Gospel of John

If Jesus Walked the Earth Today We’d Kill Him Too

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John 19:31-37 – “Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Despite his young age and good health, Jesus was so physically devastated from his sleepless night, miles of walking, severe beating and scourging that he was unable to carry his cross alone. A man named Simon of Cyrene was appointed to carry Jesus’ cross. Upon arriving at his place of crucifixion, they pulled Jesus’ beard out—an act of ultimate disrespect in ancient cultures—spat on him and mocked him in front of his family and friends.

Jesus the carpenter, who had driven many nails into wood with his own hands, then had 5-7 inch, rough, metal spikes driven into the most sensitive nerve centers on the human body, through his hands and feet. Jesus was nailed to his wooden cross. His body twitched involuntarily as he screamed in sheer agony.

Jesus was then lifted up, and his cross dropped into a prepared hole, causing his body to shake violently on the spikes. In further mockery, a sign was posted above Jesus that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). A painting later discovered from a second century Roman graffito further shows the disrespect of Jesus at his crucifixion. The painting depicts the head of a jackass on Jesus’ body being crucified, with a man standing alongside of it with his arms raised. The caption reads, “Alexamenos worships his god.”

At this point during a crucifixion, the victims labored to breath as their body went into shock. Naked and embarrassed, the victims would often use their remaining strength to seek revenge on the crowd of mockers who had gathered to jeer them. They would curse at their tormentors while urinating and spitting on them. Some victims would become so overwhelmed with pain that they would become incontinent, and a pool of sweat, blood, urine, and feces would gather at the base of their cross.

Jesus’ crucifixion was a hideously grotesque scene. Hundreds of years in advance, the prophet Isaiah saw it this way: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isa. 53:3–4).

Crucifixion was painfully slow death by asphyxiation. As the victim hung on the cross, they would struggle to fill their lungs with air and pass in and out of consciousness. To gather air, they would push themselves up on the spikes through their feet. To hasten death for such things as a holy day, soldiers would break the victims’ legs hastening their suffocation. Jesus legs were not broken in fulfilment of prophecy. Exodus 12:46 said, “Do not break any of the [Passover lamb’s] bones.” Psalm 34:20 said, “…he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” The final Scripture quoted is from Zechariah 12:10, “they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.”

The spear through Jesus’ side ensured He was dead. This fact makes it laughable when proponents of the “swoon theory”, including some Muslim scholars, purport that Jesus did not die but merely passed out on the cross.

At the cross, we see the full revelation of the evil of this world and love of God. If Jesus walked the earth today, we’d kill Him again and, to add to the pain, we’d livestream it and then gloat about it on social media while advertisers profited from His pain.

What most shocks you about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?

Get Wrecked by the Cross Today

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John 19:28-30 – “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

As a new Christian in college, I had a strong desire to learn the Bible. Out of pure personal enjoyment, I spent far more time diligently reading the Bible than any of the textbooks for my classes. I can still remember reading about the crucifixion of Jesus as a freshman and thinking that the giving of Him a drink on the cross was a kind thing to do. I thought the same thing until one fateful day many years later.

Our family led a tour of the places mentioned throughout the New Testament in modern day Israel, Turkey, and Greece. We hired a professor of history to help us learn and were overwhelmed by the archaeological dig in the ancient city of Ephesus. It is likely the most intact excavation of any ancient city and breathtaking to explore.

In the middle of the ancient city was a large public restroom. The seats were marble and under the seats were open areas that seemed odd. Curious, I asked the professor what the open areas were for. He explained that slaves would use that hole to reach under the person who had gone to the bathroom to scrub them using a long stick with a sponge on the end that had been dipped in sour wine as an antiseptic to kill the bacteria.

In that moment, I remembered the words of John 19:28-30. I asked the professor if that was this what was shoved into Jesus’ mouth to shut Him up and stop talking about forgiveness. He had not seemed to make the connection before but said it was likely. In his studies, the ancient soldiers in that day had as part of their field kit a sponge that they used to scrub with after going to the bathroom and they too would have dipped it in wine vinegar to kill germs. So, it seems when Jesus spoke in Psalm 69:21, “I thirst”, a soldier thought it would be fun to stick his sponge in Jesus’ mouth to add insult to injury. With this taste on His mouth, Jesus then declared “It is finished” as He laid down His life for our sin. Importantly, Jesus died as a victor and not a victim as He’d promised earlier in John 10:18. “No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”

If you believe Jesus died for your sin, take a few moments right now and thank Him from the heart.

