Lesson 52: John 19:17-27 - The Crucifixion

17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
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.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
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.”
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.


In these few verses describing Jesus’ crucifixion we see some interesting reactions to the responses different people had to Jesus’ claims:
-Pilate tried to shift blame to the religious leaders for his unjust sentence of death for Jesus, by telling the truth of who Jesus was so the people would blame their leaders rather than him.
-The religious leaders demanded the truth remain hidden from the people so the people wouldn’t turn on them.
-The soldiers who had been mocking and beating Jesus for His claims now sat ignoring Him, concerned only with what they could still get from their victim. They cared nothing for His claim or His pain.
-Those who had loved Him in life stood before His cross helpless and mourning, without hope for any future for themselves or the dreams they’d had based on Jesus’ claims.

Only Jesus, hanging on the cross and about to die, saw the future. He gave His earthly mother into the care of one of His disciples so she would have someone to care for her for the rest of her life. Only Jesus knew death would not end what He had offered to the people – the Kingdom of God.

*Dig deeper: Each of the other gospels give some additional details of Jesus’ crucifixion. Read them in Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23. From each gospel, who else do you see, and what were their reactions to Jesus’ death?