John 19:1

Here is a further account of the unfair trial which they gave to our Lord Jesus. The prosecutors carrying it on with great confusion among the people, and the judge with great confusion in his own breast, between both the narrative is such as is not easily reduced to method; we must therefore take the parts of it as they lie.

I. The judge abuses the prisoner, though he declares him innocent, and hopes therewith to pacify the prosecutors; wherein his intention, if indeed it was good, will by no means justify his proceedings, which were palpably unjust.

1. He ordered him to be whipped as a criminal, Joh 19:1. Pilate, seeing the people so outrageous, and being disappointed in his project of releasing him upon the people's choice, took Jesus, and scourged him, that is, appointed the lictors that attended him to do it. Bede is of opinion that Pilate scourged Jesus himself with his own hands, because it is said, He took him and scourged him, that it might be done favourably. Matthew and Mark mention his scourging after his condemnation, but here it appears to have been before. Luke speaks of Pilate's offering to chastise him, and let him go, which must be before sentence. This scourging of him was designed only to pacify the Jews, and in it Pilate put a compliment upon them, that he would take their word against his own sentiments so far. The Roman scourgings were ordinarily very severe, not limited, as among the Jews, to forty stripes; yet this pain and shame Christ submitted to for our sakes. (1.) That the scripture might be fulfilled, which spoke of his being stricken, smitten, and afflicted, and the chastisement of our peace being upon him (Isa 53:5), of his giving his back to the smiters (Isa 50:6), of the ploughers ploughing upon his back, Psa 129:3. He himself likewise had foretold it, Mat 20:19; Mar 10:34; Luk 18:33. (2.) That by his stripes we might be healed, Pe1 2:4. We deserved to have been chastised with whips and scorpions, and beaten with many stripes, having known our Lord's will and not done it; but Christ underwent the stripes for us, bearing the rod of his Father's wrath, Lam 3:1. Pilate's design in scourging him was that he might not be condemned, which did not take effect, but intimated what was God's design, that his being scourged might prevent our being condemned, we having fellowship in his sufferings, and this did take effect: the physician scourged, and so the patient healed. (3.) That stripes, for his sake, might be sanctified and made easy to his followers; and they might, as they did, rejoice in that shame (Act 5:41; Act 16:22, Act 16:25), as Paul did, who was in stripes above measure, Co2 11:23. Christ's stripes take out the sting of theirs, and alter the property of them. We are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world, Co1 11:32.

2. He turned him over to his soldiers, to be ridiculed and made sport with as a fool (Joh 19:2, Joh 19:3): The soldiers, who were the governor's life-guard, put a crown of thorns upon his head; such a crown they thought fittest for such a king; they put on him a purple robe, some old threadbare coat of that colour, which they thought good enough to be the badge of his royalty; and they complemented him with, Hail, king of the Jews (like people like king), and then smote him with their hands.

(1.) See here the baseness and injustice of Pilate, that he would suffer one whom he believed an innocent person, and if so an excellent person, to be thus abused and trampled on by his own servants. Those who are under the arrest of the law ought to be under the protection of it; and their being secured is to be their security. But Pilate did this, [1.] To oblige his soldiers' merry humour, and perhaps his own too, notwithstanding the gravity one might have expected in a judge. Herod, as well as his men of war, had just before done the same, Luk 23:11. It was as good as a stage-play to them, now that it was a festival time; as the Philistines made sport with Samson. [2.] To oblige the Jews' malicious humour, and to gratify them, who desired that all possible disgrace might be done to Christ, and the utmost indignities put upon him.

(2.) See here the rudeness and insolence of the soldiers, how perfectly lost they were to all justice and humanity, who could thus triumph over a man in misery, and one that had been in reputation for wisdom and honour, and never did any thing to forfeit it. But thus hath Christ's holy religion been basely misrepresented, dressed up by bad men at their pleasure, and so exposed to contempt and ridicule, as Christ was here. [1.] They clothe him with a mock-robe, as if it were a sham and a jest, and nothing but the product of a heated fancy and a crazed imagination. And as Christ is here represented as a king in conceit only, so is his religion as a concern in conceit only, and God and the soul, sin and duty, heaven and hell, are with many all chimeras. [2.] They crown him with thorns; as if the religion of Christ were a perfect penance, and the greatest pain and hardship in the world; as if to submit to the control of God and conscience were to thrust one's head into a thicket of thorns; but this is an unjust imputation; thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, but roses and laurels in religion's ways.

(3.) See here the wonderful condescension of our Lord Jesus in his sufferings for us. Great and generous minds can bear any thing better than ignominy, any toil, any pain, any loss, rather than reproach; yet this the great and holy Jesus submitted to for us. See and admire, [1.] The invincible patience of a sufferer, leaving us an example of contentment and courage, evenness, and easiness of spirit, under the greatest hardships we may meet with in the way of duty. [2.] The invincible love and kindness of a Saviour, who not only cheerfuly and resolutely went through all this, but voluntarily undertook it for us and for our salvation. Herein he commended his love, that he would not only die for us, but die as a fool dies. First, He endured the pain; not the pangs of death only, though in the death of the cross these were most exquisite; but, as if these were too little, he submitted to those previous pains. Shall we complain of a thorn in the flesh, and of being buffeted by affliction, because we need it to hide pride from us, when Christ humbled himself to bear those thorns in the head, and those buffetings, to save and teach us? Co2 12:7. Secondly, He despised the shame, the shame of a fool's coat, and the mock-respect paid him, with, Hail, king of the Jews. If we be at any time ridiculed for well-doing, let us not be ashamed, but glorify God, for thus we are partakers of Christ's sufferings. He that bore these sham honours was recompensed with real honours, and so shall we, if we patiently suffer shame for him.

II. Pilate, having thus abused the prisoner, presents him to the prosecutors, in hope that they would now be satisfied, and drop the prosecution, Joh 19:4, Joh 19:5. Here he proposes two things to their consideration: -

1. That he had not found any thing in him which made him obnoxious to the Roman government (Joh 19:4): I find no fault in him; oudemian aitian heuriskō - I do not find in him the least fault, or cause of accusation. Upon further enquiry, he repeats the declaration he had made, Joh 18:38. Hereby he condemns himself; if he found no fault in him, why did he scourge him, why did he suffer him to be abused? None ought to suffer ill but those that do ill; yet thus many banter and abuse religion, who yet, if they be serious, cannot but own they find no fault in it. If he found no fault in him, why did he bring him out to his prosecutors, and not immediately release him, as he ought to have done? If Pilate had consulted his own conscience only, he would neither have scourged Christ nor crucified him; but, thinking to trim the matter, to please the people by scourging Christ, and save his conscience by not crucifying him, behold he does both; whereas, if he had at first resolved to crucify him, he need not have scourged him. It is common for those who think to keep themselves from greater sins by venturing upon less sins to run into both.

2. That he had done that to him which would make him the less dangerous to them and to their government, Joh 19:5. He brought him out to them, wearing the crown of thorns, his head and face all bloody, and said, "Behold the man whom you are so jealous of," intimating that though his having been so popular might have given them some cause to fear that his interest in the country would lessen theirs, yet he had taken an effectual course to prevent it, by treating him as a slave, and exposing him to contempt, after which he supposed the people would never look upon him with any respect, nor could he ever retrieve his reputation again. Little did Pilate think with what veneration even these sufferings of Christ would in after ages be commemorated by the best and greatest of men, who would glory in that cross and those stripes which he thought would have been to him and his followers a perpetual and indelible reproach. (1.) Observe here our Lord Jesus shows himself dressed up in all the marks of ignominy. He came forth, willing to be made a spectacle, and to be hooted at, as no doubt he was when he came forth in this garb, knowing that he was set for a sign that should be spoken against, Luk 2:34. Did he go forth thus bearing our reproach? Let us go forth to him bearing his reproach, Heb 13:13. (2.) How Pilate shows him: Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. He saith unto them: so the original is; and, the immediate antecedent being Jesus, I see no inconvenience in supposing these to be Christ's own words; he said, "Behold the man against whom you are so exasperated." But some of the Greek copies, and the generality of the translators, supply it as we do, Pilate saith unto them, with a design to appease them, Behold the man; not so much to move their pity, Behold a man worthy your compassion, as to silence their jealousies, Behold a man not worthy your suspicion, a man from whom you can henceforth fear no danger; his crown is profaned, and cast to the ground, and now all mankind will make a jest of him. The word however is very affecting: Behold the man. It is good for every one of us, with an eye of faith, to behold the man Christ Jesus in his sufferings. Behold this king with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him, the crown of thorns, Sol 3:11. "Behold him, and be suitably affected with the sight. Behold him, and mourn because of him. Behold him, and love him; be still looking unto Jesus."

III. The prosecutors, instead of being pacified, were but the more exasperated, Joh 19:6, Joh 19:7.

1. Observe here their clamour and outrage. The chief priests, who headed the mob, cried out with fury and indignation, and their officers, or servants, who must say as they said, joined with them in crying, Crucify him, crucify him. The common people perhaps would have acquiesced in Pilate's declaration of his innocency, but their leaders, the priests, caused them to err. Now by this it appears that their malice against Christ was, (1.) Unreasonable and most absurd, in that they offer not to make good their charges against him, nor to object against the judgment of Pilate concerning him; but, though he be innocent, he must be crucified. (2.) It was insatiable and very cruel. Neither the extremity of his scourging, nor his patience under it, nor the tender expostulations of the judge, could mollify them in the least; no, nor could the jest into which Pilate had turned the cause, put them into a pleasant humour. (3.) It was violent and exceedingly resolute; they will have it their own way, and hazard the governor's favour, the peace of the city, and their own safety, rather than abate of the utmost of their demands. Were they so violent in running down our Lord Jesus, and in crying, Crucify him, crucify him? and shall not we be vigorous and zealous in advancing his name, and in crying, Crown him, Crown him? Did their hatred of him sharpen their endeavours against him? and shall not our love to him quicken our endeavours for him and his kingdom?

2. The check Pilate gave to their fury, still insisting upon the prisoner's innocency: "Take you him and crucify him, if he must be crucified." This is spoken ironically; he knew they could not, they durst not, crucify him; but it is as if he should say, "You shall not make me a drudge to your malice; I cannot with a safe conscience crucify him." A good resolve, if he would but have stuck to it. He found no fault in him, and therefore should not have continued to parley with the prosecutors. Those that would be safe from sin should be deaf to temptation. Nay, he should have secured the prisoner from their insults. What was he armed with power for, but to protect the injured? The guards of governors ought to be the guards of justice. But Pilate had not courage enough to act according to his conscience; and his cowardice betrayed him into a snare.

3. The further colour which the prosecutors gave to their demand (Joh 19:7): We have a law, and by our law, if it were but in our power to execute it, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. Now here observe, (1.) They made their boast of the law, even when through breaking the law they dishonoured God, as is charged upon the Jews, Rom 2:23. They had indeed an excellent law, far exceeding the statutes and judgments of other nations; but in vain did they boast of their law, when they abused it to such bad purposes. (2.) They discover a restless and inveterate malice against our Lord Jesus. When they could not incense Pilate against him by alleging that he pretended himself a king, they urged this, that he pretended himself a God. Thus they turn every stone to take him off. (3.) They pervert the law, and make that the instrument of their malice. Some think they refer to a law made particularly against Christ, as if, being a law, it must be executed, right or wrong; whereas there is a woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write the grievousness which they have prescribed, Isa 10:1. See Mic 6:16. But it should seem they rather refer to the law of Moses; and if so, [1.] It was true that blasphemers, idolaters, and false prophets, were to be put to death by that law. Whoever falsely pretended to be the Son of God was guilty of blasphemy, Lev 24:16. But then, [2.] It was false that Christ pretended to be the Son of God, for he really was so; and they ought to have enquired into the proofs he produced of his being so. If he said that he was the Son of God, and the scope and tendency of his doctrine were not to draw people from God, but to bring them to him, and if he confirmed his mission and doctrine by miracles, as undoubtedly he did, beyond contradiction, by their law they ought to hearken to him (Deu 18:18, Deu 18:19), and, if they did not, they were to be cut off. That which was his honour, and might have been their happiness, if they had not stood in their own light, they impute to him as a crime, for which he ought not to be crucified, for this was no death inflicted by their law.

IV. The judge brings the prisoner again to his trial, upon this new suggestion. Observe,

1. The concern Pilate was in, when he heard this alleged (Joh 19:8): When he heard that his prisoner pretended not to royalty only, but to deity, he was the more afraid. This embarrassed him more than ever, and made the case more difficult both ways; for, (1.) There was the more danger of offending the people if he should acquit him, for he knew how jealous that people were for the unity of the Godhead, and what aversion they now had to other gods; and therefore, though he might hope to pacify their rage against a pretended king, he could never reconcile them to a pretended God. "If this be at the bottom of the tumult," thinks Pilate, "it will not be turned off with a jest." (2.) There was the more danger of offending his own conscience if he should condemn him. "Is he one" (thinks Pilate) "that makes himself the Son of God? and what if it should prove that he is so? What will become of me then?" Even natural conscience makes men afraid of being found fighting against God. The heathen had some fabulous traditions of incarnate deities appearing sometimes in mean circumstances, and treated ill by some that paid dearly for their so doing. Pilate fears lest he should thus run himself into a premunire.

2. His further examination of our Lord Jesus thereupon, Joh 19:9. That he might give the prosecutors all the fair play they could desire, he resumed the debate, went into the judgment-hall, and asked Christ, Whence art thou? Observe,

(1.) The place he chose for this examination: He went into the judgment-hall for privacy, that he might be out of the noise and clamour of the crowd, and might examine the thing the more closely. Those that would find out the truth as it is in Jesus must get out of the noise of prejudice, and retire as it were into the judgment-hall, to converse with Christ alone.

(2.) The question he put to him: Whence art thou? Art thou from men or from heaven? From beneath or from above? He had before asked directly, Art thou a King? But here he does not directly ask, Art thou the Son of God? lest he should seem to meddle with divine things too boldly. But in general, "Whence art thou? Where wast thou, and in what world hadst thou a being, before thy coming into this world?"

(3.) The silence of our Lord Jesus when he was examined upon this head; but Jesus gave him no answer. This was not a sullen silence, in contempt of the court, nor was it because he knew not what to say; but, [1.] It was a patient silence, that the scripture might be fulfilled, as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, Isa 53:7. This silence loudly bespoke his submission to his Father's will in his present sufferings, which he thus accommodated himself to, and composed himself to bear. He was silent, because he would say nothing to hinder his sufferings. If Christ had avowed himself a God as plainly as he avowed himself a king, it is probable that Pilate would not have condemned him (for he was afraid at the mention of it by the prosecutors); and the Romans, though they triumphed over the kings of the nations they conquered, yet stood in awe of their gods. See Co1 2:8. If they had known him to be the Lord of glory, they would not have crucified him; and how then could we have been saved? [2.] It was a prudent silence. When the chief priests asked him, Art thou the Son of the Blessed? he answered, I am, for he knew they went upon the scriptures of the Old Testament which spoke of the Messiah; but when Pilate asked him he knew he did not understand his own question, having no notion of the Messiah, and of his being the Son of God, and therefore to what purpose should he reply to him whose head was filled with the pagan theology, to which he would have turned his answer?

(4.) The haughty check which Pilate gave him for his silence (Joh 19:10): "Speakest thou not unto me? Dost thou put such an affront upon me as to stand mute? What knowest thou not that, as president of the province, I have power, if I think fit, to crucify thee, and have power, if I think fit, to release thee?" Observe here, [1.] How Pilate magnified himself, and boasts of his own authority, as not inferior to that of Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said that whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive. Dan 5:19. Men in power are apt to be puffed up with their power, and the more absolute and arbitrary it is the more it gratifies and humours their pride. But he magnifies his power to an exorbitant degree when he boasts that he has power to crucify one whom he had declared innocent, for no prince or potentate has authority to do wrong. Id possumus, quod jure possumus - We can do that only which we can do justly. [2.] How he tramples upon our blessed Saviour: Speakest thou not unto me? He reflects upon him, First, As if he were undutiful and disrespectful to those in authority, not speaking when he was spoken to. Secondly, As if he were ungrateful to one that had been tender of him: "Speakest thou not to me who have laboured to secure thy release?" Thirdly, As if he were unwise for himself: "Wilt thou not speak to clear thyself to one that is willing to clear thee?" If Christ had indeed sought to save his life, now had been his time to have spoken; but that which he had to do was to lay down his life.

(5.) Christ's pertinent answer to this check, Joh 19:11, where,

[1.] He boldly rebukes his arrogance, and rectifies his mistake: "Big as thou lookest and talkest, thou couldest have no power at all against me, no power to scourge, no power to crucify, except it were given thee from above." Though Christ did not think fit to answer him when he was impertinent (then answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like him), yet he did think fit to answer him when he was imperious; then answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit, Pro 26:4, Pro 26:5. When Pilate used his power, Christ silently submitted to it; but, when he grew proud of it, he made him know himself: "All the power thou hast is given thee from above," which may be taken two ways: - First, As reminding him that his power in general, as a magistrate, was a limited power, and he could do no more than God would suffer him to do. God is the fountain of power; and the powers that are, as they are ordained by him and derived from him, so they are subject to him. They ought to go no further than his law directs them; they can go no further than his providence permits them. They are God's hand and his sword, Psa 17:13, Psa 17:14. Though the axe may boast itself against him that heweth therewith, yet still it is but a tool, Isa 10:5, Isa 10:15. Let the proud oppressors know that there is a higher than they, to whom they are accountable, Ecc 5:8. And let this silence the murmurings of the oppressed, It is the Lord. God has bidden Shimei curse David; and let it comfort them that their persecutors can do no more than God will let them. See Isa 51:12, Isa 51:13. Secondly, As informing him that his power against him in particular, and all the efforts of that power, were by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Act 2:23. Pilate never fancied himself to look so great as now, when he sat in judgment upon such a prisoner as this, who was looked upon by many as the Son of God and king of Israel, and had the fate of so great a man at his disposal; but Christ lets him know that he was herein but an instrument in God's hand, and could no nothing against him, but by the appointment of Heaven, Act 4:27, Act 4:28.

[2.] He mildly excuses and extenuates his sin, in comparison with the sin of the ringleaders: "Therefore he that delivered me unto thee lies under greater guilt; for thou as a magistrate hast power from above, and art in thy place, thy sin is less than theirs who, from envy and malice, urge thee to abuse thy power."

First, It is plainly intimated that what Pilate did was sin, a great sin, and that the force which the Jews put upon him, and which he put upon himself in it, would not justify him. Christ hereby intended a hint for the awakening of his conscience and the increase of the fear he was now under. The guilt of others will not acquit us, nor will it avail in the great day to say that others were worse than we, for we are not to be judged by comparison, but must bear our own burden.

Secondly, Yet theirs that delivered him to Pilate was the greater sin. By this it appears that all sins are not equal, but some more heinous than others; some comparatively as gnats, others as camels; some as motes in the eyes, others as beams; some as pence, others as pounds. He that delivered Christ to Pilate was either, 1. The people of the Jews, who cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. They had seen Christ's miracles, which Pilate had not; to them the Messiah was first sent; they were his own; and to them, who were now enslaved, a Redeemer should have been most welcome, and therefore it was much worse in them to appear against him than in Pilate. 2. Or rather he means Caiaphas in particular, who was at the head of the conspiracy against Christ, and first advised his death, Joh 11:49, Joh 11:50. The sin of Caiaphas was abundantly greater than the sin of Pilate. Caiaphas prosecuted Christ from pure enmity to him and his doctrine, deliberately and of malice prepense. Pilate condemned him purely for fear of the people, and it was a hasty resolution which he had not time to cool upon. 3. Some think Christ means Judas; for, though he did not immediately deliver him into the hands of Pilate, yet he betrayed him to those that did. The sin of Judas was, upon many accounts, greater than the sin of Pilate. Pilate was a stranger to Christ; Judas was his friend and follower. Pilate found no fault in him, but Judas knew a great deal of good of him. Pilate, though biassed, was not bribed, but Judas took a reward against the innocent; the sin of Judas was a leading sin, and let in all that followed. He was a guide to them that took Jesus. So great was the sin of Judas that vengeance suffered him not to live; but when Christ said this, or soon after, he was gone to his own place.

