A GOOD FRIDAY MEDITATION Three meditations from John Chapter 19 Jesus crucified Jesus dead Jesus buried. John Chapter 19:16-42

16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write `The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
 
"They divided my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing."
 
So this is what the soldiers did.
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.D 40Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. JESUS CRUCIFIED vv16-28 John wrote his gospel, we might recall that you may believe that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name. (20:31) Everything John wrote, every incident and every discourse he included were put there to that end. In that narrative of John's then, we have held up before us Jesus the Christ..the Son of God.

In that creed we know as the Apostles' Creed, we affirm our faith that Jesus was 'crucified, dead and buried' And John's narrative starting at the sixteenth verse of chapter 19 to its close falls into those three parts,  Jesus was crucified. Jesus died. Jesus was buried. And these are the divisions I'm using in these meditations.
  In those first verses from19 to 27 we read that Jesus was crucified. And I'd like to take three verses out and see what they have to say to us.

v16. Pilate handed (Jesus) over to be crucified
And here we see the weakness of a strong man! We read this passage and so often think of Pilate as weak and effete. But this we snot actually so. As a Roman governor he was required to administer Roman justice very fairly. The Pax Romana was founded upon this very fair system of justice. So much so that our legal system today is founded upon that of imperial Rome. Its language is the Latin language. And in Pilate we have one whom history records as a ruthless but very fair administrator of justice.
  Yet this strong willed and ruthless governor was at a loss to know what to make of Jesus. When they came rushing to him to get this Jesus executed how was very suspicious. And he tried to get Jesus of the hook and released. But when as John tells us in verse 15, Shall I crucify your king?, the chief priests reply in very dubious sarcasm we have no king but Caesar, So Pliate caves in and he hands Jesus over to crucifixion. His best instincts together with his wife's pleading all go by the board.
  Pilate was supremely a man of the world. A man of worldly power. Yet worldly power so quickly becomes some kind of Russian roulette. Pilate in this situation immediately bolts for safety.. For the world says "Look after Number One" And Pilate seeks to save his own skin by having Jesus put to death. His Roman principles of justice count for nothing when put under pressure.
  As Christians, we ask ourselves: how do I stand up under pressure/ Whose friend am I when the chips are down.

v21 The chief priests protested to Pilate
They protested because Pilate had put the inscription on Jesus' cross. 'The King of the Jews'. They didn't like that and wanted Pilate to change it to "This man claimed to be King of the Jews".
   We have no king bur Caesar. What a bitter irony! For there was no love lost between Pilate and Caesar. Yet here they are creeping round Pilate in mock-submission to Caesar. Why this sudden mock-submission? Well, partly at least, they wanted Jesus out of the way. But they wanted Jesus out of the way precisely because they recognised his claim,even if unspoken to Messiahship. King. The 'King of the Jews' was God's Anointed One. And the anointed king would be the Messiah. Just as Isaiah had prophesied
   Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign over
   David's throne, and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and
   righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish it
   (9:7)
These men had zeal alright! Plenty of religious zeal! But when they came face-to-face with the Messiah they had no time for the zeal of the Lord Almighty. For all their mock-religiosity; for their almsgiving in the Temple; their praying on street corners; their public show of fasting, they had no room left for God himself. So when they were confronted with the Son of God himself they must needs do away with him. His zeal for his Father challenged them too deeply.
  Oh yes!- they were 'good' people. They would put many of us to shame! Yet perhaps they show us here the futility of a religion of legal correctness and the futility of a religion of good deeds. A religion that is full of self. Such a religion has no room for the zeal of the Lord.
  As Christians we need to ask ourselves: is my zeal for my own religiosity, or is it a living part of the zeal of the Lord Almighty?

Lastly ,verse 21. This happened that Scripture might be fulfilled.
a phrase oft-repeated in this nineteenth chapter of John.

How do we view the Cross?
Humanly, it was an act of political weakness; of religious hypocrisy. Humanly it was a tragic accident and a cruel martyrdom. Yet, how do we view Jesus? Moral teacher? Spiritual leader? The best man who ever lived, and wasn't it a pity it ended thus? Yet all this misses the point and misses it by light-years! Paul wrote of the mystery of (God's) will according to the good pleasure he purposed in Christ (Eph 3:4); and of God who was reconciling the world to himself in Christ (2 Cor 5:19)
  Jesus, as he approached his passion said:
  Now is my heart troubled and what shall I say? "Father save me from this hour"? (John 12:27)
Was he thinking that weak politicians and religious hypocrites were going to turn against him and wreck his plans and bring his life to nought? No! For he continues:
  No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name (v28)
  The cross was the glorious centre of God's purpose in sending his Son into the world; a world full of sin and under the power of the Devil; a world turned against him. A world  that he loved. A world for which he gave his Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)
 
The Cross was the glory! The Son of Man was lifted up; the Father was glorified. As Christians we need ask ourselves: Is the Cross of Christ the one thing I glory in above all else? Can I say with Paul
  May I never boast save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Gal 6:14) JESUS DIED vv29-37 "Jesus was crucified, dead and buried"

We've seen the Cross as the supreme act of glory; the act by which God reconciled the world to himself. And Jesus died. He did not die because he was crucified: he gave up his spirit (v30) as he hung upon the Cross. The soldiers, indeed, when they went to break his legs to end his life, found it was over. I want us again to notice three verses in John's account of the events immediately surrounding Jesus' death.

