Today is a day of reflection on the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior. I was reading through John trying to decide what to blog about Christ’s crucifixion and I was struck once again by what John thought was important to include in his account of the crucifixion. It’s interesting to note how often the title “King of the Jews” is mentioned in Jesus’ encounter with Pilate:

John 19:33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world–to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

He then asks the Jews if they want their king released for Passover but they chose a common criminal over the king that they had just sang Hosannas to, calling him the Son of David (Matthew 21:9). The guards mocked Jesus using the title “King of the Jews:”

John 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.

And again Pilate went to the people asking if they want their king.Their reply is pretty shocking when you think about the history of Israel:

John 19:14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

They have no king but Caesar? What happened to their hope of a Messiah? The Son of David? The one who was to come and set them free from the nations to rule in righteousness? And then Pilate declared him King of the Jews in three languages:

John 19:19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.

John didn’t have to include this much detail but did, I think he was interested in demonstrating just how thoroughly the Jews rejected their king.The second thing that struck me was the charge that chief priests and officials made against Jesus:

John19:7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”

I thought that was odd since I couldn’t think of a law that was being violated and the fact that the term is used occasionally in the OT. According to Andreas J. Kostenberger, “in both the OT and other Jewish literature, the claim of being God’s son need not be blasphemous and may refer to the anointed king of Israel (2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 2:7; 89:26-27) or to the Messiah” (533-534). They could not find a reason to charge him so they made up the charge. They rejected their king but could not crucify him for that.Then I was struck by the brevity of John’s crucifixion account. He doesn’t include the details of that the other Gospels include. What he uses appear to be details that fulfill Scriptures:

John 19:23 ¶ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, 25 ¶ but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. 28 ¶ After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 31 ¶ Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness–his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth–that you also may believe. 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.” 38 ¶ After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

John knows that Jesus’ crucifixion was a fulfillment of the OT because Jesus told him it was :

Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

So, he can look at passages like:

ESV Exodus 12:46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.ESV Numbers 9:12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it.

And realize that Jesus is the Passover Lamb. He is the Lamb that protects his people from the power of death (1 Corinthians 15:54-58) just as the first born of the Israelites were protected from the plague when the shed blood of the lamb was put on the doorposts and lintel of their house. God passed over them and struck those who were not protected by the blood. John sees Christ as that lamb because he understands that Christ is the fulfillment of story of Israel. What happened to them is perfectly fulfilled in Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). John the Baptist’s proclamation finds it’s fulfillment on the cross. The only way that Christ could fulfill that promise was through his death and through his resurrection but we don’t want to jump too far ahead. Today we think about the death, the sacrifice for our sins. The rejection by his people, the suffering on the cross, the isolation and the injustice of the only innocent man being put to death for a crime that he didn’t commit. Pilate could find no guilt but crucified him anyway. We think of all that today as we remember our Savior’s death for our benefit.