John 19 (good friday)

1. The Crucifixion of Jesus John 19:17–24

John 19:17–27 NIV

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

The innocent King

Carrying his own Cross: Jesus was fully in control of his own brutal death. The death that he would die for the world.

I wonder if they would have recognized the replay of what was happening…of what was really going on…

See this was just hours before the sabbath, before the passover festival would start

and Early in the first chapter of the book of John we read

John 1:29 NIV

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John would recognize Jesus as the great lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world

The blood of the lamb is what saved the Jewish people as the angel of death came and killed every first born that passover night. It was the meal they ate before going to freedom from their slavery….

Jesus is now that passover lamb

But there is something even more compelling about this scene.

The early church fathers would comment on Jesus carrying his cross and the very deep similarity that this scene shares with Genesis 22, When Abraham makes Issac cary wood for the sacrifice…

If you remember back to that story God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son..>the one who he waited so long for

Isaac was obedient to his father, Abraham was obedient to the lord and right before he was to sacrifice his son…. but the lord stopped it and provided a ram that was caught in a thicket of thorns…

The early church father would point out to us the similarities of Jesus carying his own sacrificial insturment, Adorned with a crown of thorns

Jesus is the lamb of God,

The ram caught in the thorns

But this time….Jesus was the sacrifice.

He was the atonement for us all

The king that dies for his people

All through the text there was a question if this man Jesus, this criminal was really a king.

Of course the sign fashioned above Jesus head was there to mock him. Kings are supposed to be powerful.

Kings are supposed to lead in battle, they are not supposed to die.

What they didn’t or couldn’t know is that the man whom they had crucified was statement written above him saying that he was the king of the Jews….Now the Jewish leaders took exception to this..>Do not say he is actually the king but say he claimed that…And pilate says, what I have written I have written….

See what they couldn’t really grasp at the time is that Jesus is the last declared king of Israel and is still king to this day.

Every king gets a new calendar…The years are started by the reign of that king and the premise of the calendar that we use today is absolutely that Jesus is the cosmic king and that his throne is the cross.

and then the soldiers divide his clothes.

Clothing held a special significance….God clothed the first sinful humans Adam and eve to cover their sin and now the ones who would actually kill Jesus. the soldiers who would drive spikes through his hands and feet

The ones who would take a spear and stab him will now be covered in the clothing of Jesus.

what is remarkable to me is that all of the tiny details of the messiah’s life including his death and something as mundane as taking of his clothes, preaches of the revolutionary holiness and forgiveness of the messiah.

It is not missed on the other gospel writers that Jesus is the new and greater Adam…

And now Jesus is half naked on the cross…

See when Adam and eve Sinned, they became naked and ashamed….But all of that is being reversed on the cross

Now Jesus is on the cross…His clothing is being gambled for…He is practically naked but unashamed…Becuase he is cleansing the sin of the world

John & Mary

In this moment of unimaginable pain and suffering. jesus does something that is both revolutionary and will set the stage for Millenia to come

He tells John to care for his mother…

Jesus creates a new family

to his mother he says “Woman here is your son” and to John he said “Here is your mother”

The family of God is now unified by the blood of Jesus and not by the DNA in our veins

The family of God finds its unity in the cross rather than biology.

Jesus on the cross does something completely remarkable. He does not focus on his own pain.

He sees the pain of his mother and brings her a new family

Conclusion

At the cross we see it all.

The Lamb who takes away sin.

The King who dies for his people.

The Son who creates a new family.

And from that cross Jesus still offers the same gift:

Forgiveness, clensing, and a place in the family of God.