John 19 – 21
Verses 19:10 – 11 show the larger scale God was working in:
10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Pilate had an angry mob and could not find reason to punish Jesus. He desperately searched for ways to set Him free, yet each ended with obstructions that made it difficult to say no. Here he is asking Jesus directly to defend Himself and His response is in this verse. Jesus can easily submit to God since his spirit is God, but we find it difficult. If you had to suffer and die to save the world would you do it? Even when you look at humanity today with its many flaws?
That is where this “sacrifice” becomes amazing. He knew we would fail, He prophesized it before he died yet He continued with the beating and crucifixion. He died for all of us, including Charles Manson, Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. The choice lies with us and who/what we choose to follow.
Verses 19:36 – 37 are examples which are throughout this chapter of prophecies from the Old Testament that Jesus’ death fulfilled:
36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
Verse 36 is talking about the Passover lamb where no bone shall be broken and can be found in Exodus 12:46. Verse 37 is a story from Zechariah (vs. 13:7, 11:4, 8-9, 15-17) where God himself was pierced. This is where reading the Old Testament becomes exciting in many areas. Sometime reading the lineage and details of the Law can get boring, but you often find nuggets like this that become ah-ha moments. The odds are staggering that Jesus could fulfill just 8 of the Old Testament prophecies, so you add in the other 52 or more and it becomes mind blowing.
You have Islam and Judaism which both acknowledge Jesus, just ignore the overwhelming evidence that He is who He said He is. Interestingly with a person that brought so much division in the world we have no “historical record” from this time that claims anything that was said by the disciples is false. If there was anything false in what was said I would expect more than one would be screaming fraud. No we don’t find that, just evidence to prove Jesus is the Messiah.
Verse 20:25 talks about the “doubting Thomas” in the group:
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
This is where our faith is pressed, we believe that a man died and was resurrected for our salvation. Something like this has never been documented in modern history so faith becomes an issue. Now I say it’s never been documented, but a quick Google search finds many stories of people waking in the morgue or at their funeral. These may or may not be true, but it’s common for doctors to resuscitate people whose vitals are nonexistent. So why is it so farfetched that God did this some 2000 years ago? Do we really need to stick our hands in his side or do we just need to accept that his did happen?
I take all this and throw it out the window, since my belief came from a relationship with our living God. That alone made me realize this “story” was real. And after 8 years of reading the Bible I am just learning more and more that some of the wild tales of the Bible are possible and true as depicted.