Why the Cross? John 18

In John’s Gospel we have been studying the Last Discourse or what is called the Farewell Discourse of John’s Gospel.

In this passage we have watched Jesus move to the Garden of Gethsemane and it will be here that in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we will learn that Jesus will pray for the cup to pass.

Jesus is in such agony that his sweat is like drops of blood. He knows that He is about to endure the cross.

Jesus is full divine and fully human and his human side is feeling physical as well as mental pain.

He is in anguish over what He has to do.

He knows that His Hour is coming and is upon him. – glory- His Hour is coming.
Evil has its hour but God has His day- Evil is about to come crashing down on Jesus will all the force that it can muster.

The Good Shepherd is about to get struck down and His sheep will scatter for a short time.

I think it is very interesting that much of these events of Christ’s passion happens in a Garden.
Two Gardens where man’s fate hangs in the balance – Eden and Gethsemane

Eden -

Adam rebelled in sin
Adam hid from God
God sought out man
The sword was there to keep man out of the garden of Eden

Gethsemane-

Christ took on man’s sin
Christ interceded with His Father
Christ sought out the Father to do His will
Christ told him to sheave the sword

It is at this second Garden of the Bible that we see that Christ accepts the Cross. It is here that He prays and realizes that there is no turning back.

So this morning lets get specific and talk about what put Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

What put Jesus on the Cross?

1) God’s Plan-
Albert Schweitzer was one who thought Jesus was overcome by circumstances beyond his control.

In his 1906 book, The Quest for the Historical Jesus, Schweitzer said: “There is silence all around.

The Baptist appears, and cries: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’

Soon after that comes Jesus, who lays hold of the wheel of the world to set it moving on that last revolution which is to bring all ordinary history to a close.
It refuses to turn, and he throws himself upon it.

Then it does turn; and crushes him.

Instead of bringing in the eschatological conditions, he has destroyed them.

The wheel rolls onward, and the mangled body of the one immeasurably great Man, who was strong enough to think of himself as the spiritual rule of mankind and to bend history to his purpose, is hanging upon it still.”

Obviously, you can, like Schweitzer, make up your own ideas about Jesus and God.

But you should know that the picture which the Bible presents is not of a “mistaken idealist caught and crushed like a rag doll in the wheels of history, [a man] who died in confusion and despair”

The arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus were all part of God’s plan and Jesus full well knew what He was going toward.

This liberal idea that Jesus was just a victim totally misses the point.

It misses the point of John’s Gospel. In John’s Gospel we have been heading to this event since the beginning of the book.


The hour is coming, Jesus talks about His hour – the hour of pain and suffering but it will lead to God’s Day –

In John 7:30 we read that the Jewish authorities came to seize Jesus and take Him away but His hour had not yet come. This hour is the hour of His passion and death.

In John 8:20 we read the same that they could not seize Him because His hour was not yet complete.

In John 12: 27 we see Jesus’ soul become troubled because He knows it is time for His hour of passion.

This hour will produce suffering and anguish for Christ but will also bring great glory and God will be glorified by what happens.


God’s day of resurrection but also God’s day of judgment. Evil and sin may get its hour at Christ.

Satan may get that hour to throw all that he has a Christ and try to destroy the holy One of God but God will have His Day

His day when Christ comes from the grave on that Sunday morning and also His day of judgment when evil will be dealt with finally.


2) The Revelation of His Identity

When Jesus reveals His true identity that is when He is lead to the cross. Man cannot handle WHO Jesus really is.

There were 4 Judges that put Jesus on trial in the passion narrative.

2 religious judges – Annas and Caiaphas

2 were secular judges – Pilate Roman, Herod Edomite – both Gentiles

Different charges were made in different courts –
the religious courts – Blasphemy

secular judges – Sedition


The Religious Court that He appears before - He is too religious to other worldly – He is too much a man from Heaven that they cannot take it.