V. Pilate struggles with the Jews to deliver Jesus out of their hands, but in vain. We hear no more after this of any thing that passed between Pilate and the prisoner; what remains lay between him and the prosecutors.

1. Pilate seems more zealous than before to get Jesus discharged (Joh 19:12): Thenceforth, from this time, and for this reason, because Christ had given him that answer (Joh 19:11), which, though it had a rebuke in it, yet he took kindly; and, though Christ found fault with him, he still continued to find no fault in Christ, but sought to release him, desired it, endeavoured it. He sought to release him; he contrived how to do it handsomely and safely, and so as not to disoblige the priests. It never does well when our resolutions to do our duty are swallowed up in projects how to do it plausibly and conveniently. If Pilate's policy had not prevailed above his justice, he would not have been long seeking to release him, but would have done it. Fiat justitia, ruat coelum - Let justice be done, though heaven itself should fall.

2. The Jews were more furious than ever, and more violent to get Jesus crucified. Still they carry on their design with noise and clamour as before; so now they cried out. They would have it thought that the commonalty was against him, and therefore laboured to get him cried down by a multitude, and it is no hard matter to pack a mob; whereas, if a fair poll had been granted, I doubt not but it would have been carried by a great majority for the releasing of him. A few madmen may out-shout many wise men, and then fancy themselves to speak the sense (when it is but the nonsense) of a nation, or of all mankind; but it is not so easy a thing to change the sense of the people as it is to misrepresent it, and to change their cry. Now that Christ was in the hands of his enemies his friends were shy and silent, and disappeared, and those that were against him were forward to show themselves so; and this gave the chief priests an opportunity to represent it as the concurring vote of all the Jews that he should be crucified. In this outcry they sought two things: - (1.) To blacken the prisoner as an enemy to Caesar. He had refused the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, had declared his kingdom not to be of this world, and yet they will have it that he speaks against Caesar; antilegei - he opposed Caesar, invades his dignity and sovereignty. It has always been the artifice of the enemies of religion to represent it as hurtful to kings and provinces, when it would be highly beneficial to both. (2.) To frighten the judge, as no friend to Caesar: "If thou let this man go unpunished, and let him go on, thou art not Caesar's friend, and therefore false to thy trust and the duty of thy place, obnoxious to the emperor's displeasure, and liable to be turned out." They intimate a threatening that they would inform against him, and get him displaced; and here they touched him in a sensible and very tender part. But, of all people, these Jews should not have pretended a concern for Caesar, who were themselves so ill affected to him and his government. They should not talk of being friends to Caesar, who were themselves such back friends to him; yet thus a pretended zeal for that which is good often serves to cover a real malice against that which is better.

3. When other expedients had been tried in vain, Pilate slightly endeavoured to banter them out of their fury, and yet, in doing this, betrayed himself to them, and yielded to the rapid stream, Joh 19:13-15. After he had stood it out a great while, and seemed now as if he would have made a vigorous resistance upon this attack (Joh 19:12), he basely surrendered. Observe here,

(1.) What it was that shocked Pilate (Joh 19:13): When he heard that saying, that he could not be true to Caesar's honour, nor sure of Caesar's favour, if he did not put Jesus to death, then he thought it was time to look about him. All they had said to prove Christ a malefactor, and that therefore it was Pilate's duty to condemn him, did not move him, but he still kept to his conviction of Christ's innocency; but, when they urged that it was his interest to condemn him, then he began to yield. Note, Those that bind up their happiness in the favour of men make themselves an easy prey to the temptations of Satan.

(2.) What preparation was made for a definitive sentence upon this matter: Pilate brought Jesus forth, and he himself in great state took the chair. We may suppose that he called for his robes, that he might look big, and then sat down in the judgment-seat.

[1.] Christ was condemned with all the ceremony that could be. First, To bring us off at God's bar, and that all believers through Christ, being judged here, might be acquitted in the court of heaven. Secondly, To take off the terror of pompous trials, which his followers would be brought to for his sake. Paul might the better stand at Caesar's judgment-seat when his Master had stood there before him.

[2.] Notice is here taken of the place and time.

First, The place where Christ was condemned: in a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha, probably the place where he used to sit to try causes or criminals. Some make Gabbatha to signify an enclosed place, fenced against the insults of the people, whom therefore he did the less need to fear; others an elevated place, raised that all might see him.

Secondly, The time, Joh 19:14. It was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour. Observe, 1. The day: It was the preparation of the passover, that is, for the passover-sabbath, and the solemnities of that and the rest of the days of the feast of unleavened bread. This is plain from Luk 23:54, It was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. So that this preparation was for the sabbath. Note, Before the passover there ought to be preparation. This is mentioned as an aggravation of their sin, in persecuting Christ with so much malice and fury, that it was when they should have been purging out the old leaven, to get ready for the passover; but the better the day the worse the deed. 2. The hour: It was about the sixth hour. Some ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts read it about the third hour, which agrees with Mar 15:25. And it appears by Mat 27:45 that he was upon the cross before the sixth hour. But it should seem to come in here, not as a precise determination of the time, but as an additional aggravation of the sin of his prosecutors, that they were pushing on the prosecution, not only on a solemn day, the day of the preparation, but, from the third to the sixth hour (which was, as we call it, church-time) on that day, they were employed in this wickedness; so that for this day, though they were priests, they dropped the temple-service, for they did not leave Christ till the sixth hour, when the darkness began, which frightened them away. Some think that the sixth hour, with this evangelist, is, according to the Roman reckoning and ours, six of the clock in the morning, answering to the Jews' first hour of the day; this is very probable, that Christ's trial before Pilate was at the height about six in the morning, which was then a little after sun-rising.

(3.) The rencounter Pilate had with the Jews, both priests and people, before he pr

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 19:1-3. Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him — The Romans usually scourged the criminals whom they condemned to be crucified, which was the reason why Pilate ordered our Lord to be scourged before he delivered him up to suffer that punishment. See note on Mat 27:26. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns — Intending thereby to add cruelty to scorn. See on Mat 27:29. They put on him a purple robe — Or, a purple mantle, as Dr. Campbell renders ιματιο πορφυρουν. It is called, Mat 27:28, a scarlet cloak, χλαμυδα κοκκινην. “The names denoting the colour of the garment, ought to be understood with all the latitude common in familiar conversation. This cloak, in strictness, may have been neither purple nor scarlet, and yet have had so much of each, as would naturally lead one to give it one of these names, and another the other.” And they smote him with their hands — Matthew says, They took a reed which they had put into his right hand, and smote him on the head. And Mark also says, They smote him on the head with a reed. It seems some smote him with a reed on his head, laying their blows upon the thorns, and driving the prickles thereof into his temples. And others smote him with their hands on his cheeks, or some other part of his body. See note on Mat 27:29-30; Mar 15:19.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 138.—PILATE SCOURGES JESUS, MAKES HIS THIRD ATTEMPT TO RELEASE HIM, AND DELIVERS HIM FOR CRUCIFIXION, Joh_19:1-16.

Mat_27:24-31; Mar_15:15-20; Luk_23:23-25.

1. Scourged him—The punishment of personal scourging with whips, rods, or cords, disused by modern civilization, is of high antiquity. The monuments show that it was a custom in ancient Egypt. It was legalized by Moses, but humanely limited to forty lashes, which the modern Jews, to avoid even an accidental overstepping of the law, limited to thirty-nine. Though not among the Jews a disgraceful punishment, it was held by the Roman law unworthy to be inflicted on a Roman citizen. The victim was bound to a low pillar, in order that, stooping forward, he might curve his bare back to receive the full fair stroke. It was customarily inflicted before crucifixion, and no limit was fixed by Roman law to the number of the blows. It has been questioned whether Pilate intended this to be the scourging preceding crucifixion, or whether it was intended as a sole punishment; whether as a compromise, according to Luk_23:16, or whether he hoped, by presenting Jesus under the cruel effects of the scourge before their eyes, he might melt them to pity. But it appears by Luk_23:25 that, at the close of the affair by their choice of Barabbas, he delivered Jesus to their will; so that this is probably the scourging preparatory to crucifixion. The presenting Jesus therefore so scourged, to induce their pity, was doubtless an afterthought.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh_19:1. Therefore (see Luk_23:22-25).—He was under the erroneous impression that this treatment of Jesus might soften the enmity of the Jews toward the Prisoner. Scourged (ἐματίγωσεν).—There is no evidence that Jesus was twice scourged. Scourging was usually a preliminary of crucifixion among the Romans. St. Matthew and St. Mark use a different word (φργελλώσας).

Joh_19:4-5. Pilate therefore went forth (see Joh_19:1, above).—He imagined that the sight of the poor tortured form might move compassion. I find no crime, etc.—Had Pilate been able to find any crime in Jesus, he would not have hesitated to condemn Him.

Joh_19:6. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him, etc.—There is a ring of angry sarcasm in the words which must have galled those proud Jews. Pilate means, “I shall have nothing to do with crucifying one who is innocent. Do it yourselves, if you dare.”

Joh_19:7. According to the law.—Our law, they say, must be respected, whatever you do about the political charge (Lev_24:16). We only can be judges in this matter, and according to our law He should die.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_19:1-7

Joh_19:1-2. The scourging of Jesus and the crown of thorns.—Pilate plunged ever deeper and deeper into the toils. Justice and injustice cannot be reconciled. It went sore against this proud Roman’s conscience to offend the majesty of Roman law, in the attempt to please the clamouring mob of Jewish priests, rulers, and populace. Had he made a firm stand the guilt would not have rested on him. It is not easy always to be popular as well as just. He tried various expedients to extricate himself from the difficult position in which he was placed. He thought that by releasing Barabbas, and holding up Jesus to contempt, the latter might be delivered and the Jews propitiated.

I. The scourging.—

1. Our Lord had already predicted this part of His sufferings (Mat_20:19; Luk_18:33). It was the preliminary to crucifixion. Pilate in ordering the punishment secretly hoped that the accusers of Jesus would be satisfied with the infliction of this cruel punishment.

2. We follow the meek and lowly, the divine victim into the courtyard of Pilate’s palace. He was handed over to the cruel executioners and rough soldiers of the guard, bound to a pillar, so that the back was bent and the skin tense. The blows were inflicted with switches or thongs, at the extremity of which were pieces of bone or lead. These were wielded by callous men, usually slaves. Even at the first blow blood was drawn, and ere the ten or fifteen minutes of the punishment were ended streams of blood flowed from the lacerated and wounded frame.

3. But this, too, was part of the divine plan. And great as were the pangs of this terrible torture to the body, yet deeper was the agony of soul which He endured. How great, how incomparable, was His obedience! “They made long their furrows upon His back” (Psa_129:3). But it was all done in order that with. His stripes we might be healed (Isa_53:5).

II. The crown of thorns.—

1. Herod had already sent Jesus to Pilate clothed with mock emblems of royalty. No doubt these had been removed; but the remembrance of them led the soldiers to imitate in cruel fashion this jest of Herod.

2. Jesus was evidently entirely given into their hands—a strange thing, Pilate, to do in the case of one pronounced by thyself innocent. Breaking off twigs from a thorny plant abundant about Jerusalem, they wove it with their mailed hands into a rude wreath or crown, and thrust it down over the Saviour’s brow, the sharp thorns lacerating the flesh and causing great pain. Over His lacerated frame they threw a cast-off soldier’s robe to represent a royal robe. They bowed in mockery before Him, crying, “Hail, King of the Jews,” thus mocking that clamouring mob of the people and their Messianic hopes. It was not Jesus so much that was mocked as the people He came to save, and who in rejecting Him were filling up the measure of their wrath.

3. And Jesus bore it all in patient, meek submission for our sakes. “He is led as a lamb to the slaughter,” etc. (Isa_53:7). Did none of those barbarous men ask, “What manner of man is this?” One perchance did so (Luk_23:47).

III. The crown and robe were symbolic of a real kingship.—

1. He who wore the thorny crown and mock royal mantle shall yet be hailed as King of kings, etc. (Rev_17:14), as the apostle was privileged to see Him in vision in His heavenly glory.

2. But the way to this glory was through suffering. And here, as at His birth, Jew and Gentile unite to proclaim Him to be what the angels declared He was to the Jewish shepherds, and the star of prophecy to the Gentile magi. Christ is a king; but it was through humiliation that He rose to glory, for the sake of man.

3. Man was made for dominion (Psa_8:4-6); but through sin his kingly rule has been in part destroyed—he has not even full dominion over himself. So we see not yet all things put under him (Heb_2:8). But Jesus identified Himself with men, offered for them that obedience which they had failed to give—offered it in the only form in which here and now it can be offered, through humiliation for sin, and free self-surrender in all things to the will of the Father. Thus He became the great High Priest and King for humanity; and all who are His, who believe in Him as the only way of escape from moral and spiritual slavery, He makes “kings and priests unto God” (Rev_1:6), raising them to a more glorious throne than that from which humanity had fallen.

4. And the way to this dominion is the way of suffering—the scourgings of anguish because of sin, the thorny crown of repentance, the crucifixion of the old nature, etc.—all a painful and bitter cross. But to those who thus ever come and are faithful unto death shall be granted the crown of life in the reign of heavenly glory (Rev_2:10; Rev_3:21).

5. So, too, the Church has triumphed and will triumph through suffering for the truth. It is thus it is freed from the dross of earth and refined for glory. It is the glory of true members of the Church that they are able to “fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ.” As He the Captain of salvation was perfected through suffering (Heb_2:10), thus also is His body the Church.

Joh_19:1 “And scourged Him.” (Outline address for children.)

I. Why do we read this so unconcernedly?

1. It was nearly two thousand years ago. An old story. But if we are “Christians,” we know Jesus now. We speak to Him and hear Him; He is no stranger.

2. The awful crucifixion following makes it seem less noticeable. But this He bore for us; and we ought to think of it. The scourging added terribly to the agony of the cross.

II. Do we know what “scourging” means?

1. Have any among us ever seen a criminal sentenced and flogged? Have any among us ever seen a boy flogged? Most painful to witness.

2. Describe Roman “scourging.”

3. Had it been a cruel murderer of women and infants, a brutal criminal! But the kind, good, “Jesus” (describe His life).

4. Had He been tried and sentenced! But this was done by a weak-minded ruler, afraid of the priests and the mob. It could not take place under our good laws and strong government.

III. Jesus bore it all—no terror, no cry. How brave He was!

IV. It was part of what Jesus bore for you. It was your sins caused Him this humiliation.

V. Will you think of Him and love Him for it? And when you know that He is asking you, by the voice of His Spirit within you, to do something, or not to do something, for His love, for His sake, will you try? He will help you if you ask Him.

Lastly.—Take away with you this little text: “By His stripes [I am] healed” Isa_53:5).—Rev. T. Hardy.

Joh_19:3. “Behold the mam!”—

I. In these words Pilate unwittingly gave utterance to a great truth.—Christ Jesus was indeed the man, the great representative of all that is highest and grandest in humanity. What nobler or more beautiful life was ever lived on earth than the life of Jesus of Nazareth, through all its hours (on earth) from opening to close? As we view Him standing in silent dignity near the judgment seat of the vacillating Pilate, before the fiend-inspired mob calling out “Crucify Him!” we know that no other life has been lived, no other ever dreamed of or imagined, that can be compared even to His. From that hour of conscious awakening to the sense of His great mission in the temple, amidst the doctors and teachers, where He knew and felt that He was about His Father’s business, to this closing scene of His public ministry, He stands before us “the perfect man,” holy, harmless, undefiled; for His enemies could find no flaw in His character; and the Roman judge who reluctantly and in unmanly fashion gave Him over to a violent and shameful death declared again and again, “I find no fault in Him.” As we behold Him we must think of that heavenly teaching and doctrine that are the centre and crown of all that is noblest and best in the world to-day, of that tender humanity that showed itself in His continually doing good, of that meekness and lowliness combined with dignity and power that proclaimed Him the very King of men. Well may we, looking merely at His humanity, echo the words of a great modern writer on this aspect of His character. “He walked in Judæa eighteen hundred years ago; His sphere-melody … took captive the ravished souls of men, and, being of a truth sphere-melody, still flows and sounds, though now with thousandfold accompaniments and rich symphonies, through all our hearts, and modulates and divinely leads them” (Carlyle).

II. The man Christ Jesus is the holy, divine Son.—If we see this we must see something more. This perfect man, this flower of humanity, cannot be merely man. No such flower has bloomed, nor ever can bloom, on the field of human nature as it now is. There is something about this man that points us to another sphere. As one has well said: “I find the life of Christ made up of two parts, a part I can sympathise with as a man, and a part on which I am to gaze; a beam sent down from heaven which I can see and love, and another beam shot into the infinite that I cannot comprehend.” Not only is this suffering man the holiest and best that earth has seen, He is “Emmanuel, God with us.” Some glimmering of this truth seems to have visited Pilate, and made him dread yet more to deliver up Jesus to the impious multitude. But no doubt his scepticism and worldly unbelief tended to dismiss the thought. The priests, rulers, and scribes, as well as many in the vast crowd crying out “Crucify Him!” would have confessed this, had they not been blinded by hatred. Ah! He came to give light, but that was not what men wanted. They did not wish to see themselves in the penetrating light of His omniscient purity. The midnight burglar and transgressor flee the light, and will endeavour to overpower him who persists in letting in a clear ray upon their evil deeds; and the old philosopher said well that if truth appeared in the world in her unadorned loveliness men would persecute her. And thus it happened here. Truth did appear. The truth came to men with heavenly radiance to be the life and light of the race; but those to whom He came “hated the light because their deeds were evil.” “They denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them” (Act_3:14). But to all who look to Him, this crown of humanity, Emmanuel, becomes their high example, their guiding star, the strength of their life, the comfort of their death, their hope for eternity—“Behold the man!”

III. We behold here the awfulness of sin.—In beholding Christ at Pilate’s judgment seat a sense of the awfulness of sin in God’s sight is borne in upon us. For how does Jesus appear as Pilate points to Him? The awful Roman punishment of scourging was just ended. As Pilate was only a procurator he had no lictors in his train, so that the punishment was left to the rude and brutal soldiery. The arms of the victim were lashed down to a post near the ground, and on the bare shoulders, head, and face the lashes were inflicted with a whip of leather thongs loaded at the extremity with lead or bone. Thus the prophetic language of the prophet received a literal fulfilment, “They made long the furrows upon My back.” Over His bleeding form the rude soldiers threw in mockery a purple-dyed soldier’s cloak to represent a kingly robe, upon His bleeding head and bruised face they pressed a torturing crown of thorns, and into His hands, bound and helpless, they thrust a cane to represent a royal sceptre. Then they made a further mockery of His royal dignity, by each making pretended obeisance, as at a royal levee; and in place of salute each spit in the bruised face, and each with the mock sceptre smote the thorny crown more firmly on the bleeding, bruised head. What a scene! A carnival of fiends, one would feel almost inclined to say. And yet not an impossible scene by any means—only a result that may be expected when men give themselves over to the power of the spirit of evil. Such scenes were too common in those days; and in these times, when the Gospel is denied, as in the great French Revolution—or where it never had power, as in the scenes of torture among the North American Indians—the same diabolic spirit may be seen in its awful working. But amid it all Christ stood in silent dignity. “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth.” For He was a voluntary sufferer for the sins of men. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Some would say, No! Not for this end did He suffer and die, but that He might overcome sin in the future by winning men from its love and power by His holy example. Therefore, as Christ sealed the truth of His mission by His sufferings and death, it might be said He died for sin, and to take away sin. Now, no doubt this is in part true, as Christ’s own words will show: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” But surely it is not all the truth. The death of the innocent Jesus would scarcely be called a proof of the divine origin of His mission, or a confirmation of the truth of the Gospel.[7] Indeed, the very opposite was the effect. “The cross of Christ was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness.” And if it is further said that the resurrection was a confirmation of the truth of Christ’s teaching and must needs have been preceded by death, then we may ask, What need was there that the death should have been so shameful and the antecedent sufferings so cruel? No! None of those attempts to escape from acknowledging the sacrificial and atoning purpose of Christ’s death can stand examination. When will men learn that one aspect only of the Redeemer’s atoning work can never exhaust its meaning? And yet Christian men have striven, have excommunicated, and have been excommunicated because of their devotion to one view of the death of Christ, as if it included all the truth. We must learn that His redeeming work was many-sided, that we cannot thoroughly comprehend that infinite depth of divine wisdom displayed in it, which even the angels desire to look into. Certainly one of the most prominent views Scripture gives us of these sufferings of Jesus is that of their expiatory nature. “He appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” “He was delivered for our offences.” “This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sin.” This truth is written prominently in the history of Calvary. And is it not this view of the Saviour’s sufferings that hath brought deepest peace and truest joy to His followers and to repentant sinners in all the Christian ages? “Behold the man!”—the spiritual Adam, representative of humanity; the God man who, in oneness with men, willingly submitted to endure their woes, and by His sacrifice of Himself brought in for them eternal salvation, having magnified the eternal law and borne for man the effects of sin, pain and sorrow, shame and agony, the hiding of the Father’s face, death and the grave that they might have life. “Behold,” therefore, in this suffering man “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”

[7] To those without, i.e. to those to whom belief in it is of vital importance.

