John 19
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CHAPTER 19
Jesus Sentenced to be crucified (19:1-16)
1-3 A fuller description of the flogging of Jesus and the mocking of the soldiers is given in Mark’s Gospel (see Mark 15:1519 and comment).
4-5 Here in verses 4-15, John describes the final attempt by Pilate to free Jesus. This is not mentioned by the other three Gospel writers.
Pilate brought Jesus out before the crowd after His flogging. The soldiers had dressed Him up like a king. Pilate hoped that the crowd would see that this pathetic man could not possibly be any kind of king.
6 But Pilate’s plan did not work. The chief priests and their officials cried out, “Crucify! crucify!” It was mainly the Jewish leaders who demanded Jesus’ death. The crowd of ordinary Jews followed the direction of their leaders (Mark 15:11).
Pilate was displeased with the Jews. “You take him and crucify him,” he said to them. Pilate knew that the Jews could not crucify criminals. His meaning was: “I will have nothing to do with this man. If you insist that He be crucified, you’ll have to do it yourselves. But if you do, of course, you’ll be breaking the Roman law.”
7 The Jews then told Pilate that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God. According to the Jewish law, a man who claimed to be equal to God had to be executed (see Leviticus 24:16; John 5:18 and comment).
8-9 Pilate was superstitious. When he heard that Jesus had claimed to be God’s Son, he became afraid. The Romans had many different gods, and they believed that their gods of ten came to earth disguised as men and had children by earthly women. Pilate feared that if he were to unknowingly put to death a “son” of some Roman god, that god would surely take revenge on him. Also Pilate’s wife had had a dream about Jesus, and she had warned her husband not to have anything to do with Him (Matthew 27:19).
Therefore, Pilate again took Jesus inside and asked Him, “Where do you come from? Do you come from earth or from heaven?” But Jesus didn’t answer. It is not known why Jesus remained silent at this point. He had refused to answer some of Pilate’s earlier questions (see Mark 15:3-5). Perhaps He knew that Pilate would not believe His answer. Also, Jesus had already answered that question before (John 18:3637). There was no use answering it again.
10 Pilate became angry. He was the chief official in the whole province. If he asked a question, he expected an answer. He demanded respect from people. He surely expected Jesus to respect him. After all, Pilate held the power of life and death over Jesus. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or crucify you?” Pilate asked.
11 Jesus told Pilate that any power he possessed had been given to him from above, that is, by God. All authority belongs to God (Romans 13:1). From this, we can take comfort. When we fall into persecution, let us remember that those who persecute us can do no more to us than God allows.
Furthermore, Pilate was not the only one responsible in this matter. If he crucified Jesus, the guilt would not fall entirely on Pilate. Indeed, most of the guilt would fall on Caiaphas, the high priest, who had handed Jesus over to Pilate (John 18:28).
12 Pilate again tried to convince the Jews that Jesus should be released. Pilate had the authority to release Jesus, but he did not want to oppose the wishes of the Jewish leaders. He wanted peace in his province of Judea. He wanted to keep the Jewish leaders happy.
But the Jews would not listen to Pilate. They again raised their charge that Jesus was trying to make Himself a king. There was only one true king in the Roman Empire, they said, and that was Caesar,121 the Roman emperor. Therefore, Jesus was opposing Caesar.
Then the Jews told Pilate, “If you do not crucify this Jesus, you are no friend of Caesar. If you let Him go free, you will be opposing Caesar.”
13 Pilate was even more afraid. He knew the Jews could send bad reports about him to the emperor. If the emperor learned that Pilate had protected a traitor and insurrectionist, the emperor would surely punish him. Therefore, for the sake of his own safety, Pilate decided to crucify Jesus.
14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, which means it was the day of preparation for the Sabbath (Saturday) of Passover week. That is, it was Friday (see Mark 14:12 and comment).
