Bible Commentaries
John 19

Verse 9

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

Verse 22

John 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: John 19:22 . Homiletic Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 359.

Verses 23-24

John 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.

Verse 25

John 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: John 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.

Verses 25-27

John 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: John 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.John 19:25-30 . Ibid., vol. xii., p. 142.

Verse 26

John 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: John 19:26 , John 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. John 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 , John 19:29 . Contemporary Pulpit, vol. x., p. 123. Joh 19:28-30 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 365.

Verse 27

John 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: John 19:28 . Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 169.

Verse 30

John 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: John 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.John 19:31 . G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 254.John 19:31-37 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 366. John 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. John 19:33-35 . W. Hanna, Last Day of our Lord's Passion, p. 390. John 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. John 19:38 , John 19:39 . Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 1.

Verses 38-40

John 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: John 19:38-42 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 367. John 19:39 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. ii., pp. 16, 211. Joh 19:40 , John 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.

Verses 41-42

John 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: John 19:41 , John 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.John 20:3-10 . H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 10. John 20:8-19 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 224.