Reflective Bible Study

As John shifts his attention onto Jesus facing the cross, we discover a powerful prophecy that was fulfilled in this event, and we see evidence that Pilate was more impressed by Jesus than he was by the religious leaders.

However, leading up to Jesus facing the cross, John describes the road to the crucifixion a little differently than the other gospels. Let’s read about what happened.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 17, John tells us that:

¹⁷ Carrying his own cross, Jesus went out to a place called The Place of the Skull, which in the Hebrew language is called Golgotha.

Let’s pause reading for a moment. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke all describe how part way into Jesus’ trip with the cross, a bystander is called in to help Jesus carry the cross, John does not describe this. Instead, John focused on Jesus carrying his own cross.

While this may seem like a discrepancy, there are at least two ways we can reconcile this supposed conflict. The first is that John focuses on Jesus as He begins the trip, and Jesus starts on the road to Golgotha carrying the cross. None of the gospels say when Simon, the bystander, is called to help, but it could have been as late as Jesus having arrived at the hill, but not having the strength left to climb it.

Another way to reconcile this supposed conflict is by understanding that John may have been referring to Jesus’ spiritual cross. From the prayers in the garden less than 12 hours before this, Jesus had been carrying the sins of humanity on His shoulders, and this was more of a cross, or burden, than the wooden structure Jesus was dragging to the crucifixion site. While carrying humanity’s sins would crush anyone else, Jesus was strong enough, and He carried this spiritual cross when no one else could.

After arriving at the Place of the Skull, John continues in verse 18, telling us that:

¹⁸ There they crucified Jesus. They also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹ Pilate wrote a sign and put it on the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. ²⁰ The sign was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Many of the people read the sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. ²¹ The leading priests said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews.’ But write, ‘This man said, “I am the King of the Jews.”’”

²² Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

Let’s pause again briefly because Pilate’s sign and brief conversation with the religious leaders is fascinating. In Pilate’s message, we catch a glimpse of the impact Jesus had on Pilate, and I suspect that Pilate believed Jesus may have even had divinity within Him because of how Pilate responded when hearing the claim that Jesus was God’s Son.

While Pilate didn’t think highly of Jews or the Jewish religion, the children of gods would ultimately be gods and kings in all the other religions of the region, so Jesus being the Jewish God’s Son would make Jesus the King of the Jews.

Pilate understands this, and he also likely understood that Jesus never would have said He was the king of the Jews. From how Jesus frames Himself in His conversations with Pilate, Pilate understood Jesus as much more than simply a Jewish revolutionary.

The words Pilate wrote I suspect were aimed directly at the religious leaders. I suspect that Pilate wrote them as a challenge to them for crucifying their King, even if they didn’t believe Jesus to be that. Pilate’s words challenge the religious leaders because they draw attention to Pilate’s suspicion that Jesus was the Messiah these religious leaders had been waiting for.

Pilate doesn’t change the wording he used because Jesus never made the claim. Pilate wants this message to be a statement aimed at the religious leaders who were the ultimate ones responsible for Jesus’ death.

However, there is another part of the crucifixion event left for us to look at in this episode. Continuing in verse 23, John tells us that:

²³ After the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, with each soldier getting one part. They also took his long shirt, which was all one piece of cloth, woven from top to bottom. ²⁴ So the soldiers said to each other, “We should not tear this into parts. Let’s throw lots to see who will get it.” This happened so that this Scripture would come true:

“They divided my clothes among them,
    and they threw lots for my clothing.”

So the soldiers did this.

When looking at what happened while Jesus was on the cross, and at this prophecy specifically, it is amazing to think that it was predicted centuries before this. Perhaps it was normal for the soldiers to gamble or divide a crucified person’s possessions among themselves, but the way this prophecy is framed is powerful.

This prophecy states that dividing would happen among Jesus’ clothes, but that Jesus’ “long shirt” as this translation describes, or Jesus’ undergarment according to some other translations, would not be divided but instead gambled for. In this prophecy is two direct conditions, and both are fulfilled exactly as predicted.

Jesus had no control over what Roman soldiers would do with His clothing, but God knew, and God gave this prophecy many centuries before to help draw attention to Jesus when the time was right.

Everything in Jesus’ life and ministry focused on and led Jesus to the cross, and this is because Jesus facing the cross opens up salvation for you and me. We have failed God in our lives. We likely will continue to fail God in the future. However, Jesus offers to take our failures and our sins onto Himself, and die a death He did not deserve in order to give us the opportunity to live a life we could never earn and a life that we don’t deserve.

The life Jesus offers us can begin right now, and when it begins, it has the potential to extend into eternity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to let God lead and guide your life both today, and every day leading towards eternity. Intentionally accept Jesus’ gift to take our sins onto Himself and accept the gift of a new life He offers to us when we accept His life in exchange for ours.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God each and every day. A personal relationship with God is possible, and it begins when we personally take steps to grow closer to Him through prayer and reading His Word.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Coming immediately following the parable Jesus shared in our last episode about two sons, Jesus continued sharing, and Jesus keeps the vineyard theme with the next parable He shares. Similar also to the last parable is the theme that this parable was spoken as a challenge to the religious leaders.

