Unshaken: Chapter a Day

John 19 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A Roman governor gripped by fear, a crowd bent on power, and a suffering King who says, “It is finished.” We journey through John 19 with clear eyes, tracing how mockery, politics, and prophecy converge at the cross—and why that convergence still reframes our lives today. From the stone pavement of judgment to the hill called Golgotha, every detail pushes the story forward: garments divided, lots cast, bones unbroken, a pierced side. None of it is random. All of it reveals a God whose sovereignty holds when human authority shakes.

We talk candidly about Pilate’s dilemma and the priests’ allegiance to Caesar, spotlighting how fear and expedience twist convictions. Then we slow down at the foot of the cross with the three Marys and hear Jesus entrust Mary to John—an act that births a new kind of family marked by love and responsibility. The flow of blood and water becomes both historical witness and rich symbol of cleansing and life, a sign that grace doesn’t arrive as theory but as a finished work. And through it all, we watch Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea step from secrecy into courage, leveraging influence and resources to honor Jesus when it costs something.

If you’ve ever wondered where God is when power plays dominate or when your life feels out of control, John 19 offers sturdy hope. Authority comes from above—and the One above has already done what we could never do for ourselves. The cross exposes our cruelty and answers it with mercy. It reorders family, redefines loyalty, and invites us to look on the One we pierced and finally rest in the words that change everything: it is finished. Join us as we reflect, apply, and consider how ordinary faithfulness—caring for family, serving the body of Christ, trusting God’s plan—becomes extraordinary under a sovereign King.

Subscribe for more chapter-by-chapter journeys, share this with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the show. What moment from John 19 speaks loudest to you right now?

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Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day.

Pastor Holland:

Keeps the devil away.

Pastor Plek:

I'm Pastor Pleck. That is Pastor Holland. And we're going to talk about John 19. We're going to outline it. We're going to uh find some observations, you know, lean into some interpretation, and then land the plane with some application that you could take along with you on your journey today as you live out what Jesus displayed. All right. So first we're going to look at the outline, verses 1 through 16. Jesus before Pilate, there is a sentencing and a scourging, which is not a good experience. Pilate had Jesus flogged just to appease the crowd and then mocks him with kingship, which then ultimately plays into the hand of Jesus because he makes him, makes it look like Jesus is the King of the Jews. That's what Rome posted. Now you've got the crucifixion. Jesus carries his cross to Golgotha and then his name is nailed between two criminals. Then you've got Jesus' death, and he declares it's finished. That also means paid in full, uh, and meaning our sins have been paid for. And then you've got the burial. In verses 38 through 42, Joseph Arimathea and Nicodemus put 75 pounds of myrrh on Jesus to bury him. Okay, let's talk about this. What do you what observations are you seeing here?

Pastor Holland:

First of all, you see a little bit more about Pilate. You know, in the last chapter, it was like, you know, why is he struggling so much with uh what to do with Jesus? You know, and uh when it the Jews tell him in verse seven, we have a law according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. Right. Number one, again, you're saying, okay, people clearly knew Jesus was claiming to be God, claiming to be divine. But then it says in verse eight, when Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. And so you you get to, I think it shows you a little bit of the mental dilemma he was having he was he he was having he was afraid if Jesus is the son of God and I put him to death, what's gonna happen to me? Right. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

But it's weird though, he also has him dressed up. Like he he scourges him, and then the soldiers start decorating him like a king with a crown of thorns and a purple robe and all the stuff, and they're mocking him outwardly. So he's afraid, but he's in a weird way. I think once he sort of convinces himself that this is the right thing to do, he goes all in on it. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

And um, you know, he he doesn't want to look like a chump either. Yeah, I'm a charger. I'm the one that's sentencing to death. Okay, king. But he keeps asking him, like, you know, where are you from? Like he he's trying to figure out like, is this gonna, is this gonna come back on my head, you know? And um, it's so interesting, you know, in the apostles' creed, Pilate's named.

