Audio readings: Psalm 68:28-35 John 19:28-42, John 20:1-9 1 Samuel 29, 1 Samuel 30, 1 Samuel 31
JOHN 19
Flogged, crucified, died, and buried. That was the sequence of events for the Hero of so-called ‘Good Friday’! Pilate, in his attempt to avoid this unjust execution, had one more throw of the dice: have the prisoner scourged, dress him up and humiliate him, and the crowd might just have their sympathies aroused and their thirst for more pain quenched. A scourging was no token gesture either: many men never made it to the cross after the soldiers had ‘softened them up’ with a whip of leather strips into which were tied pieces of bone and lead.
However, by now, Pilate had begun to realise – and Jesus confirmed this – that he, the Roman Governor, had zero power over the situation, and that more powerful forces, including God, were in control. Pilate’s strategy to sway the crowd’s choice by just half-killing their Messiah had failed. “Crucify! Crucify!” their leaders yelled, followed by everyone else repeatedly, drowning out Pilate’s reasoned judicial findings. Pilate had no options left if he were to placate the crowd and avoid a damning report finding its way back to Rome. The prisoner was no help to him, since Jesus refused even to help himself: “Don’t you realise that I have the power to free you or crucify you?” was Pilate’s desperate entreaty (i.e., “Give me something”!). But no. “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” – said Jesus in response.
It is interesting to note, in passing, that there are degrees of sin, in God’s view. He is a fair judge and would not consider that the theft of a loaf of bread is in the same league as the rape of a child. Some Christians mistakenly think that God views all sins as equally bad; not so! This heresy may have originated by extension from the valid doctrine that even one small sin is sufficient to condemn the sinner to judgment and to Hell. If we want to ‘pay the price’ ourselves, then the ‘pass mark’ is one hundred percent! Better to have outside help!
Despite wishing to set Jesus free (v12), Pilate’s own political future was teetering in the balance and, in the face of united opposition from the Jewish people, he quickly capitulated to their demand. Seated on the Judge’s seat, at the Stone Pavement, Gabbatha, at noon on Preparation Day, he handed Jesus over to a detachment of soldiers to be executed by crucifixion.
Matter-of-factly, John describes the logistics and the setting for the crucifixion. Of all the Twelve disciples, only he was an eyewitness now. Pilate made one final pointed comment on the entire sordid process by insisting that the written charge, displayed for all the world to see above the cross, said: “The King of the Jews” – which duly offended the chief priests in a very pleasing way!
John noted that the soldiers – as was their entitlement – divided up Jesus’ limited set of clothes amongst them but drew lots for his valuable full-length undergarment. Unknowingly, they fulfilled Psalm 22:18, which is the same psalm that Jesus quoted in saying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, later in the proceedings. Jesus, meanwhile, divided up his remaining family: giving his mother into John’s care. (Jesus’ biological brothers, who would have been the obvious first choice, were at that point nowhere, in every sense.)
John’s account of Jesus’ last words ends with the stirring (verse 30) “It is finished” (‘Tetelestai’ in Greek) – the same statement applied to a bill that has been “paid in full” or a battle fully won. We now know that this was a very apt analogy indeed! It represented the full and complete satisfaction required by the God of Justice for our sins. Jesus had paid the price for your sins and mine, so that we have a clean spiritual bill of health. Looked at in another way, he paid the ‘dowry’ to secure his future Heavenly Bride, the Church.
Another key verse is John 19:34: …Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. Evidence for a future resurrection requires proof of a prior death. John spends time detailing the medical evidence – separated blood cells and serum – that indicated that the heart had stopped. But behind this medical evidence is a much deeper theological and redemptive story:
The great altar of the Jerusalem temple was the place where the blood of the myriads of different animal sacrifices throughout the year was poured out. It was necessary for a substantial drainage system to exist to remove the huge volumes of blood away from the city. Historical records show that there were two large drain holes at the base of the altar that collected the shed blood and channeled it into a complex system of drains and cisterns that allowed it to mix with water from the nearby springs and ultimately to be drained out of the city into the Kidron Brook.
However, at Passover itself, a fascinating variant of this process was adopted: the drain holes were temporarily plugged to allow a vast pool of the blood of the tens of thousands of Passover Lambs to accumulate at the base of the altar. Once the sacrifices were complete at around 3pm, the drain holes were opened and the entire lake of blood was allowed to empty into the drainage system, washed clean by the water system of the temple courtyard. Then the entire day’s mixture of blood and water would then pour as a vast torrent into the Kidron Valley, giving the impression to outside observers that the temple itself was bleeding!
