John 19 - The Life Recovery Bible

19:4-16 The people shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” had hailed Jesus as their king just days before (12:12-13). Perhaps we have done a similar thing. We may have entrusted our life to God only to discover that his recovery program wasn’t quite what we had in mind. We may have wanted a quick fix for our problems or an easy way out of our pain. When we realized that recovery was painful and laborious, even with God’s help, we turned against him. The people in Jerusalem, even Jesus’ twelve disciples, lost hope as Jesus hung on the cross. But three days later they discovered that even death gave way to God’s power! The path of pain and death led to the greatest of victories—the Resurrection! The same is true in recovery.

19:28-30 What did Jesus finish? On the cross Jesus finished the work he was sent to do (17:4) and fully paid for our sins (1 Peter 3:18). In the greatest act of love in history and in fulfillment of a complicated, centuries-old system of sacrifices, he became the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God (see 1:29; Hebrews 9:11-12). The miracle of the Resurrection (20:1-9) confirmed that Jesus is the Savior who can bring salvation and forgiveness, new life, and recovery to all of us.