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Lifted Up on High
John 19:16-24
Introduction
Last week we saw the fateful decision of the Jewish leaders to accept Caesar and reject Jesus.
This was in effect the end of the Jewish nation.
No longer do the physical descendants of Abraham through Jacob have any exclusive privilege with God.
The way was being prepared for a new understanding of God’s people.
As we remember in John 3:16, God was opening the doors to anyone and everyone who believes in His Son Jesus Christ.
These are the true children of the promise, the children of Abraham.
It is interesting to note the Roman custom of adoption here.
When a man adopted a son, the natural father would present him to the adoptive father three times.
After each of the first two presentations, the son was returned to the natural father.
But when he was presented and accepted the third time, he was for ever adopted into the new family.
The old family had no further claim, and the adopted son had privilege even the natural sons of the adoptive father did not have.
The adopted son could not be disinherited.
Whereas we must be careful not to bind God to human customs and laws, it is interesting to note that Paul alludes in both Romans and Galatians that we have received this adoption (Romans 8:16; Galatians 4:5).
This is a privilege God has bestowed upon us by grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
To those who believe, the gates of the Kingdom of God are open wide.
In an ironic way, the Jewish state ended with a threefold rejection of Jesus.
Three times Pilate had presented Jesus to them as King of the Jews.
Three times they had rejected him.
The fact it happened three times indicates that their rejection was willful and complete.
They had become un-adopted.
Or in another sense, they were adopted by Caesar.
They were now the children of Rome instead of God.
The Devil was their new father.
A relationship of almost two thousand years had come to an end.
It is indeed sad that a nation of people who had been given so much more than all of the other nations would come to sad end.
But we must also remember that the “whosoever will” applies to people of Israelite descent as well as to the Gentile nations.
But now the ground was level and fair.
It was to be an election of grace rather than race.
Exposition of the Text
John 19:16.
We covered this verse last week.
Pilate turned Jesus over to their will that He might be crucified.
The verb “handed over” (Greek παραδίδωμι) is the same verb which describes Judas’ action in betraying Jesus to the Jewish authorities as well as the Jewish authorities turning over Jesus to Pilate.
Now in a sense, Pilate has to be seen as betraying Jesus to the will of the Jewish people.
The Governor was responsible as a patron to the people he governed to enforce the law fairly.
It was his responsibility by the Roman law he knew and the Law of God which he did not know to protect the innocent from false prosecution.
Three times he had rendered a not guilty verdict.
And yet, he allowed Jesus to be turned over to be crucified.
And if we wanted to be honest about it, we all have betrayed Jesus to the cross because of our sin, the Jewish leaders and the crowd stood for all the Jews, and Pilate for all the Gentiles.
None of our hands would be clean from the shedding of Jesus blood were it not that it is by the supreme act of God’s grace that this very betrayal would become the basis of our salvation.
He did not go to the cross to put us on a guilt trip but to free us from our guilt.
It must be remembered that faith in Jesus and repentance toward God is necessary for our being set free.
This is not a carte blanche acquittal for us.
It is for the “whosoever will” not just the “whosoever.”
Those who reject Jesus after the cross are even more guilty than either the Jewish leaders and people, or Pilate.
Those who reject the gospel are in the worst danger of all.
They have no excuse for sin whose excuse is not Jesus death for our sin.
The Gospel then is the message of eternal life and reward to those who believe and eternal death and punishment to those who reject.
The Bible presents no middle ground.
It is win all or lose all.
It says they took Jesus.
But we must remember that He went willingly.
John 19:17.
The Gospel of John does not mention Jesus’ fainting under the weight of the cross.
This may have to do with the people to whom John was writing the Gospel.
Perhaps some of them saw Jesus as the unfortunate victim of the anger of men and religious intolerance, much as people today think.
In fact even in times of human weakness, Jesus is actually in complete control of the situation.
We saw this at the woman at the well and at Jesus appearance before Pilate.
Even in the moment of supreme human weakness where He cries “I’m thirsty!
(John 19:28), it was said that he did this to fulfill Scripture.
John does not deny that Jesus is fully human.
After all, it is John who makes the powerful declaration that “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14).
But John wants us to know that Jesus is more than a mere man.
He is God’s Son.
So John simply refers that Jesus bore His own cross.
Simon of Cyrene helped the physically weakened Jesus carry the cross part of the way to Golgotha.
But no one could ever carry that cross in a spiritual sense.
Only Jesus could bear that cross of curse for us.
We are instead asked to bear our own cross, not His.
And this cross is just a reflection of the Master’s cross.
We cannot save anyone.
Our bearing our own cross for Jesus’ sake can only point to Calvary where Jesus suffered and died for us.
The place where Jesus died is called “Skull Place” (Κρανίου Τόπον in Greek).
There isn’t any agreement where Jesus was actually crucified.
The Catholics hold to one hill and the Protestants generally think a place called Gordon’s Calvary is tha actual place because the hillside there resembles a human skull.
But we do tend to see Jesus hanging from a high hill on a high cross, way above eye level.
But this is not how the Romans crucified their victims.
Roman crucifixion was an “in-your-face” punishment.
It was not only meant to be an extremely painful and slow death physically.
It was also meant to be an absolute humiliation of the victim.
The victim was crucified in a very public place usually along the side of the road where many would pass by and could see the horrible suffering of the victim just a few feet away.
The victim was close enough to look in the eye.
This leads me to believe he was crucified at the side of the road near the gate of the city, probably before the skull-shaped hill called Gordon’s Calvary.
One can only imagine how horrible death by crucifixion was.
Think about the flies swarming an biting that you can’t swat.
Perhaps there was a raven or two taking a peck at you.
Imagine the sunburn on the naked flesh.
Imagine the pain and struggle for every breath as you had to push your feet against the nails to hold yourself upright to breath.
These all drive you to madness.
The onlookers add to your misery by casting insults at you or spitting on you.
They taunt you and you are helpless to fight back.
And if any mercy is shown, it isn’t the drink of bitter vinegar to allay your searing thirst.
It is that you hung there on the day before the Sabbath and someone broke your legs so that you would die quicker.
So was the experience of crucifixion.
The fact those who were crucified swore and acted like wild beasts only acted to make the crowds taunts greater.
Surely this person on the cross was guilty, a mere animal who is getting what he deserves.
Little sympathy was offered to the victim.
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