"16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’, but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfil the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished”, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
John 19:16-30
We come in these verses to the climax of John's record of the gospel, the death of Christ. We have often pointed out that the real significance of that death lies in the interpretation put upon it by the New Testament writers, and that it is the interpretation that constitutes it a gospel. It is sometimes objected that it is Paul's epistles that give all the heavy theological interpretations of the death of Christ, smothering in doctrine what is essentially a simple and moving story as we have it in these verses. 'Look at the gospels', people say, 'there is no theology there, only the plain record of Jesus' death: Can we not be content with that, and leave the theology about sin and salvation on one side?' At first glance this seems to be a plausible viewpoint; but it does not bear close scrutiny and investigation. For John is not in fact presenting a simple story of the death of Jesus; he is presenting a theology, a message, a gospel, just as pointedly as Paul does. He has been consistently setting out a message throughout his record, a message - as we said earlier in our studies - concerning the difference Jesus makes, a message of newness of life through the death He was to die. And, as one commentator puts it, it is as if John, having sufficiently set forth the meaning and significance of the death and resurrection of Christ through the signs and wonders he has recorded, turns now to his readers saying, 'And now I will tell you what actually happened, and you will see that the facts themselves bear out my interpretation of them'. It is important for us to see that this is what John is doing. Every sign he has recorded for us, every significant statement in Jesus' teaching, has been an exposition of the gospel; the meaning of Christ's death for John is to be seen in all the references he has already made to it (cf 1:29, 2:19, 3:16, 6:51, 10:11, 11:50, 12:32, 15:13, 17:19).