NOTES for Joh 19:17-18

What lies behind Pilate’s refusal to change the inscription? Was it only a desire to annoy the chief priests, to whose demands Pilate had just yielded and against whom he now wished to regain at least a little ground? Or did he truly sense something and wish, in this admittedly somewhat distorted form, to express at least some respect for Jesus? One way or another, Pilate unexpectedly spoke the truth: the true King had been sent to be crucified...

John, Christ’s beloved disciple, was beside Him during the execution, and it is he who omits from his account many details given by the other evangelists, who wrote from the words of witnesses. John tells of the division of the garments, of how Jesus entrusted His Mother to him, and lists the names of those who stood by the Cross, but he describes the Lord’s torments on the Cross more briefly than the others; only the moment of death does John recount in greater detail. Although the Gospel of John omits many details already mentioned by the other evangelists who wrote before him, it seems that John did not close his lips merely because he did not wish to repeat details recorded earlier. It must have been too painful for him to return to those unbearable memories...

In John's account of the crucifixion, the Saviour's solitude on the cross is striking. The evangelist does not mention the apostles standing at a distance; indeed, he describes nothing except the cross itself and what happens at its foot, perhaps because he himself was standing there at the time (vv. 25–27; many commentators believe that when John mentions the unnamed disciple, he is speaking of himself). But the apostle also says nothing about the conversion of one of the robbers crucified with Jesus or about the Saviour's words mentioned by the other evangelists. Judging by John's testimony, Jesus uttered only two words on the cross: “I thirst!” (v. 28) and “It is finished!” (v. 30). Before that, in two short phrases, He entrusted His Mother and the disciple standing by the cross, probably John himself, to each other (vv. 26–27). Apparently, John singles out in the Saviour's words only what concerns him personally and what seems to him most important. It appears that in these two words of Jesus the evangelist sees the meaning of everything that is happening.

The picture described by John was probably not merely a memory of the events at the cross, but the fruit of many years of reflection upon them. For the evangelist, it seems, “It is finished!” meant more than the mere fact that the Saviour had completed His earthly mission, although when standing at the cross the apostle probably had to understand His words in precisely that way. But later, after encountering the Risen One and receiving the revelation he described in the Book of the same name, John apparently understood that Jesus was also speaking of the end of history, of that end of time for which many were waiting and which very few noticed. John does not mention the signs described by the other evangelists: the storm that turned day into night, the earthquake, or the torn veil of the Temple. For him everything was contained in one word, “It is finished!”, spoken by Jesus at the moment of His death on the cross.

But there was something else that struck the apostle. Jesus was dying on the cross like the most ordinary human being. The One Who, during His earthly ministry, could feed thousands with a few loaves suffered from thirst, from the same ordinary thirst that anyone in His place would have experienced, and could do nothing about it. He could do nothing not because He had ceased to be the One He was born among people to be, but because an ordinary human death was also part of His earthly ministry, just as much as the miracles and manifestations of the Kingdom that were impossible for anyone else in the world.

John does not mention the mocking calls addressed to Jesus to come down from the cross, of which the other evangelists testify. Perhaps he did not hear them, for of all the apostles only he was so close to the crucified Teacher, and it is quite possible that he had no attention to spare for the crowd standing at some distance. But he undoubtedly understood the main thing: everything that was happening became possible only through the free will of the Saviour of the world, Who consented to it all for the sake of those He wished to save. Such was the price of salvation and the price of the Kingdom.

The crucifixion and death of Jesus are not simply a moment in His biography, and therefore the description of this event is not simply one of the stories about His life. It is testimony. The evangelist points several times to the witnesses of the execution: the beloved disciple, Mary, the other women, those who "testified," whose "testimony is true." John wants to bring us to the place of the crucifixion so that we too may stand with him at the cross, confirming the truthfulness of his account to the other disciples.

Why is this testimony needed, why the quotations from the Law and the prophets? Do we really doubt that a Man who lived two thousand years ago died? Of course not. That means John's testimony is not testimony about death, but testimony about a victory that has been accomplished...

Today’s reading is dedicated to the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. At its center is the veneration of the Cross, by which we have been saved “from the bondage of the enemy,” as the magnification for the feast sings.

The Evangelist John bears witness to the Crucifixion and to those standing by the Cross. The foot of the Cross is the only “right” place for each of us, because it is precisely in the Savior’s Death on the Cross that the salvation of the world is accomplished and life is granted to us all, even if it never enters our minds. The world is full of suffering, sometimes explicable but more often inexplicable, and this mystery cannot fail to concern a person. This is hard for us, so our desire to hide from suffering and turn away from it when it does not touch us personally is quite understandable. But the Gospel tells us that every genuine human suffering, not one that is contrived, is a place of Christ’s special presence. It is He who suffers in every person, and it is precisely here that we meet Him.

"We venerate Your Cross, O Christ..." What do these words mean for us? Boundless compassion for the innocent, beaten, naked righteous one hanging on this wood. Love for Him, limitless gratitude. And also the understanding of how infinitely lighter our own cross is. All the problems that seem impossible to carry are nothing compared with the measure of suffering He took upon Himself for our sake. "You, who so loved Your world..."

And there are other words: "Then He says to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.'" On these words the Church is built, the strongest of strongholds. We have all been made sons and daughters, and therefore we can never be orphans. Orphanhood is a word from some other life. We often enter prayerfully into the Passion of Christ, but it is much harder to enter into the passion of Mary. His inconceivable physical pain and her inconceivable pain of soul. The whole world is embraced by this pain.