JESUS BEFORE PILATE JOHN 19:1-8
19:1 Pilate Has Jesus Scourged
Christ’s Suffering for Us.
Jesus was scourged unjustly so that he might deliver us from the punishment we deserved. He was beaten and struck so that we might beat Satan, who had beaten us, and that we might escape from the sin that cleaves to us through the original transgression. For if we think correctly, we shall believe that all of Christ’s sufferings were for us and on our behalf and that they have power to release and deliver us from all those calamities we have deserved because of our rebellion against God.
19:4 Pilate Presents an Innocent Man
Pilate Admits to Scourging an Innocent Man.
He confesses the wrong he had done and is not ashamed. For he admitted that he had scourged him without cause and declares that he will show him to them supposing that would satisfy their savage passion by so pitiable a spectacle. In fact, he practically accuses them as well—and that publicly—of putting him to death unjustly and of compelling him openly to be a lawbreaker who, if he transgressed his own laws, could not escape without repercus- sions. The saying was fulfilled in Christ and shown to be true, that “the prince of this world comes and he will find nothing in me.”
19:5 Behold the Man
Sin and Satan Defeated by a Man.
Just as in Adam Satan subdued the whole human race demonstrating its subjec- tion to sin, so now Satan is vanquished by humanity. For the one who was truly God and without sin was still also human. And just as all of humanity was condemned under the sentence of sin through one man, the first Adam, in the same way, the blessing of justification by Christ is extended to all through one man, the second Adam.
19:6 Crucify Him!
Pilate Perceives an Unjust Sentence.
Here, we may imagine Pilate as saying, “If you have a law that subjects the sinless to so fearful a penalty, that chastises the guiltless, execute it with your own hands. I will not endure being a part of it.”
19:8 Pilate’s Reaction
Pilate May Have Believed Christ Was Divine.
The malicious design of the Jews had a result they little expected. They wanted to build up an indictment against Christ by saying that he had ventured to sin against the person of God himself. But the weighty character of the accusation itself increased Pilate’s caution, and he was more alarmed and more careful concerning Christ than before. He became more particular in his questions: what Jesus was and where he came from. I think he believed that, though Jesus was a man, he might also be the Son of God. This idea and belief of his was not derived from holy Scripture but the mistaken notions of the Greeks. Greek fables call many men demi-gods and sons of gods. The Romans, too, who in such matters were still more superstitious, gave the name of god to the more distinguished of their own monarchs, and set up altars to them, and allotted them shrines and put them on pedestals. Therefore Pilate was more earnest and anxious than before in his inquiry of who Christ was and where he came from.
TWO KINGDOMS COLLIDE JOHN 19:9-16
19:10 The Power to Crucify?
Pilate Tries Waving His Wand of Power.
Pilate thought this silence of Jesus was the silence of a madman. Therefore, he stretches over him, as it were, the wand of his official power and thought that he could, through fear, induce Jesus to return a fruitless answer against his will. For he says that nothing could hinder his inclining whichever way he chose, either to punish him or to take compassion on him. He [implies] that there was nothing that could make him give a verdict against his will since it was with him alone that the fate of the accused rested. He rebukes Jesus, therefore, as though he felt himself insulted by untimely silence.
19:11 Power from Above and Pilate’s Guilt
The Consent of Father and Son.
When Jesus says that power was given to Pilate from above, he does not mean that God the Father inflicted crucifixion on his own Son against his will. Rather, he means that the Only-Begotten himself gave himself to suffer for us and that the Father suffered the fulfillment of the mystery in him. It is, then, plainly the consent and approval of the Father that is here said to have been given, and the pleasure of the Son is also clearly signified. For no doubt the force of numbers could never have overcome the power of the Savior.
19:13-14 Pilate at Noon on the Day of Preparation
The First of Three Days.
The inspired Evangelist is induced to signify, for our benefit, the day and hour because of the resurrection itself and his three days’ sojourn among the departed, that the truth of our Lord’s saying to the Jews might appear: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so also shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’’
19:16 Jesus Handed Over to Be Crucified
Pilate Is Not Without Guilt.
