Matchless: The Life and Love of JesusSample

Day 5: The Suffering Savior

Read John 19:16-30 and then watch the video.

As they reached Golgotha, “The Place of a Skull” (John 19:17), Jesus watched as the soldiers prepared His cross. Above His head was a sign that Pilate had requested: This is Jesus, King of the Jews. 

The Jews were furious and insisted that Pilate change the words. 

It should say, “He said He was the king of the Jews,” they screamed. 

Pilate refused to change it.

“What I have written I have written” (John 19:22).

During the process of crucifixion, people would push their feet against the cross to lift their weight. When they were too weak to do that, their bodies slouched, and they typically died of asphyxiation, blood loss, or heart failure. The process of crucifixion could take anywhere from a few hours to several days. If it was the day before the Sabbath (as it was when Jesus was crucified), the soldiers would typically break the legs of the men who were still alive later in the day in order to speed up the process, as they weren’t allowed to remove the bodies on the Sabbath. 

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus has been with them. He has eaten meals with them and walked their dusty roads. He knows what it’s like to love them in His humanity—just the way anyone else would. And He has loved them—every one of them. Every one of us.

He is the Son of God—the God He cannot find for the moment. 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). 

He had never known what it felt like to be separated from His Father. 

As Jesus surrenders to His Father, He speaks only a few words. 

“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). 

“It is finished” (John 19:30). 

He shouted and then took His last breath. 

He fulfilled all of the prophecies of a coming Savior. He lived a perfect life for us because we never could. 

The sky had gone dark, and the sun failed to shine. At that moment, the ground shook and rocks split. 

Historians have noted that there was an extraordinary eclipse of the sun on this day.1 They said the stars in heaven could be seen and that an earthquake shook the world. 

The Lamb was slain on our behalf. He was the sacrifice that would rescue those who believe. He atoned for our sins, not just temporarily but permanently. We are covered by His blood, forgiven by His mercy, and loved by His grace. 

1. Phlegon, quoted by Origen and Eusebius, found in Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible (Thomas Nelson Incorporated, 1997).