenced to be scourged and crucified. This latter scourging was a murderous form of torture. Whips with which it was carried out were reinforced with sharp pieces of metal or bone, which left the victim’s body a bloody pulp. It’s not surprising that this treatment was sometimes in and of itself sufficient to cause a person’s death.

If the flogging of John 19.1 was designed to teach Jesus a lesson, it may have been less severe than that scourging, but any beating carried out by Roman soldiers was certainly brutal enough. When they had carried it out, they engaged in a bit of brutal sport, as you know, with their victim here.

His accusers had alleged he had claimed to be king of the Jews. And if so, let him be treated as a king then. So they dressed him up in a military cloak to serve as a royal robe. They placed a makeshift crown on his head and lined up to pay him a mock homage, each one giving him a blow on the face as he did so. The thorns of which the makeshift crown were plated were likely fierce and formidable, causing acute pain also in themselves.

The pilot evidently hoped that the sorry spectacle of a man so disabled and disfigured by a severe flogging and dressed up in such mockery would satisfy Jesus’ accusers that he had learned his lesson and was no longer likely to do any harm. The implication of Pilate’s words, then, behold, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him, was that in Pilate’s eyes, Jesus’ claims, such as they were, were more fit for ridicule than for serious legal action.

You know what he had said back in chapter 18. And thus Pilate’s words, behold the man, might mean, so far as Pilate’s intention was concerned, here he is, poor fellow. But the evangelist discerns a deeper meaning, a deeper significance. As John writes, that deeper significance is well conveyed by the words. For John, behold the man, is a way of saying here is the son of man. The messianic son of man. The word become flesh man. A real man. The incarnate word man. A man not disassociated from the first man. Here is the man who willingly and freely gives himself over, comes out of the garden, now being crowned with the symbol of the curse upon his head.

Not having his nakedness mercifully covered, but to be mockingly garbed in humiliation. Behold the man But the chief priest and their associates were in no mood to be pacified. The sight of Jesus dressed up as a pantomime king enraged them all the more. For in their mind, they were being exposed to ridicule even more than he.

When some years later, a king of the Jews, Agrippa the Elder, made a public procession through Alexandria and the Greek populace of the city parodied the occasion by dressing a local derelict up in royal robes and paying him homage in the gymnasium. It was not the instrument of their sport. It was not this derelict who took the offense, but the Jewish community and the Jewish king had such an insult. Well, here Jesus is an insult to the Jews. It’s not so much that he is the insulted one, but to them he is an insult and a scandal. How dare you present this man in such form to us? He’s not our king after all.

The Roman soldiers had expressed their contempt for the Jews by their treatment of Jesus. Here’s your king. Here is the way we treat this one who would dare claim to be your king. and the Jewish authorities thereby are all the more further exasperated.

They knew quite well what the outcome would be if Pilate found Jesus guilty of the charge, which they preferred against him. For a non-Roman, the penalty for treacherous and seditious activity was almost bound to be crucifixion. During the generation that had elapsed since the death of Herod, they had seen ample evidence of this time and again of men who would have been so put to death in Judea and the adjoining regions. The Jews knew what they were after, and this was the penalty they sought for Jesus. And now, having seen this one presented to them in this mock king’s clothing, They demanded the outcome outright. In saying, take him and crucify him yourselves, as they had pled for his crucifixion, Pilate, they perceive, is teasing them again.

He knew very well that they could execute no capital sentence against him, and even if they could, crucifixion was not a form of execution authorized by Jewish law. It appeared to Jesus’ accusers that their attempt to have him convicted and sentenced by Pilate on a charge of sedition, that is, of undermining authority, being a threat to the emperor and his underlings, was going to be unsuccessful. Therefore, they tried to gain their end by another route.

Governors of Judea not only had the duty of enforcing Roman law in the province, they also undertook the responsibility of respecting, and where necessary, enforcing Jewish religious law. The claim to be king of the Jews was a capital offense against Roman law. The claim to be son of God was a capital offense against Jewish law. But if the governor would not grant a capital conviction in respect to the threat to Roman authority, he might be persuaded, on the other hand, to permit the execution of the capital sentence required by Jewish law in respect of the alleged blasphemy from the mouth of Jesus.

A sentence which could not be carried out without the governor’s license, the apparent implication of chapter 18, verse 31. As they said, we are not in a position to execute in this way. The claim to be the Messiah could be construed both as a claim to be the king of the Jews and as a claim to be son of God. When the one formulation, which might have been expected to procure immediate conviction from Pilate, that is, an insurrectionist, a seditionist, seemed to fail in its purpose, the chief priests immediately try the other route.

And their language presupposes that a claim to be son of God was in and of itself blasphemous and rendered Jesus liable to the death penalty. according to Jewish law prescribed in Leviticus 24 verse 16, which says, Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the name, shall be put to death. Quote Leviticus 24, 16. In the Old Testament, the anointed king of Israel was son of God by adoption. We might think of the language of Psalm 2.

Today, I have begotten thee. Call him son of God. As applicable to the anointing of kings, of course, it has a prophetic messianic meaning, and I’m not denying that, but there is an Old Testament usage where one might be called justifiably son of God. But our Lord’s contemporaries, the men who stood around him that day, recognized that much more than this official relationship of a legitimate son of David sitting on a legitimate throne was implied in the language that he used when he called himself the son sent by the Father from heaven. And to that extent, these Jews who found fault with Jesus, were in a sense right. They got the message. Jesus was staking his claim to be the very Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. That Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of the Father sent from heaven is true. He would not deny.

