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.
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.
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