The secular group crucifies him because He is too political – to worldly - If He would just take His message back to Heaven and stay there all things would be okay with Herod and the Romans. It was just dangerous to these secular authorities when people actually carried out the teachings of Jesus.

In trail of Jesus we see that Jesus reveals both His Humanity (He is the true King of David) and His Divinity – He is the true Son of God.

We see a powerful episode where Jesus reveals his real identity and many times we read through this passage and miss a main point of the entire episode.

John 18: 1-8
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples. 2 Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. 3 Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek ?" 5 They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. 6 So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Therefore He again asked them, "Whom do you seek ?" And they said, "Jesus the Nazarene." 8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,"

In this story they have come to arrest Jesus.

In much popular piety we see little pasty Jesus in the Garden and his followers are there with Him.

Then comes along just a few Roman soldiers and they take Jesus off.

John – an eyewitness – tells us that a Roman Cohort came to arrest Jesus. That is a groups of 6 centuria

A Centuria was either 80 to 100 soldiers lead by a centurion.

This would have been from 480 – 600 soldiers lead by 6 centurions. They were not playing around. They were going to make sure that if Jesus were leading an uprising they would be able to put it down right there.

Here is the fascinating part – When Jesus tells them who he Is – look what happens in verse 6- these 400-600 hardened Roman soldiers fell to the ground.

What did Jesus say that scared them so much?

He told them that I AM HE- he used the powerful name of God – this is the same name that was revealed to Moses at the burning bush.

Jesus is the great I AM – they were coming to arrest put God on trial.

Also note that Jesus told them to let His followers go free and they let them. This was not the Roman way to deal with what they perceived as a revolt.

From past experience when Theudas lead an uprising the Romans killed the leader and the followers.

Jesus speaks powerfully and tells them to let the Disciples to go free. This is not a request from Jesus.

Then basically Jesus has to talk them into arresting Him.

This reveals to us that Jesus is all powerful and He willfully gave up His life. They didn’t kill Him, he allowed them to kill him.

Jesus also reveals that He is King to the pagan Roman ruler Pilate:

John 18: 36-37

36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews ; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king ?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

This is one of the most misunderstood passages of the Bible.

Many people read this passage of Jesus trial before Pilate as Jesus saying that His kingdom is so other-worldly that it is way up in Heaven in some far-off place.

The very reason Christ came to bring His kingdom rule is to bring the rule of God to this earth.

God’s plan is not that He should only reign in Heaven but that reign should be brought to Earth.

That is why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer – they will be done on earth as well as Heaven.

Jesus tells Pilate pretty quick that He was born to be a King.

The very enthronement of this King of the Jews will be the cross. It will be upon the cross for the first time the world will see that Jesus is the King of the Jews.

That is exactly why Pilate had that inscription put on the cross to show the brunt force of Rome and in his own way show that Jesus was not a true king.

So when we look at what put Jesus on the cross we can conclude that from the religious perspective – He was considered a blasphemer – they could not accept He was God Almighty

The Romans wanted to kill Him because he was a King other than Caesar.

3) The third reason Jesus went to the cross was Pragmatism

Better he should die than the country

John 11: 49-50
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."

Caiaphas is thinking in human, fleshly terms, but it is perfectly pragmatic. God will use this for His own purpose but Caiaphas is all about what is pragmatic.
Not what is right or what is wrong but pragmatic.

Never mind checking this guy Jesus out and seeing if He might be the real deal- we have to keep the Romans happy.

Caiaphas was so compromised with Rome that he couldn’t even see right from wrong He just didn’t want someone to cause problems for Rome.

We see this same pragmatism in Jesus trial before the Romans – the Jews who hated the Romans all the sudden become advocates of Caesar just to get Jesus on the cross.
Accusing him of Treason against Caesar – the one they hated – they were now acting like they were friends of Caesar – human intrigue – pragmatism
John 19: 10-15
10 So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above ; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." 12 As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, "If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar ; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar." 13 Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover ; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King !" 15 So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King ?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."