Verse 29. They soaked a sponge in (wine vinegar) and put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant.
  We find several other references to hyssop, and I'd like us to note what they tell us.
  In Psalm 51, David's great penitential psalm where he confesses his sin and his sinfulness and speaks for all of humanity, says:
  cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean (v7)
But why hyssop?
  In Numbers chapter 19 we read of the red heifer. The red heifer was not a sacrificial animal in the normal sense of the Old Testament. It was a cow to be slaughtered; not, though, on the altar, but 'outside the camp'. Its ashes were then used in waters of cleansing. In verse 6 we read:
  The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw these on the
  burning heifer;
and we recall God's word through Isaiah:
  though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow. (1:18)
The use of hyssop at the cruccifixion thus becomes highly symbolic. Its all drawn together for us by the writer of Hebrews
   When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the      blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, "This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.". In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (9:19ff; italics added)
The shedding of blood and the use of hyssop come together to proclaim forgiveness of and cleansing from sin. The use of hyssop at the Cross points to its central role in that greater and far more glorious forgiveness and cleansing under the New Covenant (to read more click here)

Verse 31 It was the day of preparation
Preparation for the Passover Sabbath that is. That being so, Jesus died at the very hour that the sacrificial lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover. The lambs whose blood would be smeared on the door posts and lintels with hyssop. Recalling of course the first Passover in the Exodus from Egypt,
  The Israelites then were in bondage in Egypt; slaves in cruel tyranny. They were set free only when God intervened; when God's angel brought death to all the first-born, but they found protection through the smearing of blood of unblemished lambs on their door posts.
  Jesus is the Lamb of God, and so proclaimed at the start of his ministry by John the Baptist. And on this dark Friday, this day of preparation he is slain at the hour of the Passover Lambs. And we know from this that through the sacrifice of his blood we may be set free; set free from a far greater tyranny than Egypt. Free from the tyranny of sin. Jesus takes away our sin. He bears it himself. He is the Lamb of God.
  You are worthy because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for
  God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)
But just as the blood of the Passover was of no use unless it was smeared on door post and lintel, so we have to receive to ourselves the blood of our Lord and Saviour. At every Communion we do it symbolically and to remind ourselves; we do it in faith as we claim and desire its cleansing on our sinful hearts.

Lastly, verse 30
It is finished.
Firstly, Jesus had, as we noted a while ago, completed all that was spoken about him in Scripture. Not, of course, in a mechanical sort of way. But the many prophecies of Scripture were all fulfilled. His birth at Bethlehem was as foretold. His life had fulfilled Scripture. Thus, when John the Baptist sent from prison asking Are you the one who was to come? (meaning the Messiah), Jesus sent back the reply:
  Go back and report to John what you see and hear. The blind receive their sight, the lame
  walk, those with leprosy are cured, the dead are raised up, and good news is preached to the
  poor (Luke 7:19,22)
  And in his High Priestly prayer on the eve of his passion, he says Father, I have brought glory to you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do (John 17:4). Jesus' work was to glorify his Father, and he had done it completely; he had now completed all that was in Scripture; all that is in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and in other places.
  It is complete. The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross was the last word, the last deed in our salvation. God does not seek, nor does he desire any addition. In Cranmer's words in the Book of  Common Prayer:
  Jesus Christ...who made there (on the Cross) a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and
  satisfaction for the sins of the whole world
What Jesus did on the Cross is sufficient, absolutely and completely for our salvation from sin. That for which he came into the world, he did completely, there was no half-measure. It covers the sins of the whole world, and it does so for each one of us. We all live in this world, in this realm of sin. And whatever our resolve, we all know the downward pull of sin. We must accept our own responsibility. But let's remember, we live in a world which is in sin's realm. I speak not of the created order but of that system of life organised without any reference to God. For the world lies in the power of the Evil One (1 John 5:18), and the Evil One wishes to drag every dweller on earth away from God and every Christian away from his inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ.
  In face of this, we need to know the total completion of what he has done; that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that as we live in him, so he separates us away from that downward pull. Can w e still find our pride and satisfaction in those values the world sets so high; those pursuits and pleasures which pre-occupy the world?
  May I never boats save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the
  world has been crucified to me  (Gal 6:14) JESUS BURIED vv 38-42 Crucified Dead Buried