IV. We behold here the Judge of quick and dead.—Behold in this afflicted man the Judge of quick and dead. “Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him.” “And, behold, I am coming quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.” “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Pilate on his judgment seat and the chief priests and rulers in the Sanhedrin imagined that they were the judges on that memorable occasion. But how blinded men are. In reality they were being judged, and their Judge stood before them in the form of that meek, afflicted man. Latter-day Pilates and rulers might well take this truth to heart! And what is our attitude in view of His promise, “I am coming quickly”? Would it be that of Wesley, who, when asked, “Suppose you were summoned to meet the eternal Judge at twelve o’clock to-day, what would you do?” replied, “I should do what I am doing now.”

Lessons.—“Behold the man,” and let the view of that unspeakable love of His move your hearts to lively gratitude and self-denying service. Has it not been well said, that often men show more gratitude toward the friend from whom they have received one benefit than to the God from whom they received all? “God spared not His own Son.” “Even Christ pleased not Himself.” And how do His professed followers often show their love and gratitude? By a languid attendance at divine ordinances, by the giving of a perhaps grudging dole for the Work of Christ’s kingdom; there, it may be, their tribute of gratitude begins and ends. Let our conscience speak to us as we view this scene on Gabbatha! Some of you may have read the story of the manner in which Count Zinzendorf was finally led to found the Moravian Church. He was one day walking through the picture gallery at Düsseldorf revolving various projects in his thought. He was a good man, a true disciple, but had not yet risen to the full consecration of his noble work. He was that day suddenly arrested before a notable Ecce Homo—a picture of the Redeemer with the crown of thorns on His bleeding head. The artist’s legend was, “All this have I done for thee: what hast thou done for Me?” The picture sermon went home. Zinzendorf there and then entreated the Lord to grant him “the fellowship of His sufferings,” and the result was the founding of Unitas Fratrum, the United Brethren, the most missionary Church in the world. It is the want of faith and love that keeps men from a full consecration. May we have faith to realise more fully the wonder of that love; and may that love constrain us to do our Father’s will and finish His work, following our Redeemer!

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh_19:1. The punishment of scourging.—The fact that among the Romans there was a twofold scourging—the one which served for torture (quæstio per tormenta) or for punishment, the other as preparatory to execution (comp. Sepp, 509)—may enlighten us upon the difficulty which has arisen between the narratives of the first two Evangelists and that of St. John, in reference to the scourging of Jesus. We may beforehand, for instance, suppose without difficulty that Pilate allowed the same scourging which was at first intended as torture or as punishment, to satisfy the thirst for revenge of the Jews, to pass subsequently, when the execution was decided on, as its introduction. Thus the Evangelists might apprehend this scourging according to its different aspects. John regarded it according to the original motives under which Pilate had arranged it, and Luke also brings out this reference strongly (Luk_23:16). Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, represent the scourging, in its world-historical importance, as preparatory to, and the beginning of, the sufferings of the cross of Christ. Thence it is plain, moreover, that they take it away from its original connection, and place it at the close of the sufferings of Christ before Pilate’s tribunal. Nay, even the apparent differences between the specifications of time of John and of Mark respectively, become set aside by this observation. To suppose a twofold scourging, as Ebrard does (433), is not allowable, for this reason, that the act of scourging, of which the first Evangelist speaks, perfectly resembles that described by John, and referred to by Luke in its issue in the history of the crowning with thorns.—J. P. Lange.

Joh_19:7. The clearness of our Lord’s claim, to be the Son of God.—If indeed, in His dealings with the multitude, our Lord had been really misunderstood, He had a last opportunity of explaining Himself when He was arraigned before the Sanhedrin. Nothing is more certain than that, whatever was the dominant motive that prompted our Lord’s apprehension, the Sanhedrin condemned Him because He claimed divinity. The members of the court stated this before Pilate. “We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” Their language would have been meaningless if they had understood by the “Son of God” nothing more than the ethical or theocratic sonship of their own ancient kings and saints. If the Jews held Christ to be a false Messiah, a false prophet, a blasphemer, it was because He claimed literal divinity. True, the Messiah was to have been divine. But the Jews had secularised the Messianic promises; and the Sanhedrin held Jesus Christ to be worthy of death under the terms of the Mosaic law, as expressed in Lev_24:16 and Deu_13:5. After the witnesses had delivered their various and inconsistent testimonies, the high priest arose and said, “I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy” (Mat_26:63-65). The blasphemy did not consist, either in the assumption of the title Son of man, or in the claim to be Messiah, or even, excepting indirectly, in that which, by the terms of Daniel’s prophecy, was involved in Messiahship, namely, the commission to judge the world. It was the further claim to be the Son of God, not in any moral or theocratic, but in the natural sense, at which the high priest and his coadjutors professed to be so deeply shocked. The Jews felt, as our Lord intended, that the Son of man in Daniel’s prophecy could not but be divine; they knew what He meant by appropriating such words as applicable to Himself. Just as one body of Jews had endeavoured to destroy Jesus when He called God His Father in such sense as to claim divinity (Joh_5:17-18); and another when He contrasted His eternal being with the fleeting life of Abraham in a distant past (Joh_8:58-59); and another when He termed Himself Son of God, and associated Himself with His Father as being dynamically and so substantially one (Joh_10:30-31; Joh_10:39); just as they murmured at His pretension to have “come down from heaven” (Joh_6:42), and detected blasphemy in His authoritative remission of sins (Mat_9:3),—so when, before His judges, He admitted that He claimed to be the Son of God, all further discussion was at an end. The high priest exclaimed, “Ye have heard His blasphemy”; and they all condemned Him to be guilty of death. And a very accomplished Jew of our own day, M. Salvador, has shown that this question of our Lord’s divinity was the real point at issue at that momentous trial. He maintains that a Jew had no logical alternative to belief in the Godhead of Jesus Christ except the imperative duty of putting Him to death.—H. P. Liddon.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh_19:5. “Behold the man!”—From the brief and very pregnant form of the words, it might perhaps be concluded that a better feeling had overcome [Pilate’s] worldliness in this expression: the latter feeling would have probably been uttered in a more declamatory manner. The exclamation of the judge has been with reason regarded by the Church as an involuntary prophecy of this moment of suffering, extorted from his feeling by the power of Christ’s appearance. His first conscious feeling is connected with the most unconscious by a series of links. “Behold the man!” It is as if Pilate would exclaim, There He is—the poor man—a spectacle for compassion; as if in this deepest misery the Man first of all appeared to us again in His full human form, and awakened our entire human feeling. The Roman knew not in what measure he prophesied. According to his conscious purpose, however, he wished, doubtless, by his words to preach sympathy and compassion to the high priests and their attendants, by the sensible effects of Christ’s appearance. But the heathen man of the world preached humanity in vain to the Jewish hierarchs. As soon as they saw the man appear in the crown of thorns, they became deeply irritated, and cried, “Crucify, crucify Him!” The sorrowing Messiah is to the Greeks foolishness—to the Jews an offence: this moment proves this. The heathenish mind, in its disposition to worship fortune, and to count misfortune a sin, or even as a curse, cannot at all perceive the power in the idea of triumphant and redeeming sorrow: therefore it is laughable to it; and the representation of this idea seems to be involved in a foolish fanaticism, which deserves compassion. But the Jewish mind is able to perceive so much of the truth of that idea, and of its confirmation in Christ, that the momentary appearance of it results in offending and agitating it in the strongest manner in its ardent but darkened worldliness. Therefore Jesus, in the present pomp in which He appeared as the jest of the heathen world, and in Him the idea of the King of the Jews served for a mockery to the heathen world—became to them more odious than ever. It is extremely characteristic that immediately a frightful paroxysm of rage was developed in them at this view of Jesus—a hurricane which carried them altogether into the position of the heathens, without their being conscious of it, seeing that they now themselves dictated for the Lord the heathen punishment of the cross in the cry and roar, “Crucify, crucify Him!” This was the second degree of rejection wherewith the Jews delivered their Messiah to Pilate.… The Jewish hierarchy is the most deeply guilty; next to that, the people of the promise, which is here changed by its own agency into a people of the curse. It cannot, indeed, be asserted that here it was, in the main, the same voices which cried out the “Crucify Him! crucify Him!” against Jesus which a few days before hailed Him with the hosanna. There the best of the people appeared in the foreground, here the worst; and only a medley of slavish and wavering minds would find themselves here again among the rabble of the high council, who had then attached themselves to the royal priestly people of the Messiah. But where in this case were the better ones who had shouted hosanna? Thrice resounded the great liturgy of death spoken by the Jews on the temple-mountain against the Messiah, “Crucify, crucify Him!” There was heard no contradiction. Thus had the elected people fulfilled against itself the doom of self-rejection. Moreover, even the heathen world had doomed itself. Greek civilisation and Roman justice had become, in the person of Pilate, the servants of the Jewish fanaticism which was hostile to Christ. The mighty worldly pomp, the nursery of civic right, had become a slavish executioner of a degraded priestly caste, and of an inquisition hostile to humanity. The entire old world accomplished the judgment of self-rejection in sealing the doom of the Prince of the new world, the inheritor of its blessing. The rejection of Jesus was actually declared when Pilate released to the Jews their Barabbas. The spirit of Barabbas, the seditious man and the murderer, became thenceforth the gloomy genius of the political life of the people. This is proved by the history of the Jewish war. But whilst he was set free in triumph, Jesus was once more stripped of the soldier’s cloak and dressed in His own clothes, and was hurried away to the place of execution. Certainly this condemnation and leading to death of Jesus resulted, moreover, in the redemption and release of still another Barabbas, namely, of fallen man in general, as having committed sedition against God and murder against its brethren, and thereupon is fallen into the heavy bondage of sin. Christ goes away to release the prisoners who long for freedom.—J. P. Lange

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

JESUS SENTENCED

Joh 19:1 - Joh 19:16.

The struggle between the vacillation of Pilate and the fixed malignity of the rulers is the principal theme of this fragment of Christ’s judicial trial. He Himself is passive and all but silent, speaking only one sentence of calm rebuke. The frequent changes of scene from within to without the praetorium indicate the steps in the struggle, and vividly reflect the irresolution of Pilate. These changes may help to mark the stages in the narrative.

I. The cruelties and indignities in Joh 19:1 - Joh 19:3 were inflicted within the ‘palace,’ to which Pilate, with his prisoner, had returned after the popular vote for Barabbas.

John makes that choice of the robber the reason for the scourging of Jesus. His thought seems to be that Pilate, having failed in his attempt to get rid of the whole difficulty by releasing Jesus, according to the ‘custom,’ ordered the scourging, in hope that the lighter punishment might satisfy the turbulent crowd, whom he wished to humour, while, if possible, saving their victim. It was the expedient of a weak and cynical nature, and, like all weak attempts at compromise between right and wrong, only emboldened the hatred which it was meant to appease. If by clamour the rulers had succeeded in getting Pilate to scourge a man whom he thought innocent, they might well hope to get him to crucify, if they clamoured loudly and long enough.

One attitude only befitted Pilate, since he did not in the least believe that Jesus threatened the Roman supremacy; namely, to set Him at liberty, and let the disappointed rulers growl like wild beasts robbed of their prey. But he did not care enough about a single half-crazy Jewish peasant to imperil his standing well with his awkward subjects, for the sake of righteousness. The one good which Rome could give to its vassal nations was inflexible justice and a sovereign law; but in Pilate’s action there was not even the pretence of legality. Tricks and expedients run through it all, and never once does he say, This is the law, this is justice, and by it I stand or fall.

The cruel scourging, which, in Roman hands, was a much more severe punishment than the Jewish ‘beating with rods’ and often ended in death, was inflicted on the silent, unresisting Christ, not because His judge thought that it was deserved, but to please accusers whose charge he knew to be absurd. The underlings naturally followed their betters’ example, and after they had executed Pilate’s orders to scourge, covered the bleeding wounds with some robe, perhaps ragged, but of the royal colour, and crushed the twisted wreath of thorn-branch down on the brows, to make fresh wounds there. The jest of crowning such a poor, helpless creature as Jesus seemed to them, was exactly on the level of such rude natures, and would be the more exquisite to them because it was double-barrelled, and insulted the nation as well as the ‘King.’ They came in a string, as the tense of the original word suggests, and offered their mock reverence. But that sport became tame after a little, and mockery passed into violence, as it always does in such natures. These rough legionaries were cruel and brutal, and they were unconscious witnesses to His Kingship as founded on suffering; but they were innocent as compared with the polished gentleman on the judgment-seat who prostituted justice, and the learned Pharisees outside who were howling for blood.

II. In Joh 19:4 - Joh 19:8 the scene changes again to without the palace, and shows us Pilate trying another expedient, equally in vain.

The hesitating governor has no chance with the resolute, rooted hate of the rulers. Jesus silently and unresistingly follows Pilate from the hall, still wearing the mockery of royal pomp. Pilate had calculated that the sight of Him in such guise, and bleeding from the lash, might turn hate into contempt, and perhaps give a touch of pity. ‘Behold the man!’ as he meant it, was as if he had said, ‘Is this poor, bruised, spiritless sufferer worth hate or fear? Does He look like a King or a dangerous enemy?’ Pilate for once drops the scoff of calling Him their King, and seeks to conciliate and move to pity. The profound meanings which later ages have delighted to find in his words, however warrantable, are no part of their design as spoken, and we gain a better lesson from the scene by keeping close to the thoughts of the actors. What a contrast between the vacillation of the governor, on the one hand, afraid to do right and reluctant to do wrong, and the dogged malignity of the rulers and their tools on the other, and the calm, meek endurance of the silent Christ, knowing all their thoughts, pitying all, and fixed in loving resolve, even firmer than the rulers’ hate, to bear the utmost, that He might save a world!

Some pity may have stirred in the crowd, but the priests and their immediate dependants silenced it by their yell of fresh hate at the sight of the prisoner. Note how John gives the very impression of the fierce, brief roar, like that of wild beasts for their prey, by his ‘Crucify, crucify!’ without addition of the person. Pilate lost patience at last, and angrily and half seriously gives permission to them to take the law into their own hands. He really means, ‘I will not be your tool, and if my conviction of “the Man’s” innocence is to be of no account, you must punish Him; for I will not.’ How far he meant to abdicate authority, and how far he was launching sarcasms, it is difficult to say. Throughout he is sarcastic, and thereby indicates his weakness, indemnifying himself for being thwarted by sneers which sit so ill on authority.

But the offer, or sarcasm, whichever it was, missed fire, as the appeal to pity had done, and only led to the production of a new weapon. In their frantic determination to compass Jesus’ death, the rulers hesitate at no degradation; and now they adduced the charge of blasphemy, and were ready to make a heathen the judge. To ask a Roman governor to execute their law on a religious offender, was to drag their national prerogative in the mud. But formal religionists, inflamed by religious animosity, are often the degraders of religion for the gratification of their hatred. They are poor preservers of the Church who call on the secular arm to execute their ‘laws.’ Rome went a long way in letting subject peoples keep their institutions; but it was too much to expect Pilate to be the hangman for these furious priests, on a charge scarcely intelligible to him.

What was Jesus doing while all this hell of wickedness and fury boiled round Him? Standing there, passive and dumb, ‘as a sheep before her shearers,’ Himself is the least conspicuous figure in the history of His own trial. In silent communion with the Father, in silent submission to His murderers, in silent pity for us, in silent contemplation of ‘the joy that was set before Him,’ He waits on their will.

III. Once more the scene changes to the interior of the praetorium {Joh 19:9 - Joh 19:11}.

The rulers’ words stirred a deepened awe in Pilate. He ‘was the more afraid’; then he had been already afraid. His wife’s dream, the impression already produced by the person of Jesus, had touched him more deeply than probably he himself was aware of; and now this charge that Jesus had ‘made Himself the Son of God’ shook him. What if this strange man were in some sense a messenger of the gods? Had he been scourging one sent from them? Sceptical he probably was, and therefore superstitious; and half-forgotten and disbelieved stories of gods who had ‘come down in the likeness of men’ would swim up in his memory. If this Man were such, His strange demeanour would be explained. Therefore he carried Jesus in again, and, not now as judge, sought to hear from His own lips His version of the alleged claim.

Why did not Jesus answer such a question? His silence was answer; but, besides that, Pilate had not received as he ought what Jesus had already declared to him as to His kingdom and His relation to ‘the truth,’ and careless turning away from Christ’s earlier words is righteously and necessarily punished by subsequent silence, if the same disposition remains. That it did remain, Christ’s silence is proof. Had there been any use in answering, Pilate would not have asked in vain. If Jesus was silent, we may be sure that He who sees all hearts and responds to all true desires was so, because He knew that it was best to say nothing. The question of His origin had nothing to do with Pilate’s duty then, which turned, not on whence Jesus had come, but on what Pilate believed Him to have done, or not to have done. He who will not do the plain duty of the moment has little chance of an answer to his questions about such high matters.

The shallow character of the governor’s awe and interest is clearly seen from the immediate change of tone to arrogant reminder of his absolute authority. ‘To me dost Thou not speak?’ The pride of offended dignity peeps out there. He has forgotten that a moment since he half suspected that the prisoner, whom he now seeks to terrify with the cross, and to allure with deliverance, was perhaps come from some misty heaven. Was that a temper which would have received Christ’s answer to his question?

But one thing he might be made to perceive, and therefore Jesus broke silence for the only time in this section, and almost the only time before Pilate. He reads the arrogant Roman the lesson which he and all his tribe in all lands and ages need-that their power is derived from God, therefore in its foundation legitimate, and in its exercise to be guided by His will and used for His purposes. It was God who had brought the Roman eagles, with their ravening beaks and strong claws, to the Holy City. Pilate was right in exercising jurisdiction over Jesus. Let him see that he exercised justice, and let him remember that the power which he boasted that he ‘had’ was ‘given.’ The truth as to the source of power made the guilt of Caiaphas or of the rulers the greater, inasmuch as they had neglected the duties to which they had been appointed, and by handing over Jesus on a charge which they themselves should have searched out, had been guilty of ‘theocratic felony.’ This sudden flash of bold rebuke, reminding Pilate of his dependence, and charging him with the lesser but yet real ‘sin,’ went deeper than any answer to his question would have done, and spurred him to more earnest effort, as John points out. He ‘sought to release Him,’ as if formerly he had been rather simply unwilling to condemn than anxious to deliver.

