Royal Redeemer -2/18/24

For the past several weeks, we have been following the trial of Jesus. Last week, we discovered the brutality of Jesus' suffering as He was scourged and beaten. This week, we begin the journey to the cross and His last moments before He takes His last breath. If you are like us, the brutality and barbaric nature of the crucifixion can leave your heart racing and cause you to wonder if you can handle hearing the details of what actually happens to the body of Jesus through the process. Well, take a deep breath. We will leave most of those details to the other gospels and the expert doctors you can find on YouTube to walk you through it.

John's gospel was the last of the four gospels to be written, and it seems he wrote it to clarify certain truths about Jesus. His gospel has information that he recalled but had been overlooked by the other three writers. So when we come to his account of the crucifixion, we find that John leaves out many of the details recorded by the others, such as Simon of Cyrene helping to carry the cross (Mk 15:21; Lk 23:26), the crowd of mourners following Jesus (Lk 23:27-31), Jesus asking the Father to forgive those who crucified Him (Lk 23:34), the religious rulers mocking Him (Mk 15:31-32; Lk 23:35), the soldiers offering Him wine mixed with myrrh (Mk 15:23), the dialogue with the two thieves (Mt 27:44; Mk 15:32; Lk 23:39-43), Jesus' cry from Psalm 22:1 (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34-36), the three hours of darkness (Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44), the veil of the temple torn in two (Lk 23:45), Jesus' commitment of His spirit to the Father (Lk 23:46), the earthquake (Mt 27:51, 54), the centurion's faith (Mt 27:54; Mk 15:39; Lk 23:47) and the crowd's response to all the strange wonders (Lk 23:48).

 John also adds new information that he personally knew because he did not flee when Jesus was arrested. He followed Him through all His trials and stood near the cross while Jesus died. So, John saw and heard things the others did not (Jn 19:35). When he wrote his description of the crucifixion, he selected and emphasized only a few events, ones which the other gospel writers had either mentioned only briefly or not at all, probably because they were not near enough to have seen or heard them. And as we look more closely at the events John chose to report, we will discover that he carefully selected each one to teach us a profound truth. He will show us that God was testifying to His Son even during those horrible hours when so many negative things were happening. God was not silent even then. He honored His Son by providing prophetic "signs" that declared who He is. Today, we will see that Jesus, the Son of Man, was given authority to become our Royal Redeemer. Let's read the passage.