In John chapter 19 Pilate has Jesus flogged, and then the soldiers put a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe around him. They hit him while calling him the King of the Jews. Once again Pilate appealed to the crowd saying that he had found no grounds to convict Jesus. Pilate brought Jesus out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe while the Jews cried out to crucify him. Pilate told them to crucify him themselves; he had found no reason to. The Jews cried out that he had broken their law by making himself the Son of God and he must die. That statement made Pilate afraid, so he went and asked Jesus where he was from, but Jesus did not answer him. Pilate told Jesus that he had the authority to have him released or to have him crucified. Jesus told Pilate that he would have no authority at all if God had not given it to him. Jesus then declared that the Jews that gave him over to Pilate were the ones with the greater sin. Pilate tried every way to release Jesus but the Jews continued to call out that Jesus had made himself a king and opposed Caesar. Pilate brought Jesus outside about six in the morning and told the Jews, “Here is your King”. The crowd shouted to crucify him. Pilate asked if he should crucify their King. The chief priests said they had no other king but Caesar. So Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus away carrying his own cross to the place of the skull, in Hebrew called Golgotha. They hung Jesus in between two others with a sign that Pilate had made above him that read, “Jesus the Nazarene, The King of the Jews”. The sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. Many people were reading it so the Chief Priests complained to Pilate and asked him not to put a sign saying that Jesus was the King of the Jews just because Jesus said that he was. Pilate told them that what he had written was what he had written. The soldiers divided Jesus clothing into four parts, but his tunic was very nice and woven in one piece so they decided to cast lots for it instead of cutting into four parts. This fulfilled the scriptures that predicted that his clothes would be divided and they would cast lots for them. Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the Apostle John, Jesus said to his mother that John was her son and to John that Mary was his mother. From that point forward John took Mary into his home and cared for her. Jesus knew that everything was being accomplished and just as according to the scriptures he said that he was thirsty. They took some sour wine and put it on a sponge and held it up to his mouth. Then Jesus said, “It is finished”, and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day before the Sabbath and the Jews did not want the bodies hanging on the crosses during the Sabbath. They requested to Pilate to have their legs broken so they would die quickly and could be removed from their crosses. The soldiers broke the legs of the two that were with Jesus, but they did not break Jesus legs because he was already dead. However, one of the soldiers took his spear and pierced Jesus side and blood and water came out. These things also fulfilled the scriptures saying that his bones would not be broken and he would be the one that was pierced. Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate to request the body of Jesus. Pilate granted him permission, so Joseph removed his body. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, who brought 75 pounds of spices for Jesus body. They took Jesus body, wrapped him in linen with the spices, and then placed him in a new tomb, one never before used that was in a garden near Golgotha.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 09:00:00 +0000
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