IV. So the scene changes again to outside.

Pilate went out alone, leaving Jesus within, and was met before he had time, as would appear, to speak, by the final irresistible weapon which the rulers had kept in reserve. An accusation of treason was only too certain to be listened to by the suspicious tyrant who was then Emperor, especially if brought by the authorities of a subject nation. Many a provincial governor had had but a short shrift in such a case, and Pilate knew that he was a ruined man if these implacable zealots howling before him went to Tiberius with such a charge. So the die was cast. With rage in his heart, no doubt, and knowing that he was sacrificing ‘innocent blood’ to save himself, he turned away from the victorious mob, apparently in silence, and brought Jesus out once more. He had no more words to say to his prisoner. Nothing remained but the formal act of sentence, for which he seated himself, with a poor assumption of dignity, yet feeling all the while, no doubt, what a contemptible surrender he was making.

Judgment-seats and mosaic pavements do not go far to secure reverence for a judge who is no better than an assassin, killing an innocent man to secure his own ends. Pilate’s sentence fell most heavily on himself. If ‘the judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted,’ he is tenfold condemned when the innocent is sentenced.

Pilate returned to his sarcastic mood when he returned to his injustice, and found some satisfaction in his old jeer, ‘your King.’ But the passion of hatred was too much in earnest to be turned or even affected by such poor scoffs, and the only answer was the renewed roar of the mob, which had murder in its tone. The repetition of the governor’s taunt, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ brought out the answer in which the rulers of the nation in their fury blindly flung away their prerogative. It is no accident that it was ‘the chief priests’ who answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ Driven by hate, they deliberately disown their Messianic hope, and repudiate their national glory. They who will not have Christ have to bow to a tyrant. Rebellion against Him brings slavery.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 19

1. Behold the Man! (Joh 19:1-7. )

2. The Last Question of Pilate and Christ’s Last Word. (Joh 19:8-11.)

3. Delivered up and Crucified. (Joh 19:12-18.)

4. The Title upon the Cross. (Joh 19:19-22.)

5. The Parted Garments. (Joh 19:23-24.)

6. Behold Thy Son! Behold Thy Mother! (Joh 19:25-27.)

7. It is Finished! (Joh 19:28-30.)

8. His Legs not Broken. (Joh 19:31-33.)

9. The Testimony of the Scriptures. (Joh 19:34-37.)

10. The Burial in the Garden. (Joh 19:38-42.)

The cruel scourging, such as cruel Rome had invented, then took place. It often was so severe that prisoners died under the awful blows. What pen can ever describe the suffering and the shame He endured! Perhaps Pilate thought this awful scourging would satisfy the Jews, so that the Lord would be released. Then the mockery followed. The crown of thorns, the emblem of the curse of sin, was put upon His holy brow. The sin-bearer wore that crown for us, that we might wear a crown of glory. When He comes again He comes with many crowns. (Rev 19:12.) They put the robe of purple, the imperial color, upon Him; ridiculed and smote Him. Then Pilate led Him forth and said: “Behold the Man.” Was it pity or contempt? Most likely both. But oh! the sight! To see Him, Who is the Life and the Light, the Holy One, the Creator, treated thus by the creature of the dust! Satan’s power energized the chief priests and officers, and the answer they give as they behold “the Man of Sorrows” is “Crucify Him!” “He made Himself the Son of God” was their wicked accusation. He is the Son of God and because He had come in marvelous love to this poor lost world, He was condemned to die.

The last word the Lord Jesus spoke to Pilate is found in Joh 19:11. The authority given from above is from God, Who spared not His own Son; but the Jews, who delivered Him up to Pilate, have the greater sin. Once more we hear Pilate’s voice, “Behold your King!” They answer: “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” And then again: “Shall I crucify your King?” The answer of complete apostasy follows: “We have no King but Caesar.” Pilate is lost; he delivered Him to be crucified. We see the Lord bearing His cross to the place of the skull, Golgotha. Who can describe His agony and His sufferings as He was lifted up! Two others were crucified with Him. “He was numbered with transgressors.” (Isa 53:12.)

Above His cross was the title written by Pilate himself. It was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. There is no discrepancy between the different Gospels, because they give the inscriptions in different words. Pilate worded them differently in the three languages. Matthew and John report the Hebrew title; Mark gives the Latin and Luke the Greek inscription. (Matthew was guided to leave out “of Nazareth.” This is in full accord with the purpose of his Gospel.)

The coat (robe) without seam, woven from the top throughout, is only mentioned by John. The German expositor Bengel calls attention to the fact that our Lord never “rent” His garments in sorrow like Job, Jacob, Joshua, Caleb, Jephthah, Hezekiah, Mordecai, Ezra, Paul and Barnabas. The seamless robe is typical of His perfect righteousness, which now was stripped from Him by man’s hand and thus He received the place as the evildoer. Then the prophecy of Psa 22:18 was literally fulfilled. Could there be anything else but a literal fulfillment of Prophecy?

“The importance of interpreting prophecy literally, and not figuratively, is strongly shown in this verse. The system of interpretation which unhappily prevails among many Christians--I mean the system of spiritualizing away all the plain statements of the prophets, and accommodating them to the Church of Christ-- can never be reconciled with such a verse as this. The plain, literal meaning of words should evidently be the meaning placed on all the statements of Old Testament prophecy. This remark of course does not apply to symbolical prophecies, such as those of the seals, trumpets, and vials in Revelation.”

And then the loving tenderness He manifested towards His mother. (Here, with one exception in the first chapter of Acts, we part with Mary; she is not mentioned in the after-books. In all the doctrine of the epistles she has no place. Blessed among women as she is surely by her connection with the human nature of our Lord, the entire silence of Scripture as to her in that fullness of Christian truth which it was the office of the Spirit of truth to communicate is the decisive overthrow of the whole Babel-structure of Mariolatry which Romanism has built up upon a mere sand-foundation. She remains for us in the word of God, a simple woman rejoicing in God her Saviour,--a stone in the temple to His praise, and with no temple of her own. To use the grace of the Redeemer in taking flesh among us by her means to exalt the mother to the dishonor of Christ her Lord is truly a refined wickedness worthy of the arch-deceiver of mankind.--Numerical Bible.)

John has nothing to say of the darkness which enshrouded the Cross. Nor do we find here the cry of the forsaken One: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” The Father did not forsake the Son; this was His statement in Joh 16:32. “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.” It is not so much the awful thirst connected with crucifixion which is viewed here, as it is His perfect obedience to do the Father’s will and that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. “He bowed His head and gave up the spirit.” In Luke’s Gospel we read that He said: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (23:46); John says nothing of Him commending His spirit, for as the Son of God He did not need to commend Himself to the Father. The final word preceding the giving up of His spirit is the majestic “It is finished.” In the Greek it is but one word, “tetelestai.” Never before and never after was ever spoken one word which contains and means so much. It is the shout of the mighty Victor. And who can measure the depths of this one word!

Psa 34:20 was fulfilled; “A bone of Him shall not be broken.” Scripture had to be fulfilled. The spear, which pierced His blessed side, fully evidences that He had died. The blood and water have a most precious meaning. That it was a Supernatural thing we do not doubt. The blood stands for the atonement, which had been made; the water for cleansing. The Jews have a strange tradition that from the rock which was smitten by Moses in the wilderness there flowed, when first smitten, blood and water. (Shemoth Rabba.) John alone mentions this blessed fact. “It is a beautiful testimony of divine grace, answering the last insult man could heap upon Him. They drove Him outside the camp, put Him to death on the Cross, and then, to make His death doubly sure, the soldier pierced His side. Salvation was God’s answer to man’s insult, for the blood and water were the signs of it.” John speaks of this never to be forgotten occurrence, in his first Epistle (5:6). There he mentions water first. It denotes purifying which man needs, and that has come with all its attending blessings by His precious blood. But notice John writes: “And again another scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” He does not say, another Scripture was fulfilled. Zec 12:10 was not fulfilled when He died, but will be fulfilled when He comes again and the believing remnant of Israel mourns for Him.

Nicodemus is mentioned for the third and last time in the Gospel. He came to Jesus by night and heard the Gospel

message from His lips. Later he ventured a weak and timid defense (7:48-53); here he comes out boldly honoring the body of Jesus. Surely he believed and therefore confessed the Lord.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

JESUS SCOURGED AND MOCKED

Mar 15:19; Joh 19:1-3; Mat 27:26-30. “And having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him up, that He may be crucified.” As it was customary with the Romans to precede the crucifixion of condemned criminals by this awful and cruel scourging, Pilate now proceeds to have Jesus scourged, thus publicly demonstrating His condemnation, and afterward delivering Him up to be crucified pursuant to criminal law, at the same time congratulating himself on the presumed clemency of the Jews to permit His release. This was Pilate’s weakness. He here let go his grip, thinking to regain it, but failed.

“Then the soldiers of the governor, taking Jesus into the judgment-hall, gathered round Him the whole band; and divesting Him, put on Him a scarlet robe; and plaiting a crown of thorns, placed it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and bowing the knee before Him, continued to mock Him, saying, Hall, King of the Jews. Spitting upon Him, they repeatedly took the reed, and struck Him on the head.” All this pomp, pageantry, and abuse, dressing Him up like a king, paying Him royal adoration, at the same time indulging in the vilest insult and abuse, was their way of humoring what they regarded as a ridiculous joke; i. e., His claim to be King. While Pilate, especially since the reception of his wife’s warning letter, was awfully troubled with suspicion and apprehension that He might be superhuman, and even one of the Roman gods, as their poets had described their deities as coming down in human form and walking over the earth ever and anon, the soldiers looked upon Him as a regular oddity, fanatically dreaming that He was King of the Jews. Consequently they intensely enjoyed amusement at His expense, dressing Him up like a king, with a crown on His head and a scepter in His hand, and His loyal subjects round Him, bowing the knee and doing homage to His Majesty.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19:1-16 Jesus was also beaten after his sentencing (Mark 15:15), but here John records an earlier beating, which was likely Pilate’s attempt to show that Jesus had been punished and could be released (John 19:4). When this failed, Pilate passed his sentence and handed Jesus over to the Jewish leaders for crucifixion (19:16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh_19:1-3. Οὖν] After the miscarriage of this attempt at deliverance, Pilate will at least make this further venture to see whether the compassion of the Jews is not to be awakened. Hence he causes the scourging to be carried out on Jesus person, to which punishment He in any case, if He were to be crucified, must be subjected; and hopes, in the folly of his moral vacillation, by means of such maltreatment, although inflicted without sentence and legality, to satisfy the Jews, and avert something worse. Comp. on Mat_27:26. With a like purpose in view, he also gives Him up to the contumelious treatment of the soldiers, who deck Him out as king (Joh_18:39) with a crown of thorns (see on Mat_27:29) and a purple mantle (comp. on Mat_27:28; Mar_15:17).

ἔλαβεν] shows the simple style of the narrative.

κ. ἤρχ. πρ. αὐτ.] See the critical notes. It is a pictorial trait. He stands arrayed before them; they go up to Him and do obeisance to Him!

ῥαπίσματα] As in Joh_18:22. Codd. of It. add in faciem.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 19:1 . Τότε οὖν … ἐμαστίγωσε . Keim (vi. 99) thinks that Pilate at this point pronounced his “condemno” and “ibis in crucem,” and that the scourging was preparatory to the crucifixion. This might seem to be warranted by Mark’s very condensed account, Joh 15:15 . φραγελλώσας ἵνα σταυρωθῇ (according to the Roman law by which, according to Jerome, it was decreed “ut qui crucifigeretur, prius flagellis verberaretur”; so Josephus, B. J. , Joh 19:11 , and Philo, ii. 528). But according to John the scourging was meant as a compromise by Pilate; as in Luk 23:22 : “what evil hath He done? I found in Him nothing worthy of death; I will therefore scourge Him and let Him go.” Neither, then, as part of the capital punishment, nor in order to elicit the truth (quaestio per tormenta); but in the ill-judged hope that this minor punishment might satisfy the Jews, Pilate ordered the scourging. The victim of this severe punishment was bound in a stooping attitude to a low column (column of the Flagellation, now shown in Church of Holy Sepulchre) and beaten with rods or scourged with whips, the thongs of which were weighted with lead, and studded with sharp-pointed pieces of bone, so that frightful laceration followed each stroke. Death frequently resulted. καὶ οἱ στρατιῶται … ῥαπίσματα , “and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns” in mockery of the claim to royalty (for a similar instance, see Keim, vi. 121). Of the suggestions regarding the particular species of thorn, it may be said with Bynaeus ( De Morte Christi , iii. 145) “nemo attulit aliquid certi”. ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν , “a purple robe,” probably a small scarlet military cloak, or some cast-off sagum , or paludamentum , worn by officers and subject kings.

Joh 18:28 to Joh 19:16 . Jesus before Pilate .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

19:1.] The reason or purpose of this scourging does not here appear; but in Luk 23:21-23 we read that after the choice of Barabbas, Pilate asked them what should be done with Jesus? And when they demanded that He should be crucified, Pilate, after another assertion of his innocence, said παιδεύσας αὐτὸν ἀπολύσω. Thus it is accounted for.

2,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus is Scourged and Mocked by the Soldiers (19:1-5). Pilate Makes Another Unavailing Attempt to Save Him (vv. 6, 7)

19:1. Pilate went back into the palace, where Jesus was, and ordered Him to be scourged, in the hope (apparently) that this sufficiently terrible punishment would satisfy the chief priests (cf. Luk 23:16). Mar 15:15, Mat 27:26 connect the scourging and the mock coronation with the death sentence (see on v. 16 below), but Jn.’s narrative is very explicit and is to be followed here. The “Pillar of the Scourging” is now shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but in the fourth century it was shown to the Bordeaux Pilgrim in the traditional house of Caiaphas. The original pillar to which the Lord was bound was, no doubt, inside the Prætorium. Cf. Mat 20:19, Luk 18:33.

1. Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν (Luk 23:34). This comes in the Lucan narrative, according to the received text, immediately after the statement that Jesus had been crucified between the two thieves. But that it is part of the original text of Lk. is uncertain; it is omitted by אaBD* and other authorities, and Westcott-Hort “cannot doubt that it comes from an extraneous source.”1 Wherever it comes from, whether the knowledge of it came to Lk. from some eye-witness, such as Joanna, or whether it found its way into the text of Lk., after his narrative was completed, it has an unmistakable note of genuineness.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wisdom of the flesh, chooseth of two evils the least, but God curseth that same wisdom.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

CHAPTER XIX.

Jesus is scourged, crowned with thorns, and mocked by the

soldiers, 1-3.

He to brought forth by Pilate, wearing the purple robe; and the

Jews clamour for his death, 4-8.

Conversation between our Lord and Pilate, 9-11.

Pilate expostulates with the Jews on their barbarous demands;

but they become more inveterate, and he delivers Christ into

their hands, 12-16.

He, bearing his cross, is led to Golgotha, and crucified, 17-22.

The soldiers cast lots for his raiment, 23, 24.

Jesus commends his mother to the care of John, 25-27.

Jesus thirsts, receives vinegar, and dies, 28-30.

The Jews request that the legs of those who were crucified might

be broken; the soldiers break those of the two thieves, and

pierce the side of Christ; the Scriptures fulfilled in these

acts, 31-37.

Joseph of Arimathea begs the body of Christ; and Nicodemus

brings spices to embalm it, 38-40.

He is laid in a new sepulchre, 41, 42.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIX.

Verse 1. Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him.] That is, caused him to be scourged: for we cannot with Bede suppose that he scourged him with his own hand.

As our Lord was scourged by order of Pilate, it is probable he was scourged in the Roman manner, which was much more severe than that of the Jews. The latter never gave more than thirty-nine blows; for the law had absolutely forbidden a man to be abused, or his flesh cut in this chastisement, De 25:3. The common method of whipping or flogging in some places, especially that of a military kind, is a disgrace to the nation where it is done, to the laws, and to humanity. See Mt 27:26, and the note there. Though it was customary to scourge the person who was to be crucified, yet it appears that Pilate had another end in view by scourging our Lord. He hoped that this would have satisfied the Jews, and that he might then have dismissed Jesus. This appears from Lu 23:16.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus. Pilate adheres to his original intention; but to the former ignominy he adds a second, hoping that, when Christ shall have been scourged, the Jews will be satisfied with this light chastisement. When he labors so earnestly, and without any success, we ought to recognize in this the decree of Heaven, by which Christ was appointed to death. Yet his innocence is frequently attested by the testimony of the judge, in order to assure us that he was free from all sin, and that he was substituted as a guilty person in the room of others, and bore the punishment due to the sins of others. We see also in Pilate a remarkable example of a trembling conscience. He acquits Christ with his mouth, and acknowledges that there is no guilt in him, and yet inflicts punishment on him, as if he were guilty. Thus, they who have not so much courage as to defend, with unshaken constancy, what is right, must be driven hither and thither, and led to adopt opposite and conflicting opinions.

We all condemn Pilate; and yet, it is shameful to relate that there are so many Pilates in the world, who scourge Christ, not only in his members, but also in his doctrine. There are many who, for the purpose of saving the life of those who are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, constrain them wickedly to deny Christ. What is this, but to expose Christ to ridicule, that he may lead a dishonorable life? Others select and approve of certain parts of the Gospel, and yet tear the whole Gospel to pieces. They think that they have done exceedingly well, if they have corrected a few gross abuses. It would be better that the doctrine should be buried for a time, than that it should be scourged in this manner, for it would spring up again ill spite of the devil and of tyrants; but nothing is more difficult than to restore it to its purity after having been once corrupted.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(1) Then Pilate therefore took Jesus.—For the connection and the force of “therefore” comp. Luk_23:21-23.

(1) That the earlier Gospels all make the darkness last from twelve until three (the sixth hour until the ninth hour). This is apparently intended to indicate the time of the Crucifixion, and they thus agree generally with St. John’s account.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Then Pilate therefore] Because the attempt to release Him in honour of the Feast had failed, Pilate now tries whether the severe and degrading punishment of scourging will not satisfy the Jews. In Pilate’s hands the boasted justice of Roman Law ends in the policy “What evil did He do? I found no cause of death in Him: I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go” (Luk_23:22). Scourging was part of Roman capital punishment, and had we only the first two Gospels we might suppose that the scourging was inflicted immediately before the crucifixion: but this is not stated, and S. John, combined with S. Luke, makes it clear that scourging was inflicted as a separate punishment in the hope that it would suffice. The supposition of a second scourging as part of the execution is unnecessary and improbable. Pilate, sick of the bloody work and angry at being forced to commit a judicial murder, would not have allowed it; and it may be doubted whether any human frame could have survived a Roman scourging twice in one day. One infliction was sometimes fatal; ille flagellis ad mortem caesus, Hor. S. 1. ii. 41. Comp. ‘horribile flagellum’ S. 1. iii. 119.

1–3. Inside the Praetorium; the scourging and mockery by the soldiers.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

Ver. 1. Took Jesus and scourged him] So God scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, Heb 12:6. One Son he had that was sine corruptione et flagitio, without corruption and shame, but none that was sine corruptione et flagello, withouit corruption and scourging. In him therefore that rule held not, Flagitium et flagellum, sicut acus et filum, Punishment follows sin, as the thread follows the needle.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the notes at Mat 27:26-30.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Pilate’s motive, for ordering our Saviour to be scourged, was no other than this; that the Jews might be satisfied with these his numerous sufferings, and might no longer seek his death. For the same reason, likewise, he permitted his soldiers to inflict those unheard of cruelties, related in the sequel. (St. Augustine, tract. 110. in Joan.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It was the custom of the Romans, when any one was to be crucified, first to scourge him; but (as it appears) Pilate ordered it, hoping that, though he could not prevail by any other art with them, yet by this he might; and they might possibly be satisfied with this lighter punishment; for it appeareth by Joh 19:4,12, that Pilate had a mind to release him, if he could have satisfied the Jews; though he had not courage enough to oppose the stream, and to do what himself thought was just, in despite of their opposition.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Crucifixion. The Burial

1-3. Inside the Prætorium. Scourging and mockery by the soldiers (Mat_27:26; Mar_15:15). It might be supposed from Mt and Mk that the scourging was only the ordinary preliminary to a Roman execution, but Luk_23:16 suggests that it was an act of mercy to Jesus intended to save His life. This the Fourth Gospel fully confirms, showing how Pilate tried to work upon the compassion of the multitude. The present narrative elucidates, without in any way contradicting, the synoptic account.