All the gospels record the burial of Jesus. Having completed his obedience to his Father's will, his body is laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. One who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews (v38) He now picks up courage and asks Pilate for the body Let's just note the contrast with Pilate's weakness at the tide of events; also the contrast between Josephs's quiet sincerity and the flagrant religious hypocrisy of the Jewish chief priests. Never scorn the quiet, timid person whose true faith may only be known to God. There will be many surprises in heaven!
  I feel sure Joseph of Arimathea will be there. So, too, I suspect, will be Nicodemus. John tells us that Nicodemus accompanied Joseph and clearly identifies him as the man who earlier visited Jesus at night. (v39)

That takes us back to John chapter 3. At the beginning of that chapter, this man Nicodemus comes to Jesus one night. We're told he was a member of the Jewish ruling council (v1) And he comes that night and addresses Jesus as 'Rabbi', 'teacher'. he says "we know you are a teacher come from God.."(v2) And Jesus of course pulls him up short and says, in effect: You've got to start all over again. It's no use seeing me as a special teacher or even a miracle worker from God; specially because I turned water to wine at the wedding. No! The water of your life has got to be turned into wine. Poor old Nicodemus was on the wrong track: he might witness the signs, but he could never perceive the Kingdom of God, of which they were but signs, without that complete new start which is the equal of a new birth; a new life with new faculties.
  How can this be, asks Nicodemus (v9). And Jesus goes on to tell him about Moses putting a bronze serpent on a pole. The Children of Israel had, in their desert wanderings, got into a spirit of complaining and to discipline them God sent a plague of venomous serpents and they were dying. But those who looked on Moses' serpent lived. Even so, says Jesus, the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life (vv14-15)

We may only find Nicodemus in John's gospel: here, in chapter 3 and in chapter 7. Was he, I wonder, one of John's 'sources'? Was he in Jesus' hearing when he said
  I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself (12:32)
all men, of all nationalities for these words were spoken after some Greeks had sought an interview with Jesus. But would these philosophers only understand after Jesus had been 'lifted up'? Did Nicodemus stand and watch the crucifixion? Did he now recall the night when Jesus told him of the bronze serpent of Moses?; of the Son of Man lifted up; of eternal life? Did he now realise that eternal life is not the universal human possession, and needed a new birth, just as common life needs a birth?- and that this new birth comes through the Son of Man lifted up on a Cross? Did he now go out and seek Joseph?
  Nicodemus, we are told, came to the burial with the anointing mixture: myrrh and aloes, about seventy pounds (v39) That much of these precious spices would normally only be used for a king. Had Nicodemus read the placard on the Cross- 'The King of the Jews'? Did he now realise its significance and believe? Did he come to honour the King of the Jews as his Messiah?

Jesus was buried. His human life was over. His body lay on the slab of a tomb. And burial is always the acknowledgement that a human life has ended. Jesus' life within this world, within this realm of sin; within the realm of the Evil One was over. And now the Prince of this world is cast out (John 12:31). The Cross marked a division and a separation. The world could no longer touch or tempt Jesus. He had destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility (Eph 2:14). He had cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us...having disarmed the powers and authorities (Col 2:14,15) These powers and authorities, both worldly and spiritual were under the control of his arch-enemy: Satan. It was all complete. He had "opened the gate of heaven to all believers" as the Te Deum so magnificently puts it. The Son of Man had been lifted up: all who believe may now receive eternal life. And the grip, the domination, the slavery to sin of the old life, its absolute identity with this world, this realm of sin was sundered! Gone, like the dead Jesus, never- in the eyes of the world, to return.

  May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world
  has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14)

We have looked at the Cross. If we look at the Cross in a more than cursory way, we find ourselves faced with questions. For the Cross is not just an event of history.
  John wrote that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing...have life in his Name. (20:31)
What of us? for we can't speak in generalities. The Cross is personal. Is all that we've seen true for you? Do you know Jesus as Son of Man, Son of God? Do you look to him as the Children of Israel looked to the brazen serpent and see in Jesus the giver of eternal life? Do you know the Cross as the purpose of his sojourn with men? Do you see it as glory, as your  boast? Are you indeed cut off from the world and its passing fancies; cut off from the power of the Evil One? Do believe and have life in the power of Jesus' name; do you know the separating effects of the Cross? And the point I wish to press: Is it glory to you?

Jesus crucified, dead and buried
-the glory of the Father
-the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
-the Son of Man lifted up.

  May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world
  has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14) Back to Index page