It has been said many times, that crucifixion must be the cruelest form of capital punishment ever devised by the mind of man.
In our culture of comfort, and in a time when the pendulum of justice has swung so far away from the protection of society and so far toward the protection of the criminal - when even the most humane modes of execution are decried as cruel and unjust, it is virtually impossible for us to get a mental picture of the true nature of crucifixion.
Once in a while someone will preach a sermon about the sufferings of Christ on the cross and they’ll list all of the symptoms of agony that would have presented themselves according to medical knowledge, and they’ll explain all about the breathing and the effects of the hot sun and the infection if the victim lived long enough, and the purpose of the vinegar and gall...
I think it will suffice here, for me to point out that according to historians it was not unusual for someone to last days and sometimes even weeks, before they finally expired; and the practice of the Romans was to leave the body there after death for the birds to feed on and the sun to rot, as a lesson and a warning for anyone else who may be tempted to defy Roman rule and law.
It was also common practice for the Romans to smash the lower leg bones of the victim with an iron bar; sometimes to heighten the torture just before death, but also to bring death on quicker if it was convenient for them, because the inability to push themselves to a more upright position hindered victims’ breathing and they would basically suffocate.
But God had decreed that the events of this day would be otherwise, and while man goes his own way, arrogantly making his own decisions and carrying out the evil intentions of his heart in defiance of God, STILL, God’s Word will be fulfilled and no man can hinder.
Friends, something we should get into our heads and always be cognizant of, is that when Jesus is present things change. We have a God of surprises. I personally think that He takes pleasure in surprising us. I think it brings joy to His own heart, to suddenly change our circumstances or bring a bit of comfort or blessing into our lives when we least expect it, just as it does an earthly father to come home with something new for his little one and watch their eyes light up and see them jump up and down with excitement over an unexpected gift.
But even more often, I think, His presence with us and His influence in and around us comes as a surprise simply by virtue of the fact that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. We are backwards. Therefore, God, simply acting according to His own nature, surprises us because our fallen nature expects in its ignorance, something quite different.
Jesus was full of surprises during His earthly ministry, wasn’t He? Every time the disciples indicated by word or action that He would act in a certain way or say a certain thing, they discovered, much to their frequent embarrassment, that they had misjudged Him altogether.
They thought He would want to consume a Samaritan village with fire out of heaven because of the people’s rejection of Him; instead, He rebuked them and reminded them that He came, not to destroy men, but to save them.
Then they thought He would go running to the side of His friend Lazarus, but He delayed for two days until Lazarus had died.
They admonished Him to stay away from Jerusalem for fear of the plotting Jews, but not only did He go there, He walked into the court of the Gentiles at the temple itself and made Himself very visible indeed, by purging it of the marketers.
They thought He would assemble an army, destroy Rome and make Himself king; instead, He went as a lamb to the slaughter and submitted to the cruelest hatred of the very ones He came to save.
Jesus is full of surprises, people. He provides our needs even though we sinfully neglect to go to Him in prayer asking. He often says ‘no’ when we do ask, because we ask for the wrong reasons or for the wrong things, but then says, ‘I have a better plan’, and later we are constrained to lift our hands and our hearts in praise for His wonderful love and mercy and goodness as we see Him do things in our undeserving lives that strengthen our faith and glorify His name.
And here, on this Passover eve, on a hill outside the walls of old Jerusalem, we see Him, already dead, His mangled and tortured body hanging limply on a Roman cross.
His mother is weeping, His friends are grieving, the tongues of the mockers have finally stopped wagging; some are already turning to go back to their holiday celebrations. The soldiers have put their dice away and are thinking about a cold flagon of ale and some cool shade. The Jews are breathing a sigh of relief that this troublemaker is finally out of the way. Pilate is silently congratulating himself that he seems to have pleased everyone whose opinion mattered...
...and even in death, Jesus is about to surprise us again.
First, I want to point to something that jumps right out of verse 31 at me.
The Jews asked Pilate to go ahead and perform this Roman ritual of breaking the legs, so they might take the bodies down from the cross and get them put away before the Passover officially began (at sundown).
Deuteronomy 21 dictates that if a man is justly hung on a tree for his sins, they were not to leave his body there overnight, but take it down and bury it on the same day so as to not defile the land which the Lord had given them.
The Jews had no compunction whatsoever about holding a kangaroo court and murdering a righteous man, but are very concerned to obey the letter of the Law and not defile this high holy day by leaving His body hanging on the tree.
Here is a lesson and a warning for us folks; religious scruples CAN live in a dead conscience.
Now as I’ve said, it was the practice of the Romans to break the legs of the crucified to ensure death. It must have been common practice, because the Jews specifically asked that it be done, so the business could be finished with before sundown.
The soldiers went to the other two men and broke their legs, but when they came to Jesus they saw that He was already dead, so they did not break His legs.
Now here is an answer for those fools who would assert that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross; He only ‘swooned’ and recovered later in the cool of the tomb.
These were seasoned Roman soldiers. One of their duties was crucifixion of insurrectionists and criminals, and they had developed it to a fine art. They knew what they were doing, and they knew death when they saw it.
Furthermore, Pilate himself, the procurator (or governor) had given them orders to break the legs of the three men. When a Roman soldier had an order, he carried out his order, or he lost his life. NOTHING could have kept these soldiers from carrying out that order EXCEPT circumstances that would make it unnecessary; in this case, the obvious death of the one whose legs they came to break.
They saw that He was already dead...they did not break His legs.
In Exodus 12 God have very specific instructions for the preparation of the Passover meal. The lamb, and the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs were all types of His Christ, and all those types were to be fulfilled perfectly. Therefore His instructions were specific. The lamb was to be roasted, not boiled, for the roasting was a type of the fire of God’s wrath poured out against sin. And they were to eat ALL OF IT...and share with others if there was too much for the household; a type of our partaking of all of the Bread of Life...and there will always be more of Jesus than we can hold, won’t there? The more you partake of the Bread of Life, the more you will be constrained to share Him with others.
And the bones were not to be broken, This order is repeated in Numbers 9. So if the Jews had been paying attention when John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God...” and if they had remembered the scriptures and this tradition they had carried out faithfully every year since the Exodus from Egypt, they might have requested instead that the legs of Jesus NOT be broken!
But they didn’t care. They asked for the legs to be broken
Pilate didn’t care, it was common practice. He ordered the legs to be broken.
BUT GOD SAID, “Do not break any bone of it”.
There was no lightening stopping the soldiers form performing their duty; no one grabbed the rod from their hands and said “STOP! This isn’t right! He’s the Lamb of God! He is Christ, our Passover!”
No, it all happened just as naturally as a sneeze or a glance at a passing bird.
“...they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs”. And prophecy was fulfilled.
Then, immediately, another prophecy was fulfilled; one that had been written 850 after the Exodus, but the two were fulfilled within seconds of each other.
“...but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.”
Now why did he do THAT? There is no indication anywhere that THIS was common practice.
Did he intend to cause more pain and suffering? NO! Even if Jesus had still been alive, it only would have brought instant death, but the Bible says “THEY SAW THAT HE WAS ALREADY DEAD”!
If they weren’t sure He was dead, they would have broken the legs. But they didn’t break the legs because He was already dead; so why jam a spear into His side and up into His heart?
I’ll tell you why. BECAUSE 480 YEARS PREVIOUSLY, THROUGH THE PROPHET, GOD SAID, “...they will look upon Me whom they have pierced”.
We have no idea what went through that soldier’s mind at that moment. “He’s dead. No sense breaking the legs. I think I’ll just jam this spear into Him for fun”. We don’t know.
But we do know that God said, “Pierce Him”.
“I brought forth a bride from the first Adam from his side, now I do the same for the last Adam”. And this pagan, on a whim that probably even he wondered about later, ran the spear all the way into the Savior’s heart, and when he pulled it out it was chased by blood and water, and the church was born!