4-7. Outside the Prætorium. 'Behold the man.' 'Crucify Him.'

5. Behold the man!] Lat. Ecce homo. The words are gently and sympathetically spoken, and are intended to move compassion: 'This meek and suffering form cannot be the usurper of a throne.'

6. Take ye him] Pilate attempts to put the responsibility of shedding innocent blood upon the Jews.

7. We have a law] This confirms the evidence of the synoptists that Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, not simply for claiming to be the Messiah, but for claiming to be divine, and so blaspheming God (Mat_26:64; Mar_14:62; Luk_22:69).

7-11. Inside the Prætorium. Jesus refuses to satisfy Pilate's curiosity as to His origin.

8. The more afraid] viz. of allowing Jesus to be unjustly executed. In spite of superficial scepticism (Joh_19:38), Pilate was superstitious, and thought that Jesus might be some demigod or hero, some son of Jupiter, appearing in human form: cp. Act_14:11.

9. Whence art thou?] Art thou a man or a demigod?

11. Caiaphas was more guilty than Pilate. Pilate had lawful authority over Jesus, which, as ordained by God, was acquiesced in by Jesus Himself. Caiaphas had no such authority, for Caiaphas was only high priest, and Jesus was the Messiah. Again, Pilate was only Caiaphas's tool; he knew not the issues at stake in the rejection and condemnation of Jesus, but Caiaphas did know, or ought to have known.

From above] i.e. from God (cp. Rom_13:1), though some think that it means from the high priest Caiaphas. He that delivered me] i.e. not Judas, but Caiaphas.

12-16. Outside the Prætorium. Pilate yields to the clamour.

12. Thou art not Cæsar's (i.e. Tiberius's) friend] The Jews now appeal to Pilate's selfish fears. They threaten to accuse him of disloyalty to the emperor, a charge which the cruel and suspicious Tiberius was only too willing to receive. St. John alone brings out the leading motive which induced Pilate to yield.

13. Sat down] or, possibly, 'caused Jesus to sit down.' The Pavement] In front of a Roman judgment seat there was usually, at this period, a mosaic or tesselated pavement.

Hebrew] i.e. Aramaic. Gabbatha] 'Gabbath or Gabbetha means a rounded height' (Edersheim).

14. St. John sees prophetic significance in Pilate's words, 'Behold your king,' and therefore times them precisely. Pilate, the representative of the Gentile world, sees in Jesus, whom Israel rejects, the true king of Israel. The Passover is mentioned, because, in the evangelist's view, Jesus is the true Paschal lamb.

The preparation] i.e. the day before the Passover, extending from sunset on Thursday to sunset on Friday. Those, however, who think that the Passover took place on Thursday, translate, 'And it was the Friday in Passover week,' a possible, but improbable rendering: see Joh_18:28.

About the sixth hour] i.e. about noon. St. Mark says 'the third hour,' i.e. 9 a.m. (Mar_15:25). There is a discrepancy here of about 3 hours, which cannot be satisfactorily accounted for. However, Eastern ideas of time are vague, and if the actual time of crucifixion lay midway between 9 and 12, the discrepancy is not a very large one, and may possibly be explained by the complete absorption of the disciples in the dramatic incidents of our Lord's trial and execution, which rendered them unobservant of the flight of time. The discrepancy is not satisfactorily explained, by supposing (as some do) that St. John counts his hours from midnight, for this would throw back the crucifixion to 6 a.m., still leaving a three-hours' discrepancy.

16. Unto them] viz. to the chief priests, so that the crucifixion might appear their act, rather than Pilate's, who was heartily ashamed of it.

17-22. Jesus is crucified (cp. Mat_27:31; Mar_15:20; Luk_23:26). St. John, who is in thorough agreement with the synoptists, omits the incident of Simon of Cyrene (Mt, Mk, Lk), and the first 'word' on the cross (Lk), but adds the characteristic interview between the chief priests and Pilate.

19. Title] According to Roman custom an inferior officer bore before the condemned a block of white wood upon which was engraved the crime for which he suffered. The chief priests regarded Pilate's title as intended to insult the Jews by insinuating that the fitting ruler for such a nation was a condemned criminal.

20. Was nigh] a local detail, peculiar to this Gospel. Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin] It was written in three languages, so that it could be read by every one, including foreigners. The evangelist records the fact as symbolising the universality of the gospel.

22. What I have written] A touch true to life. Pilate, though morally a coward, was obstinate—'by nature obstinate and stubborn'; 'at once self-willed, and implacable' (Philo).

23, 24. The Parting of the Garments (Mat_27:35; Mar_15:24; Luk_23:34). St. John alone sees in this incident a fulfilment of Scripture, and this accounts for his minute description of it. The dress of a Jew consisted of, (1) the head-dress, (2) the shoes, (3) the outer garment, (4) the girdle, (5) the inner garment. There were four soldiers (cp. Act_12:4), who each took one part. There remained the seamless inner garment. For this they cast lots, fulfilling Psa_22:18, a Davidic psalm, from which the fourth 'Word' on the cross was taken. St. John quotes it from the LXX version. The garments of criminals were a perquisite of the executioners.

25-27. Jesus and His mother. This beautiful episode is peculiar to St. John. Its grace and naturalness, and withal its reticence, speak powerfully for its truth. It took place before the darkness, which St. John does not record.

25. His mother, etc.] According to the AV and RV, only three women are named, but most modern critics hold that four are intended. Translate, therefore, 'His mother, and His mother's sister' (i.e. Salome, the mother of the evangelist); 'and Mary the daughter of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala': see further on Mat_27:56. The wife of Cleophas (RV 'Clopas')] A more probable rendering is,' the daughter of Clopas.' Nothing is known of this Clopas, who (for reasons which cannot be fully given here, but which are accepted by most recent critics) is not to be identified with the Alphæus of Mat_10:3, or with the Cleopas of Luk_24:18. Clopas is a contraction of Cleopatros. For the view, now generally abandoned, that 'Mary of Clopas' was the mother of our Lord's 'brethren,' see the detached note on Mat_12:46-50.

26. Woman, behold, etc.] Although bearing the sins of the whole world, Jesus was not forgetful of human ties, and solemnly commended his mother to the care of the beloved disciple, St. John. St. John was comparatively wealthy, and was, moreover, the Virgin's nephew, so that the arrangement was in every way suitable. She was not commended to our Lord's 'brethren,' probably because they were not her own children, and were not believers: see on Mat_12:46-50. It is clear that St. Joseph was by this time dead. Unto his own home] This implies that St. John had a separate establishment at Jerusalem. This would help to explain his acquaintance with Annas (Joh_18:15), and his special information about our Lord's ministry at Jerusalem. When our Lord visited Jerusalem, St. John was probably His host.

28-30. Death of Jesus (Mat_27:45-55). The sayings 'I thirst' and 'It is finished' are peculiar to St. John. The former explains, what the synoptics do not, why 'one of them ran and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar,' etc. (Mat_27:48; Mar_15:35).

28. That the scripture, etc.] i.e. Psa_69:21 : cp. Psa_22:15. Although Jesus mainly based His Messianic claim on His fulfilment of the OT. Scriptures in their widest and most general sense (Luk_24:27; Act_10:43), yet He attached some importance (though less than the disciples did) to their literal and detailed fulfilment. I thirst] the fifth 'Word.' These words of human anguish, attesting Christ's true humanity, are significantly absent from the Docetic 'Gospel of Peter,' which says that on the cross He felt no pain. A vessel] The Roman soldiers often drank a sour wine, or vinegar, called posca. Ulpian says, 'Our soldiers are wont to drink wine and vinegar, one day wine, another day vinegar.' Hyssop] i.e. the reed mentioned by the synoptists. But Post (in HDB.) takes it to be a plant like peppermint, added to the wine to make it quench thirst better.

30. It is finished] (the sixth word). All My earthly work, including the world's redemption, is finished. The three synoptists mention Christ's loud cry, but only St. John mentions what He said. St. Luke alone adds the seventh word, which immediately followed. Gave up] The death was voluntary—'No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself' (Joh_10:18).

31-37. The sign of the pierced side. A section peculiar to St. John, and claiming expressly to be the testimony of an eyewitness. The knowledge of Jewish and Roman custom displayed in it speaks for its historical truth.

31. The preparation] i.e. the day before the sabbath (Friday). The sabbath began at sunset on Friday: see on Joh_19:14. That the bodies] An accurate account of the Jewish practice, as opposed to that of the Romans, who left corpses to rot on their crosses. The letter of the Law (Deu_21:22) required the removal of the bodies in all cases before night; much more was it necessary in this case for the bodies to be removed, seeing that the morrow was a sabbath and a high festival. An high day] It was at once the sabbath and the first day of unleavened bread. That their legs] A specially Roman practice. The criminal's legs were broken with heavy mallets to accelerate death.

34. Pierced his side] This was done to make sure of His death, and was a common practice at executions. The act was providentially ordered, that it might be made evident that the Resurrection was a resuscitation after a real death, not a mere recovery from a death-like stupor. Blood and water] No satisfactory medical explanation of this phenomenon has been given, though it has been suggested that the death of Christ was due to rupture of the heart consequent upon acute mental sufferings, and that thereupon the cavities of the heart became filled with a watery serum, which flowed out when Christ's side was pierced. The evangelist himself seems to have regarded the strange phenomenon as a miracle; he certainly saw in it a deep mystical significance, for which see on 1Jn_5:6.

35. The eyewitness claims to be the actual author of the Gospel, in spite of the third person: see Joh_21:24.

36. A bone of him] In the evangelist's view, Christ's legs were not broken, that it might be thereby made evident that He was the true paschal lamb. The Jews were specially forbidden to break the bones of the Paschal Lamb: see Exo_12:46.

37. They shall look] St. John quotes directly from the Heb. of Zec_12:10, which the LXX has mistranslated. We have here a point of contact with Rev_1:7.

38-42. The burial (see Mat_27:57; Mar_15:42; Luk_23:50). All is in agreement with the synoptists, but there are three additional particulars: (1) That Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathæa; (2) that the tomb was in a garden close by; (3) that the body was embalmed after the Jewish manner with 100 lb. weight of spices. These details imply special knowledge.

39. Myrrh and aloes] The myrrh and the aloe wood were reduced to powder, and inserted between the bandages, which were wound fold upon fold round the body. The enormous quantity (about 75 lb. avoirdupois) of spices, though surprising, is credible as the offering of two wealthy men. According to Jewish and general Eastern custom, the neck and face of the corpse were doubtless left bare: see on Joh_20:8.

42. The Jews' preparation] see on Joh_20:14.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-3. (d) Within the Praetorium. The unjust scourging, and the crown of thorns.

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. The force of the "therefore" may be seen in the foregoing observations (see especially Luk_23:23-25). He obviously fancied that the sight of their Victim"s utter humiliation, his reduction to the lowest possible position, would sate their burning rage. Scourging was the ordinary preliminary of crucifixion, and it might be regarded as Pilate"s verdict, or the conclusion of the whole matter. Roman and Greek historians confirm the custom (Josephus, "Ant.," 5:11.1; "Bell. Jud:," 2:14:9; comp. Mat_20:19 Luk_18:33) of scourging before crucifixion. It may have had a twofold motive one to glut the desire of inflicting physical torment and ignominy, and another allied to the offer of anodyne, to hasten the final sufferings of the cross. But the governor clearly thought that he might, by first humoring the populace, in releasing Barabbas from his confinement, and then reducing to a political absurdity the charge of treason against Caesar, save the suffering Prisoner from further wrong. The morbid suggestion of a mind accustomed to gladiatorial shows, and to the sudden changes of feeling which ran through the amphitheatres at the sight of blood, not only reveals the incapacity of Pilate to understand the difference between right and wrong, but proves that he had not sounded the depth of Jewish fanaticism, nor understood the people he had been ordered to coerce. John uses the word emastigwsen , a purely Greek word. Matthew and Mark, who refer to the scourging which preceded Christ"s being led to Calvary, use another official and technical word fragellwsav (identifiable with the Latin word flagellans). This does not require us to believe in two scourgings. Matthew and Mark simply refer to the scourging, which had been arbitrarily and informally inflicted, as John informs us, before the condemnation was pronounced. The Roman punishment flagell is inflicted hideous torture. "It was executed upon slaves with thin elm rods or straps having leaden balls or sharply pointed bones attached, and was delivered on the bent, bare, and tense back." The victim was fastened to a pillar for the-purpose, the like to which has actually been found by Sir C. Warren in a subterranean cavern, on the site of what Mr. Ferguson regards as the Tower of Antonia (Westcott). The flagellation usually brought blood with the first stroke, and reduced the back to a fearful state of raw and quivering flesh. Strong men often succumbed under it, while the indignity of such a proceeding in this case must have cut far deeper into the awful sanctuary of the Sufferer"s soul.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. xxvii, 26; Mark xv, 15.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Condemnation of Jesus.

The scourging of Jesus:

v. 1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him.

v. 2. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head; and they put on Him a purple robe

v. 3. and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote Him with their hands.

v. 4. Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring Him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him.

v. 5. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man!

v. 6. When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him.

Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him. Just as Pilate, throughout the proceedings, had shown himself a weak and vacillating fool, without the faintest sense of justice and firmness, so he continued in the last part of the trial, which was momentarily becoming a greater farce and travesty upon justice. He had declared his belief in the innocence of Christ, and yet he commits the crying injustice of having the prisoner scourged. It was a mere whim on his part, in order to placate the Jews and win their approval. He cherished the vain hope that they might be satisfied with the small punishment which he thereby meted out. It is a wrong policy to agree to a lesser injustice in order to avoid a greater and more serious. If one has the choice of two evils and then chooses the lesser, that is perfectly legitimate. But if a person loads his conscience with the guilt of a lesser sin in order possibly to avoid the greater, it must always be condemned. Thus it was with the scourging of Christ. This in itself was indescribable torture, for the prisoner was bowed down and fastened to a whipping-post, whereupon the naked back was cut to pieces with a scourge braided at one end, but with the loose strands weighted with small leaden spheres and sometimes with hooks, in order to lacerate the back more thoroughly. And the soldiers, in whose hands the prisoner was for the time being, were not satisfied with even this terrible cruelty, but invented a game of their own which they played with the uncomplaining Christ. Having braided or plaited a ring or crown of thorns, they pressed it down upon His head, causing the sharp points to penetrate through the tender skin into the sensitive flesh. To complete the mockery, they took an old purple mantle, which they may have found in some wardrobe, and threw it about Him. And finally they bowed their knees in mock homage, and hailed Him as the King of the Jews. It was a. form of blasphemy calculated also to express their contempt of the Jews. Tiring finally of their blasphemous sport, they rained blows upon His head and body, partly from cruelty, partly from resentment, since He bore everything with divine patience. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; He hid not His face from shame and spitting, Isa 50:6. He suffered without complaint, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Pilate himself, seeing the result of the soldiers’ cruel jest, was moved. He hoped that this exhibition would satisfy the Jews, and that he might now dismiss Jesus, Luk 23:16. Going ahead of Jesus, he announced to the Jews that he was bringing out the prisoner to show them that he found no fault in Him. And then he stepped aside for the Man with the crown of thorns and the faded purple robe, merely pointing to the Lord with the words: Behold the Man! It was a view well calculated to impress a sentimental crowd, but here was a mob dominated by hatred, upon whom the sight of blood merely had the effect of enraging them all the more. With the chief priests and the guards of the Temple leading them and stirring them up to ever new efforts, the people bellowed forth their demand: Crucify, crucify! "That is the world. In the first place, she cannot endure the righteous and innocent. In the second place, she prefers the rebel and murderer Barabbas to Christ, the Preacher of truth. Those are hard and coarse knots. But the third is much coarser, that the dear, loving world still has not enough nor is satisfied, although the truth is punished to some extent. The Jews are not satisfied, neither will they desist in their forcing of Pilate and crying over Jesus, though Jesus, the Preacher of truth, is whipped and scourged. " And the leaders of the mob knew just how to keep the bloodthirstiness at the highest point. The repetition of the one word, "Crucify!" in endless monotony had the object of deadening all remonstrances and stifling all opposition. Pilate, full of helpless indignation, in obvious despair, tries to shake off all responsibility, reiterating his statement that he finds no cause or fault in Jesus. But the time to reason and argue was long past. What could the lone man who had demonstrated his weakness do against the ceaseless droning of that one word, dinned into his ears with maddening regularity? Note: In withstanding wrong, it is always foolish and suicidal to make concessions. Far better to be martyred in the right cause than to yield in matters pertaining to conscience and plainly laid down in the Word of God.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 19:9

I. If we try to place ourselves in the position of one of our fellow-creatures placed on trial for his life, and before judges from whom he had little to look for in the way of consideration or mercy, we can understand that the silence of a perfectly innocent man might be natural for more reasons than one. There might be (1) the silence of sheer bewilderment, (2) the silence of terror, (3) the silence of mistaken prudence, (4) the silence of disdain.

II. None of these motives for silence will account for that of our Lord before Pilate. His silence meant (1) rebuke, (2) instruction, (3) charity.

H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 1134.

References: Joh 19:12.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 216. Joh 19:13-37.—R. S. Candlish, Scripture Characters and Miscellanies, p. 96. Joh 19:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1353; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 160; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 340. Joh 19:15.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 145; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 83. Joh 19:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 497; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 94. Joh 19:16-18.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 361. Joh 19:16-27.—T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 280. Joh 19:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1683. Joh 19:18.—J. Murray, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 394. Joh 19:19.—G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 407. Joh 19:19, Joh 19:20.—A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii. p. 168.

Joh 19:22

I. Man’s life is an inscription on a Cross.

II. That inscription is written irrevocably (1) on the tablet of the eternal past, (2) on the tablet of the immortal memory.

III. That inscription is read by God. This, then, is life: man writing silently, constantly, his life inscription over one of the two crosses which stand in his soul, and the great, silent God reading it all the while. God will make him read it with vain tears hereafter.

E. L. Hull, Sermons, vol. i., p. 106.

References: Joh 19:22.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 359.

Joh 19:23-24

As the robe which Christ wore closest to Himself was curiously and strangely wrought without seam from head to foot; so all that Jesus Christ has left behind is singular, unique, harmonious; for, judge Him by the religious system which He has left, or judge Him by the code of morality which He has left, or judge Him by the record of that stainless character, and you find Him to be strange, singular, one in this world’s history for whom no fellow has yet been found.

I. Judge Him by the religious system. It is unique. His power, who died, has wiped away the frown which the pagan priesthood painted upon the brow of God. The Gospel, which He puts into the hands of His disciples and ministers, proclaims the fact of God reconciled to the world. That which we have received is emphatically the ministry of reconciliation. We have access by one Spirit to the Father.

II. But none the less, when we view Him by the system of morality that He left, wherewith the world was to be clad, we have the same unique and harmonious character. If the religious system found its basis in the love of God to mankind, none the less does the morality find its basis in this—the parallel love of man to man. He was as one who gathered the stray flowers which had been strewn by ages along the pathway of humanity to bind them into one cluster. But He did more. He gave a root to all these flowers; He planted them where they indeed could grow, when He laid the truth and the basis of all humanity in this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself."

III. But more. If we may take that robe which He left behind as the emblem of the system of teaching, of worship, and of morality, even more have we an analogy in Scripture for taking it as representative of the holy character of Christ. Like the one thread which wove that seamless robe, love appears everywhere under the embroidered pattern. That love it is which forms, as it were, the very strength of His character, and becomes one with Him in all that He does, is identified with Him when He is most severe, is not severed from Him when He is most humiliated. It is the one thing which weaves the character together—weaves it from the top throughout. This robe is a legacy to us. Unlike the envenomed robe which wrapt Alcides, this legacy has no fictitious righteousness which cannot become ours; but, clad in it, we may receive, not poison, but life-giving power.

Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Penny Pulpit, No. 696.

Joh 19:25

The Honour due to the Virgin Mary.

