Wednesday in the Word...John 19:28-37...prophecies about a dead man

I never really thought about it before but what about those prophesies about the coming Messiah that had to deal with Him after He was dead.  Jesus manipulating the scene after He was physically gone and still hanging on a cross would be quite the feat.  The Apostle John seems to highlight these in our verses today.  May the skeptic see these prophecies after death with the weight of all the others to be one who believes.

Today's Wednesday in the Word will cover John chapter 19 and verses 28 through 37 which read,

v.28, 29 - After this, Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty."  A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.

Jesus is first offered a wine mixed with myrrh when He arrived on the scene of Golgotha.  This was a drink to lessen the pain.  He refused that drink to experience the full weight of the sacrifice.  Matthew 27:33-34 say,

And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of the Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.

This first drink is given to Him before He was on the cross to deaden the pain of the spikes being driven into His hands and feet.  It had the properties of a narcotic.  The second drink of our passage was given to Him on the cross and actually prolonged life and therefore prolonged suffering.  

The hyssop plant was used to spread the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the house found in the book of Exodus, the first Passover.  Here is the hyssop plant being used again in the final Passover to aide the will of God.  Jesus receives this drink not to prolong His suffering but for the purpose of saying His last phrases to be recorded for the world.

v.30 - Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!"  And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

"It is finished!" is a single Greek word, teleo.  Mission accomplished is the idea but it was also used during that time to stamp on a tax receipt that they were "paid in full."  With this declaration Jesus gave up His spirit.  He handed it over.  He voluntarily and willingly gave it up as He said in John 10:17 and 18 which read,

"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.  No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I received from My Father."

v.31, 32 - Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him;...

Jesus is dead at this point so what happens now is after what we or they think He could do something about.  Alive, He might be able to manipulate what is going to happen next but He is dead so what happens is powerful to what has been written of the coming Messiah.

The Romans would leave the bodies up there on those crosses and let the birds peck at them and the dogs beneath scoop up anything that had fallen but the Jewish people had laws about the human body.  Deuteronomy 21:22 and 23 say,

"If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance."

So all the bodies needed to come down and disposed of, not just Jesus but the other two also.  The custom was to break the legs of those hanging so they could not lift themselves up for another breathe.  Death would come quickly.  The professional Roman soldiers, who had done this thousands of times, perform this task to the thief on the left and the thief on the right.

v.33, 34 - ...but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

The professional Roman soldiers make the assessment that Jesus is already dead.  He is slumped down.  He is not lifting Himself up to get another breath anymore.  Why go through the effort to break His legs which would probably make the body harder to handle when off the cross when they don't have too?  But, as soldiers who would not leave any doubt of their proficiency, they stab the vital organ, the heart, and out comes blood and water to know they had hit the mark.  Now they would be able to handle the body easier with non broken bones in the legs to grab ahold of.  Is this slight detail significant that happens after the death of Jesus?

v.35-37 - And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling them truth, so that you also may believe.  For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scriptures, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken."  And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."

John, the eyewitness, says "yes."  He makes sure that we have these details because his gospel account is all about us believing that Jesus is the Messiah.  He will say in the next chapter, John 20:30 and 31 these words.

"Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

The Passover lamb was not to have any broken bones.  Numbers 9:12 says,

"They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it."

The Psalmist would say in Psalm 34:10,

"He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken."

If this is not enough, John also references about the piercing.  Zechariah 12:10 says,

"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

John would describe Jesus this way again in his final book, Revelation 1:7 which reads,

"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.  So it is to be, Amen."

John finishes this cross scene with a few more prophesies not just for us to know the details that he saw but also to believe that Jesus is the Christ.  Even after death, prophesies are being fulfilled through Jesus.  A skeptic might wonder how this could be and it might get him to take another look at this man named Jesus but for the believer, it gives even more assurance of the salvation that we possess only through His shed blood.  Every prophecy of Jesus would be fulfilled through Him whether dead or alive.  We are now through the hard scenes of the cross but we know this isn't the end of the play.  Until next Wednesday, Lord willing, we will see more fulfillment that makes it possible for us to believe!

Pastor Adam