John says it was about the sixth hour, which by Jewish reckoning was 12 noon. However, Mark writes that Jesus was crucified at 9 A.M. Many Bible scholars believe that here John has reckoned the time by the Roman method, according to which the “sixth hour” would be 6 A.M. (see Mark 15:25 and comment).
15-16 After Pilate had passed judgment that Jesus should be crucified, he asked the Jews, “Shall I crucify your king?” He was mocking them.
Then the chief priests said, “We have no king but Caesar.” They were complete hypocrites. They hated Caesar. They said this only to please Pilate. But in saying this they betrayed God, because according to the Old Testament, God Himself was their only King (Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 8:7).
Thus in the end the Jewish leaders got their wish. Pilate handed Jesus over to them—that is, to the Roman soldiers—to be crucified.
The Crucif ixion (19:17-27)
(Matthew 27:32-44; Mark 15:21-32; Luke 23:26-43)
17-24 See Mark 15:21-32 and comment.
25 Four women were standing watching while Jesus was crucified. One was Jesus’ mother Mary. Think of Mary’s sorrow to see her son dying on the cross. The prophecy of Simeon had indeed come true: And a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:35).
The second woman at the cross was the sister of Jesus’ mother. Some Bible scholars believe that this sister was Salome (Mark 15:40), who was the mother of James and John,122 the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 27:56). If this is so, then John was related to Jesus.
The third woman at the cross was another Mary, the wife of Clopas. Some think that this Clopas is the same as the Cleopas mentioned in Luke 24:18.
The fourth woman at the cross was Mary of Magdala, called Mary Magdalene by the other Gospel writers (see Mark 15:40,47; Luke 8:2; John 20:1,11).
26 Even as He was dying, Jesus thought of His mother. She was standing there with the disciple whom he loved—that is, John, the writer of this Gospel. So He told His mother, “Dear woman, here is your son; that is, from now on John is going to be like your own son and care for you.” From this, we can surmise that Jesus’ father Joseph had died sometime before; otherwise, he would have been the one responsible for Jesus’ mother. Jesus didn’t place His mother in the care of His own brothers (Mary’s other sons), because they were not yet believers (John 7:5). Only after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension did His brothers come to believe in Him (Acts 1:14).
27 Then Jesus said to John, “Here is your mother.” In this way Jesus placed His mother in John’s care. And from then on John took responsibility for her, as if he were her own son.
The Death of Jesus (19:28-37)
28-30 See Mark 15:36-37 and comment.
31 Jesus died on the day of Preparation, that is, Friday (see verse 14). According to Jewish law, an executed criminal’s body could not be left hanging on a tree or cross overnight. To do so was considered to be “defiling” the land (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). It was especially important to observe this law in Jesus’ case, because the next day was the Sabbath of Passover week. Therefore, the Jews asked permission123 to break the legs of Jesus and the two robbers who had been crucified with Him, so that they would all die quickly, thus making it possible to bury the bodies before sunset.124
32-33 However, the soldiers found that Jesus was already dead, so it was not necessary to break His legs.
34 One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear. Perhaps he wanted to make sure Jesus was really dead. Blood and water came out of the wound. It is possible that the soldier pierced Jesus’ stomach; this would explain why blood and water came out together.
35 The man who saw it is the Apostle John, the writer of this Gospel. He tells this story to show that Jesus had a real human body and that He really died. He also testifies to these things so that you also may believe (see John 20:31). And his testimony is true (see John 21:24).
36 The fact that Jesus had no bones broken was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. According to Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12, no bone was to be broken in the animal sacrificed at the Passover feast. John considered Jesus to be the true Passover sacrifice (see John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7 and comments); therefore, it was fitting that none of His bones were broken. Thus the soldiers, by not breaking Jesus’ legs, fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 34:20, in which it is written: … he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
37 The piercing of Jesus’ side also fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah: They will look on me, the one they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10).
The Burial of Jesus (19:38-42)
(Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56)
38-42 See Mark 15:42-47 and comment.