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.

John 19.1-16

1 Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. 2 The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. 3 “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.

4 Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”

6 When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”

7 The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. 9 He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. 10 “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”

11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”

13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”

15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”

“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.

16 Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away.

Comments

One thing we should notice today is this is a conversation between leaders. Unlike the other accounts, the crowd says nothing here. Pilate, Jesus, the leading priests, and temple guards do all the talking.
We can see our God-human theme going on within Pilate. He says in v. 5, “here is the man,” then gives real pause at the idea that Jesus might be God (v. 7-9). He seems to take the claim to divinity more seriously, and with more reverence, than the religious leaders ever did. In fact, Pilate simulates the process of coming to trust in Jesus we saw earlier in John: here is the man (v. 5), he is innocent (i.e., holy, v. 6), he is King (v. 14).

As a conversation between leaders, we should expect to find our authority theme, and we do. Pilate is laboring under the delusion that he is the one in power. When Jesus tells him he only has what power is given to him a double entendre is clearly meant. Pilate is little more than Caesar’s puppet. The Jews expose the precariousness of his power with a thinly veiled threat in v. 12: “no friend of Caesar’s,” would be the most dangerous thing for Pilate to be. A well-made accusation along these lines could lead to his own execution. Pilate was also caught up in the divine drama of the Son giving himself for the whole world that God loves so much. There are forces at work beyond Pilate’s control. Pilate is at the mercy of trying to do Caesar’s will and at the same time is bound to carry out God’s will.

Pilate also had quite limited power over the people. Any ruler who abandons the legitimate use of bestowed authority (all authority is bestowed) for the quick coercion of violence loses much of the actual power he or she ever had. Violence can coerce compliance but it cannot inspire obedience. A populace held down by violence is always at risk for revolution; the leader is always sitting on a powder keg without control of the fuse. This applies to the religious leaders as much as Pilate. Annas and his nepotic successors were of the same ilk as Pilate. They had no power over Pilate beyond blackmail with Caesar (a dangerous game for all of them) and no real authority over the people.

Jesus was a threat to all these leaders because he was the only truly free person here. Pilate had no power over Jesus. The religious leaders had no power over him either. And I don’t mean this in some magical, mystical sense. It’s not that they were in charge of the physical realm while Jesus was in charge of the spiritual realm. We think like this but you will search in vain for evidence of that dichotomy here.

They had no power over Jesus because their approach to power and authority had already been condemned. Jesus is inaugurating a new kind of kingdom, not one of oppression, coercion, and guile, but one of trust, hope, and love. They had no power over Jesus because the highest expression of their power – killing Jesus (what Pilate only does out of fear of Caesar and the religious leaders only do by manipulating Pilate) – is precisely the tipping moment where their power is shown to be condemned and Jesus’ power – his glory – is revealed.

Okay, so what does all this mean? One: all forms of worldly power are coercive, self-serving, and manipulative – and thus self-condemning and self-defeating. This is true of governments, businesses, churches, families, and personal relationships. The way the world rules is condemned. Two: true power is what empowers, what leads to human flourishing. It begins with trust which builds unity, a shared identity. It goes forward with hope, spreading freedom for each to flourish. It achieves and lives out the goal of love which creates real equality.

This is the social order we call the church. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection make this way of life together possible. His Holy Spirit makes it actual.

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.