Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, 3 and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly. 4 Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, 9 and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered [him], “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” 15 They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” 20 Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled [that says]: “They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.” This is what the soldiers did. 25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, 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 into his home. 28 After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” 29 There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Scourging was normally a part of the punishment of prisoners condemned to crucifixion. The multi-thong whip with pieces of bone or metal on the ends of the thongs inflicted severe corporal punishment. The soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple robe, placed a crown of thorns on his head, and mocked and beat the “King of the Jews (vv. 2-3).” Pilate brought the beaten and bloodied Jesus out to the Jewish leaders and told them he found no guilt in Jesus. (vv. 4). This enraged the Jewish leaders and they all the more wanted Pilate to crucify Jesus, but Pilate refused because he did not find Jesus guilty of any capital offense and told them with sarcasm and contempt to crucify Jesus themselves, knowing that they did not have the authority to execute anyone. Only Rome could order the execution of those under Roman control. At this the Jewish leaders specified a charge; “He made himself the Son of God,” and according to that law he should die (v. 7; Jn. 5:17-18). The religious battle between the Jewish leaders and Jesus had been over the nature of the relationship Jesus claimed to have with God.
Pilate was losing favor with Rome, so the Jews were aggressive in trying to get him to accede to their wishes. Pilate tried to question Jesus again, but Jesus would not answer him. Pilate in his role of Prefect had the power of life and death (v. 10) but Jesus told him that it was God that was permitting the events to unfold (v. 11), events that would be for the redemption of the world by the blood of Christ. It was God’s divine plan at work even through Pilate (Jn. 10:17-18), and it was Caiaphas the High Priest who turned Jesus over to Pilate that bore the greater sin (v. 11). Pilate again tried to release Jesus, but the Jews shouted, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar (v. 12).” A friend of Caesar was someone who could influence Caesar, someone who was in Caesar’s inner circle. The Jews shifted from a religious claim to a political focus but both failed. Someone claiming to be a Jewish king in Judea would be a threat to Caesar and if Pilate released Jesus then Pilate would be a traitor to Rome. They now tried to intimidate Pilate. The Jewish leaders were so intent on killing Jesus that they totally renounced their God who led them out of slavery in Egypt, “We have no king but Caesar.” Pilate gave in to his fears and Jesus was led away to be crucified.
The Gospel of John does not give many details about the physical aspects of the crucifixion (v. 18). The soldiers led Jesus out to be crucified. Jesus carried his own cross to Golgotha unlike the accounts in the synoptic Gospels where Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross for Jesus (Mk. 15:20b-21; Mt. 27:31b-32; Lk. 23:26-32). `In John’s theology, Jesus was always in control (Jn. 10:17-18). Jesus was crucified between two robbers (Mt. 27:38). The chief priests confronted Pilate about the inscription he had put on the cross (v. 19), but Pilate dismissed them (vv. 21-22). Pilate has been insistent on proclaiming the truth that Jesus is the King of the Jews (18:33, 37,39; 19:14, 15,19) even if he was to mock the Jewish leadership. The inscription affirmed the universal truth about Jesus as Pilate had the inscription written in the major languages of the Roman Empire at that time.
The soldiers took the garments of Jesus and divided them into four parts (v. 23). They rolled dice to see who would get the seamless tunic (v. 24; Ps. 22:19). John, the beloved disciple, was at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary and two other women (v. 25). Jesus entrusted his mother to John’s care and his mother was to accept the beloved disciple as her son, another indication that Jesus was still in control. Jesus has established a new family. Jesus has come to the end of his life and by drinking the “common wine (v. 29)” he was drinking the cup his Father gave him to drink (Jn. 18:11). Then Jesus said, “It is finished (v. 30).”
Almighty God, they buried our King and sealed his tomb in an effort to silence truth. Help us, O Lord, to bury and seal our sins with the Blood of Christ so that truth may live forever in our hearts. This we pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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