Jesus’ Two Families

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John 19:25-27 – “standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

I will never forget the look on my wife’s face each time she held one of our newly born five children. The look of love, devotion, concern, and affection radiated from her. Holding each of our babies, she counted 10 fingers and 10 toes. Jesus’ mother Mary likely did the same thing, not foreseeing that one day those same hands and feet would be nailed to a Roman cross.

Hanging, perhaps at eye level, Jesus and Mary were in anguish. Since her husband Joseph is not mentioned after the earliest years of Jesus life, many think she was a widowed single mother. Although Jesus has half-sisters and brothers, none are mentioned to be present at His death. Standing with Mary is her sister who is Jesus’ aunt. These are the only members mentioned from Jesus’ biological family.           

Standing with them watching in horror, are Jesus’ spiritual family members. Mary Magdalene was a woman devoted to Jesus’ ministry. Also present was John, Jesus’ best friend and the “one whom Jesus loved”. John was the epitome of Proverbs 18:24, “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” The fact that Jesus assigned John to pastor His mom tells us everything we need to know about the care and character of John.           

Judas stopped following Jesus. Peter followed Jesus at a distance. But, John followed Jesus closely until the end. Writing John’s Gospel as an older man many years later, he was the last living disciple and remained faithful to His Friend and Lord until the end. John serves as an example and encouragement that you can follow Jesus faithfully as a friend.

What do you think the hardest part was for Mary to watch Jesus die on the cross?           

Jesus Died to Fulfill Scripture

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I will never forget one of my first Bible studies as a new Christian in college. Our pastor had a humble spirit and a brilliant mind with a PhD in Hebrew. Sitting in a circle with maybe a dozen other young men, the few months he spent carefully taking us through the Old Testament showing us prophecy after prophecy about Jesus Christ shocked my mind, changed my soul, and altered my life.

Perhaps the greatest argument for the divine inspiration and perfection of the Bible is the fulfilment of prophecy. Roughly 25 percent of the Bible was prophetic when written, predicting the future and preparing God’s people for it.

On this point, one scholar has said of the Bible, “The ancient world had many different devices for determining the future, known as divination, but not the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature, even though they use the words prophet and prophecy, can we find any real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future, nor any prophecy of a Savior to arise in the human race . . . [Islam] cannot point to any prophecies of the coming of Mohammed uttered hundreds of years before his birth. Neither can the founder of any cult . . . rightly identify any ancient text specifically foretelling their appearance.” [1]

Regarding the importance of prophetic biblical prophecy about Jesus, Bible scholar J. Dwight Pentecost says, “some people have given such intensive study to the subject of prophecy that they have completely missed seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in their study of the Word. The Scripture was given to us to reveal Him. He is its Theme. He is the Center about which all the Scripture revolves…The first great result of the study of prophecy is that the prophetic Scriptures prove to us the authority of the entire Word of God. The Bible is different from every other religious book. There is no other book upon which a religion has been founded which includes prophecy within it…There is no greater test or proof of the inspiration, validity, authority, and trustworthiness of the Bible than the proof of fulfilled prophecy.” [2]

In our lengthy study of John’s gospel, we discover one example of fulfilled prophecy in John 19:23-24. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things.

This was a fulfilment of prophecies given roughly 1,000 years prior in Psalm 22:1, 16-18 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?… For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Do you believe that Jesus is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy? Why or why not?

[1]Wilbur M. Smith, The Incomparable Book (Minneapolis, Minn.: Beacon, 1961), 9–10.

[2]J. Dwight Pentecost, Prophecy for Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1971), 14–15.

What Exactly Is Crucifixion?

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John 19:16-18 – “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. Here they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.”

Although Jesus loved children, fed the hungry, befriended the marginalized, healed the sick, encouraged the downhearted, and rebuked the religiously self-righteous, the light of Scripture shines most clearly on the final week of his life and his work of atonement through the cross and empty tomb. In total, the four Gospels, which faithfully record his life, devote roughly one-third of their content to the climactic final week of Jesus’ life leading up to the cross. While only two Gospels mention Jesus’ birth, and each speaks sparsely of his resurrection, all four Gospels give great attention to the final week leading up to Jesus’ cross. In fact, John’s Gospel devotes roughly half of its content to that week.

Perhaps most peculiar is the fact that the symbol for Jesus, which has become the most famous symbol in all of history, is the cross. While the early church embraced several symbols, including the fish and the loaf, the cross has always symbolized the believer’s connection with the death of Jesus. The church father Tertullian (155–230) tells us of the early practice of believers making the sign of the cross over their bodies with their hand and adorning their necks and homes with crosses to celebrate the brutal death of Jesus.