Pastor Plek:

There's only a couple names suffered under Pontius Pilate. I mean, first and last name.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I mean, you get Jesus Christ, you get Mary, and you get Pilate. He's one of, you know, one of the only names. Not even Judas makes it, right? Okay, and that places him historically, you know, in this spot as well.

Pastor Plek:

Um very evil, but not as evil as those who delivered him up, delivered uh Jesus up to Pilate. Yeah. Um, okay. Oh, you got something? Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say uh I just love how the at first the you know the the priests are supposed to be so for God, and then they say, We have no king but Caesar. They are so wanting to put themselves on the side of the Romans, which uh we sometimes think of them as Pharisees. They were not Pharisees, Pharisees would never be caught dead doing that. Yeah, however, they were Sadducees who were aligned themselves with with Rome, and Rome was the one that made them priests. So they're the one like Rome was the one that sort of had the power to say, you are a leader in your own city, you are the ones that you know, whatever. So that's kind of a wild deal to me that they that they're just going all in on being Romanized, if you will.

Pastor Holland:

Another uh observation here, Jesus in uh verse 11, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. And so he he's pointing out to him um where all authority comes from. This is the same thing that Paul teaches in Romans 13. Um, all authority, you know, uh exists by God, it's been instituted by God. Um, and so when when Paul's saying, hey, you need to be subject to governing authorities, he's teaching the same concept that Jesus here clearly understood as well and was very clear in the Old Testament that um all rulers get their authority from God and therefore are accountable to God. Right. You know, whoever you get your authority from, you're also accountable to. And so, again to the idea of like civil rulers are responsible to rule according to God's word.

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Yeah, I know this is a sort of a weird observation, but it was four soldiers who crucified Jesus. So look at this. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garment and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. Yeah. And so that was sort of a, I don't know, uh, the visual of four guys crucifying Jesus. And I don't know exactly what what all they were doing. Maybe you know, one was holding down the arm and one was nailing. Oh man. You know, like I don't know what, but that's like the visual for me became more powerful when I realized there was four of them.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

And then plus you've got the centurion who's probably just watching it all happen, and it you're just like sort of taken in the scene of the people that were involved and were and that they are fulfilling scripture, they divided my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. Psalm 22. Um just just thought that was sort of a wild thought. Just that this is something that was predicted in scripture and then happened in life.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I another cool observation here, you know, in verse five, when Pilate says, Behold the man, it's one of those like double meaning type things where he's saying more than he realizes. Yeah. Like remember, Caiaphas was like, uh, it's better for one man to die for the nation and didn't understand the real significance of that prophecy. Um, in the same way, when Pilate says, Behold the man, you know, he's probably saying it as like, hey, here's your dude. He's done, you know, look at this poor guy. Yeah. Well, I have scourged him. Let's let him go now. And and the double meaning of it is this is the true man. Behold, you know, the the true Adam, the second Adam, right? The true Israelite, the true human, behold, this is what man is meant to be. Love it. Here he is.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, there's this part that I don't think I realized it until we read it this exact time. Okay. Verse 13. When Pilate heard these words, you know, everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. When Pilate heard that, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat, a place called the stone pavement. Yeah. What does the stone pavement remind you of from C.S. Lewis? Uh the stone table. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, it's a place of judgment. Yep. Isn't that kind of wild? And then it's called gabbitha, which I didn't realize it was gabbitha, because I'll the only word I ever remember was Golgotha, which is the place of a skull. So they go from the stone pavement to then to the place of the crucifixion, which is the place of the skull Golgotha, or Calvary in Latin. Right. Anyway, I just thought that was sort of an interesting thing that I don't know if I'd ever seen before. Yeah, the stone pavement of the stone pavement, the stone table from uh Narnia, right? Yeah, Lion Witch in the Wardrobe. Yeah, yep. Um, okay. Uh what else you got? Uh observation-wise. Ooh, got one. How about this? Sorry. The standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus. So Aunt Mary and Mother Mary were both there. And Mary Magdalene. And Mary Magdalene, which is the three Marys. It was like the Trinity of Marys. Um, okay. How about this though? Do you think this Clopus is the same as Cleopus, who is the disciple who went uh on the road to Emmaus? Yeah, could be. Just, you know, just a you know spelling differentiation there. Could be, could be. Um at least an observation now because I'm done.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Uh okay, so you know, similar, you know, behold the man. We talked about that. Well, then right after the verse you brought up, woman, behold your son. Um, and then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And you have some potential, you know, um, archetypal or allegorical readings of these, of like um, you have Mary and John becoming family at the cross, right? The mother of Jesus and the disciple of Jesus, and you know, this idea of like uh the family of God being defined by, you know, those who have faith in Jesus, those who come to the cross of Jesus.

