Jesus Crucified and Buried

Introduction

Turn with me in your Bibles to John 19.

We continue our series in the book of John this morning, with the darkest moment in all of history—Jesus’ death and burial.

FCF: We have all sinned and transgressed God’s Law. The punishment for that sin is death and eternal separation from God—from all that is good in this universe.

Main Idea: But God himself, through Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, has made a way for us to be reconciled to him.

Prayer for Illumination

Transition: I have just one point this morning—Look to the cross

Our faith is rooted in historical facts.

Jesus really was crucified by the Romans around AD 30.

Apparent discrepancies between the gospels in the ordering of Jesus’ flogging are easily reconciled—Jesus was flogged twice.

John 19:1 ESV

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 19

this flogging was what the Romans called fustigatio, the lightest form of flogging administered for minor crimes. Thus John 19:1 and Luke 23:16 use the verbs mastigoō and paideuō (respectively) to refer to this lighter flogging, whereas Matt. 27:26 and Mark 15:15 use a different word, phragelloō (“scourged”) to refer to the much more severe beating that Jesus received after Pilate pronounced the sentence of death (the Roman verberatio, which was the most horrible kind of beating, administered in connection with capital punishments, including crucifixion).

The charge leveled against the criminal was usually inscribed upon a titulus (Ltn.), a piece of wood which was nailed to the cross for all to see.

John 19:19 ESV

19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

It’s widely known and recognized by modern scholars that Aramaic was the language spoken by most Jews in first century AD, Latin by the Romans, and Greek was the lingua franca for the Roman Empire.

John 19:20 ESV

20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.

Roman law designated the executed’s clothing to be divided up amongst the executioners, as we see in v. 23.

John 19:23–24 ESV

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,

Jewish customs—Jesus designated a provider and protector for his widowed mother.

John 19:26–27 ESV

26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Roman soldiers typically drank ‘sour wine’ or ‘wine vinegar’ because it was a lot cheaper than nicer wine

John 19:29 ESV

29 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.

Roman practice of breaking the legs of the crucified so they would die quicker is attested in archaeological discoveries.

John 19:31–32 ESV

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him.

That Jesus’ bones were not broken is attested by the Roman practice of nailing criminals in the wrist, not in the hand. The Greek word for hand can refer to the wrist as well.

John 19:36 ESV

36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

The blood and water that came out of Jesus’ side attests to his physical death. Doctors have proposed at least two very viable causes of the water and blood which came from Christ’s side, both of which attest to catastrophic heart failure.

John 19:34 ESV

34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Piercing of Jesus’ Side (19:31–37)

“The water probably represented serous pleural and pericardial fluid, and would have preceded the flow of blood and been smaller in volume than the blood. Perhaps in the setting of hypovolemia and impending acute heart failure, pleural and pericardial effusions may have developed and would have added to the volume of apparent water. The blood, in contrast, may have originated from the right atrium or the right ventricle or perhaps from a hemopericardium” (1463).

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Piercing of Jesus’ Side (19:31–37)

A. F. Sava, however, in an article not cited by these writers (“The Wound in the Side of Christ,” CBQ 19, 343–46) objects to the idea that the blood came from within the heart and the water from the pericardial sac: “Any fluid that leaves the pericardial sac cannot skip across the space between the lining of the lung and the outer surface of the pericardial sac. Because of this, a fluid thus evacuated from the pericardium as well as from inside the heart, will flood the space around the lung rather than ooze its way slowly across the pierced lung. This is what I observed in my experiments with fresh cadavers.” He similarly doubts that a spontaneous rupture of the heart, followed by decomposition of the blood, evacuated into the heart of Jesus (contrary to a well-known work by W. Stroud: Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ and Its Relation to the Principles and Practice of Christianity, [London: Hamilton & Adams, 21971]). Sava’s own proposal is that the blood and water were present just inside the rib cage between the pleura lining the chest and that lining the lung. Severe chest injuries show that nonpenetrating injuries of the chest are capable of producing an accumulation of hemorrhagic fluid in the space between the ribs and the lung—it may amount to as much as two liters. Sava relates that he has collected into glass cylinders blood from different cadavers from two to four hours after death; on standing, the contents separated into a lower (half by volume) layer of deep red, while over it the serum appeared clear, pale straw-colored. “I submit, therefore, that the brutal scourging of Christ several hours before his death upon the cross, was sufficient to produce a bloody accumulation within the chest, so that the settling by this fluid into layers and its ultimate evacuation by opening the chest below the level of separation must inevitably result in the ‘immediate’ flow of blood followed by water” (344–45).

Jesus’ death fulfilled Scripture

Isaiah 53 Suffering servant

Isaiah 53 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus as our Passover Lamb

Day of preparation—at the temple, hundreds of sheep were being slaughtered to atone for the sins of the people, while the true lamb of God was making his offering once and for all.

John 19:31 ESV

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Look what Christ has done for you!

He was rejected so that you could be accepted.

He suffered and died so that you wouldn’t have to suffer in hell.

He bore your sins so that you could be free from sin.