The ancient Jewish historian Josephus called crucifixion “the most wretched of deaths.” [1] The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero asked that decent Roman citizens not even speak of the cross because it was too disgraceful a subject for the ears of decent people. [2] The Jews also considered crucifixion the most horrific mode of death, as Deuteronomy 21:22–23 says: “If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.”

Crucifixion was likely invented by the Persians around 500 B.C. and continued until it was outlawed by the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine around AD 300. Although crucifixion was created by the Persians, it was perfected by the Romans, who reserved it as the most painful mode of execution for the most despised people, such as slaves, poor people, and Roman citizens guilty of the worst high treason.

The pain of crucifixion is so horrendous that a word was invented to explain it—excruciating—which literally means “from the cross.” The pain of crucifixion is due in part to the fact that it is a prolonged and agonizing death by asphyxiation. Crucified people could hang on the cross for days, passing in and out of consciousness as their lungs struggled to breathe, while laboring under the weight of their body. It was not uncommon for those being crucified to slump on the cross in an effort to empty their lungs of air and thereby hasten their death.

None of this was done in dignified privacy but rather in open, public places. It would be like nailing a bloodied, naked man above the front entrance to your local mall. Crowds would gather around the victims to mock them as they sweated in the sun, bled, and became incontinent from the pain that could last many days. Once dead, the victim was not given a decent burial but rather left on the cross for vultures to pick apart from above while dogs chewed on the bones that fell to the ground, even occasionally taking a hand or foot home as a chew toy, according to ancient reports. Whatever remained of the victim would eventually be thrown in the garbage and taken to the dump unless his family buried it.

Not only was crucifixion excruciatingly painful and publicly shameful, it was also commonly practiced. Tens of thousands of people were crucified in the ancient world. For example, when Spartacus died in battle, 6,000 of his followers were crucified in one day. They were lined up along a road that stretched for 120 miles, not unlike the shoulder of a modern freeway.

On the day Jesus was crucified, two men were hung with him, one on each side. One man rejected Jesus and went to hell. One man received Jesus and went to heaven. These are the only options.

Have you rejected Jesus and are going to hell or have you received Jesus so you can go to heaven?

[1]Wilbur M. Smith, The Incomparable Book (Minneapolis, Minn.: Beacon, 1961), 9–10.

[2]J. Dwight Pentecost, Prophecy for Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1971), 14–15.

Who is Your King

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John 19:12-16– “From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar’. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.”

What are your favorite holiday memories? The holidays are a wonderful time. Adults take time off work, kids are excused from school, and people travel to be with friends and family to make memories.

One of the biggest holidays in the times of the New Testament was Passover. Crowds would pack into Jerusalem as families would sit down to eat a lamb meal together kind of like Thanksgiving where Americans gather around tables to eat turkey and thank God for His protection and provision.

Around noon, as the lambs were being slaughtered, Jesus Christ was also being prepared to die as “Christ, our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus’ opponents had formed into a frenzied mob as they wanted Him dead before the holiday started and so things had escalated to a fevered pitch as they pressed the government to execute Him for declaring Himself as God.

In utter apostasy, the religious leaders denied that God was their king and declared their allegiance to the godless Caesar who was worshipped as false god. In that moment, with Jesus standing before them, religious leaders chose their king and rejected the King of Kings. Pilate too chose Caesar over Jesus. It just goes to show, everyone has to make their choice and choose their king.

Who is king in your life? Who do you live for, have ultimate allegiance to, and submit yourself to practically and daily?

What Are the Greater Sins?

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In one of the most dramatic scenes in all of the Bible, Pilate the political leader and Jesus Christ are face-to-face. Having been falsely accused and wrongly arrested, Jesus was in custody and treated like a criminal. As the men spoke, Jesus makes this curious comment in John 19:11, “Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

What in the world does Jesus mean by this?

On one hand, all sin is equally sin. When caught in sin, sinners are apt to excuse themselves by comparing themselves to someone else whose behavior is worse. The goal, of course, is to make ourselves look better. But, God does not see a spectrum of people from good to bad. Instead, God has two categories of people – perfect and imperfect, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is because obedience to God’s Law is not graded on a curve but rather a pass/fail scale where perfection is a passing grade and anything else is a failing grade: “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 2:10). One example is Jesus’ teaching that people cannot excuse lust because it is not as bad as adultery (Matthew 5:27-28).           

