“When Jesus had tasted it, he said, ‘It is finished!’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30  NLT)

The Jewish religious leaders found Jesus guilty of blasphemy. But they didn’t have the authority to execute Him. Only a Roman official could sentence someone to death. That’s why they brought Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. They hoped that he would rubber-stamp their capital punishment plans.

Pilate saw through their scheme. He sensed that Jesus was innocent. But the religious leaders had instigated a mob to demand Jesus’ blood. Pilate tried to appease the mob’s bloodlust by having Jesus scourged—that is, beaten several times with a multiheaded whip. Each head was studded with sharp bits of metal designed to tear flesh.

Pilate’s soldiers placed a crown made of thorn branches on Jesus’ head and a purple robe on His shoulders. “Hail! King of the Jews!” they taunted in verse 3 (NLT) as they slapped and punched Him.

Pilate paraded the mutilated form of Jesus before the crowd, hoping that would satisfy them. It didn’t. The crowd, many of whom had cheered and welcomed Jesus a short time earlier, wanted Him to die.

“Crucify Him!” the religious leaders shouted in verse 6. “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God” (verse 7 NLT).

Those words scared Pilate. Romans believed that godlike figures sometimes disguised themselves as humans. People who mistreated them were punished. He didn’t want to make that mistake with Jesus.

He tried to talk to Jesus, but Jesus was interested only in fulfilling God’s plan, no matter what the cost was to Him. Pilate reminded Him that he had the authority to release or crucify Him. Jesus pointed out that Pilate had no real control of the situation. His Roman superiors told him what to do. An angry mob was influencing his actions. And God’s will dictated everything that happened.

With no other options, Pilate turned Jesus over to be crucified. Prisoners sentenced to crucifixion were forced to carry the horizontal beam of their cross to the execution site. Their wrists and feet were nailed to the cross with almost medical precision. The goal was to make them suffer as much pain as possible with as little blood loss as possible. Some people suffered for days on the cross before they finally died.

The Romans often placed a sign on the cross that listed the condemned person’s crimes. Jesus’ sign read “King of the Jews” (verse 19 NLT). The offended religious leaders tried to get Pilate to change it to “He said, I am King of the Jews” (verse 21 NLT). But Pilate refused. So as Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the world, the sign on His cross announced the truth about Him.

Before He died, Jesus arranged for John to care for Mary, Jesus’ mother. With nothing left to accomplish, “he said, ‘It is finished!’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (verse 30 NLT). He willingly died. And He did it so that we might live.

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