The soldiers also pressed a crown of thorns on His head cutting His brow deeply. These thorns were not small short thorns as we might see on a rose. They were long slender thorns that could cause much damage. They also placed a purple robe on Jesus, slapped Him across the face and mocked Him by crying “hail King of the Jews." I imagine the Roman soldier would mock anything having to do with the Jews for they most likely saw the Jews as a nuisance. The situation with Jesus gave them the opportunity to really mock the Jews.
Having done that, Pilate went back outside to the religious leaders and Pharisees telling them he could not find Jesus guilty of any crime. Bloodied and beaten, Jesus stood before them and the Jewish leaders cried for Him to be crucified.That was just what Pilate was attempting to avoid. He told the crowd to crucify Him themselves and reiterated that he found Jesus not guilty. This was the third time Pilate told the crowd he found Jesus not guilty of any crime.
The Jewish leaders persisted and told Pilate by their Law He had to die because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.Scripture tells us Pilate was more frightened than ever at hearing this and seeing their determination. The Romans lived with the idea of pagan human-like gods coming to judge man so he may have believed Jesus was one such god. Jesus had the poise of a god. He refused to answer questions not to mention Pilate’s wife and her dreams about Jesus warning Pilate to release Him as written in Matthew 27.
Pilate took Jesus back inside and tried to get Him to answer questions. Jesus remained silent until Pilate asked Jesus if He realized he had the power to kill Him or release Him. To that Jesus did reply. He spoke to Pilate saying, (vs 11) “You would have no power over me unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Jesus declared any authority Pilate had was allowed by God above. He also told Pilate that while he was guilty of punishing Jesus, the one who handed Him over to Pilate was guilty of more sin. Jesus could have been referring to Satan for starting this whole thing, Judas for betraying Jesus, the Priests, Jewish leaders and people, or maybe Caiaphas who actually sent Jesus to Pilate. Scholars seem to mostly agree that He was speaking of Caiaphas because it was Caiaphas who literally handed Jesus over to Pilate.
Pilate was convinced he needed to set Jesus free and tried again to release Him. The Jewish leaders were not about to let this happen. Now they took a different approach. They took the Roman political route. They said Jesus declared Himself to be a king and therefore by doing so is a rebel against Caesar. This had been going on for a long time now and Pilate had tried every way he could to set Jesus free but with this new argument Pilate could not make any decision that would compromise his loyalty to Caesar. So Pilate took his place on his seat of judgment. Everyone knew that Pilate’s decision coming from the seat of judgment would be his official determination. He tried one more time by saying, “Look, here is your king!” The people screamed back “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate responded, “What? Crucify your king?”
The leading priests shouted back, “We have no king but Caesar!”
Early on, the religious leaders had no answer about what charges they had against Jesus but as time went on, they changed their story over and over until they found one that backed Pilate into a corner. It seems to me they would do and say anything to get rid of Jesus. To me they even turned their back on God Himself at the end. Did they not always see God as their King? Yet now, in an effort to kill Jesus, they declared they had no king but Caesar. I imagine they didn’t really understand what they said nor really believed it but saying what they said was so very wrong, perhaps even blasphemy. Pilate gave up and turned Jesus over to be crucified.
Jesus was nailed to the cross and two other criminals were crucified, one on His left and one on His right. They were crucified at Golgotha which was near to the city and many passersby would see the execution. Pilate had a sign made and written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek so all could read it. The sign was nailed to Jesus' cross and read, “The King of the Jews." I wonder if Pilate believed what he had written on the sign. I think he may have actually believed it for when the religious leaders objected to the sign wanting Pilate to change the sign to read, “He said, I am the King of the Jews," Pilate refused saying, “What I have written, I have written.”
The soldiers divided Jesus' clothes and rolled dice for His robe thus fulfilling what was written in the Scriptures. Jesus saw the three Marys standing with "The disciple He loved" and told His mother, Mary that this disciple would now be her son and told that disciple Mary would now be his mother. From then on that disciple took Jesus' mother, Mary into his home and cared for her.
Jesus knew He had completed what He had come to do and told the guards He was thirsty. They soaked a sponge in sour wine and gave tit to Him. Jesus cried, “It is finished!” and He died.
It was now the day of preparation for the Sabbath and of Passover so they wanted the bodies taken down. They asked that the legs of the three crucified be broken to speed up their death so they could be removed. They broke the legs of the two criminals but when they got to Jesus, He was already dead and did not break His legs. A soldier did push a spear into Jesus' side and blood mixed with water came out telling Him Jesus was dead.
I have read something interesting about Jesus' blood and water mixture that expresses something wonderful. I can’t remember where I read it but the writer said that when sacrifices were made in the Temple, there were grooves in the table and around the altar that led to a trough leading out of the Temple and into the streets and sewer system. When the sacrificing was over they would wash the blood off the altar and out of the temple by pouring water all over it. This water would become mixed with blood and would be carried out of the temple and into the streets through the sewer system. When this was being done, passersby could see the blood mixed with water and know the sacrificing had ended and there would be no more need of sacrifice at that time. The writer likened Jesus being speared and the water mixed with blood as a similar sign to the people. The difference was that this time, there would never again be a need for another sacrifice because Jesus was the sacrifice that covered all sin forever. He was the final sacrifice.
John validates the writing of this Gospel and declares it speaks the truth so that others may read it and believe. He writes that all these things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of His bones will be broken” and “They will look upon the one they pierced.” (Exodus 12, Numbers 9, Psalm 34, Zechariah 12 and Revelation 1)
Joseph or Arimathea who was a secret disciple of Jesus got permission from Pilate to bury Jesus. Joseph took down Jesus' body and along with Nicodemus anointed Jesus' body for burial and wrapped Him in long sheets of linen. (In my comments on Mark, I mentioned that Mary had anointed Jesus in preparation for His death and burial when she poured oil over Him. In Mark it was not mentioned that Joseph and Nicodemus used all the spices and oils as is mentioned here. Based on what was written in Mark, it could be thought that she actually did anoint Jesus early for His burial or that her anointing was additional to the one here.)
The place where Jesus was crucified was near a garden where there was a tomb that had never been used and they laid Jesus in that tomb.