31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth - that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on Him whom they have pierced.”
Someone once said that if you squeezed the Gospel of John hard enough, water would pour out of it. The symbolism of water is a recurring theme throughout John, beginning with Jesus’ first recorded miracle when He turned water into wine in chapter 2. In chapter 4 He tells the Samaritan woman at Sychar that He offers living water to those who come to Him in faith.
In the next chapter He heals the paralysed man at the pool of Bethesda. The superstitious belief was that this pool had magical healing powers, but being paralysed, the man was unable to get into the pool by Himself, so in a very real way, Jesus took the place of the alleged healing powers of the water Himself as He healed the man.
In chapter 7, at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus publicly proclaimed, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38)
In chapter 9 He heals the man born blind by telling him to wash in the pool of Siloam, and then of course, He uses water to wash the feet of His disciples in John 13.
This makes the irony of His plea on the cross, “I thirst,” even more remarkable. John has meticulously listed many occasions of the spiritual life-giving water Jesus offers us, only to thirst Himself as He bore the curse of human sin. The very source of life-giving water, as He died, was denied water to drink, but of course, we know that it was by that same death of our Saviour that we are able to come to Him for the spiritual water of life.
John then records in verse 34 the soldier piercing Jesus’ side with a spear. Medical experts tell us that the separation of blood and water proves that Jesus was actually dead, something John stressed in the previous verse, but there is a lot more to this detail than first meets the eye.
James Montgomery Boice writes, “The breaking of the legs was to hasten death, as John indicates. The only reason Jesus’ legs were not broken was that He was already dead. But lest there be any doubt, the spear was thrust into His side by the soldier - all carefully recorded by John. Why was this important? It was important in view of the later claims regarding the resurrection. Jesus had not merely swooned to revive later in the cool of the tomb and then emerge to appear to His disciples as if He had been raised from the dead. He had really died, and He was really resurrected.”
There is an easy answer to the question, why didn’t the Roman soldiers break Jesus’ legs? It’s because Jesus was dead. Pilate had given them an order, and they wouldn’t have disobeyed if they were not certain Jesus was already dead. We shouldn’t forget that these men were professional executioners, who were very familiar with this particular form of execution. They knew a dead man when they saw one. It was their professional opinion based upon years of experience that Jesus Christ was dead. He had not fainted or swooned as some mistakenly teach.
We’ve spent a lot of time in recent weeks on the significance of the blood of Christ which secures our salvation, but John making the point that water flowed from His side, other than proving the actual, physical death of Jesus, what else does this teach us?
That blood that flowed out reminds us of His sacrificial death, the cleansing power of His blood which purifies us from the penalty of our sin. That water flowed out reminds us of our sins being washed white as snow, of the living water of the Spirit that Jesus spoke about in John 4 which wells up within us to eternal life.
In Exodus 17, the people complained to Moses that they had no water. “So Moses cried to the Lord, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Exodus 17:4-6)
Notice that in verse 6, God said to Moses, “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it.” God offered Himself to be struck in the place of His sinful people, with the result that life-giving water flowed out of the rock. This is a clear picture of what happened at Calvary. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, took on human flesh and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Having been physically struck and beaten by the Roman soldiers, in death the water of life flows, as does the blood which brings forgiveness for our sins.
Paul makes the connection between the death of Jesus and the rock Moses struck in Exodus 17 in 1 Corinthians 10:4 where he writes, “They drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
There was a Jewish legend that an actual, physical rock which provided water followed the Jews throughout the Exodus, but this has no Biblical basis. Warren Wiersbe in his commentary writes, “Paul did not suggest in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that an actual rock accompanied the Jews throughout their wilderness journey, though some Jewish rabbis taught this idea. It was a spiritual rock that supplied what they needed, and that Rock was Christ.” And that Rock, who is Christ, is with us and within us today, as the Holy Spirit indwells every believer.
John writes in verse 36, “These things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: not one of His bones will be broken.”
What were “these things” that took place? John is referring here to the piercing of Jesus’ side and the fact that the Roman soldiers did not find it necessary to break Jesus’ legs, as they did with the two men crucified with Him, but why is this important?
Crucifixion was one of the most cruel and painful methods of execution ever invented. The word “excruciating” finds its roots in this dreadful practice. Crucifixion was the Romans’ chosen means of executing those that they wanted to make an example of. Public crucifixion was a powerful deterrent against crime and rebellion against Rome, because it was such an awful way to die. Depending on how badly the condemned person was beaten before being nailed to the cross, it could take days to die. Jesus, as we know, was severely flogged and tortured before going to the cross, which meant His death came relatively quickly - in about six hours.
There is also a significant difference between the death of Jesus on the cross and the usual means of treating those who were crucified. Traditionally, in order to emphasise the warning to everyone else who might be considering opposing the Romans, they would leave the dead bodies on the cross long after death, even to the point where the bodies would begin to decay and be eaten by vultures.
As we have seen, in Palestine, the Romans gave the Jewish religious leaders some latitude, allowing them to practice some of their own laws and traditions, so long as they didn’t directly oppose Roman law, and one example is when Pilate allowed them to ensure that Jesus was dead before the Sabbath by instructing his soldiers to break Jesus’ legs. Also, we must remember that this wasn’t an ordinary Sabbath, but this particular Sabbath signalled the beginning of Passover week.
We looked at Deuteronomy 21:22-23 last Sunday. “If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”
It was also against the law of Moses to perform any executions on a religious feast day. Verse 31 tells us, “Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.”
When his legs were broken with a heavy mallet or iron bar, a crucified man could no longer press down with his feet in order to lift himself up to breathe, meaning he would die of suffocation.
Once more we see the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders. This is actually the last time in the Gospel of John that he writes about them. The hypocrisy is seen in the fact that in their eagerness to prevent the land from being defiled by adhering to Deuteronomy 21:23, they ignored the fact that their crime of killing the innocent Lamb of God actually defiled them. They respected the law, but not the lawgiver.
Pilate though, couldn’t care less whether Jesus died before sunset, which marked the beginning of the Sabbath and Passover week, so he gave his permission. The legs of the thieves were broken, which ensured an early death but when the soldiers came to Jesus they found that He had already died and so did not break His legs. Instead, one of them thrust a spear into His side, presumably to make sure that He really was dead, or possibly even as a final insult to Jesus, even after death. John tells us that this was to fulfil the Scriptures. Speaking of himself, he wrote in verse 35, “He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth - that you also may believe.”
Once more we see the hand of God orchestrating these events. As Isaiah 53:10 says, “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt.”
It wasn’t just the fact that Jesus died, but how He died, and how His body was treated after His death - all of this was preordained by God, and prophesied hundreds of years earlier.
Wiersbe writes, “It is remarkable that the Roman soldiers did not do what they were commanded to do - break the victims’ legs - but they did do what they were not supposed to do - pierce the Saviour’s side! In both matters, they fulfilled the very Word of God. The bones of the Passover lamb were not to be broken in accordance with Exodus 12:46, and His side was pierced as prophesied in Zechariah 12:10.”
The Bible teacher Jon Courson makes an interesting point on the fact that none of Jesus’ bones were broken. “John takes four or five verses to make it clear that, just as prophesied, not a bone of Jesus was broken. Why is this so important? Because where is blood continually produced in the body? It’s produced in the bone. Therefore, God mandated not a bone of His would be broken, ensuring a perpetual and inexhaustible supply of blood. That’s why Paul could later declare, ‘Where sin abounds, grace abounds yet more.’ Truly, the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cleanse you from every sin you have ever committed or will commit because not a bone of His was broken.”
Psalm 34:19-20 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
It’s easy to make the connection here, but there is an important word in verse 19: Righteous. Jesus, the perfect God-man is the only perfectly righteous man to have lived, and as 1 Peter 3:18 reminds us, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.”
The sinless, innocent, righteous Son of God died a criminal’s death. He was the righteous one, while we are the unrighteous, those for whom He suffered and died.
Also, in Exodus 12, at the very first Passover when the angel of death passed over the homes of the Israelites who had put the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts, verse 46 says, “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.”
Jesus died on the cross on the day of Preparation, the eve of Passover. For centuries the Jewish people had meticulously followed the detailed instructions passed on by Moses on how the Passover meal was to be observed, and now, at Calvary, for those who had the eyes of faith to see, the true Passover lamb, and the ultimate meaning of it, is being fulfilled right there in front of John’s eyes.
This is what John meant in verse 35. “He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth - that you also may believe.”
Jesus is the fulfilment of the Passover lamb. By His holy precious blood, and through His innocent suffering and death, we are set free from the condemnation our sins deserve. His blood marks our doorposts. Death passes over us, and we are brought out of our bondage to sin and death, as God, by His Spirit leads us out into the new life we have in Christ.
In verse 37, John refers to another ancient prophecy when he writes, “They will look on Him whom they have pierced.” He is referring here to Zechariah 12:10, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
What Zechariah was writing about was the prophesied rejection of the Jewish people of their own Messiah, while at the same time the Lord, through Zechariah, promises grace and mercy, and it will come specifically through the preaching of God’s Word, the proclamation of the Gospel, which we see in Zechariah 13:1-2. “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. And on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness.”
Just as John recorded the blood and water that flowed from Jesus’ crucified body, and as Zechariah foretold the preaching of the cross for cleansing and salvation, today as the Gospel is preached and believed, that fountain of life and truth continues to flow, so that all “will look on Him whom they have pierced.”
It is at the cross, where the awful yet glorious truth of the reason for the death of Jesus breaks us as we mourn over our sins. We closed with a simple, yet profound quote by Charles Spurgeon last week: “Jesus died for me.” That’s the truth each of us needs to see as we look upon Him whom they have pierced. It is as the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, that the cross of Jesus Christ makes perfect sense to us. You cannot be saved until you look upon Him whom they have pierced. This is why the cross and all that it means remains the central message of the church.
Those who turn to God in repentance and faith do mourn and weep over their sin but it is that through that mourning that God brings redemption and cleansing through the fountain Zechariah wrote about, the result of which is found in 13:9, “They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’
There is, however, a stern warning in John’s words in John 19:37 to those who refuse the gift of forgiveness which Jesus offers. “They will look on Him whom they have pierced.” You will either look upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified in awe, wonder and gratitude for the salvation He offers you, or you will look on Him and mourn over your eternal destruction when He returns in glory.
Confess Him as Lord and Saviour, because it is only He who can save you. When Jesus returns for His own, it will be too late. John wrote in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him.”
Jesus died for you. Will you confess and believe that?
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 19:31-3
How does Exodus 17:4-6 point to the cross? See also 1 Corinthians 10:4.
It was common practice for the Roman soldiers to break the legs of their victims when they wanted to hasten their deaths, but on many occasions, they would allow them to suffer for many days.
Bearing in mind that they were prepared to do as ordered before realising it wasn’t necessary, why did they treat Jesus differently?
(See Exodus 12:46 and Psalm 34:19-20)
There have been many interpretations on the significance of blood and water flowing from Jesus’ side. Discuss these in your group.
How are the prophecies of Zechariah 12:10 and 13:1-2 fulfilled in John 19:34, and what is the significance of Revelation 1:7?
What did John mean in verse 35?