Jesus’ Side Is Pierced
JESUS’ SIDE IS PIERCED
JOHN 19:31-37
There’s nothing we need add to what Jesus Christ did for us. We need only receive by faith the gift of forgiveness and new life.
So the hour has come, the work has been completed and Jesus has died. But that is not after all the end of the matter. For there are religious consequences for the Jews and for the disciples. The Jews have been busy with their Passover observances and while they go through with the removal of a Messianic pretender they do not intend to slip up in their religious observance (cf. 18:28). The Law had said that a hanged man’s body should not remain all night upon the tree as that would defile the land (Deuteronomy 21:22f.). The Romans liked to leave the bodies on the crosses as a grim warning to potential troublemakers. Because the next day was the Sabbath of the Passover the Jews asked for the bodies to be taken away before nightfall.
The Romans could not, of course, remove the bodies until the victims were dead. In such cases, as an act of mercy, their legs were broken to hasten their death. This was done in the case of the two terrorists. When they came to Jesus they saw that he was dead already. So there was no need to break his legs, and one of the soldiers, probably just to check that he really was dead, thrust a lance into his side and there came out a flow of blood and water.
There was a witness of this and he gives true evidence for the faith of the readers. It was clearly something of importance. On the one hand, it was firm evidence of his death, particularly important as there were heretics who denied that Jesus had ever died. On the other hand, water and blood are symbols in the Gospel. Water is applied for cleansing and new birth (3:5) and drunk for satisfaction (4:13f.). The blood of the Son of Man must be drunk so that men may live (6:53-56). By what the soldiers did not do and by what they did they fulfilled Scripture.
Notes 19:31: there is some doubt as to whether this means the day of preparation for the Passover or for the Sabbath. 19:34: Tasker, ad loc., quotes the medical evidence for what happened. Probably the two sacraments are in mind (cf. 1 John 5:6,8). But the point is, as Barrett put it, ad loc., that “the real death of Jesus was the real life of men.” 19:35: this does not seem to be the “beloved disciple.” 19:36: so revealing Jesus as the true Passover Lamb (1:29; cf. Exodus 12:46; Psalm 34:20). 19:37: quoting Zechariah 12:10, the whole context of which has bearing on the Passion.