All this occurring over hundreds of years was a powerful symbolism inspired by Almighty God to await the day when His Own Son would be the Passover Lamb, and when a mixture of blood and water would pour of His wounded side! John 2:19 “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
More historical details on the Temple Passover can be found here:
https://www.randomgroovybiblefacts.com/the_bleeding_temple.html
John 19:31 mentions that crucifixion day was not the special Passover Sabbath itself, but the day before, and therefore the crucified, dead victims had to be removed and buried. It is not often realized that there were possibly two Sabbaths in between the crucifixion and the resurrection – one the special Passover one, and the other being the regular weekly ‘Saturday’ as we know it. Also, a Jewish day began with the night at 6pm, turned into day at 6am, and ended at 6pm. For this reason, and for a more literal explanation of Matthew 12:40, some scholars propose that the actual day of the crucifixion was not a ‘Friday’ (as we would call it), but a day or so earlier. Compare also Mark 16:1 with Luke 23:56.
Finally, and urgently, the body had to be buried before sundown. Two secret wealthy disciples at last served their master well by providing a prominent tomb and preparing the body for burial. Large amounts of spices and perfumes were mixed – such as royalty would be entitled to – and these sweet-smelling fluids were interleaved with strips of linen and the whole body covered with a shroud. (No-one was going to just resuscitate from that!) John is setting the scene for the miracle of the next chapter – having proved that Jesus did die and was buried and couldn’t just revive.
And so, we wait for a Sabbath… or maybe two…
1 SAMUEL 28, 29, 30 and 31
Meanwhile, back to the Samuel, Saul, David, and the Philistines story! David had impressed his Philistine host, Achish, so highly that he and his men were invited to be Achish’s bodyguard from then on. Achish was totally unaware of David’s other battle exploits that were not against Israel.
Samuel’s death meant that King Saul had no means of hearing from God – not that it really mattered, since God was not inclined to speak to Saul anyway. Saul suddenly became aware of the Philistine army and was petrified and became desperate for reassurance. So he did a very strange and wicked thing: he enquired of a medium (one of a group that he had previously expelled from Israel, on the grounds that contacting the dead in any way was forbidden by the Lord) and asked for the spirit of Samuel to be consulted and brought up from the grave. Whichever way you look at this action, it was evil, and Saul knew better than this – but his fear of the Philistines and his grief over Samuel’s death probably combined to tempt him to go against God’s commands and to dabble in the occult.
Theologians debate what really went on here; my own view is that is really was Samuel’s spirit, that he really did speak to Saul – and that God permitted it. Prior to the death and resurrection of Christ, it seems that anyone who died was obviously separated from their body, but also went to Sheol, a place of unconscious ‘sleeping’ for the spirit, ready to be awakened at the Final Judgment. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, those same righteous men and women were awakened and taken into heaven to be with him; those who now die in the faith of Christ go to be with Him in heaven instantly. On the Last Day (of this age) he will return with all the Faithful Departed to meet those who are still alive. We will all receive new bodies fit for eternity. Those who died in their sins (the unrighteous) will remain ‘asleep’ until the Great Day of Judgment. (Sceptics might want to see a few bible verses to prove this series of events – and rightly so. But that is for a future posting!)
So Samuel’s spirit was temporarily awakened by Saul, but it did Saul no good at all. All Samuel said was to reiterate what he had prophesied to Saul whilst alive, adding: “…and tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me” (i.e. dead)! This turned out to be true. The next day the Philistines gathered a huge force of men and began their attack against Israel and Saul. David’s presence became extremely uncomfortable for the Philistine commanders (who probably remembered that ‘Goliath’ incident!) and they were concerned that David might double-cross them in order to reconcile himself to Saul. David himself was probably in a dilemma about what side to fight on in the battle, and so he was grateful that the Philistine commanders insisted that he be sent away – so therefore he didn’t have to choose!
Instead, he returned to base camp to discover that his family and his men’s families had been kidnapped and they had been robbed. “David found strength in the Lord his God” – some great words! They pursued and caught their kidnappers and put them to the sword, rescuing their wives, children, and possessions – all fully intact. Clearly God had given them the victory, which is why David insisted that every man had an equal share of the spoils – since every man belonged to the Lord equally.
On the other side of the battle lines, the inevitable happened: Saul and his sons perished in their battle with the Philistines, along with most of Israel’s army. The rest ran away. Saul took his own life to avert the final shame of being captured. So ended a sad life that began so promisingly and ended in fear, jealousy, and defeat. Failure to obey God and a lack of trust in him seem to be the pitfalls that Saul always found. He was Israel’s first failure as a king.
The Big Picture 