Crucify Him John 19:1-16
Here we are in the last moments before Jesus is taken away and crucified. We have a crowd of people present, all clamoring for Jesus to be put to death.
Verse 1, “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” Pilate, at this point, not wanting to have Jesus, who he saw as an innocent man, put to death, tries to appease the crowd with something. Here Pilate can represent all mankind.
Here we see Pilate with Jesus, and he knows the truth, or at least the truth of Jesus innocence, and he denies it to keep the peace. Do you think Christians do the same thing today? Are there those who know the truth, accept Jesus, and when encountering someone who questions, who ridicules, who insults, backs away from defending their faith just to keep the peace? None of us like confrontation, but we’re talking about God, about our savior, he must be worth our discomfort, or the loss of a friend who can’t accept you and your faith.
Pilate wasn’t a believer, but he saw the innocence of Jesus and gave in to the others anyway. Because of this he can represent non-believers who have had the opportunity to know Jesus and his salvation, but because they don’t want to risk losing friends or alienating family, because they are afraid of what others may think or say, they never take Jesus into their hearts. They stay lost to the grace of the cross.
Verse 6, “As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted ‘Crucify him!’” As we’ve seen before, these leaders saw their faith as legalistic, a series of rules to be followed. When Jesus didn’t adhere to what they believed, they cast him out.
A brief examination of the Old Testament gives us God’s thoughts. Abram was told to leave his home and go to a land God directs him to; Genesis 12:1, “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household…” Abram did go, but he brought his nephew Lot, who he was told not to. Abram didn’t do what God said. Abram was still blessed with God’s grace for his faith.
There are many more examples, but they all tell us that the rules are for our benefit, but grace is always above them. Those religious leaders in the crowd forgot this lesson from their scriptures.
Today it’s the same. Christians, good Christians, see scripture giving us absolutes about what God says is right and wrong. They hold to a lifeline of rules and regulations. They push people away and exclude others from Christ.
Today we also can forget grace is the ideal God wants us to live. When we do forget, when we push people away from Christ, we jeopardize their eternity. I would rather stand before the throne of God and explain how I tried to love my neighbors and offer grace then have to stand before God and answer for why I denied others the chance to know him.
But let’s go back to the crowd, and we can see they had no humbleness. Pilate had Jesus scourged and humiliated so the crowd would be satisfied that he had been punished enough. But rather than satisfy the crowd, it spurred them on. They ignored what Jesus went through and demanded more.
Ephesians 4:19, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality…” The crowd that day lost its compassion and wanted to watch the horror. This, very unfortunately, happens in our world. We’ve all heard stories of people ignoring someone’s cry for help, stories of a crowd watching someone being beaten and no one tries to intervene. It’s sad how easily men can lose their humanity. As to the religious who exclude others, how easily even these can lose the part of themselves that is godly.
In one of my Bibles, this verse from Ephesians says, “…having moved past feeling…” Past feeling, the crowd was beyond any ability to feel humility, beyond the ability to feel compassion, or empathy. As human, we must guard ourselves from getting to this point or we risk being one of the crowd who witnesses violence but does nothing to stop it. As devoted Christians, we must guard ourselves from getting to this point because it will cause us to reject others, thereby risking their eternal salvation. Almost every time a church lets someone know they are unwelcome, that person never approaches another church. They remain lost, and the rejecting fellowship is to blame.
Our reading’s religious leaders hated Jesus because he didn’t do as they wanted, he didn’t conform to what they thought a good God-fearing man should be doing. They vented their hatred by demanding his crucifixion. And they didn’t just want Jesus to die, they wanted him to suffer.
In these verses we witness a mob mentality, a large group of people with a few ringleaders who incite them into an action. We see this today in groups of students harassing and bullying another student because a few can influence the many. There was a time not so distant when a few in a community could raise the ire of the residents to keep others out, or persecute neighbors based on religion or race.
In our reading, the saddest part of this is that those who should have known better were the ones leading the charge. As Jesus’ disciples, we need to be wary of this behavior. We must work against this behavior. We must stand with those who suffer at this kind of behavior.
Verse 16, “Finally, Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.” This cannot be us. We are not to abandon Jesus because others make difficulties for us because of our faith. We must not hand over another to a bully, to the persecutor, to the mob being led by the troublemakers.
This message does sound dark today, but it does have a bright light shining out from it. Verse 5, “Here is a man.” Jesus became wholly a man to die a man’s sinful death, so he could rise three days later, Lord and savior.
These verses are at the end, the end of Jesus life, the end of God’s plan. But this is also the beginning. The beginning of a world ruled by grace, the grace of our Lord. It is this grace we must hold in our hearts. It is this grace we must live our lives by. Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions…”
Let us live as Paul tells us in Colossians 3:12, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”
My prayer for you is Paul’s to Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:22, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.”
Amen