Reflective Bible Study

We have come to the place in the gospel of John where Jesus is hanging on the cross, and He has just given His last breath. As our passage opens, Jesus has died, but His corpse has not yet been taken down from the cross.

However, before John tells us about what happens to Jesus’ body after it has been removed from the cross, two more prophecies need to be fulfilled during the time Jesus is hanging on the cross. John draws our attention to these two connected prophecies immediately following Jesus giving up His Spirit.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 31, John tells us:

³¹ 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. ³² So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; ³³ but coming to Jesus, when they 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 immediately blood and water came out. ³⁵ And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. ³⁶ For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” ³⁷ And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”

Over the past few episodes, we’ve seen how John’s gospel described prophecies that Jesus fulfilled at His death. However, the two prophecies in this passage are powerful when we stop to look at them a little closer.

Hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth, the prophet Zechariah wrote God’s message: “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.” This prophecy is found in Zechariah, chapter 12, verse 10.

In this verse, it is amazing that not only do we have the reference to Jesus being pierced, but we also have God promising the Spirit of grace coming to God’s people because of the death of God’s Son. We have in this prophetic verse a picture of the sorrow and mourning that would take place on the weekend Jesus would die. And all this was predicted and written hundreds of years before the events took place.

However, the reference to Jesus being pierced isn’t the only prophecy that was fulfilled in our passage. Our passage also included a reference to a prophecy about Jesus’ bones not being broken. This prophecy is found in the Psalms of David. We will read it from Psalm 34, and while the prophecy is in verse 20, we’ll start reading in verse 19 to give it context:

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
      But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
²⁰ He keeps all his bones,
      Not one of them is broken.
²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked,
      And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
²² The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
      And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

Tucked within David’s reminder that God will be with those who take refuge in Him, we have a reference to the Lord, the Messiah, keeping all His bones, without any being broken. This is amazing to think about, because this was written several hundred years before Jesus walked the earth.

This is also incredible, because both of these prophecies are fulfilled against the orders of those in command. Our passage opened with the religious leaders asking Pilate to break the legs of those hanging on the cross so they would die faster and be taken down from the cross before the Sabbath had begun. I suspect that Pilate agreed and we read in verses 32 to 34 that “the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 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.”

In this passage, the soldiers have orders to break the legs of all the men, but with Jesus, they don’t break His legs, but instead they pierce His side. These Roman soldiers defied their orders to break the legs of the men, and while they understood the reason for this was to speed up the death of these men, they don’t need to speed Jesus’ death up. Piercing Jesus’ side, which would have punctured His heart for blood and water to have come out, proves Jesus’ death. From what I know, one cannot fake the separation of blood and water, or survive with a hole in their heart after experiencing critical blood loss.

All evidence points to Jesus’ execution being successful by all the measures of success.

However, is there another reason why Jesus’ bones were not broken?

I believe there is. In both Exodus and Numbers, we have a description of the Passover sacrifice. The Passover event marked the night when the angel of death went through Egypt killing the first born in every home. The only protection given was to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the doorposts.

The Passover is significant, because not only does this finally break the Pharaoh and cause him to release the Israelite slaves, this event is also a reminder for all that in order for us to be saved, Someone else must take the punishment. In the context of Passover, the “someone else” is an innocent lamb. In the context of Christianity, Jesus stood in our place and became our “Someone else”.

While the lamb’s blood was used to mark the doorposts of the home, giving the house protection, Exodus, chapter 12, verse 46 describes how the Lamb should be prepared to be eaten. Moses told the people: “It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.”

In order for Jesus to stand in as our Passover Lamb, which Christians all over the world today believe He did, none of His bones could be broken. Through the symbolic Passover meal, which Christians celebrate as the Last Supper, we also remember what Jesus told His first followers, specifically that the bread represents His body, and the juice represented His blood.

While Satan tried to break this prophecy and symbolism through the religious leaders requesting for the legs of all those on crosses that day to be broken, we discover that Satan could not overturn God’s plan, God’s prophecy, and Jesus’ successful completion of the work of salvation – which required Jesus’ bones to remain whole!

Jesus’ sacrifice was successful, and His sacrifice was accepted. Because of what Jesus did for us, we have the invitation available to us to take Jesus’ death and let it stand in our place. Jesus is our Passover Lamb when we exchange our life for His, and when we look to Jesus as the “Someone Else” who paid for our sins, we are promised eternal life and resurrection just as Jesus was resurrected from the tomb!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose today to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and in His sacrifice to cover your sins. Choose today to live each day moving forward with God and leaving your past sinful lives in the grave with Jesus’ sacrifice. Starting today, you can live a new life with God, and when you live your life moving forward with Jesus, your life will extend beyond this life and into eternity!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. While other people have ideas to think about, always filter what you hear, read, and see through the truth contained in the Bible. The Bible is God’s story for the world, God’s story of Jesus, and through the Jesus that we discover in the Bible, God has made the way available for us to be saved!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As Jesus shares the final group of parables leading up to His betrayal and arrest, He decides to focus a good portion of the time on challenging the disciples, and really all of His followers who would come afterwards, to stay faithful and to be wise. To help illustrate this, Jesus shares a brief parable that describes what it looks like to be a faithful and wise servant, and Jesus contrasts this with a servant who would be considered evil.

