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Commentaries
English
John
  
4. The cross and the death of Jesus
(John 19:16b-42)

a) Crucifixion and the grave clothes
(John 19:16b-22)
16b ... So they took Jesus,17and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.


A company of troops was about to leave and crucify two robbers, when Pilate handed them Jesus as a third "felon". The soldiers placed crosses on all three, for each to carry the instrument of death. Christ did not reject the cross, and did not drop the wood along the way. The three passed through the city lanes, until, panting for breath, they reached the north western gate. Then they arrived at a hill known as Golgotha, because it resembled a rocky skull, rising a little above the city walls. The inhabitants were able to view the condemned men hanging on their crosses outside the city.
John does not explain the details of the cross, his pen refusing to record the fearful scene. Men had rejected divine love, and the hatred of hell rested on them. They brutally did away One born of the Spirit, and by their sin the completed sacrifice of Christ which atoned for their sins. He did not bear a golden halo on the tree of shame, but in the depths of his humiliation he revealed his glory through patience, and holy self-denial.
What ignominy that Jesus should hang between two robbers. They were twisting about, cursing as they hung.
The merciful and pure One revealed himself even in the last moment of life as companion to sinners. For this reason the Son of God was born as the Son of Man, so that the wayward children of men should become the justified children of God. He descended to the depths of degradation, so that no one should say that Jesus could not have fallen to his level. Wherever you are and however you may have fallen, Christ can forgive your guilt and wash you and sanctify you to the full.