Jesus is Crucified

Graham Kerr, known to millions as TV’s Galloping Gourmet, is speaking openly about accepting Christ as his Savior. With his marriage falling apart and his search for happiness ending in disaster, ... More

Shame

Becoming even more fearful and realizing that Jesus is innocent, Pilate again attempted to release Him (v. 12). With this, the crowd started to accuse Pilate of being a traitor to Caesar. He knew that if the Jews contacted Caesar and told him that Pilate had released a man who threatened Roman authority, he could be accused of treason and killed. No doubt, Pilate also had plenty to cover up and did not want an unfavorable report to go to his boss. If he had to choose between his loyalty to Rome, or protecting a despised Jew, there was no question about which way he would go. It was Pilate who was on trial. It was under this kind of pressure that Pilate gave in to the crowd and turned Jesus over to them to be crucified (vv. 13-16).

Pilate gave Jesus to the chief priests, and with the help of some Roman soldiers, they took Him to “the place of the skull” which is called “Golgotha”. It was customary for a criminal to carry his cross from the Hall of Judgment to the place of execution, so Jesus began the mile long walk carrying His cross (v. 17). Today we look at the cross as a symbol of glory and victory, but in Pilate’s day the cross was reserved for the worst kind of criminals. It was the most cruel and shamefulof all punishments. Then, to add to that shame, Jesus was crucified with two thieves (v. 18). Executions in our day are usually carried out in privacy, but Jesus was nailed to the cross and hung where everyone could see.

Another requirement in those days was for a criminal to wear a sign that told of his crime (vv. 20-22). The one Jesus wore was the one Pilate wrote which said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth. the king of the Jews” (v. 19). The chief priests protested and demanded that it be changed from a statement to a claim.  It seems that Pilate knew that his placard would insult and embarrass these Jews and that is exactly what he wanted to do, so he refused to change it.

Application

Jesus endured the cross, the pain and the shame for us. How can we thank him for this sacrifice? How can we honor him through our lives today? 

John 19:12-22 (English Standard Version)


Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (Space required at line 39, column 24) in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/magpie6-1/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_slice() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/rss/esvLookup.php on line 15

View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »