Message
John 19:28-37
“Pierced but Not Broken”
What would it take to break you?
If you had a secret … a really important secret … how much punishment could you endure before you would give that secret up?
What if they started hurting your family members? Would you hand over the secret then?
Everyone has a breaking point. Which raise the question … did Jesus have a breaking point?
He has been through so much.
He has endured a whole heap of suffering.
The physical and mental abuse has been over-whelming.
Did it break Him?
Let’s read John 19:28-37
As we make our way through this section we are going to keep asking the same question.
Is Jesus broken by the arrest and crucifixion process?
We will start with a focus on His humanity.
I thirst.
If you know the other phrases of Jesus on the cross … and there are seven in total … you might find these words of Jesus a little strange.
Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.
My God. My God. Why have You forsaken Me?
It is finished.
These are sayings of power aren’t they. They are in character and appropriate for the occasion. Then we get to these words of Jesus.
I thirst.
It seems so mundane.
So ordinary.
... ...
So human.
And that is precisely the point. Just when we think we have the cross nicely packaged, we are given a little reminder:-
Don’t forget that Jesus was human. He had flesh. He knows what it means to be like us.
Jesus gets thirsty. In John 4:7 when Jesus is talking with the Samaritan woman He asks her to give Him a drink.
Not just because He wants to teach her a spiritual lesson.
But because it is Samaria is a hot dry country and when you walk all day to get to a town … you get thirsty.
If that is the case when you walk around, how much more thirstier would you be if you were in Jesus’ situation.
It is quite possible that the last drink Jesus had was at the Passover – early in the previous night. Since then He was pierced by the crown of thorns, beaten with a wooden staff, whipped and nailed to a cross. If you were close enough you would hear blood dripping onto the ground into a slimy mess at the base of the cross.
I thirst says Jesus.
But don’t forget also that Jesus has also been enduring the wrath of God. He already has made the cry My God. My God. Why have You forsaken Me? It is not a small thing to face the anger and wrath of God. Nahum 1:6 says Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before Him.
I thirst says Jesus
Does the thirst means the Jesus is broken? Not at all.
Remember how John opened this section.
Knowing all was complete and so Scripture would be fulfilled.
What Scripture is that?
Psalm 69:21
They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
As Jesus cries out on the cross “I thirst” He isn’t broken. Rather He is making another guarantee that He is promised Messiah.
The thirst of Jesus says, “I am the real deal.”
Thirsting because He has taken the anger of God.
Thirsting as a man – just to let us know how down-to-earth Christianity really is.
Jesus isn’t broken … he is fixing the relationship that we broke with God.
So we are still asking the question Is Jesus broken by the arrest and crucifixion process?
Which brings us to the next words of Jesus
It is finished.
How many of us have a tendency to stop before we have crossed the finished line. Think about your life. Is there
- a partly completed garden? - a half-read book?
- an long forgotten renovation? - an barely begun project?
- an abandoned diet? - a car up on blocks?
There are many people in this world who have gone to the grave without finishing what they really wanted to do. But Jesus isn’t one of those.
When He had received the drink Jesus said, “It is Finished.”
In the original language the actual word Jesus says is tetelestai … which means it is finished. It was a very common expression in the days of Jesus.
• A farmer would use it describe an animal so beautiful that it seemed to have no faults. He would look at his lamb and declare, Tetelestai!
• An artist, after putting the finishing touches on a canvas would step back and pronounce, Tetelestai!
• And, perhaps most importantly, this was a banking term. When a person would fully pay off his debt, the banker would hand him a receipt with the word Tetelestai stamped on it.
When Jesus cries out tetelestai … it is finished He is proclaiming to the whole world that there is nothing left that needs to be done.
Which is really important for us to understand.
Because there is a big difference between saying
“I am finished” … in the sense of “I am broken”.
There is a big difference between saying “I am finished” … and “It is finished”.
Jesus is declaring that His task is finished …. He has done it all.
But what is finished?
In our society we are very familiar with vandalism.
• Signs.
• Trains.
• Buildings.
Vandalism is so destructive because it destroys and covers the item which has been vandalised. Things are made to look second rate.
At the beginning of creation there was another act of vandalism. It was the most powerful act with the longest lasting consequences.
God went to the effort of making everything just right. All the details
- the sun, moon and stars.
- the trees, fruit, and open meadows.
- the peace, tranquillity, and balance.
It was all there. And mankind was given a powerful position. Rule, fill the earth and subdue it. And then in the evening you get to walk and talk with God.
God wanted a relationship. God put it all in place so we could have a relationship. Then Satan came and vandalised it all with these words:-
God knows that when you eat of (the fruit) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God …
He didn’t say that there would be no more walks in the evening with God.
