Tuesday 4th April
Read John 19:23-29
“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 ‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who will get it.’
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
‘They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.’
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ 27 and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (NIVUK)
The events on Golgotha fulfill Scripture completely. As John recounts them he increasingly draws our attention to how specifically and minutely they fulfill what was promised long ago. Whilst John has emphasised that Jesus is obedient to the Father’s will and aligns with it perfectly throughout his narrative as the events of Passion week come to their conclusion he has increasingly and deliberately drawn our attention to how scripture is fulfilled. Even at the foot of the cross, the soldiers’ actions align with the words of David in Psalm 22.
“Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.” (Psalm 22:16-18) (NIVUK)
The desolation and abandonment of the man on death row, stripped bare, mocked and treated as if already dead are the emotions expressed in the Psalm – a Psalm Jesus himself quoted from the cross. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’ (Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34).
This abandonment is made all the more poignant by what follows. As Jesus dies upon the cross, abandoned by God for us, he turns to the disciple he loved and his mother and ensures that neither of them are abandoned themselves. Substitution and compassion in full. A work finished perfectly.