I. We find in the New Testament that in place of there being any sanction in Scripture for the extraordinary honour being rendered to the mother of our Lord, the weight of testimony is all the other way. We believe that the most satisfactory account which can be given of this is, that our Lord foresaw the idolatrous homage which in progress of time would be rendered to the Virgin, and He determined that there should be nothing in His deportment from which such homage might draw even the shadow of encouragement. The Papist, indeed, in default of other scriptural evidence, would make use of the words of the angel in the annunciation, saying that they imply or involve an act of adoration of the Virgin. The words, as we translate them are "Hail, thou that art highly favoured." The Papist would translate them, "Hail, thou that art full of grace," and thus they make the salutation of the angel the same with their Ave Maria, the repetition of which is prescribed as a religious act of no ordinary worth.

II. We are right in supposing that Mary’s life must have been one of great suffering, so that she is to be admired as a martyr: The words spoken by Christ on the Cross to His mother are exquisitely beautiful, as proving the thoughtfulness of Christ to her, when we might have supposed Him so occupied with His mighty undertaking on behalf of this creation, that He had no soothing word to give to a sorrowing individual; yet if ever words cut the human heart, these must have been as a sword to that weeping Mary. If she had entertained a lingering hope that Christ would yet triumph over His enemies, and remain to bless His friends, these words must have destroyed it, for providing for her another son did but tell her so clearly and emphatically, that she was losing Him altogether: or that, even if He rose from the dead, it would not be to renew the sweet intercourse of earthly affection. Surely the last words of Christ addressed to His mother, though we may allow them to have been words overflowing with tenderness, must have cut that mother to the quick; and we need adduce nothing further in evidence that Mary herself may justly be regarded as having had martyrdom to undergo, at least at the awful hour of our Lord’s crucifixion; and that, as we admire her for her faith, and the meekness with which she received the annunciation that Christ should be her son, so ought we to admire in her, the courage and the constancy of one who is led up to the scaffold, or fastened to the stake, as a confessor for God and truth, when we read the simple plaintive statement of our text, "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother."

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1682.

References: Joh 19:28.—W. Lamson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 383; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 364; vol. iv., p. 169; Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 261; C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross, p. 30; Ibid., Plain Sermons, p. 218; E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 179; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 157; J. Stalker, The New Song, p. 65; W. Hanna, The Last Day of our Lord’s Passion, p. 201; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 192.

Joh 19:25-27

I. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ differed from all other deaths in this, that the death was voluntary. Death is to us the natural termination of life, and the event of death is the only one which we can venture to prophecy, without fear of mistake, as certain to happen to us all. But the death of Christ did not stand to His life in any such relation as this; death had no power in the nature of things over Him; His birth and His death were alike under the influence of His own will. What an infinite difference there is between a death like this, and a death which is merely the working out of the original word of God concerning man: "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return."

II. Again, the death of our Lord was different from that of other men, and manifested its Divine character, in the fact that it was one to which no corruption belonged. There was a Divine life in the human body of Jesus Christ, over which death had no power; the triumph of the grave, such as it was, was short, it was like a summer night, when the west has not ceased to glow before the dawn is seen in the east. The short residence of Christ’s body in the tomb proved more clearly than anything else could have done, that His words were true concerning His power to take up His life again; that it was not taken from Him; that it was a sacrifice made by Himself to the will of God; and that He could conquer the grave, as He could conquer all other enemies of mankind.

III. Our Lord’s death had its Divine side, but it was also a human death; therefore it was a death of suffering. Putting the intensity of these sufferings out of the question, their reality is a thing which we must by no means put out of the question; they were the sufferings of a man, the sufferings of one weak, according to the weakness of human flesh; the same sufferings, so far as the body is concerned, as those of the thieves crucified on either hand. He who died upon the Cross is one of our own race, He is the seed of that woman who bore us all, and He is the eldest brother of the family to which we all belong. Yet this is He whose word stilled the waves; this is He who said to Lazarus, "Come forth," and lo, now that He hangs upon the cross, the sun is darkened and the veil of the temple is rent, the graves cannot hold their dead. "Truly this is the Son of God." Therefore we must not grieve over Him and say, "Alas, my brother;" but we must take another tone and say, "By Thy Cross and Passion, good Lord, deliver us."

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 261.

Observe:—

I. How these words reveal to us the self-forgetfulness of Christ’s love. His sorrow was too deep and too sacred for our weak hearts to understand. In that awful hour He was indeed alone. His enemies mocked and reviled Him. His friends stood beneath His cross unable to offer Him more than the tribute of a silent sympathy. His God, so it seemed, had forsaken Him. Yes, He was alone, with none to understand Him, none to help Him, as He bowed beneath the burden of that unspeakable woe. In the loneliness of that suffering all His thoughts were for others, not for Himself. First He intercedes, then He promises, then He provides. Jesus forgot His own grief—the greatest grief that ever fell upon human heart—that He might minister to the grief of others.

II. As these words show us the self-forgetfulness of Christ’s love, so in the next place they are a striking evidence of His filial tenderness. He who seemed to slight all human ties of birth and kindred, paused in the very act of accomplishing the great purpose of redemption, to speak words of comfort to His afflicted mother. And how is it with us? How is it with us who so often suffer our work for God to be a pretence for the neglect of our duties as members one of another? Whatever other duty God may have given us to do, it can never excuse the parent in neglecting the child, or the child in being disobedient to the parent. That only is true work for God which sheds its pure and heavenly light on every bond of nature and of kindred.

III. Observe the wise thoughtfulness of the Saviour’s love. That was a solemn leave taking or tender farewell—"Woman, behold thy son." He can no more be her son, but she shall have another son. "From that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." Of all the disciples, there can be no doubt that St. John was, in a worldly sense, best able to bear this burden; for, unlike the rest, he was probably in easy, if not affluent circumstances. John, the Apostle of love, John who had drunk so deeply of his Master’s spirit, John who lay in His bosom, John whose words are the very echo of his Master’s words—he it was who was best fitted to cherish and comfort, because he was best able to understand, the hidden inner life of the forlorn and desolate mother. The wise thoughtful love which exactly understands the hearts of others can only be learned at the foot of Christ’s cross.

J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, p. 46.

References: Joh 19:25-27.—W. Hanna, Last Day of our Lord’s Passion, p. 201; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 191; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 485; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 364. Joh 19:25-30.—Ibid., vol. xii., p. 142.

Joh 19:26

Whatever the ruling passion has been, it becomes strengthened and intensified in the hour of death. Such was the death of Jesus our Lord. In Him there had been but one quenchless passion. The thirst to do good had marked every hour and every action of His life. Behold, as He draws near to the end, the same passion, the same earnest thoughtfulness for others, lives as strongly as before; and the passion is the noble passion of benevolence in life, and of quenchless benevolence in death. And that which shows itself in earnest benevolence shows itself also in the thoughtfulness of His last hour, for around Him, no matter what disturbing influences, no matter what disturbing scenes, no matter what difficulty assails His dying moments, still here through the anguish of flesh, still strong through the faintness of death, the spirit of His benevolence and thoughtfulness for others triumphs over all. "Behold," He says, "thy mother; behold thy son."

I. No incident in the life of Christ is a mere naked fact. Beautiful as the incident is, as a flower gathered on the grave of one we loved, yet still it is a flower likewise in this; it carries with it the germ of an everlasting principle. That principle is this—that in the cross of Jesus Christ new relationships have been established. Links which had no existence before, have been forged in His death, and where links of sympathy existed before, His death has welded them more strongly together.

II. But Jesus Christ is not content to leave us thus, proclaiming that in His cross new relationships are established. He also proclaims by His words that there are new obligations also. There is a law in our nature by which in proportion to the awakening of sentiment, is the diminution of practical action. There is a thrill of enthusiasm which stirs the heart under the influence of some sentiment; and we, because we have felt nobly, cannot say that we have acted nobly also, and therefore Jesus Christ enforces the obligation by His very position at this moment. It is when He can no longer care for His mother, that He commits her to the care of the beloved disciple. It is when John can no longer lay his head upon the breast of his Master, that Christ appoints him to that which in a sort may be a substitute—the love of a new-found mother at His cross. Thus He precludes Himself from the very sphere of benevolence, that He may force upon us the necessity of discharging that which His absence from earth renders it impossible that He should do. He leaves certain great principles in the world, initiated by His teaching, enforced by His example, and He commits their discharge to us.

Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, Penny Pulpit, No. 872.

References: Joh 19:26, Joh 19:27.—J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 194; J. Stalker, The New Song, p. 65; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 157; C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross, p. 30. Joh 19:28.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1409; J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 206; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 270; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 271; C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross, p. 57; Ibid., Lessons of the Cross and Passion, p. 161. Joh 19:28, Joh 19:29.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. x., p. 123. Joh 19:28-30.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 365.

Joh 19:27

Look at that hour. Notice—

I. Its anticipations. It has always seemed to me to be a fact fatal to the unpropitiatory theory of that hour, that it had been anticipated and expected by Christ Himself. It did not startle Him or take Him by surprise. He did not avoid it or recoil from it. "The hour cometh," said He. On the other hand, He did not hasten His advances to it; He did not precipitate the event which hailed Him and beckoned Him to that hour. "My hour is not yet come." Amidst the mournful feelings which evidently oppressed Him with an appalling weight, we are surprised at the cheerfulness with which He contemplates the advance of that hour. He stands amidst a rapidly-weaving web and mesh of harrowing and agonising events, time and eternity rapidly plying the shuttles. He is gradually being caught in the entanglement of a web by which He is to be at once agonised, and which He is to destroy.

II. Its realisations. The end was a mediatorial sacrifice. I see Him leading on victoriously Time, with all its wreck to thrones and kingdoms and empires, to the end of that hour; for He won the right. He descended, that He might ascend far above all principality and power; forms, spectres of the holy dead, pointing of the prophetic finger, seem to pass before the cross in that hour. Did not that hour behold the agony of nature? I stand by that hour, and read by its volcanic flame, by the livid and lurid hues, that nature has fallen from God as well as man. I see that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain, waiting for the great end of time; to wit, the redemption of the very body—the vesture behind which the fallen moral being has retreated.

III. The consequences flowing from that hour. (1) It changed the world. (2) Its moral influence over other worlds must be commensurate to the majesty, magnitude, and magnificence of the interests involved in it.

E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 179.

Reference: Joh 19:28.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 169.

Joh 19:30

I. These words, as uttered by our Saviour on the cross, have a wide and deep meaning. For as His life was totally unlike that of all other men, so was His death. He did not live for Himself, or to Himself, nor as one of many; nor did He die so. He died, as He had lived, wholly for mankind, according to the determinate counsel and ordinance of God. Therefore, that which He declared to be finished when He was about to give up the ghost, must have been the great work for which He came into the world, and which was wrought by Him and in Him for all mankind. His warfare, the whole of that warfare which He came to wage for mankind, was accomplished; the iniquity of mankind was pardoned—or, at least, the gate of pardon had been set open for penitent faith. As God’s work was the work of creating the world, and His rest was the rest of governing and guarding and upholding the world which He had created, so our Saviour’s work was that of renewing man’s nature, and of laying the foundations of His Church—of laying down Himself, His own Incarnate Deity and Divine humanity, to be its chief corner-stone; and His rest was that of watching over and directing and strengthening and sanctifying His Church, and all its members.

II. Although the great work which Christ came to do was finished once for all on this day, it was not finished as when we finish a work, and leave it to itself and turn to something else. It was wrought, even as the work of the creation was, in order that it might be the teeming parent of countless works of the same kind—the first in an endless chain, that should girdle the earth and stretch through all ages. While in one sense it was an end, in another it was a beginning—an end of the warfare and struggle, which had been desolating the earth hopelessly ever since the Fall, and a beginning of the peace, in which the victory won on that day was to receive its everlasting consummation. He conquered sin and Satan for us, in order that He might conquer them in us; and that we might conquer them for Him, through His love constraining and His strength enabling us.

J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, p. 361.

Joh 19:30

The Cross, the Victory over Sin

I. If we look at the world, without the knowledge of Christ, without the hope of a Saviour and deliverer, the whole race of man seems to be dashed about helplessly, in a rushing whirlpool of sin, or to lie like the host of the Egyptians, at the bottom and on the shore of the sea. The whole race of man, without Christ, seems to be under a heavy yoke of sin, against which they can hardly so much as struggle; and, consequently, to be under a sweeping sentence of condemnation. If one were to look abroad over the earth, and to behold what is going on wherever men are gathered together, and what is lurking and brooding in their hearts—if one were to behold all this, with a knowledge of sin, of its hatefulness and deadliness, yet without any knowledge of Christ, and of the redemption which He has wrought from sin, it could hardly seem but as though Satan had gained a great victory over God, as though he must have outwitted God or overpowered Him, as though he had stolen the earth out of God’s keeping, and brought it over to the side of hell.

II. In the death of Christ was made manifest how God could be holy, could have a holy hatred of sin, and yet could have compassion upon sinners; how He could be just, and yet the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and took our nature upon Him, and thereby lifted that nature out of its sinful pollutions into the light of perfect purity, and bore our sins upon the cross. As sin must needs die, He too, in that He bore our sins, submitted to death; He bore them for us, and for us He died; He died that we might live, purged from our sins in His blood. And thus, as in Adam we had all died, even so in Christ we were all made alive.

III. This, then, is the great choice which is set before you in this life. Sin would murder you; Christ would save you. You are not to fear your sins, as though they were too mighty for you, seeing that Christ has conquered them on your behalf. But having such a Leader, such a Captain, such a Bulwark and Tower of Strength, you are to fight against them boldly and undauntedly. He who died on the Cross to take away your sins, will strengthen you to fight against sin, and in His strength you shall overcome it.

J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, p. 151.

Joh 19:30

I. The personal suffering of Christ was finished.

II. The earthly errand was finished.

III. The human biography was finished.

IV. The official conflict was finished.

V. The Gospel message was finished.

C. S. Robinson, Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 204.

References: Joh 19:30.—C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of the Cross and Passion, p. 173; F. Schleiermacher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 184; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., Nos. 378, 421; J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 213; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, p. 89; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 278; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 231; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel, p. 72; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 224; M. Davies, Catholic Sermons, p. 137; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 204; Bishop Barry, First Words in Australia, p. 121; B. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 1; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 101; T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 155. Joh 19:31.—G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 254. Joh 19:31-37.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 366. Joh 19:34.—W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 102. Joh 19:35.—J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 48. Joh 19:33-35.—W. Hanna, Last Day of our Lord’s Passion, p. 390. Joh 19:37.—F. D. Maurice, Gospel of St. John, p. 424; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 61. Joh 19:38.—G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 387; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 277. Joh 19:38, Joh 19:39.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 1.

Joh 19:38-40

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus at the Burial of Jesus

I. Before the death of Jesus, the two rulers here named had been His secret disciples. They were no worse than multitudes are who pass as irreproachable. There may be, in the world of rank and fashion, many a man whom Christ has called to be a disciple, but who is ashamed of his order, and who is only a disciple secretly. Many a man who would be willing to ride after Christ to the sound of applause, or to speak for Christ before an attentive and appreciative audience, is now a disciple indeed, but secretly. You know, perhaps, many a Christian, loud in profession, great in repute, who, had he lived in the days of the Incarnation with only his present measure of spiritual strength, would have received from the Divine pen no nobler notice than this—a disciple of Jesus, but secretly. How would it have been with you? How is it with you now?

II. The death of Jesus roused the two secret disciples to declare themselves. A Christian will not keep his secret long. Grace is not a treasure to be hid in the earth in the midst of the tent. Sometimes, indeed, a seed may be dropped in some deep furrow, where the clods harden over it; and it is there, a seed, but secretly, until a tearing storm fetches it out into light. Sometimes a Christian may be like that seed, and a storm of trouble may be needed to reveal him. At the crucifixion of Christ, such a storm burst upon these two disciples. It revealed to their own minds their sin, and it brought out their hidden love. The heroism of faith is almost always kindled by desperate circumstances. The heroism of Joseph began in Christ’s hour of darkness. He knew what the rulers meant to do, and when summoned in that hour to take His place with them at the trial, he might have kept away, so that after the black deed was done he might have said, "I was not there." But he went and boldly protested against the decision of the majority. No sooner was all over than, all on fire with indignant sorrow, he went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. His brave deed was successful. At the same time, it kindled similar courage in the heart of Nicodemus. They had often met in the high places of life, each knowing the other had faith in Christ that he was ashamed to profess; they now met at the cross, as at the altar of decision; the secret was out; and while the sky is blue, while the grass is green, and while the snow is white, what they did shall be told of them for a memorial.

C. Stanford, From Calvary to Olivet, p. 1.

References: Joh 19:38-42.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 367. Joh 19:39.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., pp. 16, 211. Joh 19:40, Joh 19:41.—Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ix., p. 111. Joh 19:41.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 221; Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 127; G. T. Coster, Ibid., vol. xii., p. 179.

Joh 19:41-42

I. The burial of Christ lies between His humiliation and His exaltation. It is the pausing point of His history, who, for the suffering of death, was made a little lower than the angels; the moment when the hope and faith of His followers was most sorely tried; when victory seemed to be with His enemy. But it was only seeming. The grave was to Jesus Christ the gate of life; He passed through into His glorious resurrection.

II. By being buried, our Lord fulfilled what was written of Him; and not only that, but He thereby has given us the best and most positive assurance that He died for us. Men, it has been truly said, are not put into the earth before they die. The interment only follows after the expiration of soul and body, after life is extinct. The fact that our Blessed Lord was laid in the grave, sets the surest seal upon the reality of His sufferings. It proves that the awful scene on Calvary was no shadowy picture, no figment of man’s invention, but a thing that actually occurred.

III. Again, the burial of Jesus Christ was needed as a preparation for His glorious resurrection. That great event—that on which our hope of living again rests—would have wanted its full proof, had it not been preceded by His interment. Men cannot be said to rise who have never died. If Christ our Lord, who came down from heaven, and was made man for us and for our salvation, had, by the power which was in Him, gone back to heaven without dying—as He surely might have done— we could have had no sure pledge that we shall rise out of our graves. Assured as we are that Christ was buried, and that He rose again and left His tomb, we may have cheer and comfort in the prospect of our own death, and in looking back on their deaths who have gone before us.

R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 84.

References: Joh 19:41, Joh 19:42.—H. Melvill, Voices of the Year, vol. i., p. 376; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 142; Homilist, vol. vi., p. 33.—H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 31. Joh 20:1.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 164. Joh 20:3-10.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 10. Joh 20:8-19.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 224.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.

Observe here, 1. That as the death of the cross was a Roman punishment, so it was the manner of the Romans to whip their malefactors’ before they crucified them.

Accordingly Pilate took Jesus, and scourged.

O! amazing sight, the great God of heaven and earth is lashed and scourged like a base slave. Behold, hard-hearted sinner! the lashes wherewith thy Redeemer is cruelly tormented, were to preserve thee from the severer lashes of thine own accursing and condemning conscience, and to save thee from being lashed by the rage and fury of devils to all eternity.

Observe, 2. How unwilling how very unwilling, Pilate was to be the instrument of our Saviour’s death; it is very evident that he had a mind to release him; and it is concluded, that Pilate was thus forward to scourge Christ, hoping that the Jews would have been stisfied with this lighter punishment, and so have dismissed him.

From this instance we may gather, that hypocrities within the pale of the visible church, may be guilty of such tremendous acts of wickedness, as the conscience of an infidel and pagan may boggle at and protest against.

Pilate, a pagan, absolves Christ, and seeks to release him, whilst the hypocritical Jews, who had heard his doctrine, and saw his miracles, condemn him.

Observe, 3. How wretchedly Pilate suffers hmself to be overcome with the Jews’ importunity, and, contrary to the light of his own reason and conscience, delivers the holy and innocent Jesus, first to be scourged, and then crucified.

Learn thence, That it is a vain apology for sin, when persons pretend that it was not committed with their own consent, but at the instigation and importunity of others: for such is the frame and constitution of man’s soul, that none can make him either wicked or miserable, without his own consent: Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXI. Third Stage of Roman Trial].

