Did you know there are seven scenes of the Cross in John’s Gospel?
John 19:16-42
Introduction
That’s the message of our God through this tragic event:
“God responds to the most basic human problem, death, not by avoiding it, or transcending it, or drugging it – but by transforming it! God himself (in Christ) suffers. Death is the answer to death. Our suffering is crossed out by his.” Thomas Schmidt in A Scandalous Beauty.
There are Seven Scenes of the Cross
Which has rich and symbolic meaning to tell you something.
Scene One (19:16b-18)
So they took Jesus and led Him away (like a sacrificial lamb)
See Jesus being led for the slaughter; He will die at the same hour as the
sacrificial lambs are killed;
Jesus is the high priest who offers Himself as your paschal lamb
We see Him carrying His own cross beam, upon which He will be hung
Doesn’t this take you back to Abraham who took the wood and laid
it on Isaac his son, who was to be the sacrificial offering?
Carries it out of the city to be killed at the place called in Hebrew, Golgotha
in Latin, Calvaria; the hill shaped like a head.
The hill where He would be raised up for all to see,
where they crucify Him among two others, just as Isa 53:12 told us:
that the suffering servant would be counted among the transgressors
The scene shifts:
Scene Two (19:19-22)
Pilate wrote the title for this criminal Jesus and had the executioners hang it
above Him Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews written in three languages
-a universal proclamation of His enthronement!
How His mother Mary would have recalled the angel’s declaration to her at the
Beginning of Jesus’ life: You shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and
will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the
throne of His father David and He will reign over Israel forever, and of
His kingdom there will be no end!
Here is Jesus’ crowning achievement. Here is His coronation ceremony! He is
being ceremoniously lifted up
Here the Suffering Servant becomes Savior (which is Messiah-King)
Just as Isaiah had promised! Just as Moses had written in Deut. 17 –
“you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses
one from among your brothers you shall set as king over you, you may
NOT set a foreigner over you who is NOT your brother!”
They had declared Caesar as king over them, but God set one from among
them to be king and now declares this coronation of Jesus in the language
of religion, the language of government, and the language of trade!
Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified
was near the city… therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do
not write, ‘The king of the Jews, instead write ‘He said I am the king of the
Jews.’
Pilate, whose heart is in the hands of God, unwittingly and out of spite declares
the truth that Jesus IS the King of the Jews! Here we have a profound declaration by a representative of the most powerful government of all time!
What a twist – that the Gentiles acknowledge what the Jews deny!
Yes, at the very hour of the killing of the sacrificial lambs, the true Shepherd and
King is laying down His life for you, His sheep!
Now that He has been lifted up from the earth, Jesus is beginning to draw
all men unto Himself!
The scene shifts again, your eyes are upon the executioners
Scene Three (19:23-24)
The Psalmist was right! He said in Psalm 22 that the dogs have surrounded
Him and they divide His garments among them, and for His clothing they
cast lots!
The soldiers want the seamless tunic (holy, made of one material), but they
agree not to tear it up. Instead, they are casting the die for it.
This is significant because the Jewish Rabbis have taught us that both
Adam and Moses received a seamless tunic;
The King has been stripped of His clothes. Like Israel’s patriarch Joseph,
this new Joseph has been stripped of His seamless gown.
God had decreed that this event would take place!
He arranged it! He predetermined these soldiers would be there
Fulfilling His prophetic Word:
They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing
they cast lots!
The High Priest wears a seamless gown! Exodus 28 and Lev. 16 tell us that
He must!
Caiaphas, the elected priest tore his clothes – violating Lev 21
Jesus, the true High Priest’s clothes were shed
Jesus the High Priest is humbled, as High Priest He offers Himself
He divests His official attire as priest and now offers Himself
as the sacrifice to satisfy not merely the justice of the Jews
not merely the justice of the Romans
but to satisfy the justice of an angry God over sin!
He does as He said He would do in His priestly prayer: It is for my
people that I consecrate myself!”
Our eyes shift to a new event:
Scene Four (19:25-27)
We come to the central episode in John’s telling of this crucial event!
At the cross stood many people. Several were Jesus’ own followers.
Among them were Jesus’ mother, her sister, Clopas’ wife Mary, and
Mary Magdalene
What joy Jesus had brought to these women – what bitterness they
now taste!
