With unhurried detail, John gives us eyewitness access to Jesus\u2019s physical suffering, from the crown of thorns pushed into His scalp to the nails driven through His feet. The resurrection is just beyond this chapter, but John forces us to linger over the imagery of crucifixion day. The details are cruel, unbearable even, but they present us with this challenge: don\u2019t look away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gospel narrative invites us to pause, to sit with Jesus in His suffering. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on what that suffering means for us and for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The apostle\u2019s account of Jesus\u2019s crucifixion includes the events leading up to it. A beaten Jesus stood before Pilate, the religious leaders, and the crowd. Although he had previously ordered Jesus\u2019s lashing, the Roman governor found no reason to proceed with convicting Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI find no grounds for charging him.\u201d Pilate made this statement twice, in verse 4 and again in verse 6, not realizing the spiritual truth in his words. Jesus\u2019s innocence wasn\u2019t tied to living as the model Jewish citizen or even to Pilate\u2019s not-guilty verdict. No. Here was the sinless Son of God, ready to die for the sins of the ones who had brought Him to trial…ready to die for the sins of the world. No matter how much authority Pilate thought himself to have, Jesus\u2019s crucifixion could only happen by God\u2019s authority and power (John 19:11). Not Pilate\u2019s or the crowd\u2019s or the religious leaders\u2019. They were carrying out God\u2019s will and didn\u2019t even realize it. Jesus\u2019s suffering and death, foreshadowed in the Old Testament, were part of the divine plan of salvation (Psalm 22). With every word and every action, Scripture was being fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI find no grounds for charging him.\u201d Those become haunting words, knowing that Pilate proceeded with Jesus\u2019s crucifixion in spite of His innocence. And if we keep reading, if we don\u2019t look away, we get a clear depiction of the depth of sin. This is seen, not just in the torturous method of death inflicted upon Jesus but also in the reality that only God Himself could satisfy the penalty of death\u2014our penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a solemn reading, seeing the Savior\u2019s body abused over and over. Death by crucifixion was humiliating and agonizing. Slow. It\u2019s an even weightier reading, knowing the pain-filled hours Jesus spent on the cross were for us, for our sin. But John 19 is not meant to leave us with an overwhelming emotion of guilt. The imagery of the crucifixion points to this: Jesus embraced the ultimate death so that we wouldn\u2019t have to. It\u2019s the imagery of redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can never repay Jesus for His sacrifice, and He doesn\u2019t ask us to. Instead, He calls us to respond. Our response is one of gratitude and joy, as we reject the sin that He died for and embrace the life He freely offers us (1Peter 2:22\u201324).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With unhurried detail, John gives us eyewitness access to Jesus\u2019s physical suffering, from the crown of thorns pushed into His scalp to the nails driven through His feet. The resurrection is just beyond this chapter, but John forces us to linger over the imagery of crucifixion day. The details are cruel, unbearable even, but they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":72650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[305],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72756],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"THE INNOCENT ONE IS CRUCIFIED<\/b> With unhurried detail, John gives us eyewitness access to Jesus\u2019s physical suffering, from the crown of thorns pushed into His scalp to the nails driven through His feet. The resurrection is just beyond this chapter, but John forces us to linger over the imagery of crucifixion day. The details are cruel, unbearable even, but they present us with this challenge: don\u2019t look away.<\/p> The Gospel narrative invites us to pause, to sit with Jesus in His suffering. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on what that suffering means for us and for the world.<\/p> The apostle\u2019s account of Jesus\u2019s crucifixion includes the events leading up to it. A beaten Jesus stood before Pilate, the religious leaders, and the crowd. Although he had previously ordered Jesus\u2019s lashing, the Roman governor found no reason to proceed with convicting Jesus.<\/p> \u201cI find no grounds for charging him.\u201d Pilate made this statement twice, in verse 4 and again in verse 6, not realizing the spiritual truth in his words. Jesus\u2019s innocence wasn\u2019t tied to living as the model Jewish citizen or even to Pilate\u2019s not-guilty verdict. No. Here was the sinless Son of God, ready to die for the sins of the ones who had brought Him to trial...ready to die for the sins of the world. No matter how much authority Pilate thought himself to have, Jesus\u2019s crucifixion could only happen by God\u2019s authority and power (John 19:11). Not Pilate\u2019s or the crowd\u2019s or the religious leaders\u2019. They were carrying out God\u2019s will and didn\u2019t even realize it. Jesus\u2019s suffering and death, foreshadowed in the Old Testament, were part of the divine plan of salvation (Psalm 22). With every word and every action, Scripture was being fulfilled.<\/p> \u201cI find no grounds for charging him.\u201d Those become haunting words, knowing that Pilate proceeded with Jesus\u2019s crucifixion in spite of His innocence. And if we keep reading, if we don\u2019t look away, we get a clear depiction of the depth of sin. This is seen, not just in the torturous method of death inflicted upon Jesus but also in the reality that only God Himself could satisfy the penalty of death\u2014our penalty.<\/p> It\u2019s a solemn reading, seeing the Savior\u2019s body abused over and over. Death by crucifixion was humiliating and agonizing. Slow. It\u2019s an even weightier reading, knowing the pain-filled hours Jesus spent on the cross were for us, for our sin. But John 19 is not meant to leave us with an overwhelming emotion of guilt. The imagery of the crucifixion points to this: Jesus embraced the ultimate death so that we wouldn\u2019t have to. It\u2019s the imagery of redemption.<\/p> We can never repay Jesus for His sacrifice, and He doesn\u2019t ask us to. Instead, He calls us to respond. Our response is one of gratitude and joy, as we reject the sin that He died for and embrace the life He freely offers us (1Peter 2:22\u201324).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"31","scripture":"John 19:1-42, Psalm 22:1-8, 1 Peter 2:22-25","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014John 19:6<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\r\nby Tameshia Williams<\/i>
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\u2014John 19:6<\/em><\/p>
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