CXXXI. THIRD STAGE OF THE ROMAN TRIAL. PILATE RELUCTANTLY SENTENCES HIM TO CRUCIFIXION. (Friday. Toward sunrise.) aMATT. XXVII. 15-30; bMARK XV. 6-19; cLUKE XXIII. 13-25; dJOHN XVIII. 39-XIX 16.

a15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { bused to release unto them athe multitude one prisoner, whom they would. bwhom they asked of him. [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing prisoners.] a16 And they had then b7 And there was aa notable prisoner, bone called Barabbas, lying bound with them that had made insurrection, men who in the insurrection had committed murder. [710] [Josephus tells us that there had been an insurrection against Pilate's government about that time caused by his taking money from the temple treasury for the construction of an aqueduct. This may have been the affair here referred to, for in it many lost their lives.] 8 And the multitude went up and began to ask him i to do as he was wont to do unto them. [It was still early in the morning, and the vast majority of the city of Jerusalem did not know what was transpiring at Pilate's palace. But they came thither in throngs, demanding their annual gift of a prisoner. Pilate welcomed the demand as a possible escape from his difficulties.] c13 And Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people [He did not wish to seem to take advantage of our Lord's accusers by releasing him during their absence. Possibly he knew of the triumphal entry the Sunday previous, and thought that the popularity of Jesus would be such that his release would be overwhelmingly demanded, and so called the rulers that they might see that he had released Jesus in answer to popular clamor. If he had such expectations, they were misplaced], b9 And a17 When therefore they were gathered together, bPilate answered them, saying, c14 and said unto them, bWill ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? cYe brought unto me this man, as one that perverteth the people: and behold, I having examined him before you, found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: 15 no, nor yet Herod: for he sent him back unto us; and behold, nothing worthy of death hath been done by him. d39 But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: c16 I will therefore chastise him, and release him. dWill ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? aWhom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? 18 For he knew bperceived athat for envy they bthe chief priests had delivered him up. [Though Jesus had been declared innocent on the joint finding of himself and Herod, [711] Pilate did not have the courage to deliberately release him. He sought to please the rulers by scourging him, and the multitude by delivering him to them as a popular favorite, and himself by an adroit escape from an unpleasant situation. But he pleased nobody.] c18 But they cried out all together, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:-- 19 one who for a certain insurrection made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison. [We see from Matthew's account that though the people had a right to name their prisoner, Pilate took upon himself the liberty of choosing which one of two it should be. By doing so he complicated matters for the Jewish rulers, asking them to choose between Jesus, who was held on an unfounded charge of insurrection, and Barabbas, who was notoriously an insurrectionist and a murderer and a robber as well. But the rulers were not to be caught in so flimsy a net. Without regard to consistency, they raised their voice in full chorus for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus.] a19 And while he was sitting on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. [This message of Pilate's wife suggests that the name and face of Jesus were not unknown to Pilate's household. Pilate would be much influenced by such a message. The Romans generally were influenced by all presages, and Suetonius tells us that both Julius and Augustus Cæsar attached much importance to dreams.] b11 But a20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded bstirred up the multitude, amultitudes bthat he should rather release Barabbas unto them. athat they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. 21 But the governor answered and said unto them, Which of the two will ye that I release unto you? And they said, Barabbas. d40 They cried out therefore again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. c20 And Pilate spake unto them again, desiring to release Jesus; [712] b12 And Pilate again answered and said asaith unto them, What then shall I do unto Jesus who is called Christ? bhim whom ye call the King of the Jews? c21 but b13 and they cried out cshouted bagain, csaying, Crucify, crucify him. aThey all say, Let him be crucified. b14 And Pilate said unto them, cthe third time, Why, what evil hath this man ahe done? cI have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him and release him. aBut they cried out exceedingly, saying, bCrucify him. aLet him be be crucified. [Finding the mob cruelly persistent, Pilate boldly declines to do its will and turns back into the Prætorium declaring his intention to release Jesus. But he retires with the demands of the multitude ringing in his ears.] d1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. [Carrying out the program which he proposed, Pilate had Jesus removed from the Prætorium to the place of scourging, and inflicted that punishment upon him. We learn from Josephus and others that the law required that those about to be crucified should first be scourged. But Pilate hoped that scourging would suffice. He believed that the more moderate would take pity upon Jesus when they viewed his scourged body, for scourging was so cruel a punishment that the condemned person often died under its infliction. The scourge was made of thongs loaded at the extremity with pieces of bone or metal. The condemned person was stripped and fastened to a low post, this bending the back so as to stretch the skin. Blood spurted at the first blow.] 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple garment; 3 and they came unto him, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they struck him with their hands. [The soldiers had no special malice against Jesus, but the Roman military system made men hard of heart. The occasion gave to these foreign legionaries a much-enjoyed opportunity to show their contempt for the Jews by mocking Jesus as their King. It is not known which one of the many thorny plants of Palestine [713] was used to form the Lord's crown. See Act_22:24). If Pilate had found Jesus guilty, he would have condemned him at once. As it was, he sought to return Jesus to the Sanhedrin as having committed no crime of which the Roman law could take note.] 5 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And i Pilate saith unto them, Behold, the man! [It was Pilate's original proposition to scourge Jesus and let him go ( Luk_23:16). Having already scourged him, he now hoped to effect his release. Presenting our Lord in this state of abject humiliation, he feels that he has removed him from every suspicion of royalty. He speaks of Jesus as no longer a king, but a mere man. Pilate's words, however, have a prophetic color, somewhat like those uttered by Caiaphas. All those of subsequent ages have looked and must continue to look to Jesus as the ideal of manhood. The "Ecce Homo" of Pilate is in some sense an echo of the words of the Father when he said, "This is my Son, my chosen: hear ye him." In Jesus we behold the true man, the second Adam.] 6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify i him, crucify him! [Thus Pilate's expectation came to naught, for not one of the Jewish rulers ever wavered in their demand for crucifixion.] Pilate saith unto them, Take him yourselves, and crucify him: for I find no [714] crime in him. [In this sentence, "ye" and "I" are both emphatic; for Pilate wishes to draw a contrast between himself and the Jewish rulers. His words are not a permission to crucify, but a bit of taunting irony, as if he said: "I the judge have found him innocent, but ye seem to lack the wit to see that the case is ended. If ye are so much superior to the judge that ye can ignore his decision, proceed without him; crucify him yourselves."] 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. [Perceiving that Pilate was taunting them, and practically accusing them of attempting to put an innocent man to death, they defended themselves by revealing the fact that in addition to the charges that they had preferred against Jesus, they had found him clearly guilty and worthy of death on another charge; viz.: that of blasphemy ( Lev_24:16). They had made no mention of this fact because Pilate was under no obligation to enforce their law; but they mentioned it now to justify their course. They probably felt sure that Jesus himself would convince Pilate of the truth of this latter accusation if Pilate questioned him.] 8 When Pilate therefore heard this saying, he was the more afraid [The words of Jesus at John xviii. 37 (see Joh_18:2, Joh_18:5 (the same word being translated both "betrayed" and "delivered"), but Judas did not deliver to Pilate, so Caiaphas as the representative of the Sanhedrin is here meant; and Pilate's sin is contrasted with that of the rulers. Both of them sinned in abusing their office (the power derived from above-- Psa_75:6, Psa_75:7, Isa_44:28, Rom_13:1); but Pilate's sin stopped here. He had no acquaintance with Jesus to give him the possibility of other powers--those of love or hatred, worship or rejection. The members of the Sanhedrin had these powers which arose from a personal knowledge of Jesus, and they abused them by hating and rejecting him, thereby adding to their guilt. Pilate condemned the innocent when brought before him, but the Sanhedrin searched out and arrested the innocent that they might enjoy condemning him.] 12 Upon this Pilate sought to release him [As we have seen, Pilate had before this tried to win the consent of the rulers that Jesus be released, but that which John here indicates was probably an actual attempt to set Jesus free. He may have begun by unloosing the hands of Jesus, or some such demonstration]: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend: every one that maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. [716] [Whatever Pilate's demonstration was it was immediately met by a counter one on the part of the rulers. They raise a cry which the politic Pilate can not ignore. Taking up the political accusation (which they had never abandoned), they give it a new turn by prompting Pilate to view it from Cæsar's standpoint. Knowing the unreasoning jealousy, suspicion and cruelty of the emperor, Pilate saw at once that these unscrupulous Jews could make out of the present occasion a charge against him which would cost him his position, if not his life.] 13 When 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. [Pilate had already again and again declared Jesus innocent. He now mounts the judgment-seat that he may formally reverse himself and condemn him. The apostle as an eye-witness fixes by its two names the exact spot where this awful decision was rendered.] 14 Now it was the Preparation of the passover [see 1Sa_12:12), their faithful prophet, Samuel, warned them what the king of their choice would do, and what they should suffer under him. Thus Jesus also foretold what this Cæsar of their choice would do to them ( Luk_19:41-44, Luk_23:27-31). They committed themselves to the [717] tender mercies of Rome, and one generation later Rome trod them in the wine-press of her wrath.] c23 But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. And their voices prevailed. [They overcame Pilate's weak resistance by their clamor.] a24 So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing, but rather that a tumult was arising, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see ye to it. 25 And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. [Pilate's act was symbolic, intended to show that he regarded the crucifixion of Jesus as a murder, and therefore meant to wash his hands of the guilt thereof. The Jewish law made the act perfectly familiar to the Jews ( Deu_21:1-9). Had the Jewish rulers not been frenzied by hatred, the sight of Pilate washing his hands would have checked them; but in their rage they take upon themselves and their children all the responsibility. At the siege of Jerusalem they answer in part for the blood of Christ, but God alone determines the extent of their responsibility, and he alone can say when their punishment shall end. But we know that it ends for all when they repentantly seek his forgiveness. The punishments of God are not vindictive, they are the awards of Justice meted out by a merciful hand.] b15 And Pilate, wishing to content the multitude, cgave sentence that what they asked for should be done. a26 Then released he unto them Barabbas; chim that for insurrection and murder had been cast into prison, whom they asked for; but Jesus he delivered up to their will. d16 Then therefore bJesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified [Mark mentions the scourging to show that it preceded the crucifixion, but we see from John's account that the scourging took place somewhat earlier in the proceeding], bhe delivered him unto them to be crucified. [Pilate delivered Jesus to their punishment, but not into their hands; he was led forth and crucified by Pilate's soldiers, who first mocked him, as the next paragraph shows.] b16 And [718] a27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus, bled him away within ainto the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together aand gathered unto him the whole band. 28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. b17 And they clothe him with purple, a29 And they platted bplatting a crown of thorns, [and] they put it on him; aupon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, b18 and they began to salute him, asaying, Hail, King of the Jews! 30 And they spat upon him, and took the reed b19 And they smote his head aand smote him on the head. bwith a reed, and spat upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. [After the sentence of death the soldiers take Jesus back into the Prætorium, and renew the mockeries and indignities which had been interrupted that Pilate might exhibit Jesus to the people, as John shows us. Moreover, the whole band, or cohort, are now gathered, where at first but a few took part. It is likely that the mock robe and crown were removed when Jesus was brought before Pilate to be sentenced, for it is highly improbable that a Roman judge would pronounce the death sentence while the prisoner was clothed in such a manner.]

[FFG 710-719]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Chapter 19

Pilate (chap. 19) gives way to his usual inhumanity. In the account, however, given in this Gospel, the Jews are prominent, as the real authors (as far as man was concerned) of the Lord’s death. Jealous for their ceremonial purity, but indifferent to justice, they are not content to judge Him according to their own law; [66] they choose to have Him put to death by the Romans, for the whole counsel of God must needs be accomplished.

It is on the repeated demands of the Jews that Pilate delivers Jesus into their hands-thoroughly guilty in so doing, for he had openly avowed His innocence, and had had his conscience decidedly touched and alarmed by the evident proofs there were that he had some extraordinary person before him. He will not shew that he is touched, but he is so (chap. 19:8). The divine glory that pierced through the humiliation of Christ acts upon him, and gives force to the declaration of the Jews that Jesus had made Himself the Son of God. Pilate had scourged Him and given Him up to the insults of the soldiers; and here he would have stopped. Perhaps he hoped also that the Jews would be satisfied with this, and he presents Jesus to them crowned with thorns. Perhaps he hoped that their jealousy with regard to these national insults would induce them to ask for His deliverance. But, ruthlessly pursuing their malicious purpose, they cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate objects to this for himself, while giving them liberty to do it, saying that he finds no fault in Him. Upon this they plead their Jewish law. They had a law of their own, say they, and by this law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God. Pilate, already struck and exercised in mind, is the more alarmed; and, going back to the judgment hall again, questions Jesus. He makes no reply. The pride of Pilate awakes, and he asks if Jesus does not know that he has power to condemn or to release Him. The Lord maintains, in replying, the full dignity of His Person. Pilate had no power over Him, were it not the will of God-to this He submitted. It heightened the sin of those who had delivered Him up, to suppose that man could do anything against Him, were it not that the will of God was thus to be accomplished. The knowledge of His Person formed the measure of the sin committed against Him. The not perceiving it caused everything to be falsely judged, and, in the case of Judas, shewed the most absolute moral blindness. He knew His Master’s power. What was the meaning of delivering Him up to man, if it were not that His hour was come? But, this being the case, what was the betrayer’s position?

But Jesus always speaks according to the glory of His Person, and as being thereby entirely above the circumstances through which He was passing in grace, and in obedience to His Father’s will. Pilate is thoroughly disturbed by the Lord’s reply, yet his feeling is not strong enough to counteract the motive with which the Jews press him, but it has sufficient power to make him throw back upon the Jews all that there was of will in His condemnation, and to make them fully guilty of the Lord’s rejection.

Pilate sought to withdraw Him from their fury. At last, fearing to be accused of infidelity to Caesar, he turns with contempt to the Jews, saying, “Behold your King”; acting-although unconsciously-under the hand of God, to bring out that memorable word from their lips, their condemnation, and their calamity even to this day, “We have no king but Caesar.” They denied their Messiah. The fatal word, which called down the judgment of God, was now pronounced; and Pilate delivers up Jesus to them.

Jesus, humbled and bearing His cross, takes His place with the transgressors. Nevertheless He who would that all should be fulfilled ordained that a testimony should be rendered to His dignity; and Pilate (perhaps to vex the Jews, certainly to accomplish the purposes of God) affixes to the cross as the Lord’s title, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”: the twofold truth-the despised Nazarene is the true Messiah. Here, then, as throughout this Gospel, the Jews take their place as cast off by God.

At the same time the apostle shews-here, as elsewhere-that Jesus was the true Messiah, by quoting the prophecies which speak of that which happened to Him in general, with regard to His rejection and His sufferings, so that He is proved to be the Messiah by the very circumstances in which He was rejected of the people.

After the history of His crucifixion, as the act of man, we have that which characterises it in respect to what Jesus was upon the cross. The blood and water flow from His pierced side.

The devotedness of the women who followed Him, less important perhaps on the side of action, shines out in its own way nevertheless in that perseverance of love which brought them nigh to the cross. The more responsible position of the apostles as men scarcely allowed it to them, circumstanced as they were; but this takes nothing from the privilege which grace attaches to woman when faithful to Jesus. But it was the occasion for Christ to give us fresh instruction, by shewing Himself such as He was, and by setting His work before us, above all mere circumstances, as the effect and the expression of a spiritual energy which consecrated Him, as man, entirely to God, offering Himself also to God by the eternal Spirit. His work was done. He had offered Himself up. He returns, so to speak, into His personal relationships. Nature, in His human feelings, is seen in its perfection; and, at the same time, His divine superiority, personally, to the circumstances through which He passed in grace as the obedient man. The expression of His filial feelings shews, that the consecration to God, which removed Him from all those affections that are alike the necessity and the duty of the man according to nature, was not the want of human feeling, but the power of the Spirit of God. Seeing the women, He speaks to them no longer as Teacher and Saviour, the resurrection and the life; it is Jesus, a man, individually, in His human relationship.

“Woman,” He says, “behold thy son!”-committing His mother to the care of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved-and to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!” and thenceforth that disciple took her to his own home. Sweet and precious commission! A confidence which spoke that which he who was thus loved could alone appreciate, as being its immediate object. This shews us also that His love for John had a character of human affection and attachment, according to God, but not essentially divine, although full of divine grace-a grace which gave it all its value, but which clothed itself with the reality of the human heart. It was this, evidently, which bound Peter and John together. Jesus was their only and common object. Of very different characters-and so much the more united on that account-they thought but of one thing. Absolute consecration to Jesus is the strongest bond between human hearts. It strips them of self, and they have but one soul in thought, intent, and settled purpose, because they have only one object. But in Jesus this was perfect, and it was grace. It is not said, “the disciple who loved Jesus”; that would have been quite out of season. It would have been to take Jesus entirely out of His place, and His dignity, His personal glory, and to destroy the value of His love to John. Nevertheless John loved Christ, and consequently appreciated thus his Master’s love; and, his heart attached to Him by grace, he devoted himself to the execution of this sweet commission, which he takes pleasure in relating here. It is indeed love that tells it, although it does not speak of itself.

I believe that we again see this feeling (used by the Spirit of God, not evidently as the foundation, but to give its colour to the expression of that which he had seen and known) in the beginning of John’s first epistle.

We also see here that this Gospel does not shew us Christ under the weight of His sufferings, but acting in accordance with the glory of His Person as above all things, and fulfilling all things in grace. In perfect calmness He provides for His mother; having done this, He knows that all is finished. He has, according to human language, entire self-possession.

There is yet one prophecy to be fulfilled. He says, “I thirst,” and, as God had foretold, they give Him vinegar. He knows that now there is not one detail left of all that was to be accomplished. He bows His head, and Himself gives [67] up His spirit. Thus, when the whole divine work is accomplished the divine man giving up His spirit, that spirit leaves the body which had been its organ and its vessel. The time was come for so doing; and by doing it, He secured the accomplishment of another divine word-”Not one of his bones shall be broken.” But everything bore its part in the fulfilment of those words, and the purposes of Him who had pronounced them beforehand.

A soldier pierces His side with a spear. It is from a dead Saviour that flow forth the tokens of an eternal and perfect salvation-the water and the blood; the one to cleanse the sinner, the other to expiate his sins. The evangelist saw it. His love for the Lord makes him like to remember that he saw Him thus unto the end; he tells it in order that we may believe. But if we see in the beloved disciples the vessel that the Holy Ghost uses (and very sweet it is to see it, and according to the will of God), we see plainly who it is that uses it. How many things John witnessed which he did not relate! The cry of grief and of abandonment-the earthquake-the centurion’s confession-the history of the thief: all these things took place before his eyes, which were fixed upon his Master; yet he does not mention them. He speaks of that which his Beloved was in the midst of all this. The Holy Ghost causes him to relate that which belonged to the personal glory of Jesus. His affections made him find it a sweet and easy task. The Holy Ghost attached him to it, employing him in that which he was well suited to perform. Through grace the instrument lent itself readily to the work for which the Holy Ghost set it apart. His memory and his heart were under the dominant and exclusive influence of the Spirit of God. That Spirit employed them in His work. One sympathises with the instrument; one believes in that which the Holy Ghost relates by his means, for the words are those of the Holy Ghost.

Nothing can be more touching, more deeply interesting, than divine grace thus expressing itself in human tenderness and taking its form. While possessing the entire reality of human affection, it had all the power and depth of divine grace. It was divine grace that Jesus should have such affections. On the other hand, nothing could be farther from the appreciation of this sovereign source of divine love, flowing through the perfect channel which it made for itself by its own power, than the pretension to express our love as reciprocal; it would be, on the contrary, to fail entirely in that appreciation. True saints among the Moravians have called Jesus “brother,” and others have borrowed their hymns or the expression; the word never says so. “He is not ashamed to call us brethren,” but it is quite another thing for us to call Him so. The personal dignity of Christ is never lost in the intensity and tenderness of His love.