Their names – each one means “bitterness”
The agony of it all! Weeping, hurting, devastated, and grieving over this.
Despicable torture. They are bitter! All is lost, all is gone!
Don’t give up women!
Remember the three ladies of long ago! Naomi and her two
Daughters-in-law who lost their loved ones. So bitter were they
that Naomi insisted she no longer be called Naomi, but Mary
for her life was bitter!
Remember though how God sent to Naomi and Ruth a relative
who would be their redeemer? And their bitterness turned to joy?
Jesus, as a loving Son provides for His mother.
When Jesus therefore, saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved
(we know him as John) standing by, He said to His mother, Woman behold
your son! Then He said to the disciple “Behold your mother!”
Here Jesus has used a common legal declaration of adoption. He has pronounced
mother and son! This was a common charge of a dying person to commend his
mother to another to be cared for!
Why not Jesus’ own family?
Perhaps because they are not yet disciples themselves. Jesus has already
told us that whoever does the will of the Father is His mother, and brother
sister and father!
Here is His recognition and declaration of a true family!
But, the central message Jesus is painting for us is His lasting concern for
His true family whom He leaves behind!
Mary, as Revelation reminds us, is the symbol of the New Israel, the
New People of God! She is given the role as the mother of beloved
disciples.
Mary’s Son is the firstborn of the dead, the One who has the keys of
death, and those who believe in Him are born again into this family
into His image!
Mary is the new Eve, who can say with Even “With the help of the Lord
I have begotten a man.” The man-child Jesus whose hour is the hour of
the fall of the Serpent, the prince of this world! The promise of Gen.
is complete!!
From Isaiah 49, 54, and 66 she is the symbol of Lady Zion, who after birth
pangs brings forth a new people in joy As our Church fathers have told us:
the Church is our spiritual mother
Jesus is concerned for His community of believers who are drawn to Him
now that He is lifted up! Adoption and nurture has been provided.
Jesus has seen to that!
Look now, we see something else:
Scene Five (19:28-30)
Jesus has fulfilled the Scriptures again; He said I thirst!
Psa 22 has told you that His tongue clings to His jaws
Psa. 69 has told you:
“For my food they gave me gall
And for my thirst they gave me sour wine”
This is Jesus’ conclusion to the great work of the hour! Even in the details
of life, Jesus fulfills His Word of yesteryear! His promises are fulfilled!!
Jesus now takes the bitter drink; He takes the bitter cup of redemption for
His people – for you, for me! He drinks of this bitter cup to the last drop!
The bitter wine, like vinegar, is offered on hyssop. Hyssop was used to
sprinkle the blood of the paschal lamb on the doorposts of the Israelite
homes at Passover; Hyssop was used by Moses to ratify the new
Covenant with God in blood. The blood sprinkled by the hyssop offered
salvation to God’s people – salvation from Egypt; just as now Jesus offers to
take away the sins of His people
Jesus the source of living water cries forth that He Himself is thirsty;
He is showing that He must die before the living water can be given, and
In symbol, it will pour forth from His heart!
So, when Jesus had received the sour wine, He cried “It is
finished!” And bowing His head He gave up His spirit.
We have heard His cry, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
We now hear the cry of a different sort – the cry of great triumph!
The purpose of the hour is served!
The purpose of His life is complete!
The purpose of His Father’s will is fulfilled!
What God has decreed to save you, to bring you to Himself, is done!
“It is finished!”
Judicial pronouncement!
The work is done – the debt is paid in full!!!
It is finished!
Do you know what that means?
When you think you need to work to earn God’s favor – remember
the work, it is finished!
When you think you need to atone for your sins because you have
failed Him, remember the atonement – it is finished!
When you think you must make up for what you haven’t done for
God, remember – it is finished!
Jesus paid it all! All to Him I owe!
Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow!
Scene Six (19:31-37)
Scene Seven (19:38-42)
That’s the message of our God through this tragic event:
“God responds to the most basic human problem, death, not by avoiding it, or transcending it, or drugging it – but by transforming it! God himself (in Christ) suffers. Death is the answer to death. Our suffering is crossed out by his.” Thomas Schmidt in A Scandalous Beauty.