But this is the very thing that the Jews could not by any means accept. And if Pilate then would not send Jesus to the cross for sedition, for insurrection, he might agree to his execution for blasphemy. Pilate, however, rather than complying with their demand, is rather all the more heightened in his fear, we’re told. It was no blasphemy to a Greek or a Roman if a man claimed to be a son of God. If the claim was conceivably true, The man might just be a god-man of sorts. After all, there are some of those in Greek and Roman thought. Could it be so? No, not this man. Or maybe, or who knows? From the text, we perceive that Pilate feels some uneasiness now, and tried to cover it up by a display of authority.

Where are you from, he asks. going back into the praetorium to Jesus. And here we find in John’s gospel this one reference of the motif of Jesus’ silence before Pilate. A silence that is prominent in Mark’s gospel to be sure, but here in John’s gospel it finds expression only once, only at this point in John 19 verse 9, Jesus is silent and did not answer. What answer that he could have given would have meant anything to a pagan judge or conveyed any sense of what he had in mind when he spoke to others of having come forth from the Father. But Pilate is annoyed by Jesus’ silence.

In his mind it borders on contempt of court. Moreover, it is absolutely foolish to Pilate. After all, does Jesus not realize that he might arrange his release? Does Jesus not understand Pilate’s given power that he has to release or to crucify? But Jesus understands far better than Pilate. From a perspective Pilate cannot fathom. Jesus discerns behind Pilate’s discretionary power a higher authority than the emperor’s. The emperor himself, not to mention his local lieutenant, wields his authority only by the sovereign superintendents of God himself.

Verse 11, you would have no authority over me, Jesus says, unless it had been given to you from above. From above certainly here denotes heavenly derivation. God has placed you here is what Jesus is saying. Jesus is enunciating substantially the same principle that Paul does in Romans 13.

There is no authority except from God and those that exist have been ordained by God. For the well-being of men and their societies, God has ordained that certain authority be vested in certain officers, certain offices. And those who occupy such offices cannot avoid their responsibility to God, having been placed there by God in his providence. But even more profound in this hour is that in this hour that has been appointed from above, is the hour that has been appointed that Jesus Christ must drink the cup of sorrow and woe. And it must go according to that plan. For this reason, Jesus says, he who delivered me up to you has the greater sin.

Of whom does Jesus speak here? Judas? Not likely, although he definitely had a role. We say not likely, for his role seems to have ceased at the arrest in the garden, not directly involving Pilate. Therefore, more likely, Jesus refers here to the high priest or to the Jewish authorities as a collective whole.

Jesus is stating that his own people are inevitably more involved, more culpable in his death than is the Roman governor. who is being pressed now by the Jews to fulfill his given office. He had come to his own, and his own received him not. And they, in turn, have turned him over to the Roman governor. And if Pilate had found no substance in the charge of Jesus threatening Roman authority, he certainly had no mind then to take up the religious charge. And so he attempts then again to release Jesus, but he is again rebuffed by the children of the devil, bent on Jesus’ destruction.

They cry out, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Recognize this is no empty threat. Pilate’s military political power is in jeopardy here. Grant Jesus release and you will prove you are disloyal to Caesar.

The Jews knew how to play the trump card in that culture and society. What would be the emperor’s reaction, this rather flippant emperor, if it were reported to him that his governor in Judea had acquitted a man brought before him on a charge of insurrection, attested by many fine, upstanding religious leaders of the day? To save face then and to save his seat at the table, Pilate must judge and condemn Jesus, lest the ax fall on his own neck. How could he do otherwise?

We are told it was the sixth hour. At midday, high noon, on the day of preparation for the Passover, the Jews’ great high feast among their traditions, celebrating their great deliverance and their liberation out of Egypt. Rome’s governor here in Judea sits in his seat, having been trapped by the chief priest.

He sees no alternative to condemning Jesus to death, but he has his last little revenge on them by insisting that this blood-stained and disheveled figure is their king. He declares, behold your king. They will not, indeed they cannot see him as such. Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Their kingdom after all. is of this world. They will not have this one to be our king. This man is not our king. We have, they say, no king but Caesar. The story is all so familiar. The outcome is so well known.

But beloved hear the word of the gospel, meant for your instruction and your encouragement. Beloved, behold your king. This is gospel. The gospel writer sees and he hears. And what he sees and he hears, he testifies. Jesus is the true king of the true Israel. For all who believe, who know the truth and hear his voice and obey. Here is the man of God’s appointment. Here is the true Passover lamb. The lamb about to suffer his death at the appropriate hour. of the appropriate day for the life of his people. How interesting, on this day, it is Pilate who preaches the gospel.

Our Father, help us to see, to understand, to believe, to know full well that this was according to plan. A plan, oh God, that most certainly in its awesome design included the wicked deed of wicked men bent on the chief of wickedness. And yet there, O God, is the wisdom of God, and the grace of God may manifest. The lamb led to the slaughter, silent before his shearers, that one who had come down from heaven to give himself as a ransom for many. Whose kingdom is not of this world, the very Son of God, installed on Zion’s holy hill, against whom the nation’s rage, the Son of God, this day, exalted and lifted up.

At high noon, for all to see, and as many as would see, and hear, and believe, they would be saved. Our Father, we pray that you would humble us again, remind us again of these great and wonderful things accomplished in the face of wicked men who set their hearts on things of this world, whose power, whose desire for power in this world, the things of the politics of this world is their chief desire and delight. I contrast those who set their minds and their hearts on heavenly things, eternal things, and trusting themselves into the hands of Almighty God to whom vengeance belongs. Our Father, hear our prayers and thanks as we conclude this Lord’s Day together in Jesus’ name. Let’s sing together hymn number 214.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.