But the rejected Saviour was to be with the rich and the honourable in His death, however despised He may previously have been; and two, who dared not confess Him while He lived, awakened now by the greatness of the sin of their nation, and by the event itself of His death-which the grace of God, who had reserved them for this work, made them feel-occupy themselves with the attentions due to His dead body. Joseph, himself a counsellor, comes to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus, Nicodemus joining with him to render the last honours to Him whom they had never followed during His life. We can understand this. To follow Jesus constantly under reproach, and compromise oneself for ever on His account, is a very different thing from acting when some great occasion happens in which there is no longer room for the former, and when the extent of the evil compels us to separate from it; and when the good, rejected because it is perfect in testimony, and perfected in its rejection, forced us to take a part, if through grace any moral sense exists in us. God thus fulfilled His words of truth. Joseph and Nicodemus place the Lord’s body in a new sepulchre in a garden near the cross; for, on account of it being the Jews’ preparation, they could do no more at that moment.

Footnotes for John Chapter 19

66: It is said that their Jewish traditions forbade their putting any one to death during the great feasts. It is possible that this may have influenced the Jews; but however that might be, the purposes of God were thus accomplished. At other times the Jews were not so prompt in submitting to the Roman exigencies that deprived them of the right of life and death.

67: This is the force of the expression; which is quite different from the word translated expired. We learn from Luk 23:46 that He did this when He had said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” But in John, the Holy Ghost is setting forth even His death as the result of a voluntary act, giving up His spirit, and not saying to whom He committed (as man with absolute and perfect faith) His human spirit, His soul, in dying. It is His divine competency that is here shewn, and not His trust in His Father. The word is never used in this way but in this passage as to Christ, in either the New Testament or the LXX.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–16. For notes on these verses, see Matt. 27:19–33. Compare Mark 15:15–22; Luke 23:20–31. John gives a few additional features.

Behold the man! Jesus had been scourged, and then, bleeding and torn, was crowned with thorns and a purple robe thrown around him, and led out before the people. Pilate, it is probable, hoped to arouse pity.

Crucify him. The response was this savage cry. Pilate then declared, Take ye him, etc. This is his formal acquittal of the charge of sedition and rebellion that they had made. He had committed no crime against Roman law. Hence, if punished, it must be by their law.

We have a law. Failing in their purpose, they now fall back on their charge of blasphemy: “He made himself the Son of God.”

Whence art thou? This statement arouses the fear of Pilate. He had never seen such calm dignity and majesty before. Could this prisoner be divine? When Jesus is silent, Pilate reminds him that he has power to crucify or release.

Thou couldest have no power against me, etc. Jesus breaks the silence and at once assumes the position of Pilate's judge. He declares that Pilate could have no power over himself unless it were given him. Christ submitted because it was the Father's will that he should drink the cup. Poor, helpless Pilate was not so great a sinner as the Jews, who might have known better, who were filled with devilish hate, who were now forcing Pilate to the crime. The words of Christ are really words of compassion.

If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend. This means that he will be accused before Cæsar's tribunal of winking at treason. The Cæsar then on the throne was Tiberius, dark, suspicious, cruel in character. Such a charge from the representatives of the Jewish nation at Rome would probably prove fatal to Pilate; would certainly end his career as a public man. The risk was too great. He would rather sacrifice an innocent man than to sacrifice himself. Hence he at once surrenders.

It was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour. John marks the exact time when this remarkable judgment was rendered. It was about six o'clock in the morning, on Friday, the day of preparation for the passover. Mark says that the crucifixion began at the third hour, nine o'clock, as the Hebrews began to count at six. John wrote many years later, after Jerusalem had fallen, among people who began to count at midnight, as did all the Roman world, and he therefore used their language and called six o'clock the sixth hour, as we do, rather than the first hour as the Hebrews did. Christ and his apostles had eaten the passover already. How then could it be that was the preparation day? Amid conflicting views, I can only give what seems to me the best solution: (1) It is certain that Christ ate a meal the evening before in the Upper Room which was called a passover. (2) It is certain from John 18:28 that the Jews had not eaten the passover at that time. (3) It seems clear to me that Christ, anxious to eat this passover (see Luke 22:15), ate it in advance of the usual time, in order that he, the true Paschal Lamb, “Our Passover” might be offered on the same day that the passover was eaten. The priests hurried the trial and execution of Jesus so that they might proceed to the preparation for the passover that evening. As the Lord's supper was anticipatory of the suffering on the cross, so was the Lord's last passover. The question has difficulties, but this view has fewer than any other.

We have no king but Cæsar. They had not now. They had rejected the divine King, had chosen Barabbas instead, for life, and now make choice of Cæsar as their king instead of the Lord's Anointed. To Cæsar's tender mercies they committed themselves, and in about a generation Cæsar will trample them in the wine press of wrath. The choice they had made sealed the fate of their city and nation.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

The part of the story from the previous chapter continues. Jesus is standing before Pilate as he is being accused by the Jews.

Then Pilate took Jesus and whipped him

Pilate himself did not whip Jesus. Here "Pilate" is a synecdoche for the soldiers that Pilate ordered to whip Jesus. AT: "Then Pilate ordered his soldiers to whip Jesus" (See: Synecdoche)

Hail, King of the Jews

The greeting "Hail" with a raised hand was only used to greet Caesar. As the soldiers use the crown of thorns and the purple robe to mock Jesus, it is ironic that they do not recognize that he is indeed a king. (See: Irony)

translationWords

Pilate

crown

Jesus

King of the Jews

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

[1. Τότε—ἑμαστίγωσε, Then Pilate—scourged) The origin of the opinion concerning the scourging having been repeated, Korte, in his Itinerary, thinks is to be derived from the two columns (pillars), one of which is usually shown at Jerusalem, the other at Rome.—When the Jews were urgent for the crucifixion, which, according to custom, was preceded by scourging, Pilate conceived the plan of scourging Jesus, and, according as circumstances would suggest, either letting Him go (Luk 23:22, “I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go”), or sentencing Him to be crucified. The latter course, by reason of the very violent solicitations of the people, prevailed (was adopted by Pilate), not indeed once for all, or at one and the same time, but by degrees. Owing to this, Luk 23:24, does not say ἔκρινε, but ἐπέκρινε, passed sentence according to (ratified) the judgment of the priests and wishes of the people. Pilate yielded to the Jews, and unwillingly delivered up to their will one whom he himself would rather have let go; however, it was after this delivering up of Jesus that the scourging followed, and not till then, along with the mocking that attended it. Then Pilate afresh, moved with a renewed feeling of pity, tried to let Jesus go; and when, for the last time, he had sat on the tribunal (Mat 27:19, “When he was set down on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man,” etc.), again his attempt proving abortive, he at last delivered up Jesus by a full and final sentence.—Harm., p. 554, etc.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28–19:16. THE ROMAN OR CIVIL TRIAL

As already stated, S. John omits both the examination before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin at an irregular time and place, at midnight and at ‘the Booths’ (Mat 26:57-68; Mar 14:53-65), and also the formal meeting of the Sanhedrin after daybreak in the proper place (Mat 27:1; Mar 15:1; Luk 22:66-71), at which Jesus was sentenced to death. He proceeds to narrate what the Synoptists omit, the conference between Pilate and the Jews (Joh 18:28-32) and two private examinations of Jesus by Pilate (Joh 18:33-38 and Joh 19:8-11). Here also we seem to have the evidence of an eyewitness. We know that S. John followed his Lord into the high-priest’s palace (Joh 18:15), and stood by the Cross (Joh 19:26); it is therefore probable enough that he followed into the Procurator’s court.

1–3. Inside the Praetorium; the scourging and mockery by the soldiers.

1. τότε οὖν. Because the attempt to release Him in honour of the Feast had failed, Pilate tries whether the severe and degrading punishment of scourging will not satisfy the Jews. In Pilate’s hands the boasted justice of Roman Law ends in the policy “What evil did He do? I found no cause of death in Him: I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go” (Luk 23:22). Scourging was part of Roman capital punishment, and had we only the first two Gospels we might suppose that the scourging was inflicted immediately before the crucifixion: but this is not stated, and S. John, combined with S. Luke, makes it clear that scourging was inflicted as a separate punishment in the hope that it would suffice. The supposition of a second scourging as part of the execution is unnecessary and improbable. Pilate, sick of the bloody work and angry at being forced to commit a judicial murder, would not have allowed it; and it may be doubted whether any human frame could survive a Roman scourging twice in one day. One infliction was sometimes fatal; ille flagellis ad mortem caesus, Hor. S. I. ii. 41. Comp. ‘horribile flagellum,’ S. I. iii. 119.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scourged [εμαστιγωσεν] . Matthew and Mark use the Greek form of the Latin word flagellare, fragellow, which occurs only in those two instances in the New Testament. John uses the more common Greek word, though he has fragellion (flagellum), scourge, at Joh 2:15. Matthew and Mark, however, both use mastigow elsewhere (Mt 10:17; Mt 20:29; Mr 10:34). Its kindred noun, mastix, occurs several times in the metaphorical sense of a plague. See on Mr 3:10, and compare Mr 5:29, 34; Luk 7:21. The verb is used metaphorically only once, Heb 12:6. Scourging was the legal preliminary to crucifixion, but, in this case, was inflicted illegally before the sentence of crucifixion was pronounced, with a view of averting the extreme punishment, and of satisfying the Jews. (Luk 23:22). The punishment was horrible, the victim being bound to a low pillar or stake, and beaten, either with rods, or, in the case of slaves and provincials, with scourges, called scorpions, leather thongs tipped with leaden balls or sharp spikes. The severity of the infliction in Jesus ' case is evident from His inability to bear His cross.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 1-16. 1. The action of Pilate in connection with the scourging of Jesus and the giving Him up to the insults of the soldiers was evidently, as we see from Joh 19:4-6, with the design of inducing the Jewish leaders to yield with respect to the demand for His death. The words of Joh 19:4, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in Him,” indicate anew his belief in Jesus’ innocence and appeal to the sense of justice in the Jews. Those of Joh 19:5, “Behold the man,” appeal to their compassion. If there be anything more than this appeal, it is probably what Meyer supposes, “This suffering one cannot be the usurper of a throne.” It suggests, therefore, the unreasonableness of their course, the groundlessness of their severity. Finally, the words of Joh 19:6 are spoken with indignation, as Pilate finds that his effort is unsuccessful and that their answer to his appeal is only in the outcry, “Crucify, crucify.” At this point Pilate approaches to the very borders of the boldness of real courage. It was the point which men of his character sometimes reach under great provocation, and where only a step is needed to transform them into men of true nobility or even heroes. But the step is not taken. To any one who has, in his own experience with men, seen a character of the order of Pilate subjected to a test of a similar kind—who has seen the struggle, the impulse to do the right act, the indignation at the unyielding opposition and pressure, the seemingly courageous refusal to violate the sense of justice in the soul, let the enemies do what they will, and then the submission, at the end, through fear inspired by the consciousness of a past career which it is dangerous to have investigated or made public—to any one who has seen this, the story of Pilate leading up to this point will prove that the author who tells it was either the witness of the facts, or that he had the creative imagination of the higher order of writers of fiction. But the author of this Gospel, whatever else he may have possessed, certainly did not have this creative imagination.

2. The Jewish rulers, finding Pilate dangerously near to a refusal of their demands, are driven to the use of the last two means at their command—the excitement of his fear of disregarding their law, which the Roman power, according to its policy towards conquered nations, would respect, and of his fear of the Roman emperor, in case he seemed to protect one who was guilty of treason. They try to awaken the former fear first. The resort to personal intimidation, in the strictest sense of the words, was so base a thing that they would reserve it for the final moment, the moment of absolute necessity.

In their appeal to their own law, we see once more that the charge against Jesus was blasphemy. They understood Him to place Himself on an equality with God.

3. The effect of what they said was evidently different from that which they expected. Pilate’s fears were awakened, but in another line. The sceptic became superstitious. The movement of Pilate’s mind here was most natural. The intellectual, as well as the careless, doubter, when he is aroused by some thought of the possibility that the belief of those about him may, after all, be true, easily passes, for the moment, into the sphere of superstition, or what is like it. This must have been the case, in a peculiar degree perhaps, with men of this class in the age when Pilate lived. As he hears the expression, Son of God, and thinks of the wonderful bearing of Jesus and His remarkable words, he seems to question whether He may not be, indeed, something more than an ordinary man, some Divine messenger or being who has appeared on earth.

4. The reason why Jesus gave no answer to Pilate’s question suggested by his fear: Whence art thou? we may believe to have been His knowledge that Pilate’s condition of mind and heart was such that an answer would have accomplished no good. The sceptic of Pilate’s class, whether he is rejecting truth as having no reality, or, under the influence of some sudden fear, is turning towards superstition— whether he is ready to say, What is truth? or, Whence art thou? —is best treated as Jesus treated Pilate. He asks his question with no desire or intention to be moved in his inner life if the true answer is given—and silence is the only answer that may, by a possibility, awaken his conscience.

5. Pilate now assumes the dignity of his office, and calls the attention of Jesus to the power which he possesses over Him. To this Jesus replies. In the words of Jesus (Joh 19:11) there are apparently two suggestions: first, in the way of rebuke to Pilate, reminding him that all his power is dependent on God; and, secondly, in the way of lenity, admitting that his sin is less than that of the Jewish rulers. The verse, in its details, bears especially on this latter point. Because the authority over Jesus in the present case was given to Pilate of God—that is, because he was in a Divinely assigned station, according to the providential arrangement, where he must judicially try all persons brought before his tribunal, his sin was less than that of those who, by their own voluntary action, brought Him before that tribunal. His act in conducting the trial was a part of his official work; theirs was a wilful violation of all justice. There was an involuntary element in his relation to the matter, but not in theirs. This fact lessened his sin. Whatever Pilate’s sin might be in his final yielding to the pressure of the Jews, it would not equal that voluntary, selfish, bitter enmity which originated the whole movement against Jesus, and carried it forward even to the point of bringing Him before the Roman governor and demanding His crucifixion.

6. The words of Joh 19:12—whether we understand them, with Godet and most commentators, as implying a succession of further efforts to persuade the Jews and release Jesus with their consent, or, with Weiss, as meaning that he attempted to release Him at once, but was prevented by the renewed outcry of the Jews—show that Pilate was much affected by the words of Jesus (Joh 19:11) and His silence (Joh 19:9). Pilate was not, indeed, moving towards belief in Jesus; he was not in a condition of mind to receive honestly and heartily the answer which Jesus must have given, had He broken His silence in Joh 19:9. But he was conscious of the injustice of treating Him as a criminal, and apprehensive, perhaps, of the vengeance of the Divine power, or of some divinity represented in or by Jesus, if he gave Him up to His enemies. He attempted anew, therefore, to release Him.

7. The Jews bring forward the appeal to Pilate’s personal fears as related to the Roman emperor. These fears were, doubtless, due to two causes: first, the well-known suspiciousness of the emperor; and, secondly, his own bad record in the past. The latter point was the one of greatest importance. Resistance became hopeless from this moment, for he could not face the possibility of a charge against him at Rome, which should involve, perhaps, the investigation of his past career. He succumbed to the enemy— notwithstanding his conviction of the innocence of Jesus and his insight into the baseness and deadly hatred of the Jews—because he was unable to meet the threatened danger to himself.

8. The words, Behold your King (Joh 19:14), may, perhaps, have been intended in part to convey a final appeal to the Jews to consent to His release, and in part to express his own bitter feeling by way of scorn. Or they may, perhaps, have been intended to intimate that he now brought Jesus out before them to pass the sentence upon him which they should demand. Behold your king—the one whom you charge with declaring Himself against Caesar—what shall be done to Him? They answer, Crucify Him. Pilate says, Shall I crucify your King? He means, thus, to make them assume the responsibility, and assume it on the ground on which they had made their last accusation (Joh 19:12). In this latter case, and not improbably this is the right view, Pilate’s question in Joh 19:15 is, as it were, his washing his hands (comp. Weiss); and, we may add, the reply of the chief-priests, We have no king but Caesar, is, in substance, their expression of readiness to take the responsibility: His blood be upon us and upon our children.This last act and word of Pilate, as given in Matthew’s Gospel and John’s, is as characteristic of the men of Pilate’s class as are all the other words and acts of his which John records.

9. The phrase Preparation of the Passover (Joh 19:14) may possibly mean either Friday of the Passover week, or the hours or day of preparation for the Passover feast. That it, probably, has the latter meaning is indicated by the fact that, if the former idea had been in the mind of the author, it would have been unnecessary to add the words τοῦ πάσχα, for every reader would know that it was the Passover week. If we hold that the Friday on which Jesus was crucified was the day in the day-light hours of which the preparation for the Passover supper, occurring in the evening, was made, and thus could properly be called the Preparation of the Passover and, also, the Preparation of the Sabbath, we find the simplest explanation of the terms which are used in different places and which designate it in one way or another as the Preparation. In the brief space allowed for these Additional Notes it was evidently impossible to enter into a full discussion of the question as to the day of Jesus’ death, whether the 14th or 15th. The writer of these notes has limited himself, therefore, to an indication of the probabilities, as they appear to his own mind, in the several verses of this Gospel which bear upon the question, and the suggestion of a very few points which have seemed worthy to be considered. There is no passage in John’s work which is absolutely decisive, but each of the several passages where a pointing in either direction can be discovered seems to point, to say the least, somewhat more strongly towards the 14th as the day, than the 15th. The Lord’s Supper, if this be the true view, preceded by one day the Jewish Passover supper.

Vv. 1-3. “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him; 2, and the soldiers, having plaited a crown of thorns, placed it upon his head and arrayed him in a purple robe;and they said, Hail, king of the Jews! And they struck him with rods.”

Pilate had ascended his tribunal to pronounce the liberation of Barabbas. It was at this time that he received the message from his wife (Mat 27:19). Hengstenberg thinks that his washing his hands must also be placed at this time. But this act must have accompanied the pronouncing of the condemnation, which did not take place until later (Joh 19:13-16). After the two ineffectual efforts which have been described, Pilate has recourse to a third and last expedient. According to the Roman criminal code, scourging must necessarily precede the punishment of crucifixion. This is proved by a multitude of passages from Josephus and the ancient historians. Comp. Mat 20:19, Luk 18:33, where Jesus, when predicting His Passion, does not separate scourging from crucifixion; Mat 27:26 and Mar 15:15 imply the same thing. But on this occasion a strange thing occurs. Pilate orders the punishment by scourging, without yet pronouncing the decision as to the penalty of crucifixion; he does not expressly make the first of these two punishments the preliminary step to the second. He evidently hopes, by giving this satisfaction to the enemies of Jesus, to awaken the pity of the more moderate ones among them, as well as the compassion of the multitude and the zeal of His friends, and thus to succeed in averting the extreme punishment. Scourging, as it was practised among the Romans, was a punishment so cruel that the condemned person very often succumbed to it. The scourge was made of rods or thongs armed at the extremity with pieces of bone or lead. The condemned person received the blows while fastened to a small post so as to have the back bent and the skin stretched. With the first blows, the back became raw and the blood spurted out. Sometimes death followed immediately.

The maltreatment described in Joh 19:2-3 is only the act of the soldiers; Pilate allows it with the design of turning to account that which takes place.

The crown of thorns, the purple robe, the salutation—this whole masquerade is a parody on Jewish royalty.

The thorny plant is probably the Lycium spinosum, which grows abundantly about Jerusalem, and the flexible stalk of which, armed with strong thorns, can be easily plaited. The red mantle was a common soldier’s mantle, representing the purple robe worn by kings. This mockery was addressed far less to Jesus personally, whom the soldiers did not know, than to the whole nation, despised and detested by the Romans. It is the Jewish Messianic expectations that the soldiers ridicule in the person of Him who passes for having desired to realize them.

This maltreatment and this scourging are evidently the same as those which are spoken of in Mat 27:27 and Mar 15:16; only these evangelists place them after the condemnation was pronounced, the reason of which fact we shall see. If the accomplishment of the scourging which was ordered by Pilate in these passages of the two Synoptics is not mentioned afterwards in them, it is perhaps because it had already taken place at an earlier moment (John).

Pilate, having allowed things to take their course, pursues his purpose:

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.