Pastor Plek:

Wow, I love that because I take that as kind of like the Catholic rendering. Jesus clearly didn't have any other brothers, because why would he hand them over to John? But I like yours way better.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Well, and you know, he he if we're in the Protestant reading, we go, he did have brothers and stuff, but they're not at the cross. Right, why didn't you? And John there has shown himself to be more suitable to take care of Jesus' mother because it's family.

Pastor Plek:

Because if you love your family more than Jesus, yeah, then you're not worthy of him.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and you could see, you know, Mary being kind of like allegorical for the church. Um, you know, uh John, the disciple here being allegorical for the you know, the idea of the children.

Pastor Plek:

Are you going patristic fathers on us right here?

Pastor Holland:

I that is what that's where they went with it. So, you know, you people read a lot into you know, these woman, mother, son, um, disciple, uh, as you know, meaning a lot more than just the immediate media.

Pastor Plek:

I don't know if Martin Luther would approve of that of that uh uh you know, but should we bring him in? Yeah, let's ask Martin what he thinks. Okay, all right. I love it. I love that. That's good. Okay, let's get into some uh nature of man, character of God. Okay. Nature of man. Um how about just how capable we are of uh man is capable of cruelty and mockery. Yep. Like here is this innocent guy, and the soldiers, listen, I know soldiers, they don't care. Right. They're like they're gonna make their job is not fun, and they're gonna make it fun, and they're just gonna have a good time doing whatever they can. So they first they gamble over his clothing because, like, you know, I might might as well get something out of this. Um and that's wild.

Pastor Holland:

Mm-hmm.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, and they are just jamming thorns in his head, and they're about to jam nails in his hands. So they're so capable of such darkness and such cruelty in light of a perfect sacrifice.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Yeah. I I also like, you know, usually we talk about nature of man, like our sinfulness, but um, I think just a natural duty we have to um look after our family. And so, you know, just taking a very um um, I don't know, practical look at Jesus talking to Mary and John and saying, Hey, uh even on the cross, as he's giving his dying breaths, he's making sure his mom's taken care of. John, take care of her.

Pastor Plek:

Take care of your mom. I like that. I'm getting a little application a little later. Okay, how about this? Um man always uh fulfills God's plan, whether it's wittingly or unwittingly. Yeah. So uh the high priest, but or sorry, uh Pilate with Behold a Man. Uh here are the the soldiers gambling for his uh clothing.

Pastor Holland:

Right. Uh they're all just like playing right into everything scripture prophesied, and all of you know, like all of it. God's I think I think it gets into the sovereignty of God as well in terms of his character. It's so awesome. All right, let's get into some character of God. Um God is sovereign. Yeah, he's the everyone that's actively involved in this situation right now, from the high priest to the angry Jews to Pilate, every soldiers, yeah, all of them think we gotta kill this guy, and here it's their plan. And they don't even realize that they're accomplishing God's purpose to bring salvation to sinners.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Um how about God ultimately brings life from death? We all know that how the story goes. Uh, and really you can kind of even see it if we're gonna go allegorical, the outpouring of blood and water, uh symbolizing the cleansing and the spirit's birth. Yeah. Is that is that could that could we go there? Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

All right. I mean, John, all so much of John is using double meaning. Yeah. Of this thing actually happened, but I'm saying it in a way to give you some spiritual insight from it as well. Right.