On the other hand, sins have degrees of severity as Jesus told Pilate. Some sins have greater consequences than others. This is why the Bible speaks of the sin that leads to death (1 John 5:16-18), more severe judgment (Luke 12:48-48), stricter judgment for teachers (James 3;1), greater punishment (Matthew 11:20-24), greater consequences for intentional sin than unintentional sin (Leviticus 4:1–35; 5:15–19; Num. 15:22–30; Ezek. 45:20; Luke 12:48), greater punishment for child abusers (Matthew 18:6), greater punishment for a man who does not feed his family than for an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8), and twice the judgment for self-righteous religious people than for “sinners” (Matthew 10:15; 23:15). This principle makes practical sense. For example, it would be a sin for one man to lust after another man’s wife but the damage would be far greater if he actually seduced her and committed adultery with her. All parents would prefer that their neighbor simply covet their child rather than actually kidnap her.

Returning to Jesus’ conversation, although Pilate is responsible before God for his participation in the murder of Jesus, others shared greater guilt. Why? Because the religious leaders who knew the Bible and did not accept the Lord had no excuse for their sin since the more you know, the more you are held accountable.

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being no Bible knowledge, and 10 being a mature Christian, how much do you know? How much more responsible does that make you for the decisions you make and life you live?

5 Dramatic Differences Under Pressure

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John 19:8-11 – “When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.’”

We all know what the pressure point feels like. In that moment, all of the complex variables of life have converged to one moment where it feels like there is a vice squeezing in all around us as we feel the pressure intensely.

In the dramatic scene where Jesus Christ is on trial before Pilate, accused of declaring Himself to be God, the two men are under incredible pressure. Pilate had problems at work and home. At work, he was pressed by local religious leadership who wanted Jesus executed. If that didn’t happen, they might bring a riot and drag his boss, the Caesar of Rome, into the conflict, which could likely cause Pilate to not only lose his job but also his head. Face to face with Jesus, Pilate knows that He is a good and not a guilty man, something Pilate states no less than seven times in the four gospels before killing Jesus. At home, Pilate had pressure from his wife who was warned by God in a prophetic dream that Jesus was a good man (Matthew 27:19). Pilate, who was likely a spiritual and superstitious man, feared his fate. Despite the opportunity to do right, Pilate ultimately violates James 4:17 and has Jesus sentenced to death, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Face-to-face under the same pressures, we see five dramatic differences between Pilate and Jesus.

Pilate got political and sought a political compromise which brought failure. Jesus got prayerful and spent an entire night seeking the will of God which brought faith.
Pilate tried to win and sought the outcome he wanted. Jesus tried to worship and surrendered to the outcome the Father wanted.
Pilate rejected what was right and experienced internal bondage with fear and burden. Jesus accepted what was right and experienced internal freedom and a burden lifted so that He was freer than Pilate, who held him in custody.
Pilate thought short-term about this life and a kingdom that came to an end. Jesus thought long-term about eternal life and a Kingdom that never ends.
Pilate killed Jesus so that he could live and later committed suicide, killing himself. Jesus was killed and later rose from death to live forever.
Which of these five failures of Pilate do you relate to most? Why?

Evil Happens When You Know the Bible but Don’t Know Jesus

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John 19:6-7 – “When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.’”

Jesus is the most significant person in the history of the world. The most significant statement Jesus ever made was that He alone is God.

By declaring His deity, Jesus set Himself at odds with the religious and political leadership in His day. The religious leaders considered Jesus a liar guilty of blasphemy and deserving death. The political leaders considered Jesus a threat because He set Himself over Caesar as the one and only real Lord. So, the religious and political leaders conspired together to kill Christ in an unholy alliance against a common enemy.           

The religious leaders typically stoned people to death for declaring themselves to be God. This was virtually never necessary since no one dared call themselves God. In fact, no other major world religion has its’ founder declaring themselves to be God other than Christianity. Jesus’ claim is without precedent or peer in history.

Cults that claim to be Christian all deny that Jesus alone is God. Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that Jesus claimed to be God. Mormons say Jesus was the polygamist half-brother of Lucifer and a man who became god just like we can become gods. Unitarians say Jesus was a good teacher of peace, love, and justice but not God. And, Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy said, “Jesus Christ is not God.”