We cannot acquit Pilate of his complicity in the iniquity of those who committed this impious crime against Christ. Pilate shared their responsibility inasmuch as when he might have delivered and rescued him from the madness of his murderers, he did not merely refrain from releasing him but even gave him up to them to be crucified.
THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS JOHN 19:17-22
He Became a Curse for Us.
They led away the author of life to die—to die for our sake. In a way beyond our understanding, the power of God brought from Christ’s passion an end far different from that intended by his enemies. His sufferings served as a snare for death and rendered it powerless. The Lord’s death proved to be our restoration to immortality and newness of life. Condemned to death though innocent, he went forward bearing on his shoulders the cross on which he was to suffer. He did this for our sake, taking on himself the punishment that the law justly imposed on sinners. He was cursed for our sake according to the saying of Scripture: “A curse is on everyone who is hanged on a tree.” . . . We who have all committed many sins were under that ancient curse for our refusal to obey the law of God. To set us free he who was without sin took that curse on himself. Since he is God who is above all, his sufferings sufficed for all, his death in the flesh was the redemption of all. And so, Christ carried the cross, a cross that was rightfully not his but ours, who were under the condemnation of the law. . . . Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ has warned us that anyone who does not take up his cross and follow him is not worthy of him. And I think taking up the cross means simply renouncing the world for God’s sake and, if this is required of us, putting the hope of future blessings before the life we now live in the body. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not ashamed to carry the cross we deserved, and he did so because he loved us.
19:18 Crucified with Two Others
The Two Thieves Are a Type of Israel and the Gentiles.
The two criminals who hung by Christ’s side symbolize the two nations who were about to be brought into close contact with him, namely, the children of Israel and the Gentiles. And why do we take condemned criminals as the type? Because the Jews were condemned by the Law, for they were guilty of transgressing it. And the Greeks were condemned by their idolatry, for they worshiped the creature more than the Creator. . . . Therefore, the crucifixion of the two robbers, side by side with Christ, signifies . . . the juxtaposition of the two nations, dying together, as it were, with the Savior Christ by bidding farewell to worldly pleasures, refusing any longer to live after the flesh and preferring to live with their Lord, as far as possible, by fashioning their lives according to him and consecrating them to his service. And the meaning of the figure is in no way affected by the fact that the men who hung by his side were criminals. For we were by nature children of wrath before we believed in Christ and were all doomed to death.
19:20 Written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek
The Title Is Fulfillment of Prophecy.
It was providential and the fruit of God’s inexpressible purpose that the title was written in three languages: one in Hebrew, another in Latin and another in Greek. For it lay in plain view, proclaiming the kingdom of our Savior Christ in the most widely known of all languages . . . fulfilling the prophecy that had been spoken concerning him. For the wise Daniel said that there was given him glory and a king- dom and that all nations and languages shall serve him. Similarly the holy Paul teaches us, crying out that “every knee shall bow; of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Therefore the title proclaiming Jesus “king” was, as it were, the true firstfruits of the confession of tongues.
JESUS CARES FOR HIS MOTHER JOHN 19:25-27
19:27 Behold Your Mother
Honoring One’s Parents.
Christ here wanted to confirm the com- mandment that is clearly emphasized in the Law: “Honor your father and mother that it may be well with you.”. . . Honoring one’s parents is surely a very precious virtue. And how else would we learn the importance of that love—even when we are overwhelmed by a flood of intolerable calamities—except by this primary example that Christ offers us? It is one thing to be mindful of the holy commandments in times of peace and quietness and quite another to fulfill your duty during the storms and troubles of life.
THE DAY OF PREPARATION AND JESUS’ BODY JOHN 19:31-37
19:31 The Day of Preparation and Removal of Bodies
A Gross Misinterpretation of the Law.
The Jews strained out the gnat while they swallowed the camel. They completely discounted the most outrageous and awful of all crimes against God, while they exercised the greatest diligence with reference to the most paltry and insignificant matters, showing their folly in either case.
Source
Oden, T.C. & Elowsky, J.C. (2007). John 11-21 (The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament part IVb). Illinois (U.S.A): InterVarsity Press. Pages 297-326.