The King on the Cross

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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The King on the Cross

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2022 · 3 April 2022
The account of the cross is here given by John and all four gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give an account of the cross. We need to study all accounts to get the full picture. But John’s purpose is stated in John 20:31, “These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.” John writes so that by believing we might have eternal life.

Let us read John 19:16 – 30, “Then Pilate delivered Jesus to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. 17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, 18 where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. 19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross.

And the writing was: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ 20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 21 Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. 24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided My garments among them.

And for My clothing they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.” 25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!”

And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”

The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ was the most blessed act of divine love and justice ever. And while the Jews were complicit in rejecting Christ and desiring Him to be killed, and the Romans actually did the killing, but it was God who was fulfilling His plan. God secures the eternal salvation of millions of souls and opens heaven for them, while not compromising His justice.

God has to punish sin and so He punishes it in Christ; this protects His holiness. But He also wants to forgive sinners, because that’s His love. Love and holiness then meet at the cross. Our Lord Jesus is not a mere victim of unjust and wicked men. He died willingly in submission to the will of the Father who had sent Him to be the sacrifice to atone for the sins of all His people.

On the surface you might think that there’s no glory in the death of Christ, where the Son of God is nailed to a cross, hanging naked, since His clothing were gambled for at the foot of the cross. But John wants us to see the glory of Christ, in four ways: with reference to Scripture, with reference to the sign, with reference to the sympathy of our Lord and with reference to His supremacy over dying.

The first thing that we see in the crucifixion of Christ in John’s account is that everything that is happening fulfills Scripture. This is massive evidence, because the ones who are doing all of this to Jesus are pagans with no connection to Scripture. There’s no effort on their part to fulfill anything. They’re just doing what they normally do. They’re doing what they always do at a crucifixion.

Verse 17, “And Jesus, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” Typical crucifixion victims were terrified, but Jesus went willingly. “Went out” indicates out of the city which is required in Leviticus 16 as well as in Hebrews 13:11. Golgotha is a hill shaped like a skull. Verse 18, “where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side.”

We can find this picture of Christ in Numbers 21, where the Israelites were saved as they looked up to the serpent as explained in John 3:14. Jesus himself said this in John 8:28 and again in John 12:32. Crucifixion itself is described in Psalm 22. Psalm 22:18 is quoted directly in verse 24. “They crucified Him between two other men,” is described in Isaiah 53:9, “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

Look at verse 23 - 24, the soldiers divided the outer garments into four, but there was the ‘tunic’ that was seamless. Only the high priest had a seamless garment. They decided not to tear it but to cast lots. That fulfilled Psalm 22:18 exactly. Everything the soldiers did was fulfilling prophecy, fulfilling Scripture down to the smallest detail. And herein lies the glory of Christ.

Verse 19, “Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ Verse 20 says the title was written in three languages, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. Those were the languages that Pilate chose so that everybody could read it. But in his sarcasm, he declares the absolute truth, because this is Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” He is the Messiah; the Anointed One.

Verses 21 - 22, “Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” He had been blackmailed by the Jews to execute Jesus, and this was his way of showing vengeance. But here is the irony that first appears in this amazing section.

It is an irony that wicked, godless and ignorant men doing the worst they can do, are fulfilling Scripture. It is an irony that the Roman governor Pilate, wanting to heap vengeance and scorn on the Jews, ends up putting a statement above the head of Jesus that is absolutely true. The Jewish people, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin, Pilate and the Roman soldiers were all ignorant.

He is the King not only of Israel, but He will be the King of the entire world, and Philippians 2:10 says, “Every knee will bow, every knee.” And God used the sign to save a thief dying beside Jesus. Let us continue the story at verse 25, “But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Verse 26 - 27, When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ 27 Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” Here is an act of sympathy toward Mary, His mother. There are at the foot of the cross only four followers of Jesus.

The apostles had fled, with the exception of one man, and that is John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and three women. It was a courageous thing to do, because they were identifying with a criminal who was being executed. It took courage to show up, it took overwhelming love. The mother of Jesus is simply identified by John as His mother without mentioning her name.

This is consistent of the low profile that Mary has in the New Testament. Obviously, she was chosen by God to be the earthly mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but she finds no special place in redemption beyond that. She was loved by Him with a love that was not like any other love any other human being has ever known, and consequently Mary loved Him in a way she couldn’t love anybody else.