World Religions also deny that Jesus is God. Bahá’ís say Jesus is a manifestation of God and a prophet but inferior to Muhammad Bahá’u’lláh. Buddhism says Jesus was not God but rather an enlightened man like the Buddha. Hinduism has many views of Jesus but does not see Him as the only God but either a prophet or one of pantheon of gods.  Islam says Jesus was a mere man, prophet, and inferior to Muhammad. And, the New Age says Jesus was just a guru and not God

To cause Jesus the greatest pain and shame, the religious leaders wanted Him crucified. But, they did not have the legal authority to crucify someone and so they needed the Roman government to play the role of executioner for them. After examining the facts no less than seven times in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) does Pilate the Roman leader declare Jesus to be a good and innocent man – one he will kill nonetheless to spare himself grief.    

In all of this, we see the evil that can happen when someone knows the Bible but does not know Jesus. They sought to kill Jesus for violating Leviticus 24:16 which says, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him.” First, Jesus is God, so He is not guilty of blasphemy. Second, the verse they quote commanded them to put a blasphemer to death by stoning, but they are demanding crucifixion, meaning they are not obeying the verse in Scripture they quote to condemn Jesus.

Is there any part of the Bible that you are consciously not obeying?

You Can Look Down or Come Down

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John 19:2-5 – “the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”

Ours is a world in which everyone is trying to go up. In business, everyone is trying to climb the corporate ladder to get a bigger office and bigger income through a better job. In politics, everyone is positioning themselves for greater prominence, power, and poll numbers. There is no bestselling book on how to have less, be less, and suffer more.

In Heaven, worshipped as a King by angels as He sat on a throne, Jesus had it all. He was literally at the top of every ladder. Then, Jesus did the unthinkable – He came down that ladder to the earth to be born to peasant parents and laid in an animal’s feeding trough as His first crib. For roughly 90 percent of His life, Jesus lived in obscurity, working in a small town as a carpenter with His dad. His ministry lasted a short three years and resulted in religious and political leaders forming an unholy alliance to murder Him. In mockery, Jesus was publicly beaten, then forced to wear a crown of thorns before being flogged so that His body was ravaged beyond recognition.

Why?           

Jesus is humble. Satan is proud, and Jesus is humble. Satan was the first being to try and go up and usurp God as the one sitting on the throne. When Satan was cast down to the earth, he brought pride with him. When Jesus came to earth, He brought humility with Him and established the Kingdom virtue which is the opposite of the way the world works. This explains why on the list of things God hates, pride comes first, Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him” and first on the list is “haughty eyes”. Haughty eyes are proud and look down on people who are beneath you. Jesus looked down upon the earth with humble eyes and came down to love and serve others by placing Himself beneath them.

What prideful area of your life needs the most urgent attention

Jesus is History’s Greatest Victim

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John 19:1 – “Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.”

As a young man of perhaps 33 years of age, Jesus was in good health due to his job as a carpenter and his constant walking of many miles as an itinerant minister. Jesus began speaking openly of his impending death, including at the Passover meal he ate with his friends as their Last Supper. There, he broke with 15 centuries of protocol. In so doing, he showed that the Passover meal, which God’s people had been eating annually, found its ultimate fulfillment in him. The Passover memorialized the night in Egypt when, in faith, God’s people covered the doorposts of their home with blood so that death would not come to the firstborn son in their home but would rather pass over them (Exodus 6–12). Jesus, the firstborn Son of God, likewise, had come to die and cover us with his blood so that God’s just wrath would literally pass over us sinners as the essence of the new covenant (Luke 22:19–21).

During the Last Supper, Satan entered one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas, who had been stealing money from Jesus’ ministry fund for some time and had agreed to hand him over to the authorities to be crucified. After Judas left the meal to lead the soldiers to Jesus, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he spent a sleepless night in an agony of prayer. At this point, Jesus was fully aware of his impending crucifixion and was so distressed that, as the Bible records, he sweated drops of blood, a physical condition that doctors say is rare because it requires an elevated level of stress that few people ever experience.

After Jesus’ exhausting, sleepless night of distress, Judas arrived with the soldiers and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Jesus was then arrested. He was made to walk a few miles to a series of false trials where contradicting false witnesses were brought forward to offer false testimony. Despite the absence of any evidence supporting the false charges, Jesus was sentenced to be murdered. He was eventually blindfolded as a mob of cowardly men beat him mercilessly. He was then stripped nearly naked in great shame, and the Bible just says that they had him scourged.