Pastor Plek:

Um and I love how John just, hey, just in case you were wondering if really water and blood came out, I was there. He saw his born witness, testimony is true. I'm telling you the truth. I want you to believe this so you may believe. Yeah. Not one of his bones is broken, by the way.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I I thought that's sort of wild. And uh, Joseph of uh Arimathea and um Nicodemus here at the end. You get to see Nicodemus' arc. You meet him back in chapter three. Three is where you first meet him, right? And he comes to Jesus by night. He's asking him questions. How can you be born again? What's going on? And um, he's of the Pharisees, right? But he's he's secretly interested in Jesus. And now you see him um just full on. Yeah, he uh verse 39, who earlier had come by night. Now he's coming and he's going, like, you know what? I'm all in on Jesus. And I think that's awesome. You get to see his like development throughout John. I wish Nicodemus showed up an axe.

Pastor Plek:

That would be cool. You're like, like what happened to him, you know? Anyway, yeah, uh maybe he got old and died or or something. I don't who knows. Um, all right. What about uh application? We got sin to confess or avoid, a promise to claim, an example to follow, a command obey, and a knowledge to believe. What you got?

Pastor Holland:

Example to follow. Um, make sure your family's taken care of. Okay. Um if you you know, if you're younger right now, honor your mother and father, um, love your siblings. If you're a parent, you know, uh do your duty to your children. If you're older and looking at the end of your life, you know, think of like how can I make sure my family's taken care of after I'm gone? I think you see that with Jesus on the cross. Okay.

Pastor Plek:

What about um uh yeah, I I that's it, that's a big one. Um, how about just a promise to claim? Uh, that it is finished. What Jesus finished the work that we were called to do for our salvation on the cross, and now our only work is to believe in him who did the work for us. And even that's a gift, just enjoy the gift of Jesus.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Um, example to follow, Nicodemus. Uh, just keep following Jesus. You know, he you track him throughout the book of John, and he's, you know, he's not this bold guy necessarily, but you know, his name's written down here. He he's recorded in scripture as an example of someone who consistently just kept taking steps after Jesus. Um, and you know, maybe that's where you are right now is you're like, I just have questions, or I don't really, you know, like follow Nicholas Demas's example. Yeah. What do you think about that?

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Uh, kind of in the same way with Joseph of Arimathea.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Uh he was a rich guy and he uses his wealth to honor Jesus. And I just was like, You it may not be that you have a tomb, but you have wealth, and that might house the body of Christ. Now you might be able to buy land for a church or building a church, or you might be able to make a can a significant contribution to house the body of Christ. I just love that sort of thought. Yeah, I love that too. House the body of Christ allegorically. Hey, as long as we're on the allegory, allegory roll here. Um, but yeah, I think that's a one way that you could do that. As as I was just looking, I was like, what could somebody do with that? Oh, you too could also house the body of Christ by providing a place for the body of Christ to rest. That's cool.

Pastor Holland:

Um, what else we got? Knowledge to believe, just that God is in control. Over and over you see, you know, um this was to fulfill the scripture which says, you know, so and so. Like God, He is in control. Your life might feel out of control right now. You might feel, you know, like God's distant or like he doesn't care, but he cares, he's near, and he is in control. Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Plek:

Um I I know this is sort of wild, but uh again, the other subscription, they'll look on him whom they have pierced. Like these guys uh watch Jesus, they look they see the w blood and the water, they are forced to look at what they've done. And part of our role as Christians is to usher people into the presence of Jesus to look on him whom they have pierced. We have all are guilty of sin, and upon him the chastisement of us all was placed upon him. And if you are to be saved, you have to look on him and recognize he's taken away your sin.

Pastor Holland:

That's good.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Uh anything else before we send people on mission today? I think that's it. Hey, thanks so much for joining us today. We'll see you next time on a chapter, a day.

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