And he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:17–30)
When we suffer and when we are sinned against by other people, we are tempted to disbelieve God. In those times, our circumstances don’t seem to match who God says he is. It is in those experiences that we must look to the cross. It is in the cross of Jesus Christ that we painfully look at and remember that all excuse for devolving into bitterness and unbelief as a reaction to suffering is removed, because in the cross, we look at a God who has suffered for us in our place. Just what did that cross mean?
Carries Our Cross
It meant, for one, that Jesus carried the cross that should have been ours. John is not contradicting the other writers when he says that Jesus carried his own cross. He wants to make the statement that no corners were cut. None of the judgment due to us was mitigated in him. He was not excused from any bit of suffering. He had to endure it all that he might carry all of our burdens. It's by looking at the cross that Jesus carried himself when he deserved no punishment that our delusions of innocence and uniqueness regarding sin and suffering are removed. The Bible says that Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree. When he put that cross on himself, those were our sins on him. He would never have died had we not sinned. The cross removes the excuse of innocence.
Comforts Us in Our Sorrows
The other excuse it removes is that any of us has suffered in a unique way. Look at the heroic words of Jesus in the middle of this passage with the torture he had just experienced still fresh in his memory. He had been beaten, whipped, and was now hanging from the cross with nails in his hands and feet and he looks down with compassion and says, "take care of my mother." We have seen this before. On the very night he was betrayed, Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper because he knew we would face instances when we would doubt our salvation and need his grace of assurance. He instituted it so that he might give us hope. This removes the bitterness of rejecting Christ due to betrayal, because he has experienced it as well.
Crucified in Our Place
Deuteronomy 21:23 says, “Cursed is anyone who is hanged on a tree.” This is a signal that he has taken our curse. It was God, who by his set purpose and foreknowledge, made sure that Jesus made it all the way to the cross so it would be clear that he was cursed. And he was cursed, not because he deserved it, but because he carried his cross which was our cross containing our sin. Jesus became sin for us. One only dies because they sin. Jesus would not have died if he had not taken our sins. The proof that he became sin is that he died.
Jesus has taken the worst of human experience on himself. It is that conviction that removes all excuse for not believing in the face of suffering.
Prayer
Acknowledge before God the circumstances or experiences that cause you bitterness or tempt you to disbelieve. Meditate on how Christ has experienced those same things and ask God to melt your heart with the proof that he gave us a savior who innocently experienced it all in order to redeem you.
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