Christ’s Pierced Side
John 19:32-34
John 19:17-37: Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." 22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. (They didn’t tear the seamless garment, but God tore the temple curtain from top to bottom at about the same time.) 24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did. 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
The Death of Jesus
28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, (the same plant used to sprinkle the blood on the doorposts at the first Passover) and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (We are going to look particularly at these verses):31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced.
We all know that the motive or goal of any crucifixion was to cause the most excruciating death possible. No one ever survived a crucifixion; the pulverizing of the thighs with a sledge hammer was an addition for the sake of honoring Jewish Sabbath law so that death would be hastened and so the victim would not hang on a cross during the Sabbath.
Most times, the bodies of the crucified were left hanging for public view until death and decay occurred and birds would pick away at the corpses…THEN they were taken down. But this was not to be the case with the Lord Jesus; God had promised in Psalm 16:10 had promised, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”
The type of scourging that Jesus received by the hands of the Roman tormentors was often fatal to the recipient, which I guess would have been a blessing rather than continuing on to be nailed and suspended on a cross in the heat of the day and subjected to even more humiliation and pain, but it was not God’s will that Jesus be spared this additional torture.
The soldiers were going to break the legs of the three at the request of the Jewish leaders in order to guard the sacredness of the Sabbath: The religious leaders were always following the letter of the law, but endorsed the crucifixion of Jesus in whom the secular leaders could find no fault. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead. The upward piercing with a fierce upward thrust of the long pointed spear under the rib cage of Jesus, penetrating His heart, provided the proof, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
1.This act exactly fulfilled the prophesy of Isa. 53:5, some 700 years before: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (or forgiven) This piercing testified beyond any doubt that JESUS WAS REALLY DEAD: He had not merely passed out, later to regain consciousness. Jesus was a real person and possessed a real body, and JESUS TASTED DEATH FOR US, in the most horrible fashion. “36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced." The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ includes a real human death for sin and a real resurrection. According to the scriptures,( as it says in 1 Cor. 15:3-4: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”) We believe and have confessed many times that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.”
2. “The events John records mark the FULFILLMENT OF SCRIPTURE. As we look at these verses we see that John’s emphasis was to demonstrate the remarkable fulfillment of Scripture, being both complicated and improbable. There were two prophecies involved: Ps. 34:20: He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” Also Zech. 12:10: They will look on me whom they have pierced…” The one said that the Savior’s bones must not be broken; the other said that the Savior must be pierced. Moreover, it was the exact opposite of these two prophecies that the soldiers set out to fulfill…yet they ended up fulfilling both of the prophecies. How can brutal men be kept from one act of violence, for which they had specific commandment, and be led to enact another way for which they had no commandment? There is only one answer. By overruling circumstances, the God who inspired the prophecies made sure that they were fulfilled.” (“The Gospel of John”, J.M. Boice, Volume 5, p. 1553)
In reference to these fulfillments, Charles Spurgeon said: “When next you see things working contrary to the truth of God, believe God, and believe nothing else. Let God be true and every man a liar. Though men and devils should give God the lie, hold you on to what God has spoken.”
3. Another reason that Jesus’ bones were not broken points to Jesus as the Passover Lamb slain for the sins of His people. When John refers to the verse, “He protects all His bones and not one of them will be broken,” (ps. 34:20) he is thinking of something far greater than remembering the institution of the Passover, where it was clearly spoken that not a bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken (Ex. 12:46 and Numbers 9:12).
“This seemingly pointless detail in the Passover ritual and in the death of Jesus combine in God’s providence to identify Jesus as the Passover Lamb through whom we have a spiritual deliverer. John had seen this all along of course, and he described the events of the crucifixion in such a way that the timing of Christ’s death at the very time the Passover lambs were being killed is kept in view. At the very beginning of this section John indicates that these things were done because it was the day of preparation of the Passover.” (Boice, p. 1554) Remember John the Evangelist recorded John the Baptist’s testimony in John1:29: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
On Passover, Israel was to remember that God delivered them from their slavery in Egypt. The last judgment against the hardened hearts of the Egyptians was that the firstborn of every household would be killed. God’s angel of death would visit the land, but wherever he would see the blood which was shed from the lamb without blemish that was slain as God commanded applied to the doorposts, the angel would pass over that house and its inhabitants would be spared. As the Jews were about to celebrate their national festival of Passover, Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten, one of a kind unique Son of God sent FROM God from all eternity, the perfect Lamb of God, was being offered as the only possible, perfect, substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
Zech 12:10 had predicted: "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” In the next chapter, in Zech. 13:1 God promises: "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” “A fountain would be opened to cleanse people from sin and impurity.” We sing: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” “Jesus, keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.” “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed.” “See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down.”
Isa 53: 5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” by the weight of the sins of the world, the weight of all of MY SINS, without breaking a bone. The wrath of God against sin killed Christ. The cross was the instrument of death that God used, the most brutal form of execution known to man at the time, and maybe still. God could have used another means…but the cross outside of Jerusalem precisely during the time that thousands of “innocent” lambs were being slain in the temple courts, and blood was flowing out of the temple drains was the means God used to bring forgiveness, FULL and FREE.
When John saw the elements of water and blood flow from Jesus’ side, he was reminded that water was essential in the rites of purification, used on the outside for uncleanness, but Blood always was shed for cleansing from sin (Lev. 17:11). Blood and water gushed from His wound after Jesus had died, after Jesus had declared with a loud voice: IT IS FINISHED! We are cleansed, not by the waters of purification but by the finished sacrificial blood of our Lord Jesus. Jesus was still teaching and testifying from the cross: that ALL DELIVERANCE AND CLEANSING FROM SIN AND ITS DEFILEMENT are to be found ONLY MY DEATH!
We deserve to die eternally, but Jesus died in our place so that all who trust in Him alone for forgiveness pass from death into life because HIS BLOOD PURGES OUR SIN. Jesus’ obedience on the cross absorbed an eternity of hell on the cross for believers, so that the future angel of God’s judgment to come will PASS OVER those who have been covered by Christ’s blood by faith. We exult in the joy of full forgiveness in Christ’s work on the cross: The healing stream that flowed from His side is the sign that our redemption was completed. Oh how He lavishes this saving love and grace on everyone who believes. “Everyone who believes in Him alone will not be put to shame.” (Rom 10:11)
That is why we sing: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, DEMANDS MY SOUL, MY LIFE, MY ALL!”
