After the Lord had completed His work in His death, He rested (19:38-42). In John 18 and 19 we see the many evil things and sufferings which came to the Lord. Some treated Him evilly, others mocked Him, and even His most intimate disciple denied Him. Everything in His environment was dark. But, however evil were the events and however much He suffered, He endured them all and passed through them victoriously, showing that He is the victorious and conquering life. His is not the life conquered; His is the life conquering. Thus, immediately after His death, the environment was changed from black to white. After the Lord accomplished His redemptive and life-imparting death, His situation of suffering immediately changed into an honorable one. Before His death, everything was evil and deadly; after His death, everything became pleasant and agreeable. Joseph of Arimathea, “a rich man” (v. 38; Matt. 27:57), and Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews” (John 3:1), came with linen and very expensive spices, myrrh and aloes (vv. 39-40), to prepare His body for burial. It was not the poor but the noble who cared for His body, burying Him in a new tomb “with the rich” (v. 41; Isa. 53:9). By this we see that the whole situation was changed into a rich condition, a noble state, a new sphere. The Lord was now dear to people, and they valued Him very highly. Hence, the Lord rested in human honor. Although He was put to death in shame, He was buried in honor. The problem had been with death, but after the Lord died, this problem was solved. When He died, the trouble and the evil things were over. Now, according to God’s sovereignty, in human honor of a high standard, the Lord rested on the Sabbath day (v. 42, Luke 23:55-56), waiting for the time to resurrect from among the dead. In 5:17 while the Jews were keeping their Sabbath, the Lord told them that the Father and He were working. Now that His work had been finished, He rested and enjoyed a proper Sabbath day. After this Sabbath, on the first day of the week, He would rise up from His resting place. In the next message we shall consider the Lord’s resurrection.
By reading John 18 and 19 and considering all the points found in these chapters, we shall be able to understand the significance of the Lord’s death. These chapters reveal how the Lord delivered Himself in voluntary boldness and conquered the environment of death and its influence, proving that He is the conquering, resurrection life, and dying that He might release Himself into us as life. After He accomplished this, He was highly valued and put into rest. The purpose of these two chapters is to show that the Lord was willing to deliver Himself to death and, by this, to prove that He is the resurrection life, the conquering life which can never be hurt, damaged, or subdued by death. He proved that death could not conquer Him but that it could only release Him as life. On the one hand, the Lord could not be broken; on the other hand, He was broken. As the resurrection life, He could not be broken; but for the purpose of releasing Himself as life, He was broken. That none of His bones was broken proved that nothing of His resurrection life could be broken. However, He was willing to suffer and to be pierced that life might be released and imparted into us. Once this had been accomplished, He rested and waited for the resurrection.
We also arrive at the correct understanding of the Lord’s death by comparing the record of the Gospel of John with the records of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three Gospels show that the Lord died for redemption, but the Gospel of John reveals that He not only died for redemption but especially for the release of life. Thus, by His death, we have been redeemed and have had His life released and imparted into us.