The Soldiers with a Spear Pierced His Side (John 19:33)

2024-03-29

But 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. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. (John 19:33-35)

Jesus Christ died for our sins. His blood was the “propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). His blood and His death were essential to securing our salvation. Many critics and those from other religious traditions have asserted that our Lord did not truly die. Perhaps, they say, someone else took His place on the cross. The Scriptures nonetheless affirm that Jesus died.

Recall that the Lord was beaten severely so that “his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14). “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).

He was beaten so bad that it appears He did not carry the cross the entire way to Golgotha. He started to: “Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha” (John 19:16-17). But then we read, “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross” (Matthew 27:32). He was beaten so badly that another was compelled to His service.

Understand that Jesus was beaten by Roman executioners, not Jews. If it were the Jews, the beating would be limited to 40 stripes. “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee” (Deuteronomy 25:3). On the contrary, we read, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). He was esteemed “vile”; therefore, it would seem he could have received many more than 40 lashes.

We know that Jesus, marred beyond recognition, was not treated after His scourging. He was presented beaten by Pilate to the people at the sixth hour. “And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!” (John 19:14). This is when the darkness started. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45). Five verses later, He was dead. There was a minimum of three hours of excessive bleeding and trauma.

They ensured that Jesus and the other victims were dead because of the feast. They could not remain on the cross, for this would bring uncleanness to them. “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31). And again, “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).

For Jesus, they ensured His death by piercing His side. “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). Knowing nothing of medicine, I looked up this word “side,” in which the Greek word is “pleura.” A Google search told me this is on the lungs. This blood and water were fluids coming from his lungs and perhaps other organs.

What does the next verse read? “And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe” (John 19:35). Why write this? This piercing would ensure that He was dead. There were many witnesses, and professional Roman executioners carried out this task. There was no mistake; Jesus was most certainly dead.

Do you think that with the mobs of people who cried out for Jesus’ execution, Jewish religious leaders who hated Him, professional executioners, and Pilate with his officials, there was any mistake of “swapping” Jesus out for someone else? From Gethsemane to the cross, He was continuously with His accusers and enemies. There is no mistake.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the sinless Son of God, took on this brutality from humankind and wrath from God so that He could redeem us to Himself. Every believer of Jesus can be assured that Jesus died for our sins.

So that is why this day is called Good Friday, though it should hit us with much discord because it was our sin that put Him through this predicament.

Of course, it was probably Good Wednesday or Good Thursday, for the Scripture reads, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” in Matthew 12:40. This would also assume that our Sunday was the first day of the week in their calendar. Whatever day it was, we call it “good” because it was the only way for us to be saved from destruction.

That, and we know the rest of the story, don’t we?