Let’s read what Jesus shared. Our parable and passage are found in three of the four gospels, but for this episode, let’s read it from Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us:

¹ Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: “Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. ² When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. ³ The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing. ⁴ Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others. ⁶ The only one left to send was the man’s own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. ‘I am sure they will respect my son,’ he said. ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Come on, let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ⁸ So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?” asked Jesus. “He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others. ¹⁰ Surely you have read this scripture?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.
¹¹ This was done by the Lord;
    what a wonderful sight it is!’”

¹² The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

In this parable, as I read it now, several phrases stood out to me within Jesus’ words to those present.

The first phrase is in verse 2, where Jesus tells us that the owner sent someone to “receive from them his share of the harvest”. This phrase stands out because the owner simply is looking for his share of the harvest, because this is his vineyard. The owner is the one who planted the vineyard, and the one who built all the surrounding structures that a vineyard needs. All the tenants are asked to do is keep what the owner has already started going smoothly.

In this scenario, the owner has every right to a share of the harvest. Technically, the owner could demand all the harvest, and then simply pay the tenants for their time, and this would be completely legal because the owner is simply the owner, even if other people did every single piece of work building the vineyard and planting the grapes.

However, the way this parable is framed, the owner is a key part of starting this vineyard, and all he asks is for his portion, which is a very reasonable, rational request. But the tenants managing this vineyard don’t have any respect for the owner, because they refuse to return the owner’s portion of the harvest.

Slave after slave is sent to ask for the owner’s portion, and the managers refuse the owner’s request, abusing some and even killing others. The owner even sends his own son believing that his son will be respected, but when the tenants see the son, they decide to kill him believing that they would then become the new owners.

This leads to the second phrase that stood out in my mind. This phrase is the rhetorical question Jesus asks then answers in verse 9. Jesus asks those present: “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others.”

The one thing that the tenants don’t anticipate is the owner coming and removing them by force, but that is the only option left when those who were supposed to manage what was not theirs believe and act as though the owner has given up his rights. The managers might believe they can do what they want with the owner gone, and they might believe that the owner is never returning, but both beliefs are wrong. The beliefs are shown to be wrong when the owner does show up.

When the owner shows up, he doesn’t assume management of the vineyard, but he chooses new people to manage it after the former tenants have been removed. The assumption in this parable is that the new tenants will return the owner’s portion to him unlike the previous tenants, but this is assumed and not stated. It is very rational to conclude that if the new tenants began behaving like the prior tenants, refusing to return the owner’s portion of the harvest, then the owner would remove them and move to a third, fourth, fifth, or more group of tenants.

I have heard this parable used to support the idea that after Jesus, no more prophets will be sent to God’s people. After all, the sending of slaves ends with the sending of the owner’s son. I can understand this logical conclusion, but a more accurate conclusion is that after God’s Son came and was killed, no more prophets would be sent to the Jewish nation. The whole context of this parable centers on the Jewish nation rejecting Jesus, and if we understand the slaves that the owner sent as prophets that God sent to the nation of Israel, then all this parable says is that after the nation of Israel is no longer the tenants, God will have no reason to send prophets to them.

Prophecy continuing past Jesus is also confirmed most clearly in Paul’s letters to the early churches, when he talks about spiritual gifts. Paul expected to see prophets continue, and in every list of spiritual gifts Paul shares, the gift of prophets and prophecy are included.

This parable does not state anywhere that God stops sending messengers to His people. It simply says that the messengers God sends in the future will be to those who are managing God’s vineyard.

The last phrase that stands out in my mind is the first part of Jesus’ quotation from the Old Testament. Jesus reminds those present in verse 10 that: “The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.”

In first century culture, the two big messengers God sent were rejected as worthless by the Jewish leaders. These two big messengers were John the Baptist and Jesus. Both John and Jesus’ ministry pointed people back to God, and both of their ministries had value in God’s eyes because they both gave God the glory. However, both John and Jesus were rejected by the spiritual leaders.

Reading the reaction the Jewish leaders had to Jesus’ parable and teaching tells us that they knew exactly what Jesus meant. They knew Jesus had told the parable against them, and regardless of whether they understood all the nuances involved in the message, these leaders continued down the path of rejecting Jesus over letting the message challenge them to change their ways.

We face the same type of challenge today: Will we reject Jesus like the leaders of the first century and try to live without acknowledging God as the rightful owner of everything, or will we accept Jesus into our lives and return to God what is rightfully His?

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first and choose to acknowledge His ownership of everything in this world. Decide today to see yourself as a manager and choose to return God’s portion to Him. Returning God’s portion means more than simply returning a tithe of the money we earn. Returning God’s portion relates not only to money, but to time and talents as well.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word for anything you learn from the gospels without studying it out for yourself. While what I share are things that I have learned while studying, I would rather you discover these truths directly from the Bible, because when you open your heart and mind to God through studying the Bible, you are strengthening your relationship with Him.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!