The Death of Jesus Christ
John 19:16b–42 – That You May Believe
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 13, 2025 (am)
Introduction
Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus has been pointing his followers to an event that is approaching. Jesus calls it an “hour,” and as we read John’s gospel, we get more and more indications of what this hour would include.
In chapters 7 &8 -We learn it would include Jesus being arrested (7:30; 8:20)
In chapter 12
o It would be hour at which Jesus would be glorified (12:23)
o It was the hour for which Jesus came (12:27)
o It was an hour during which Jesus would be lifted up, and draw all people to himself (12:30-31)
In chapter 13 - It would be the hour when Jesus would depart from the world (13:1)
And as Jesus prays in John 17, his first words of that High Priestly prayer are – “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”
And it is immediately after this prayer that Jesus is arrested by a band of soldiers and put on trial and eventually handed over to the will of the people by Pilate so that he might be put to death.
As we pick up John’s narrative for today, we should understand that we find ourselves in the middle of this long awaited hour. As such, we should eagerly expect to see the glorification of Christ as he fulfills his purpose, drawing all people to himself prior to departing from this world.
Scripture Reading ~ John 19:16b-42
So reads John’s testimony of the death of Jesus Christ.
Enroll
There is a temptation, as we study the life of Christ, but especially as we study his death, to be “maximizers.”
This is a word I learned while we were on our family vacation to Atlanta earlier this month.
One of the activities we do each year while in Atlanta is rent a pontoon boat and get all the aunts and uncles and cousins together along with the grandparents and then spend the day on Lake Allatoona, nestled in the hills of Georgia northwest of the city.
It was while we were on the lake that I first heard the word “maximizer.”
More specifically,
it was after we had rented a large boat with a waterslide out the back and packed it full of food and drinks and snacks that could have lasted us for days along with supplies for enjoying every conceivable lake scenario we could encounter,
and it was after we’d found a nice cove to swim in and used the water slide numerous times and outfitted everyone with floaties and pool toys,
and it was after we’d just decided to wade up to a nearby beach and the adults were happily conversing in the shallow water while the kids were content collecting shells and digging in the sand
when someone yelled from the boat ~ “I brought beach toys and sandcastle making tools! Someone swim back to the boat to get them!”
The response back to the boat was ~ ‘we’re doing just fine! We don’t always have to be “maximizers’” by which was meant, “We don’t have to try to get the most out of every possible scenario, by providing every possible option for entertainment, and, in some circumstances, risk disappointment because we didn’t do everything we possibly could have done.”
I bring this up now because, when it comes to studying the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s easy for us to slip into the temptation of being “maximizers”. We usually do this in one of two ways.
Either, we find ourselves unsatisfied with the details given to us in the account of Jesus’ death that we’re presently preaching through or studying, and so we feel the need to supplement one gospel with the details found in the other gospels. We can be disappointed by a sermon on the cross that doesn’t include each of the events we’ve come to expect on an exposition on this topic.
Or second, we feel the need to supplement the Scriptures with lengthy amounts of commentary drawn from historical accounts concerning how crucifixions were carried out and how much suffering they inflicted on their victims.
And while there isn’t anything wrong per se withdrawing from as many sources as we can to best understand the death of our Lord, what we miss when we seek to be maximizers in this way is the fact that each gospel writer is doing more than just providing us with an encyclopedic list of events surrounding Jesus’ death. Instead, they are giving us their account of Jesus’ death and in doing so, they are including those details they want us to see most clearly and leaving out those that do not communicate to us what they hope we will take away. This is most true of the testimony of John, who wrote his gospel last and had accounts of the other gospel writers before him.
So, as we look at John’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion, we won’t focus on the agony of the cross, because it isn’t what John focuses on. Nor will we try to synthesize John’s account with what we read in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Instead, we’ll simply ask and pursue the question ~ what does John want us to see in the death of Christ?
As we work through the first point of today’s message, I see six things John has called our attention to in his account.
1. The Crucifixion according to John
First, Jesus died as a Common Criminal (16b-18)
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
It is with an apparent loss of Jesus’s volition that our narrative begins.
Seemingly helpless and alone, John tells us that “they” ~ meaning the Roman authorities ~ “took Jesus . . . (and) crucified him.” And while this process would have resulted in profuse amounts of suffering for our Lord, John covers the sequence of events between Jesus’ sentencing and his crucifixion in just three short verses.
And what is highlighted in these verses is that Jesus was crucified in the same way as many criminals had been crucified before him. Having born the horizontal beam of his own cross out to Golgotha, Jesus was then crucified between two other criminals.
