1So Pilate then took Jesus and flogged him. 2The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. 3They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him.
4Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”
5Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”
6When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!”
Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
8When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. 9He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?”
11Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”
12At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”
13When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.” 14Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”
15They 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!”
16So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away. 17He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”, 18where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle. 19Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.”’”
22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says,
“They parted my garments among them.
They cast lots for my clothing.”
Therefore the soldiers did these things.
25But standing by Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
28After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!” 29Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. 30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32Therefore the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him; 33but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. 34However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe. 36For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.” 37Again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”
38After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body. 39Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds. 40So they took Jesus’ body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid. 42Then, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand), they laid Jesus there.
John 19 – Hold Fast to that Confession
28 After this, Jesus, seeing[that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!”29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Who was this Jesus who died on a cross? Who was He really? It is quite easy for a thinking person to accept that there is a God in the world who made all that we see. There are four main arguments proferred by many that make believing in God the most logical outcome for the human mind contemplating such things. I recently attended the Passion conference with the young adults from our church. We heard Cliff Knechtle, a well known apologist, argue that we can look around us and see that something or someone, a divine architect, must exist to have created the complexities we see in the world around us. There is an order and design of the cosmos that demonstrates an intelligent mind behind all things. He further argued that there is a moral sense embedded in every human heart that recognizes injustice and wrongdoing. Concepts like “should” and other normative behavior dictate such an originator. Thirdly, the fact that we were made to love and be loved makes no evolutionary sense. We have affections and heart attitudes that mirror divine attitudes. And lastly, we have life, which comes with purpose. The argument is essentially that life comes from life. Life does not arise from non-life. There must be an origin of life itself. David summarizes this in saying, “The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God.”(Psalm 14:1 WEB)
For me, the leap to believing in Jesus as the promised Messiah to save the world is bridged by the fulfillment of a multitude of specific prophecies. Many of those are in the lines of this chapter. John lists them with specificity. What happened to Jesus during his trial and crucifixion is described in detail in Psalm 22. My father used to attend services at a Jewish synagogue on occasion, and he told me that services would sometimes begin with everyone reading a passage in the Bible in silence before the rabbi spoke. Father told me that Jesus was no doubt reciting Psalm 22 in His mind on the cross, and it detailed His plight. This was written 1000 years before Jesus was born. Some of the connections include: Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:7-8 describes the mocking that took place. “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts the Lord, they say, ‘let the Lord rescue Him.” Then Psalm 22:16, 17, and 18 predict: “They pierce my hands and my feet.’ “I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” The parallels are undeniable. What in the world was the Poet King David writing? How did any of this ever enter his mind?
And last but not least, the most beautiful words in the Bible were long foretold in this Psalm. From the cross, Jesus uttered the words “IT IS FINISHED.” This means it is done. The last line of Psalm 22 declares just that, “31 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.” And dear reader, with those words, deep anguish ended, and triumph began. It all began with Jesus, and it all ends with Jesus. Yes, there is so much evidence that Peter’s confession is true. “16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16 WEB) Do you hold fast to that confession as well? Copyright © 2026 Faber F McMullen III. All rights reserved.