John
19:31-37
Since it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a very important day) the Jews asked Pilate to break their limbs, and to have the bodies removed. So the soldiers came, and they broke the limbs of the first criminal, and of the other who had been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, and when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his limbs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately water and blood came forth. And he who saw it is a witness to this, and his word is true. And he knows that he is speaking the truth, that you also may believe. These things happened that the passage of scripture which says: &His bone shall not be broken,& should be fulfilled. And again another passage says: "They shall see him whom they have pierced."
Food for thought!
In one thing the Jews were more merciful than the Romans. When the Romans carried out crucifixion under their own customs, the victim was simply left to die on the cross. He might hang for days in the heat of the midday sun and the cold of the night, tortured by thirst and tortured also by the gnats and the flies crawling in the weals on his torn back. Often men died raving mad on their crosses. Nor did the Romans bury the bodies of crucified criminals. They simply took them down and let the vultures and the crows and the dogs feed upon them.
A grim method was used to despatch criminals who lingered on. Their limbs were smashed with a mallet. That was done to the criminals who were crucified with Jesus, but mercifully he was spared that, for he was already dead. The sparing of Jesus is a fulfillment of an Old Testament passage. It was laid down of the Passover lamb that not a bone of it should be broken (Num.9:12). Jesus was indeed our Passover Lamb who delivers his people from death.
There is something that happened with Jesus at death. When the soldiers saw that Jesus was already dead they did not break his limbs with the mallet; but one of them, it must have been to make doubly sure that Jesus was dead, thrust a spear into his side. And there flowed out water and blood. This too was in fulfilment of the prophecy in Zech.12:10: "They look on him whom they have pierced."
We cannot be sure why blood and water flowed together out of Jesus' heart. It may well be that Jesus died literally of a broken heart. Normally, of course, the body of a dead man will not bleed. It is possible that what happened was that Jesus' experiences, physical and emotional, were so terrible that his heart was ruptured. When that happened the blood of the heart mingled with the fluid of the pericardium which surrounds the heart. The spear of the soldier pierced the pericardium and the mingled fluid and blood came forth. It is quite possible that Jesus, in the literal sense of the term, died of a broken heart. And if so, it was the final, unanswerable proof that Jesus was a real man with a real body. Here was proof that Jesus was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
So, today as we mark today the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us be thankful of Jesus and his sacrifice for us. For as Isaiah 53:4-6 says,
"It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all."
Since it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a very important day) the Jews asked Pilate to break their limbs, and to have the bodies removed. So the soldiers came, and they broke the limbs of the first criminal, and of the other who had been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, and when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his limbs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately water and blood came forth. And he who saw it is a witness to this, and his word is true. And he knows that he is speaking the truth, that you also may believe. These things happened that the passage of scripture which says: &His bone shall not be broken,& should be fulfilled. And again another passage says: "They shall see him whom they have pierced."
Food for thought!
In one thing the Jews were more merciful than the Romans. When the Romans carried out crucifixion under their own customs, the victim was simply left to die on the cross. He might hang for days in the heat of the midday sun and the cold of the night, tortured by thirst and tortured also by the gnats and the flies crawling in the weals on his torn back. Often men died raving mad on their crosses. Nor did the Romans bury the bodies of crucified criminals. They simply took them down and let the vultures and the crows and the dogs feed upon them.
A grim method was used to despatch criminals who lingered on. Their limbs were smashed with a mallet. That was done to the criminals who were crucified with Jesus, but mercifully he was spared that, for he was already dead. The sparing of Jesus is a fulfillment of an Old Testament passage. It was laid down of the Passover lamb that not a bone of it should be broken (Num.9:12). Jesus was indeed our Passover Lamb who delivers his people from death.
There is something that happened with Jesus at death. When the soldiers saw that Jesus was already dead they did not break his limbs with the mallet; but one of them, it must have been to make doubly sure that Jesus was dead, thrust a spear into his side. And there flowed out water and blood. This too was in fulfilment of the prophecy in Zech.12:10: "They look on him whom they have pierced."
We cannot be sure why blood and water flowed together out of Jesus' heart. It may well be that Jesus died literally of a broken heart. Normally, of course, the body of a dead man will not bleed. It is possible that what happened was that Jesus' experiences, physical and emotional, were so terrible that his heart was ruptured. When that happened the blood of the heart mingled with the fluid of the pericardium which surrounds the heart. The spear of the soldier pierced the pericardium and the mingled fluid and blood came forth. It is quite possible that Jesus, in the literal sense of the term, died of a broken heart. And if so, it was the final, unanswerable proof that Jesus was a real man with a real body. Here was proof that Jesus was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
So, today as we mark today the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us be thankful of Jesus and his sacrifice for us. For as Isaiah 53:4-6 says,
"It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all."
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