John Calvin notes the significance of the placement of Jesus’ cross when he says it was “. . . as if he (Jesus) not only had deserved to be classed with other robbers, but had been the most wicked and the most detestable of them all.” (Calvin, 428)
So, we see in these first few verses that Jesus has been handed over to the worldly powers and they have treated him as if he were one of the many criminals before him to be counted unworthy of life and subjected him to the shame and horror of Roman crucifixion.
And yet, as we look back upon John’s gospel and Jesus’s own words leading up to this moment, we see that while Jesus appears to be the lonely victim of injustice, that in fact, the sovereign hand of God is behind all that is happening in these opening verses.
So, recall John 16:32-33 when Jesus said, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
So, while it appears Jesus has been overcome by the world, Jesus’ own prophetic words suggest the opposite is actually taking place. That in this lonely moment when the world appears to have gotten the upper hand, he is actually the overcomer. And he is not alone in this overcoming work, for the Father is with him.
Or recall John 10:17-18 where Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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. This charge I have received from my Father.”
So, while Jesus appears a helpless victim swept along by the wicked purposes of this world, he is, in fact, in control. And we should recall that it was at Jesus’ goading that Judas went out to betray him, he is the one who set his death in motion, and even now he is willingly walking the path set before him by His Father.
And as we picture the event of Jesus’ crucifixion, which would have required him to be nailed to the cross and then for that cross to be lifted up into place, we ought to recall how, at numerous points in his ministry, Jesus predicted a day when he would be lifted up.
So, in John 3:14-15 he says, “. . . as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
And in John 8:28 he says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
So, while Jesus dies the humiliating death of a common criminal, when we recall John’s account of Jesus’s words leading up to this moment, we should see that what we are witnessing is not a tragedy but the unfolding of God’s sovereign plan of salvation.
Second, Jesus died as King of the Jews (vv. 19-22)
As the crucifixion scene develops, we learn that, in accordance with the customs of the day, an inscription was written and put on the cross to identify Jesus’s crime. We also learn that it was Pilate himself who determined Jesus’ crime – Pilate, who had recently declared Jesus to be guiltless but whose hand had been forced by the Jews when they said, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (19:12).
So we see that it is in accordance with these words that Pilate assigned to Jesus the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
And whether he did so to validate himself in the eyes of Rome or, more likely, to get revenge upon the Jews for forcing his hand ~ we see once again God’s sovereign hand at work in the decisions of Jesus’s executioners.
For in assigning this title, Pilate was affirming before the world what Jesus had affirmed to him in private when he said, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth” (18:37)
And for reasons unexplained, Pilate decided on this occasion to inscribe the truth of Jesus’ kingship in three different languages. In Aramaic, which was the common language in Judea, in Latin the official language of the army, and in Greek language of the Roman Empire and Galilee (Carson, 610).
And once again, we ought to see in this decision the fulfillment of Jesus’ earlier words, words found in John 12:32 when Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
For Jesus is declared to be King of the Jews not only in the tongue of the Jews, but also in the tongues of the nations around them. And this declaration, coming from the impure motives of Pilate the pagan governor, must be understood as further affirmation that these events were due to the sovereign purposes of God as he glorified his Son.
Third, Jesus death revealed that the promised Messiah would save his people through suffering (vv. 23-24)
In the next few verses, John highlights for his readers what may seem to be an inconsequential detail of the crucifixion ~ the dividing of Jesus’ clothes among the soldiers who crucified him.
But once again, we see behind these events the sovereign hand of God as John points out to his readers that this action served to fulfill the Scriptures. The Scripture John has in mind is Psalm 22:18, which he quotes for his readers in verse 24.
And in quoting Psalm 22, John unveils one of the great mysteries of the Old Testament. For Psalm 22 was written by David and yet it recounts a scene that, though written in the first person, doesn’t match anything that happened to David in his lifetime.
For contained within Psalm 22 is the description of an execution scene – one where a righteous sufferer is surrounded by evildoers who have pierced his hands and his feet and who is mocked as his strength fails and his clothes are divided among his killers. And as we look at the writings of Judaism leading up to the New Testament, we see no evidence that Psalm 22 was ever interpreted as pointing to the Messiah, the long awaited Savior of Israel, and yet, here John indicates that that is exactly who it is pointing to, and that this Messiah is Jesus.
In doing so, John completes the picture Jesus has been painting throughout his ministry. One that reveals the Messiah would save his people not through military might and political victory, but through his suffering and death.
So John adds to our understanding of Jesus’ death the testimony that Jesus is the Messiah, and that he is a messiah who will save his people not as a conquering political king, but as a conquering righteous sufferer.
