Sermon Tone Analysis

Coronation

next year we will witness the coronation of the new king of england

as with all things royal, it will be a public affair.

Leading up to this point there have been years of training education practice in what it means to be the head of England.

On that day, the day of his coronation, the king of England will make a sacred vow before God, the Church of England, and all of those watching to carefully and faithfully represent the nation.

this has been anticipated for some time and has taken on new urgency since the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth.

in the British system there is a natural passing of the monarchical baton from one generation, one monarch, to the next.

If God grants me a full number of years, I suspect that this will not be the last monarchical transfer that I will observe in my lifetime.

But when it comes to the coronation of the King of Kings, his coronation is different.

Sure, he had years of preparation.

As we saw Last week, he was given a crown and royal garments.

Today, we will witness his parade and his enthronement.

Turn in your bibles to John 19:16.

After Jesus’ trial before Pilate, he was handed over to Roman soldiers to be crucified.

Let’s read a portion of the passage we are considering today

While many of us have seen movies and images depicting crucifixions, I do think it’s helpful to understand a bit of what would have happened in a crucifixion.

Unfortunately, John doesn’t help us out very much.

Merrill Tenney notes that

“John, who alone of all the disciples witnessed it, said the least about it.”

And yet we have to recognize that...

“in a day when crucifixion was still a current method of execution, it would have been too familiar to need description and too horrible a thought to deserve elaboration.”

(265).

Understanding Crucifixion

Once Pilate had made the pronouncement that Jesus would be crucified, he was handed over to a team of Roman soldiers for them to carry out the order.

(LBD)

Typically, the one being crucified was beaten or flogged.

Romans had three variations on flogging.

The most brutal was often the one that preceded crucifixion.

It’s possible that since Jesus was already flogged that he did not receive that again.

It’s also possible that his first flogging would have been a lesser one and that a second flogging would have been the most severe.

The victim would have to carry the cross beam of the cross through town.

It was often assumed that this would have been a circuitous route in order to expose the individual to the most public shame.

It was also typical for a placard to precede the victim or to hang around his neck while walking.

In our passage, this is the placard on which Pilate had written “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (John 19:19).

Once the victim made it to the crucifixion site, often by a busy road, he was stripped and nailed to the cross-beam that he had been carrying.

The clothing of the prisoner became the property of the soldiers.

He would then be hoisted to a vertical beam that was fixed in the ground.

At that point his feet would be nailed to the beam as well.

Histories suggest that this hoisting was not very high.

We often think of crosses as being quite tall, but in reality, the crucified person may only be elevated a little higher than his normal standing height.

Whatever the case, crucifixion was a horrible means of death.

It was often reserved for slaves or criminals.

According to the...

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Ancient Views of Crucifixion)

Cicero described crucifixion as “the cruelest and most terrible punishment” (Verr.

2.5.165).

Josephus called it “the most pitiable of deaths” (Jewish War 7.203).

Sometimes the crucified person would remain on the cross for days before dying.

Often Jews who were crucified were taken down before dusk and buried - as was the case with Jesus.

Each person would take varying amounts of time before succumbing to death.

As we see in this and all of the gospel accounts, Jesus death was rather quick - a few hours.

Before Jesus died, John records a few of Jesus words.

Jesus presents his mom to John for his care - which would have been common for crucified people to take care of final matters.

John 19:26-27 “When Jesus 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!”

And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

expresses thirst - John 19:28-29 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.”

Says “It is finished.”

- John 19:30

John then records:

John 19:30 (ESV)

...He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

(Consider cutting this next section )

Burge notes:

“The Greek paradidomi [which is translated “gave up” in the ESV ] means to “hand over” and nowhere in Greek literature is paradidomi to pneuma used as a reference to death.

… this verb means to hand on something to a successor.”

While Jesus did truly give up his life in that moment, this phrasing may suggest that John sees this moment as when the gift of the Spirit was given.

In reality, this didn’t happy until Pentecost, a few weeks later.

But just as Jesus dealt with his final earthly responsibilities in providing for his mother, so to He provides for us in his eternal responsibilities by handing over his spirit.

————

But I want us to focus the remainder of our time on the implications of a few of Jesus’ final words:

“It is finished.”

Which begs the question:

What is finished?

There are several things that we could think through in light of what we’ve studied throughout the book of John.

First of all...

The signs are finished

The cross and soon coming resurrection are the culmination of the signs about which John has been communicating.

John chose to tell about these miraculous activities - hand picking a few to act as markers to a future sign.

Jesus fulfills all of them on the cross.

Gary Burge notes that “In his death, Jesus provides the gift that every other sign promised.”

Let’s think back through his signs

In chapter 2 he changed water into wine - here He is the true wine of fellowship with God (ch.

2) - sanctifying us - paying for the price of our sin

In Chapter 4, Jesus healed the son of an official from a great distance away - at the cross, Jesus is the eternal healer for the curse of our sin.

In Chapter 5, Jesus healed an invalid man on the sabbath - and demonstrating what true, life-giving rest would look like.

Here on the cross, Jesus provides eternal rest from the toil of our sin.

In chapter 6 - Jesus fed 5000 with a few small loves of bread and fish - at the cross, Jesus shows that he is the eternal bread of life providing eternal sustenance for billions

In chapter 6 - Jesus walked on water demonstrating his power over creation - at the cross - Jesus gave up his life as a substitute for ours - and then returned from death demonstrating power over death!

In chapter 9 - Jesus healed a man who was born blind - overcoming a medical condition that could not be addressed - at the cross - Jesus healed our spiritual infirmities - a feat that we could not overcome - no amount of good deeds or religious actions could atone for our sin.

In chapter 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

We presume that Lazarus eventually died again.

On the cross, Jesus died but was raised again to life and is now seated at the right hand of God - granting us hope for eternal life!

The signs are finished.

Just as the signs on a highway might give us direction, so too John has been revealing some of Jesus’ works as signs pointing us to the nature and identity of Jesus.

All of these signs point to his most glorious and shameful work.

They have been culminated in Jesus on the cross.

Secondly,...

The coronation is finished

Some commentators have referred to John 12-20 as the coronation of Jesus.

When kings of old would come to power, they would often work hard to solidify power around themselves.

Some went to war.

Some went on missions of mercy.