John 19:16 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the sentence of death passed on our Lord Jesus, and the execution soon followed. Pilate had struggled for some time between what he knew was right and what he wanted to do. In the end, his sense of duty gave way, and his sinful desires won out. He feared people more than he feared God.

Pilate gave judgment against Christ and signed the order for his death, as John 19:16 says. We can see first how Pilate sinned against his own conscience. He had more than once declared Jesus innocent, yet he finally condemned him as guilty. Since becoming governor, Pilate had often offended and angered the Jewish people. He was proud, harsh, and very stubborn. He had taken money from the temple treasury, the Corban, and used it for a water supply project. He had also brought shields into Jerusalem that bore Caesar’s image, which deeply offended the Jews. He had even cost many people their lives while standing by those actions.

Because he feared complaints about these and other insults, he wanted to please the Jews. That makes his guilt even greater. If he had been gentle and easy to persuade, giving in to such pressure would have been less blameworthy. But for a man who was so determined in other matters, and so fierce in spirit, to give way here shows he was truly a bad man. He could endure hurting his conscience more easily than he could bear having his pride crossed.

Second, he tried to pass the blame onto the Jews. He did not hand Jesus over to his own officers, as was usual, but to the accusers, the chief priests and elders. In this way, he tried to quiet his conscience by treating it as if he were only allowing what others did, not truly doing it himself.

Third, Christ was made sin for us. We deserved condemnation, but Christ was condemned in our place, so that there would be no condemnation for us. God was entering into judgment with his Son, so that he would not enter into judgment with his servants.

As soon as judgment was given, the accusers hurried to act. They had won their point, and they did not want to lose time in case Pilate changed his mind and granted a delay. Those are terrible enemies to our souls who push us into sin and then leave us no chance to undo it. They also feared a riot, because they might find the crowd turning against them after they had so cleverly won support.

It would be good if we were as quick to do what is right as they were to do what was wrong. They immediately rushed the prisoner away. The chief priests eagerly seized the victim they had long been waiting for. It had finally fallen into their net. Or it was the soldiers who were assigned to the execution. They took Jesus and led him away, not first back to where he had come from, and then to the place of death, as would be normal with us, but straight to the place of execution. Both priests and soldiers joined in leading him away.

Now the Son of Man was delivered into the hands of men, wicked and unreasonable men. By the law of Moses, and in appeals under our own law, the accusers were to carry out the execution (Deuteronomy 17:7). The priests were proud of that role here. Jesus being led away does not mean he resisted. Scripture had to be fulfilled, that he was led like a sheep to the slaughter (Acts 8:32). We deserved to be led out with criminals to execution (Psalm 125:5). But he was led out for us, so that we might escape.

To add to his suffering, they made him carry his cross as long as he was able (John 19:17), according to Roman custom. That is why Furcifer was a name of insult among them. Their crosses did not stand fixed in place like our gallows. The condemned person was nailed to the cross while it lay on the ground, and then it was lifted up and set in the earth. After the execution, it was usually taken down and buried with the body, so each crucified person had his own cross.

Christ carrying his cross can be seen in several ways. First, it was part of his actual suffering. He truly endured the cross. It was a long, heavy piece of wood, and some think it had not even been smoothed or shaped. The blessed body of the Lord Jesus was tender and unused to such a burden. He had just been badly worn out. His shoulders were raw from the blows he had received. Every bump would reopen his pain, and the weight would press the crown of thorns deeper into his head. Yet he patiently bore it all, and this was only the beginning of his sorrows.

Second, it fulfilled the pattern seen before him. Isaac, when he was about to be offered, carried the wood on which he was to be bound and burned. Third, it was a strong picture of Christ’s saving work. The Father had laid on him the guilt of us all (Isaiah 53:6), and he took away sin by bearing it in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). He had, in effect, said, “Let the curse fall on me,” for he was made a curse for us. That is why the cross was laid on him.

Fourth, it teaches us. Our Master showed all his disciples that they must take up their cross and follow him. Whatever cross he calls us to carry, we should remember that he carried the cross first. By carrying it for us, he has greatly lessened its weight for us. In that way, he has made his yoke easy and his burden light. He bore the end of the cross that carried the curse, and that was the heavy part. Because of that, all who belong to him can call their sufferings for him light and short-lived.

They brought him to the place of execution. He went out, not dragged against his will, but willing in his suffering. He went out of the city, for he was crucified outside the gate (Hebrews 13:12). To bring greater shame on his suffering, he was taken to the common place of execution, as one counted among criminals in every way. The place was called Golgotha, the place of a skull, where dead men’s skulls and bones were thrown, or where the heads of executed criminals were left. It was a ceremonially unclean place. Christ suffered there because he was made sin for us, so that he might cleanse our consciences from dead works and their pollution.

If we pay attention to the traditions of the elders, two old stories are often mentioned about this place. One says that Adam was buried there, and that this was the place of his skull. Those who hold this view say that where death triumphed over the first Adam, there the second Adam triumphed over death. Gerhard says that Origen, Cyprian, Epiphanius, Augustine, Jerome, and others mention this tradition. The other says that this was the mountain in the land of Moriah where Abraham offered Isaac, and the ram was given as a ransom for Isaac.

There they crucified him, along with the other criminals (John 19:18). There they crucified him.

Notice what death Christ died: the death of the cross. It was a bloody, painful, shameful death, a cursed death. He was nailed to the cross like a sacrifice tied to the altar, and like a Savior firmly fixed for the work he came to do. He was lifted up like the bronze serpent, hanging between heaven and earth because we were unworthy of either, and, in a sense, rejected by both.

His hands were stretched out to invite and receive us. He hung on the tree for several hours, dying slowly while still fully aware and able to speak, so that he could truly give himself as a sacrifice. This was no sudden loss of life. He offered himself knowingly and willingly.

Notice also the company in which he died, two others with him. These men probably would not have been executed at that time if the chief priests had not asked for it, hoping to add to our Lord Jesus’ shame. That may be why one of them insulted him, since their deaths were hastened because of him.

If they had taken two of his disciples and crucified them with him, it would have honored him. But if such men had shared his suffering, it could have seemed as if they were helping him complete his saving work. So it was arranged that his fellow sufferers would be the worst kinds of sinners, so he could bear our shame and so the honor would clearly be his alone.

This also exposed him to the crowd’s contempt and hatred. People often judge by appearances and do not make careful distinctions. They would think he was not only a criminal because he was tied to criminals, but the worst of the three because he was placed in the middle. Yet this fulfilled Scripture: “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

He did not die at the altar among sacrifices, and his blood was not mixed with that of bulls and goats. Instead, he died among criminals, and his blood was mixed with theirs, who were put to death by public justice. And now let us pause and look at Jesus with the eye of faith. Was there ever sorrow like his sorrow?

See him, once clothed with glory, now stripped of it and dressed in shame. See him, who was the praise of angels, made the reproach of men. See him, who had lived in eternal delight and joy in the presence of his Father, now in the deepest pain and agony. See him bleeding, see him struggling, see him dying. See him, and love him. Love him, and live for him. And think carefully about what we should give back to him.