Fourth, Jesus died as a perfect and obedient son (24b-30)
The fourth portrait John pains for us of Jesus in his occurs in the following two scenes.
First, in verse 24 John draws our attention away from Jesus’s executioners casting lots for his clothing and to a small group of women who had come to mourn with Jesus at the cross. And among these women, we learn, was Jesus’ mother. We also learn that, though he does not name himself with the group of women, the disciple Jesus loved was also present.
And in an act of great compassion and selflessness, Jesus fulfills the duty of an earthly son to his earthly mother. So we see that among Jesus’s final words were the words “Woman, behold your son” and to John “Behold your mother.” And we understand these words to be in light of his imminent death, as a final act of caring for the wellbeing of his mother, as he passes his earthly responsibility as provider of the household to John. And so he dies a faithful son to his mother.
And after this, John tells us that Jesus then does the same thing towards his Heavenly Father. How does he tell us this? He does so through his word choice. Three times he uses a word that means “to complete an activity, bring to an end, finish, or accomplish” (BDAG). This word shows up twice in verse 28 and once in verse 30 and it is the word translated finished & fulfill.
So, John says, after this, knowing that all was now completed or accomplished, Jesus said to complete or accomplish (not the usual word) Scripture “I thirst” ~ and then after taking a drink from the sour wine offered to him he says, “It is completed” or “It is accomplished”.
In fact, this is the same word used back in John 13:1 when it says, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” He loved them to completion.
What John is telling us by repeating this word is that,
as Jesus came to his dying breath, he knew he had done all that had to be done to love his disciples out of bondage to sin and into right relationship with God.
And knowing this, Jesus says “I thirst.” And he does so because he sees near him a bowl of sour wine and sees in his drinking it a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, likely from Psalm 22 again or Psalm 69:21, he requests a drink in order to accomplish or complete what he came to accomplish in fulfilling the Scriptures as the long awaited Savior.
And having received the sour wine, Jesus then declares once and for all that all that is necessary to love his disciples and fulfill Scripture has been accomplished.
And with that he dies.
In this scene we see that, just as Jesus died a faithful earthly son to his earthly mother, so also, he died a faithful and obedient son to his Heavenly Father.
Fifth, Jesus died as the perfect Passover lamb (31-36)
But John’s account doesn’t end there, for even after Jesus died, even after Jesus declared all to be accomplished, as John watches the scene unfold before him, he sees a further fulfilment of Scripture.
For when the Jewish leaders asked that the legs of those on the cross might be broken, thus preventing them from being able to draw breath and so hastening their deaths so that they may be taken down before the Sabbath, it was found when they came to Jesus that he was already dead, and no bone in his body needed to be broken to bring about his death. But instead, a soldier pierced his side and in doing so, confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was truly dead, as water and blood flowed out separately from his side, indicating that the effects of death were already at work in Jesus’ body.
And for the third time in our narrative, we are told by John that this was in fulfillment of the Scriptures. For in the fact that Jesus’ bones were not broken, John sees a fulfilment of the passages about the Passover lambs. The very lambs that were being sacrificed throughout Jerusalem around the hour of Jesus’ death. For just as those lambs were to be sacrificed without breaking any of their bones, so Jesus died without broken bones, our perfect sacrificial lamb. And just as those lambs were a reminder of the day when God delivered his people from bondage in Egypt, so John now draws our gaze to Jesus, the lamb of God who delivers all who believe in him from bondage to sin. And just as the Passover lamb was a substitute for the first-born son in the days of the Exodus, so Jesus dies as the substitute for all who put their faith in him.
Finally, Jesus’s death is understood to be, in some way, the death of God (37)
Then, in one final note, John draws our attention to one last passage that he sees being fulfilled. That is Zechariah 12:10, where an individual is described as having been pierced, and presumably killed, and whose death produces great mourning among God’s people but also opens a fountain that would cleanse people from their sin (Zech 13:1).
And in the context of Zechariah, the only possible way to understand the passage is to see God himself as the one who has been pierced and killed, and from whose death flows cleansing from sin.
So, John would have us see that the man who died upon the cross was not just a man, but also God. And that from this death flows a fountain that cleanses from sin.
Summary
So, we see in John’s account of Jesus’ death that Jesus died
As a common criminal
As King of the Jews
As the righteous suffering Messiah
As a perfect and obedient Son
As our Passover Lamb
And as God himself, dying at the hands of his people while opening a fountain to cleanse us from our sins.
But what is it that John ultimately wants us to see and take away from his account of the crucifixion?
