Meditation
“For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.” John 19:36
“He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” --Psalm 34:20
From one perspective we have in John 19:36 quite simply the record of the history of Jesus’ death on the cross, of what was done to His body after His death. That record is of a difference, the difference between the treatment of Jesus’ body and the treatment of the other two crucified with Him, one on each side.
This difference was occasioned by the particular day that these three were crucified. It was the day before the Sabbath, which Sabbath was “an high day,” according to John 19:31. Because the next day was such a day, the land was not to be polluted with the blood of those yet hanging on crosses. This necessity led the Jewish leaders to bring before Pilate a very specific request. That request we have recorded in the same verse: “that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
This request Pilate granted, and dispatched the soldiers under his command to carry out his orders. The soldiers went to the hill of Calvary to do as they had been commanded. They came to the legs of the first crucified with Jesus. They broke his legs. The came to the legs of the second crucified with Jesus. They broke his legs.
Why this specific request, this specific command, and the following obedience to this command?
The first purpose was to hasten their death, to turn what might have possible been weeks or months of prolonged life into a few minutes. It was necessary for those crucified to stand on the nails holding their feet to the wood in order to breathe. But with their legs broken, they had that necessary support taken away. They could no longer breathe, so that their death would be very soon in coming. Thus their bodies might be taken off the crosses, no longer to pollute the land the following day.
The second purpose was to fill that death with as much torment as possible, joining together the panic and fear of oncoming death by choking, with the excruciating pain of broken bones, jarring and rubbing while trying to find support to breathe again in vain.
But the difference is made when these soldiers came to Jesus, crucified in the midst. “When they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water,” (John 19:33, 34). Rather than putting forth the effort to break Jesus’ legs, they employed a simple means to prove to themselves that He was already dead. Piercing His side, the soldiers detected no reaction. Jesus indeed had already died. There was no need to break His legs.
Why?
Why this difference in the work of the soldiers? Why did that work come to be done at all, to make that difference so very clear? We must go further. Why this command by Pilate? Why the request of the leaders of the Jews? Why have this crucifixion on this particular day, the day of “the preparation”?
All because of what we are told in John 19:36, “For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled.” Because of the Scripture of Psalm 34:20, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.”
This difference was to demonstrate that this One crucified, Jesus, is indeed the Christ of God, the Saviour of His people.
But if we consider the Scripture of Psalm 34:20, we find another reason. Psalm 34:20 must be fulfilled as the promise of God to all of God’s elect in Christ Jesus. Surely it is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, in this most evident way. But also, because it is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, so it must be fulfilled in every single Christian, as belonging to Christ and in Him by faith.
The Scripture must be fulfilled. Just as it was filled exactly and clearly in Jesus’ body following His death on the cross, it must be fulfilled in all those who are Christ’s.
The Scripture has promised them an infallible, unconditional, and unbreakable salvation. They must all be saved. There are none that can be lost. The very wonder of their salvation, even through suffering and death, including broken bones, is certain to take place because of the Word of God’s promise sealed in the death of Christ their Lord, whose bones were kept whole and intact.
This promise is ours to rest in. This promise is ours to rest in, knowing its certain fulfillment in our Lord even following His death. Resting in this promise, we are assured of our everlasting salvation. Resting in this promise we receive strength to endure our trials and tribulations. Resting in this promise, we are strengthened to carry on as God’s holy, peculiar people in this world of darkness and death.
In the light of that blessed promise, let us carry on in our earthly pilgrimage, cheerfully bearing our cross and denying ourselves. Let us carry on until we know the glory of heaven and its joyful, everlasting life. There and then we will celebrate the glorious power of our God’s faithful promise:
“For all these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.”
“He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” --Psalm 34:20
From one perspective we have in John 19:36 quite simply the record of the history of Jesus’ death on the cross, of what was done to His body after His death. That record is of a difference, the difference between the treatment of Jesus’ body and the treatment of the other two crucified with Him, one on each side.
This difference was occasioned by the particular day that these three were crucified. It was the day before the Sabbath, which Sabbath was “an high day,” according to John 19:31. Because the next day was such a day, the land was not to be polluted with the blood of those yet hanging on crosses. This necessity led the Jewish leaders to bring before Pilate a very specific request. That request we have recorded in the same verse: “that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
This request Pilate granted, and dispatched the soldiers under his command to carry out his orders. The soldiers went to the hill of Calvary to do as they had been commanded. They came to the legs of the first crucified with Jesus. They broke his legs. The came to the legs of the second crucified with Jesus. They broke his legs.
Why this specific request, this specific command, and the following obedience to this command?
The first purpose was to hasten their death, to turn what might have possible been weeks or months of prolonged life into a few minutes. It was necessary for those crucified to stand on the nails holding their feet to the wood in order to breathe. But with their legs broken, they had that necessary support taken away. They could no longer breathe, so that their death would be very soon in coming. Thus their bodies might be taken off the crosses, no longer to pollute the land the following day.
The second purpose was to fill that death with as much torment as possible, joining together the panic and fear of oncoming death by choking, with the excruciating pain of broken bones, jarring and rubbing while trying to find support to breathe again in vain.
But the difference is made when these soldiers came to Jesus, crucified in the midst. “When they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water,” (John 19:33, 34). Rather than putting forth the effort to break Jesus’ legs, they employed a simple means to prove to themselves that He was already dead. Piercing His side, the soldiers detected no reaction. Jesus indeed had already died. There was no need to break His legs.
Why?
Why this difference in the work of the soldiers? Why did that work come to be done at all, to make that difference so very clear? We must go further. Why this command by Pilate? Why the request of the leaders of the Jews? Why have this crucifixion on this particular day, the day of “the preparation”?
All because of what we are told in John 19:36, “For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled.” Because of the Scripture of Psalm 34:20, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.”
This difference was to demonstrate that this One crucified, Jesus, is indeed the Christ of God, the Saviour of His people.
But if we consider the Scripture of Psalm 34:20, we find another reason. Psalm 34:20 must be fulfilled as the promise of God to all of God’s elect in Christ Jesus. Surely it is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, in this most evident way. But also, because it is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, so it must be fulfilled in every single Christian, as belonging to Christ and in Him by faith.
The Scripture must be fulfilled. Just as it was filled exactly and clearly in Jesus’ body following His death on the cross, it must be fulfilled in all those who are Christ’s.
The Scripture has promised them an infallible, unconditional, and unbreakable salvation. They must all be saved. There are none that can be lost. The very wonder of their salvation, even through suffering and death, including broken bones, is certain to take place because of the Word of God’s promise sealed in the death of Christ their Lord, whose bones were kept whole and intact.
This promise is ours to rest in. This promise is ours to rest in, knowing its certain fulfillment in our Lord even following His death. Resting in this promise, we are assured of our everlasting salvation. Resting in this promise we receive strength to endure our trials and tribulations. Resting in this promise, we are strengthened to carry on as God’s holy, peculiar people in this world of darkness and death.
In the light of that blessed promise, let us carry on in our earthly pilgrimage, cheerfully bearing our cross and denying ourselves. Let us carry on until we know the glory of heaven and its joyful, everlasting life. There and then we will celebrate the glorious power of our God’s faithful promise:
“For all these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.”