Pilate is making every effort to release Jesus but the Jewish authorities will hear nothing of it.

All the sudden it is pragmatic for the Jews to become fans of Caesar. They tell Pilate, if you don’t crucify Him, you are not loyal to Caesar.

They could care less about Caesar and actually hate Caesar but they are using this to their advantage.

That is how pragmatism works, doesn’t matter what is right or wrong but what is easiest or best for the greater good.

Sometimes what man thinks is for the greater good is actually evil.
It is amazing that one of the driving forces that puts Jesus on the cross is good ole pragmatism

Many times mankind does what is expedient, not what is right.

If you think that that was just a problem in the 1st century you are wrong.

The Nazis could blame the Jews for all of Germany’s problems after WWI and just prior to WWII. It can become pragmatic to blame this group of people and then decide to exterminate them systematically.

The Palestinian’s today can blame the modern Jewish state for all of the their problems and justify suicide bombers to kill innocent women and children. You can hear some politicians justify that behavior and say well the Israelis are killing Palestinians.

But we can easily get on that bandwagon and point the finger overseas or in history and say I cant believe that happened, how could people do those things.

But folks we do here, we do it in our community, we do nationally.

I will propose to you this morning that we are heading down a path of destruction if we don’t change.

Consider that we make it legal for a person to kill a baby in the womb and call it choice.

We can defend it all kinds of ways, we can say well the baby would have been born in a bad situation, that baby could have had medical problems.

We can turn a blind eye to the rule of Law, we can allow public Laws to be broken and the wrongdoer to go unpunished because they have a good lawyer.

We can give people free money from taxpayers that are able to work but refuse to work and call it welfare and violate a Biblical principle that a man that will not work should not eat.

We can subsidize bad behavior with public taxpayer money while another citizen works hard for their existence doing things right.

Folks that do things by God’s way and do it right don’t need a pat on the back from our government but all we would ask is for a level playing field.

All we cry for is what is Right and not what is pragmatic or practical.


4) Sin put Christ on the cross

Human nature recoils from death – natural for human nature to shrink from this pain. Jesus is in agony over the cross because He knows how terrible sin is.

I believe that it will not just be the pain of the scourging, the beatings, the nails, and the gasping for each breath on nail torn feet that Jesus fears most, but it is the separation.

At the cross of Christ for the first time ever in all eternity the Son will be cut off from the Father.

The very fabric of the Trinity will be torn and that family ruptured when Jesus literally experiences Hell.

Jesus will take on all sin at the cross – it will be the very existence of sin that sends Him to the cross.

We have become so used to sin that we don’t take it serious.

The one thing that man doesn’t become better at through experience is sin.

It is the virtuous that stand outside the stream of sin that can look at sin as it is and diagnose it for what it is.

Christ has to face the strong human will and bend it to the will of the Father – he had to bear the sin of all.

The sin of Adam,
the sin of Cain was there,
the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were there.

The darkest sins the Nazi concentration camps was there

The sin of the darkest soul of a 9/11 terrorist was there at calvary

The sin that we commit in private or public, the sin of hate, the sin of abuse, all the sin that we commit are there.

Whether we care or not, whether it means much to us or not, He still did it, he still took on sin.

He still said yes to God – he takes on the sin, he becomes sin – and His choice to do this have nothing to do with what we might think about it.

That is what is radical and revolutionary.

He was guiltless, He didn’t deserve this, if you think sin is not serious just consider the cross.

The thing that should disturb us most is that the cross is not abstract but Personal – Jesus took on our personal sins.

The sins I have committed put him there. We need to pause and consider that for a second – Jesus knew me, and knew he died for me, he knew everyone of us and why He was doing what He did.

Now what do I do with that information? Does my actions show that I am thankful that he took on that wrath for me, that separation for me?

What about my attitude toward Him? Does He come first in my life out of thankfulness? Just look at our actions and we will realize that really quick.

What about our actions? When we take the Lord’s Supper – do we truly treat this event as something that memorializes what Jesus did? That gift is