2. Truth & Faith (35)
John tells us exactly what he wants us to see and take away from Jesus’ crucifixion in verse 35. It is there that he interrupts his own account of these events to say: “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”
Given when this statement comes, just after the piercing of Jesus’ side and the flow of water and blood. It seems to me that the first thing John wants us to see from his account is that Jesus truly died.
On July 3rd, Angel and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and were able to get away for a little trip to Boston where, on one of our days there, we visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It was there that I came across a painting by the French artist Eugene Delacroix titled “The Lamentation.” In the painting, the Apostle John kneels dejectedly in front of the corpse of Jesus, and one of the most striking elements of the painting is the difference between John and Jesus. Where John’s skin is a healthy and vibrant bronze, Jesus’s flesh is a pail greenish yellow color ~ it is the color of death ~ and I believe this painting captures what John wishes to capture for us here. That Jesus truly died, and that the hour of his glorification was the hour of his death.
Then with the verses that immediately follow verse 35, John would have us see that this death was in accordance with the Scriptures. That as Jesus died, he did so as the climax of the book we now know as the Holy Bible. And that in his death, he fulfilled every prophecy about how God would save his people from their sins.
And with these in mind, John then tells us that this eyewitness testimony of his, is true, for he knows that he is telling the truth.
Do you remember how, in chapter 18, we heard Pilate say, “What is truth?” That statement is left hanging by John, unacknowledged and unanswered, as the narrative of Jesus’ trial and death proceeds. But with verse 35, John calls Pilate’s words to mind for the reader, and then he answers them.
What is the truth? Jesus’s death on the cross in accordance with the Scriptures ~ that is where truth is found. In saying this, I believe John is doing much more than just affirming that this is what he saw or that this is what John himself believes to be true.
No, John has not fallen prey to the trends of our day where we believe truth is a personal matter, something to be determined by each person according to their own beliefs. What John is saying here is that this man, this sacrifice, this event ~ in it is contained the most absolute of truths. That truth is that God has sent his Son to save sinners, sinners like you and me, and he has accomplished this in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
And because this is the truth, he commends to us believe it. And as we conclude our account for today, what we see from John is that when this truth is appropriated through faith ~ when we grasp hold of the truth of all Jesus accomplished for us on the cross by believing in it ~ it leads to new life.
3. Jesus’ death brings new life (38-42)
For, as John brings his account to an end, he highlights the two men who have come to bury Jesus. One was Joseph of Arimathea, One John tells us was a disciple of Jesus, but kept his discipleship a secret out of fear of the Jews. The other, was Nicodemus, the one John reminds us who had come to Jesus under cover of the night back in John 3 to inquire about who Jesus was and what was meant by the new birth.
Both were men who were afraid or unwilling to identify with Jesus during his lifetime, but now that Jesus has died, they come out of the shadows to claim Jesus’s body and provide a proper burial.
I agree with John Calvin that in this account, there is great significance, for as John Calvin put it, “Here we have striking proof that his (Jesus’) death was more life-giving than his life, so great was the efficacy of that sweet savor which Christ’s death breathed into the minds of those two men that it quickly extinguished all their human passions.” (Calvin, 438)
That is to say, those who were afraid to identify with Jesus in his life, find new life in his death. And in doing so, they fulfill Jesus’ words from John 12:24 which say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Conclusion
So, as we conclude this morning, with John’s testimony of Jesus’ death before us, there is just one question John would have us consider.
Having seen how Jesus died in accordance with the Scriptures and having heard from God’s Holy Word that this is the truth ~ have you believed in Jesus?
And while this may seem to be only a question for those in the room who are yet to believe in Jesus for the first time, I would argue that it is also for those who have already trusted in him.
For in this life, we are continually being pulled away from this truth ~ by our flesh, by Satan, and by the world.
We are continually tempted to believe that Jesus’s death is just one truth out of many that can be chosen to live a fruitful life.
And we are tempted to believe that more must be done to add to Jesus’ work on the cross to earn our salvation.
But John would have us reject both of these and to believe, once and for all, that when Jesus said, “It is finished” he meant that all that must happen for us to be saved has been and will forever remain finished because of what he accomplished on the cross.
And John would have us receive this truth as the supreme truth, and to find in it our answer to who we are and who God is and how we should live our lives, and in doing so, to be willing to reject the many religions and philosophies of this world as we hold first and foremost to Christ as we trust in Him to save us from our sins.
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Works Consulted
Beal G.K. and D.A. Carson (Editors). Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, 2007.
Calvin, John. John. Crossway: Wheaton, 1994.
Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, 1991.
Stott, John. The Cross of Christ. IVP Books: Downers Grove, 1986.
NEXT SUNDAY: John 20:1–31, Pastor Kipp Soncek