John the apostle was standing there with Mary the mother of Jesus, and saw these things up close. In verse 35 of our text he twice states that he is telling the truth about these events, indicating to us that in his own mind miracles had occurred there.
Was it so unusual to not break the bones, but to pierce with a spear, that he felt he needed to assure the reader that he was not making it up? Or did he consider the water and the blood a miracle because by now lividity would have taken bodily fluids into the legs and feet, and besides, dead bodies don’t bleed?
Or was it all of these things together? We can’t be sure, but we do see that he was careful to impress on us that these things really did happen in just this way.
And such an impression did these events make on his own mind and heart that years later in his letter to the church he wrote:
“This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth”. - I Jn. 5:6,7
We are inwardly and outwardly defiled. Inwardly, by the pollution of sin and our fallen nature. For this, Jesus brings spiritual water. In Him and by Him is the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
We are defiled outwardly by the guilt of sin. As a result we are separated from God, and it is only the atoning blood of Christ that can purge us from that defilement.
Water and blood were both a part of the ceremonial cleansings, ordained by God, in the Judaic order of worship. There is reference to these things in Hebrews, where the writer says,
“But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Again, in Ephesians 5 Paul writes:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.”
So Jesus comes to us as our perfect high priest, equipped with the water for our cleansing, and the blood for our purging of guilt, and with both, reconciles us back to God.
I just want to point out another fulfillment of type here. The priest, after sacrificing the animal, would then go through the washing ceremony to make himself clean for entering the presence of God, and going in to the holy place, he would take the blood of sprinkling. He dared not go in without blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
But note that these things are done after the slaying of the sacrifice; and here we are told by John that after Jesus was dead, the water and the blood were brought forth.
Perfect atonement has been made for you and me, believer in Christ. He has offered an acceptable sacrifice to the Father and in Him we have access to the Throne of the Living God for eternity.
Before I close, I want to clarify another thing about this prophecy of Zechariah’s that was fulfilled on the cross:
It says, “they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son...” (Zechariah 12:10)
That last phrase may cause the reader to wonder who the “they” is, who were to mourn for Him; since those who pierced Him that day were the ones who hated Him and did not mourn.
But it is a reference to the future. Our future. On the day of His crucifixion they pierced Him. But on the day of His return they will gaze on that glorified wound, and they will mourn as for an only son. They will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.
Zechariah 14:4 says, “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in the middle from east to west by a very large valley...”
And in Acts chapter 1, we see Jesus ascending to Heaven from the top of the Mount of Olives, and the angel telling His disciples, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
So Zechariah’s prophecy isn’t finished yet, folks. Jesus Christ will come back to the Mount of Olives and when His foot touches down on its crest, the King will have returned to claim His kingdom. And all those of God’s chosen people who are there in that day, will see Him, and they will see that glorified wound from which He poured out water and blood, and they will know that they have crucified the Messiah; and they will weep and mourn.
What about you? Just as surely as He was pierced on that cross and ancient prophecy was fulfilled, so He will return to the Mount of Olives and prophecy will be fulfilled again. Where will you stand in that day? As one of His?
John said, “And he who has seen has borne witness and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, SO THAT YOU ALSO MAY BELIEVE.”
Will you believe and be saved? Will you put your trust in the shed blood of Christ to purge you of sin and reconcile you to the Father?
If you cannot come to Him IN faith and repentance, then I urge you to come to Him FOR faith and repentance. He will grant it gladly, and He will save you.
Christian, we look back to the Passover lamb and see that none of its bones were broken. Do you wonder what the type was? What it symbolized?
Well, we look forward to the day when Christ our head will return and gather His body to Him, complete and perfect. Not one will be missing, not one will be left behind. We do not serve a lame, maimed Christ; we do not trust in a half-finished redemption.
His work is finished and finished completely and perfectly. All that He came to accomplish will be achieved perfectly as we are changed in an instant and joined to Him eternally, and to the glory of His name.
Praise Him.
