John 19.28-37

28 Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. 30 When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.

31 It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. 34 One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. 35 (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe.) 36 These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and “They will look on the one they pierced.”

Comments

Here at the highest moment of the passion drama, what we might call the moment of truth, we once again see the divine-human theme that John has been developing so consistently, and we see it at its most poignant. Jesus admits to being thirsty. It is hard to imagine a more human sensation than thirst. More often (by far) than our desires for food, sex, or companionship, we want, we need something to drink. A glass of cool water on a hot day. A cup of hot coffee in the morning. Warm tea on a chilly, rainy evening. A glass of wine on an intimate date. A beer with friends. When I was a kid, anytime I got sick enough to miss school, my mom would get me Coke in the little 8oz. glass bottles. To this day there is nothing quite so refreshing, no tonic quite so potent to me when I’m sick as an ice cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle. It communicates love and care to me and a promise of well-being to come. Whatever you’re doing right now, I am willing to bet you will get yourself something to drink within minutes of reading this, because we are human and we get thirsty.

And don’t mistake what John means in v. 28. He is not suggesting that Jesus said this on purpose just to tick off some mental list he had of Scriptures to fulfill. Yesterday we read about the guards gambling for Jesus’ garment and how that fulfilled a prophecy about Jesus. But the guards weren’t aware of that or in on it. They were just doing their thing. Same thing with Jesus here. He said this because he was thirsty. What he said fulfilled prophecy because the prophecy was accurate, not because Jesus forced it.

In the very next moment Jesus showed his divinity by releasing his spirit. This is no mere succumbing to his injuries. It is both a willful relinquishing of his life-spirit and a pre-figuring of his giving of the Holy Spirit (as we will see on Friday). Jesus had already said that it was necessary and good for him to go away so the Holy Spirit could come and dwell in his followers. This giving up of the Spirit marks the end of Jesus’ earthly life (it is finished!) and makes possible the Pentecost outpouring of his Spirit onto all people: men, women, young, old, rich, poor, and all ethnicities. This moment is both a finishing and a beginning. The ultimate signifier of Jesus’ divinity is his ability to give up the Spirit and give out the Spirit to others.

Remember, we are told to trust Jesus based on the miraculous works he did and the miraculous works we do – both of which are done by the power of the Spirit Jesus gives. It is in pouring out the Spirit on the whole world that Jesus becomes what Dali depicts – the cosmic savior of the whole world. God loved the whole world. Jesus saved the whole world. The Spirit convinces the whole world of God’s love and Jesus’ salvation. And all this gets done through us. The church is God’s love for the world, the church is Jesus’ salvation of the world, the church is the Holy Spirit’s convincing the world.

Jesus says, It is finished. The church says, Amen. It begins.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

John 19.17-27

17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18 There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.

21 Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”

22 Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24 So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.” So that is what they did.

25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

Comments

Unlike the other Gospels, Jesus carries his own cross. Trying to fit the accounts together, commentators usually conclude that Jesus carried it first and then Simon carried the rest of the way after Jesus stumbled. Be that as it may, John doesn’t have Jesus stumbling or sharing the load with anyone. This does not mean he is correcting the other Gospels, just that talking about Simon from Cyrene doesn’t help get John’s overall point across. John did not record Jesus struggling in the garden either, so this should come as no surprise.

John also leaves out any details about the crucifixion. The act itself is barely mentioned in v. 23 and in the most circumspect tone. Thinking about Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ (and the trend it represents), I am struck by John’s minimal account, the complete opposite of how we tend to tell this story. Perhaps this is just another example of John’s tendency to stress the divinity of Jesus, but it can also serve as a powerful counterpoint to our culture and its fetish for graphically depicted violence. Using the death of Jesus to satisfy our celluloid blood lust is creepy. We should take a lesson from John that less is more.

The last thing that stood out to me was Jesus entrusting care of his mother to the beloved disciple. We talked about this unnamed person the other day. Here BD appears alongside Mary Magdalene, which might indicate they are the same person, as Mary is named just before Jesus sees his mom with BD. But Jesus refers to BD as her new “son” and the explanatory statement that follows uses masculine pronouns. These might serve to protect BD’s anonymity or they might mean BD was someone else. Probably not one of the Twelve though, as none of the Gospels record any of them being present and make specific statements about them all fleeing. I’m going to work on BD next year for what happens next on this blog, so let’s move on.

Because I do think something significant is going on here. The early church in Acts was known for its care of widows. Women in that culture who had no husband or son were vulnerable. Legal standing, property ownership, earning money, and retaining wealth were all issues where being male or having one in your life made things a lot easier. Women who didn’t have that often struggled with being socially and economically disenfranchised. The early church had a particular mission to women in this condition. This tracks with a major concern God expressed through the Hebrew prophets, but I think it also carried on and expanded a core mission Jesus began. As we have seen, Jesus already had a group core followers that included women leaders, people of social power and economic means, and also people living at the margins of society. In this moment, Jesus affirms both care for those in need and more than that, he lifts up the recipients of the community’s care to a place of honor and even leadership.

I don’t think we see enough examples of this, but they do exist. Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker Movement comes to mind, where the division between leaders who have and give resources on one hand, and the recipients who do not have and do not lead, on the other hand, gets broken down. I’m not all that interested in trying to trace Mary’s “actual, historical” role in leading the church. It seems clear she was involved and was held in high esteem. All while receiving what we would call “aid,” but we would be better off calling “doing life together.” In short, what I’m saying is that we should look at those neighbors around us in need, and we should hear the words of Jesus: “This is my mom, now she’s your mom. This is my granddad. Now he’s your granddad. This is my brother. Now he’s your brother.” This is not unlike what Jesus says in Matt. 25, where we are to see Jesus himself in the people we care for. I think the BD’s care for Mary adds to our understanding the aspects of honoring, including in community, and recognizing authority in those we care for.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.