And here it ends at the cross, like a sword that goes through her soul. Joseph has disappeared long before this; no doubt he is dead. Mary has been cared for by Jesus, and brothers and sisters; but at this point, none of them believe in Him. So now His mother needs someone to care for her, someone who believes in Him strongly, and that someone happens to be the disciple whom Jesus loved; that’s John.

John had experienced the love of Christ and it had transformed him, he became known as the apostle of love, and if there’s anything that identifies his gospel is that he understands the love of God, and the love of Christ. It is because he has been loved by the Lord that he loves in return. So Jesus looks down and sees His mother’s sister, Salome, the wife of Zebedee, who is the father of James and John.

And then there’s Mary, the wife of Clopas. She is the mother of an apostle James the son of Alphaeus, and Mary Magdalen, the woman Luke 8 says who was delivered from eight demons by the Lord. Three of these women are named Mary, which means bitterness. This was a popular name, because it was the name of Miriam, the sister of Moses. Many Jewish mothers chose that.

Mary is not a supernatural being; she is a widow who has lost her greatest love, her firstborn Son; and the rest of her children don’t believe in Him. And so Jesus looks down at her and says, “Woman, behold, your son!” and He’s directing her to the apostle John, because He looks to John in verse 27, and says, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Jesus says, “Woman.” And you might think that’s a little cold. Why doesn’t He call her mother? Well, that went away three years before this when He began His ministry. The first miracle He did was in John 2 at the wedding at Cana. They ran out of wine, and Mary comes to Jesus and says, “They’re out of wine,” and Jesus says, “Woman.” ‘Woman’ is a term of dignity and respect.

That brings us to the supremacy of Christ in verse 28 - 30, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”

Here He controls His dying. First you see His omniscience. It says, “Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished.” Back in the prayer of John 17:4, He said, “I have accomplished the work you gave Me to do.” That was anticipating this moment some hours later the next day. But there was one prophecy yet to be fulfilled, and so He says, “I am thirsty.” He had in mind Psalm 69:21.

Psalm 69:21 says, “They gave me gall, but for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” That prophecy had to be fulfilled, so verse 29 says, “A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.” They had tried to give Him gall, but He didn’t take it, because gall was a sedative to try to diminish the pain.

You need to know He died way ahead of schedule for crucified people. If ever there was a man who was all that manhood could be, He was that man. No sin, no corruption, and it’s important for you to know that when He died, He died because He willed Himself to die, and He gave up His spirit. It says in Matthew 27:50 and Mark 15:37 that when He said, “It is finished,” He was shouting.

In John 10:17-18 Jesus said, “No man takes My life from Me; I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down; I have power to take it up again.” And He’ll do that Sunday morning: “It is finished!” What did He finish? He finished redemption by substitution. He finished bearing the wrath of God for the sins of His people. All this is powerful testimony to the deity of Christ.

Again, another amazing irony at Calvary, Matthew and Mark tell us that this thief, like the other, started out “hurling abuse at Jesus.” This is the transformation of a man by what he sees in the dying of Jesus; he is transformed at the cross. He came to fear God. “Do you not even fear God?” he says to his fellow criminal. This sinner went from blaspheming Jesus to rebuking the other thief.

He not only fears God, but he understands his own sinfulness. He says to the other thief, “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.” He knows he needs mercy, grace, and forgiveness to escape judgment, and he heard what Jesus said in verse 34, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” so he knew there was forgiveness, even for the worst criminal.

And then he knew that Jesus was sinless. He said, “This man has done nothing.” And he says, “Remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” He knew no one survives crucifixion. So he knew that not only would Jesus rise, but Jesus could raise him also. His theology was formed while he was watching Jesus in His death. When Jesus comes back to life, he wants to come to life as well.

Jesus said, “Truly today you’ll be with Me in paradise.” He saw the power of the cross, and he wasn’t alone. In Luke 23:47, “Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God.” So these Romans decided by looking at Jesus dying that He was God. They saw pitch blackness at noon, a massive earthquake, dying the way He died, they were convinced of His glory. Are you convinced too? Let us pray.



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