Daily Scripture Reading John 19:19-37

There have been accusations over the centuries that Jesus did not really die on the cross. Some people claim Jesus only went unconscious and then later revived in the tomb. However, we will see in today’s reading from John 19 that there were multiple eyewitnesses that Jesus did actually die on the cross.

Yesterday, we read in the early verses of John 19 that Pilate delivered Jesus over to the Jews to be crucified. He was crucified at Golgotha.

John 19:19 And Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

The Bible tells us in Matthew 27:37 and and Mark 15:26 that the purpose of the inscription was to proclaim the charge against Jesus.

John 19:20 Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek.

Notice some details in this verse. Many Jews read the charge against Jesus because the place of crucifixion was near the city. Furthermore, the charge was written in multiple languages. It was Passover so many Jews from all over the world would have been in Jerusalem at that time. Since the inscription was written in Latin and Greek, most of the visitors to Jerusalem would have been able to read the inscription.

John 19:21 So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews;’ but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”

Pilate’s wording made it sound like Pilate was acknowledging that Jesus was the king of the Jews. The priests did not like that because they did not want Jews from all over the world to believe the Jesus was the true king. The priests wanted all the Jews to believe that Jesus falsely claimed to be the king.

John 19:22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

I suspect at this point Pilate simply wanted to be done with this affair.

John 19:23 ¶ Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, a part to each soldier and also His tunic; now that tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.

Notice the word “four”. This tells us there were 4 soldiers at the cross.

John 19:24 So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be;” this was in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.”

Note the word “fulfilled”. The soldiers fulfilled Psalm 22:18.

Psalm 22 was written by David. In this Psalm David described his troubles, his sufferings, and the enemies who surrounded him. The enemies of David did multiple things to David, including dividing his garments among them. David’s predicament foreshadowed the suffering Jesus would endure on the cross. Many of the verses in Psalm 22 not only describe the situation David found himself in, it also described the suffering and indignities Jesus endured on the cross.

John 19:25 Therefore the soldiers did these things. ¶ But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

John 19:26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

John 19:27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his home.

This is very curious. We know from other scriptures that Jesus had brothers and they were still alive. It seems one of them should have taken responsibility for their mother. Perhaps at this point the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Jesus, so Jesus asked a believer to provide for her.

John 19:28 ¶ After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order to finish the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.”

Psalm 69 is another Psalm written by David in which he described events in his life which foreshadowed things that would happen to Jesus. Psalm 69:21 tells us false comforters gave David vinegar to drink.

John 19:29 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.

John 19:30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Just as false comforters gave David vinegar to drink, so too people at the cross gave Jesus some sour wine.

John 19:31 ¶ Then the Jews, because it was the day of Preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

The common belief through all church history has been that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. This verse is one of the verses that leads people to believe it happened on a Friday. However, a careful observation of the details of this verse shows that is not what this verse tells us.

It was the day of Preparation. They were preparing for the Passover. Passover can happen any day of the week.

They did not want the bodies on the cross on the Sabbath. People assume the Sabbath referred to Saturday, meaning Jesus was crucified on Friday. However, some of the Jewish holidays were also called Sabbaths because they were not allowed to work on some of their holidays.

Passover was one of the days on which they were not allowed to work. Therefore, when the Jews asked for the crucifixion to be hurried along, it was not because they wanted it done before Saturday, it was because they wanted it done before Passover. Passover can happen any day of the week.

The phrase in parenthesis indicates that Sabbath was a high day. That reinforces the idea this Sabbath was Passover, not Saturday.

This verse does not indicate Jesus was crucified the day before Saturday. It tells us Jesus was crucified the day before Passover.

John 19:32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him;

John 19:33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

We saw in verse 23 there were four soldiers at the cross. The pronoun “they” in verse 33 is plural. This means multiple soldiers observed the fact that Jesus was dead.

There have been accusations over the centuries that Jesus did not really die on the cross. Some people claim Jesus only went unconscious and then later revived in the tomb. However, there were multiple soldiers who saw that Jesus was dead. The soldiers were not Jews. They were not disciples of Jesus. They did not have any motives to pretend Jesus was dead when He was not. They were experts at killing who were assigned to put Jesus to death, and they successfully followed their orders.

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

John 19:35 And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

The pronoun “he” refers to the author of the Gospel of John. Note the last phrase of this verse. John wrote his gospel so that you and I may believe.

John 19:36 For these things came to pass in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, “NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN.”

This is a quote from Psalm 34:20. Psalm 34 was written by David when he pretended to be insane in order to escape from Abimelech. Within that Psalm, David wrote that Yahweh delivers the righteous from evil and not one of his bones is broken. David was not necessarily speaking of himself, he may have been speaking of righteous people in general. Jesus is the ultimate and greatest example of a righteous person whose bones were not broken.

John 19:37 And again another Scripture says, “THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED.”

This is a quote from Zechariah 12:10. Notice John did not say Jesus fulfilled this passage. He simply mentioned what the verse says.

Zechariah predicted that at some point in the future, a point that is also future to you and me, Yahweh will defend Jerusalem. At that time the Jews will look on God, the One whom was pierced. Zechariah 12:10 predicted that God would be pierced. John 19 tells us when that actually happened.

There have been accusations over the centuries that Jesus went unconscious on the cross, but did not actually die. However, there were multiple soldiers at the cross who did not have any motives to pretend Jesus was dead when He was not. They were experts at killing who were assigned to put Jesus to death, and they successfully followed their orders.

What is the significance of the fact that Jesus was truly dead when they took Him off the cross?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”