He didn’t say that sin would dominate our thoughts.
He didn’t say that we would be on a path to eternal destruction
He didn’t say that we would not naturally follow after God.
He didn’t say that we would regret living in a world that used Satan’s rules.
He didn’t say that our love for God would now be broken.
In two bites of a piece of fruit greatest act of the Divine Artist has been ruined.
Until now. When Jesus says tetelestai … it is finished … this is program He has in mind. The reversal of the consequences of the vandalism done by Satan.
It is finished … and then he dies.
He doesn’t die because He is broken.
He dies because He has done all that was necessary to fix the problem.
There is now a plan of salvation which is fully able to work.
We don’t have to come up with the rest of the formula.
We don’t need to try and look for a 50-50 arrangement … where you do your part and Jesus does His part.
We don’t need to try and clean ourselves up and make ourselves more presentable before God will even think about having anything to do with us.
We don’t have to quit.
We don’t need to be discouraged.
We to feel each day is a series of disappointments.
In our lives we may have unfinished projects … and we will go to the grave with them remaining unfinished. But that doesn’t apply to our spiritual life. Jesus isn’t broken. Jesus has fixed the relationship we broke.
Let’s move on to the last section in this text and ask the same question
Is Jesus broken by the arrest and crucifixion process?
What do we discover?
Even physically the body of Jesus was not broken.
Here our attention is brought back to the Jewish authorities. They are the ones who are very careful about making sure they keep the law.
When the Romans crucified anyone they would usually let the bodies rot on the crosses. It was a very visual reminder of what happens when you try and mess with Rome. So the process acted as a great deterrent.
But the Jews had these verses in mind.
22 If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23
Leaving bodies hanging any day violated Jewish custom.
Leavening bodies on the Sabbath was worse.
Leaving bodies on a special Sabbath was unthinkable.
You can imagine the rulers again coming to Pilate to make sure everything is just right.
It is sad that they are so worried about a dead body, but they have no problem putting to death an innocent man.
But why did the Romans break the legs?
The only way to get air in your lungs when you are being crucified is to push your body up with your legs and take the weight off your shoulders.
When you break the legs and there is no way to push up you die very quickly.
Ironically having your leg smashed and broken would almost be a relief. It means the agony is nearly over.
Two men are still alive. So their legs are broken.
Jesus is dead.
That is the main point. Jesus is dead.
He doesn’t need to be broken because the purpose of His coming has been fulfilled.
The timing of His death is not based on an act of violence … Jesus just bowed his head and gave up His spirit. That is what we read in John 19:30.
It was done in such a quiet way it seems that people around the cross don’t even realise it has happened.
So, just to be sure, a soldier pierces the side of Jesus with a spear. And blood and water flow. Let me tell you that much ink has been used writing about this.
But my sense is this. John loves using symbolic events to make a theological point.
And the image of water and blood flowing could really be used to make some theological points.
Yet John doesn’t make anything about the symbolism.
All John says is – I witnessed this with my own eyes, and you can believe it when I tell you Jesus was dead.
When people are crucified they go through a process called hypovolemic shock. Because they can’t get enough oxygen their hearts beat faster and this sustained rapid heartbeat causes fluid to gather in the sack around the heart and around the lungs.
When the soldier pierced the side of Jesus the blood flows from the flesh, then the water comes from the piercing of the sack around the heart and lungs.
Everything that needed to happen … has happened.
All according to the timing of Jesus. At no point is he broken. Including His body. John saw it as such an important point that He reminds is that, even here, Jesus is fulfilling Scripture.
19 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
Psalm 34:19-20
10 “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.
Zechariah 12:10
John keeps making the same point.
Jesus is not broken … He is in complete control the whole time.
Which gives us an amazing amount of comfort and encouragement.
Because doesn’t it feel at times that our lives are broken.
It might be as a result of sickness, pain, suffering and physical ailments.
There could be emotional hurt, depression, anxiety and abuse.
Perhaps it is guilt, shame, fear, questioning and doubt.
We don’t feel we a good enough, useful enough or strong enough.
We have broken relationships, broken families and broken lives.
And, most hard of all, we have a broken relationship with God.
Who is going to put it all back together?
Who is able to give us the peace we need in the middle of pain?
Who can help us overcome the emotional baggage we carry?
Who can take away the doubts and guilt?
Who gives us security and hope?
Who enables forgive to be shared?
Who can be the one who comprehensively helps the broken?
It’s Jesus … the one who was never broken.
You can go to Him, no matter what.
He was human … thirsting like us … so he understands.
He went to the very end … completely finishing the task … so it always works.
Look on the one who is pierced … not broken …
And be restored, revived, released, repaired, relieved, reinstated, re-established and resurrected.
Prayer