Scourging itself was such a painful event that many people died from it without even making it to their cross. Jesus’ hands would have been chained above his head to expose his back and legs to an executioner’s whip called a cat-o’-nine-tails. The whip was a series of long leather straps. At the end of some of the straps were heavy balls of metal intended to tenderize the body of a victim, like a chef tenderizes a steak by beating it. Some of the straps had hooks made of either metal or bone that would have sunk deeply into the shoulders, back, buttocks, and legs of the victim. Once the hooks had sunk deeply into the tenderized flesh, the executioner would rip the skin, muscle, tendons, and even bones off the victim as he shouted in agony, shook violently, and bled heavily. Ancient historians record that, on occasion, a rib would come flying off a man and that many died before they ever got to the cross. Hundreds of years prior, the prophet Isaiah predicted: “Many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isa. 52:14).

Jesus’ bare back and shoulders, though bloodied and traumatized, were then forced to carry his roughly hewn wooden crossbar of perhaps 100 pounds to his place of crucifixion. The cross was likely already covered in the blood of other men. Timber was so expensive that crosses were recycled; therefore, Jesus’ blood mixed with the layers of blood, sweat, and tears of countless other men who had walked that same path before him.

Curiously, we live in a day when it seems like everyone wants to be considered a victim. But, the greatest victim in the history of the world is Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life and suffered the most injustice and cruelty in all of human history.

Passover Is All About Jesus

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In our nearly year-long study of John’s Gospel, the final roughly one-third of the book focuses on the final week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross. The timing is prophetic as it is during the Jewish Passover. All of Passover was prophetic and preparing people for the coming of Jesus starting with the blood sacrifice of the lamb.  

Blood is an unpleasant subject to many because it brings to mind suffering and death. Curiously, the Bible is a book literally filled with blood. On 362 occasions, the Old Testament speaks of blood, most often referring to sacrifices and death by violence. The New Testament also speaks of blood 92 times, most commonly in reference to violent death. Much of the Bible’s teaching about blood is in relation to the hundreds of appearances of related issues such as the Temple, priesthood, fire, and smoke.

The shedding of blood and animal sacrifice likely began with God, after the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, as God covered their nakedness and shame with the skin of an animal (Genesis 3:21). Other sacrifices were offered by Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job (Genesis 4:1-5; 8:20; 22:3, 13; 26:25; 33:20; 35:7; Job 1:5). Perhaps the most insightful sacrifice was done by Abraham in place of Isaac, where it was promised that one day, through Jesus, God would provide the ultimate sacrifice (Genesis 22:14).

Blood was again shed in Exodus at the Passover (Exodus 12:1-30), which was commemorated each year with the Feast of Passover. Later, sacrifices were only conducted by priests at the temple (Deuteronomy 12:5-14) according to strict protocol (Leviticus 1-7). 

The process of animal sacrifice was an incredibly personal confession of sin. First, an unblemished animal was chosen, symbolizing perfection. Second, the worshipper would draw near the animal that was to be substituted in place of the worshipper. Third, the worshipper would lay hands on the animal to identify with it, confessing their sins in repentance over the animal. Fourth, the animal was then killed and its blood shed as the penalty for sin. 

Nonetheless, the Old Testament practice of sacrificial atonement was declared by God to be insufficient for the remission of sin (Psalm 40:6; 51:16; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8; Hebrews 10:4). This is because those sacrifices were only preparatory in anticipation of the death of Jesus (Jeremiah 31:34b; Hebrews 8:3-13). Additionally, the Old Covenant practice of sacrifice was often undertaken by people who did not truly love God in their hearts and instead had only an outward faith (Proverbs 7 especially verse 14; Proverbs 15:8; Psalm 51:17; Hosea 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:21-22).

Because the bloodshed of animals in the Old Covenant was insufficient, Jesus was sent to shed His blood as our God-man who atones for our sin and bring us into the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 7:22). Therefore, Jesus is our Great High Priest who is, in every way, superior to all the priests of the Old Covenant (Hebrews 2:17; 4:14-15). He laid down his life as the Lamb of God who takes away our sins (John 1:29). He is our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) who has saved us from sin and death by His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19) that was shed once to forgive all sin (Hebrews 9:26; 10:10).

Today, there is no longer a Temple, priesthood, or sacrificial system since the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. But, in the New Covenant, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and Christians are a priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:9). As Christians, we do not offer animal sacrifices but do celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus in communion (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). And we do offer our lives (Romans 12:1-2), good deeds (Hebrews 13:16), money (Philippians 4:18), and worshipful singing (Hebrews 13:15) as living sacrifices to Jesus.

What difference has Jesus’ sacrifice made in your life?