Let’s read this parable and focus in on some things we can learn from it. Our parable and passage are found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 45, Jesus asks His followers the question:

⁴⁵ Who are faithful and wise servants? Who are the ones the master will put in charge of giving the other servants their food supplies at the proper time? ⁴⁶ Servants are fortunate if their master comes and finds them doing their job. ⁴⁷ You may be sure that a servant who is always faithful will be put in charge of everything the master owns. ⁴⁸ But suppose one of the servants thinks that the master won’t return until late. ⁴⁹ Suppose that evil servant starts beating the other servants and eats and drinks with people who are drunk. ⁵⁰ If that happens, the master will surely come on a day and at a time when the servant least expects him. ⁵¹ That servant will then be punished and thrown out with the ones who only pretended to serve their master. There they will cry and grit their teeth in pain.

In this parable, we see a clear contrast between the faithful, wise servants and the evil servant.

This parable points out that the faithful servants are the ones who do their jobs when the master is present and when the master is away. A servant who the master can count on to do the tasks set before them is one the master sees as faithful and wise. A servant who the master can trust is a servant who is ultimately given more responsibilities.

In contrast, evil servants are those who neglect their responsibilities and they pull other servants down to their level. The passage lists abuse and drinking among the behaviors of these evil servants. While I don’t believe drinking is a sin, I also don’t believe drinking is necessarily a wise activity. While drinking has research indicating there may be a little health benefit to doing so, that benefit is grossly outweighed by the risks involved. Wisdom involves weighing the benefits and the risks and making the best, long-term choice possible.

We could summarize the distinction between the wise and evil servants by saying that wise, faithful servants help the other servants, while evil servants hurt the other servants. The wise servants build the other servants up, while the evil servants pull the other servants down.

However, while this parable makes this distinction between the wise and evil servants, the biggest distinction between the wise and the foolish servants has to do with what the servant believes about the master.

In this parable, the key determining factor for a servant who is evil is one that assumes they know when the master will arrive, and they decide to try to get away with what they think they can while the master is not present. This would be like children behaving badly while their parents are not around. If a servant’s attitude is one that only behaves a certain way when the master is present, that servant is on the wrong path, because sooner or later, the truth will come to light and the servant will be caught doing wrong.

With the details Jesus shares in this parable, the wise, faithful servants cannot be caught off guard by the master’s arrival, because everything they are doing is exactly what they would want to be doing when the master arrives. The only servant in this parable who can be surprised by the master’s arrival is the evil servant who assumed the master would return much later than he did.

In this parable, we discover an amazing metaphor and contrast that describes how people living today view God’s return. In the world today, there are many people who believe Jesus is returning, many people who believe that God doesn’t exist, many people who believe that God has abandoned us, and many people who are too distracted or busy to think one way or another.

Those who believe Jesus is returning have two choices: They can live in a way that they would be happy to be caught doing when Jesus arrives, or they can assume Jesus’ return is at a distant point in the future and they can live as they please today.

When reading this parable, I don’t believe that this was geared at everyone on the planet as much as it is geared towards God’s own followers. People who don’t care about God or who don’t think He exists or cares about us are not going to consider themselves as His servants. Instead, God’s servants are those who call themselves Christians, followers of Jesus, believers, or any of the dozens of names that we use to set ourselves apart from those who do not care about God.

With the understanding that Jesus is speaking to His followers, will we trust that He is returning and live our lives in a way that we would be pleased to be caught doing? Or will we live in a way that sees what we can get away with since Jesus it is most likely that Jesus’ return is not today, or even tomorrow?

The choice is ours. However, remember that only those who live in a way that assumes Jesus’ return a long ways away will be surprised when He arrives. Those who live obedient lives will welcome Jesus’ return when it ultimately does happen. Those living obediently even want Jesus’ return to be that much sooner. We are ready to go home, and we are ready to live in a world without sin!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, continue to seek God first in your life and choose to live in a way that you know God would be proud of. Choose to live your life in a way that you would be pleased to be caught living, because when Jesus does return, the only people who are caught off guard will be those who believed Jesus’ return would be much later.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. A close, personal relationship with God will keep your life grounded and aligned with God’s will and a personal relationship with God is the best way to know you are living for God and being a great representative of His. Prayer and Bible study are the best tools to use when building a foundation for a great spiritual walk with God.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or turn away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!