“Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation… besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.” John 19:16-37
From the very beginning of the Fourth Gospel, from the Prologue, the Evangelist declared that Jesus was processing to his glory, which word means splendor, honor, renown, brightness, all of which means to convey the intrinsic, substantive worth of something. The word that we translate as “glory” is the word “doxa,” as in doxology, or worship. St. Paul when writing of the resurrection body of the saints — he compared its glory to the glory of the starry sky above:
“There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” I Corinthians 15:40,41
Some shine brighter and with more apparent splendor than others. The point I want you to get is that glory means something like the splendor and value of someone, something, or some event that calls forth our wonderment, our reverence, our worship, adoration, our veneration, our doxology.
And St. John wrote in the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel concerning the Word of the Father:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:1,2, 14)
In John 17 our Lord begins his long prayer to his Father this way:
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee…And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:1, 5
Jesus prayed that his Father would cover him with glory, the glory that he and the Father share and have shared from “before the world was.” The Cross is that glory. The Father covered the Son with their shared, eternal, divine glory in the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of the Son of God. Jesus’ glory, the glory he shared with his Father “before the world was,” is his perfect love and commitment to his Father’s worship and honor.
Jesus was scourged and then led to Calvary by a detachment of Roman soldiers whose duty it was to crucify him. Just as Isaac bore the wood for the burnt offering, so Jesus, God’s only Son, Jesus, bore his Cross from the city to a place called Golgotha. On this hill, outside the gate, the Messiah of the Jews, the Saviour of the world, was crucified between two nameless criminals. Jesus was elevated, just as he had prophesied and he was identified by Caesar’s deputy as the King of the Jews. His robe, the inner garment, was not ripped, but the soldiers cast lots for it. He hung on the Cross for around seven hours before he surrendered his life into his Father’s hands. The two events that John, the Beloved Disciple focused upon — two events not included in the other Gospels — were his handing the care of his mother over to the Beloved Disciple and the piercing of his side very near the moment of his death. These two events were especially important to the early Church:
“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
There are three Marys standing at the foot of the Cross as our Saviour died: Mary Magdalen, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Looking down from the Cross, Jesus saw his mother and the Beloved Disciple standing there beneath him. The Beloved Disciple means to focus our attention upon the Mother of Jesus and himself. Why?
“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished…”
There is a finality given to Jesus’ bringing his Mother and the Beloved Disciple by the words, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished…” First of all we should remember that in fact Jesus was honoring his Mother in the strictest sense of the Law: he was providing for her well-being and at the same time he was elevating the Beloved Disciple to the status of his brother by investing him with Mary’s care. But the Church over the centuries have seen another finality here: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished…” That is, after establishing John’s and Mary’s new relation, he declares, “It is finished,” and he handed his life over to his Father. Over the years Mary has been seen as an image of Holy Mother Church, and even as the New Eve, while the Beloved Disciple is the icon of the faithful disciple taking up the work of his Elder Brother. I submit to you that at the time of our Lord’s death upon the Cross a new family is born: the Church of God is the Family of God and as our Lord cares for his Mother’s well-being, we see visibly portrayed, at the foot of the Cross, the union of the Beloved Disciple and the Mother of our Lord.
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation… besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.”
The death of Jesus, the Son of the Father, is the completion, the finalization, the consummation of the Scriptures. Everything in the Old Testament, the poetry, the narratives, the songs, the Law, and the Liturgies have led up to this final perfection when the Son of God is covered with the glory of his Father. Like a child falling asleep in his Father’s protecting arms Jesus gave up his life: “Into thy hands I commend my spirit,” he says to his Father. Then before the soldiers could break his legs they realized his was already dead but to make sure one of them pierced his side with spear and blood and water poured forth. Again, the Church, while taking this be a historical fact, which the Beloved Disciples stresses, also took this to have profound mystical meaning.
“But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”
The Beloved Disciple not only bears witness against the gnostics and Docetists, but he also perceives that purification and new life has flowed from the completed sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Specifically the Church Fathers have uniformly taken the water and blood flowing from our Saviour’s side to the visible expression of the two great Sacraments of the Church:
St. John Chrysostom wrote: “Not without purpose or by chance, did those founts come forth, but because by means of these two the Church consists. And the initiated (the baptized know) know it, being by water regenerated and by his blood we are nourished. Here the Sacraments take their beginning; that when you approach the awe-inspiring and formidable Chalice, you may approach the foot of the Cross.”
And St. Augustine wrote: “For when at the beginning of the human race woman was formed from the side of Adam by the withdrawal of a rib, it was fitting that even then in that occurrence Christ and the Church should be foretold. Now that sleep of Adam was the death of Christ, whose side was pierced with a lance while He hung lifeless upon the Cross. And then flowed forth blood and water, in which we perceive the Sacraments, by which the Church is built up.”
I think that John absolutely intended that the Church draw just such conclusions from his presentation and he even says as much in his first epistle:
“There are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the Water, and the blood: and the three agree in one.” I John 5:8
We will talk more about his next week.