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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
To some extent, we all have to be concerned about details—details at home, details at school, details at work—although admittedly some details are more or less important than other details. As for me, I can be a detail person, which served me well as a television‑news producer and as a fine‑dining waiter, although some may think that at times I am too concerned about details that they at least think are less important. However, in the case of Holy Scripture, no detail the Holy Spirit has seen fit to record is unimportant (Luther, undated Lenten Sermon on John 19:25‑37, cited by Plass [#177], 63), and that is true of the extended Passion account we have heard again tonight. For a little while, focus with on the seven verses from (and unique to) St. John’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account that tell of the piercing of Jesus’s side, which we heard beginning of the last section read. The verses illustrate God’s miraculous control over what otherwise might be insignificant details, as He perfectly brought about our salvation through the death of the God‑man Jesus Christ. As we reflect on the details under the theme “Blood and Water”, we even realize how we receive the salvation Jesus won for us with His death.
If you have been getting ready for family or other activities over these holy days, you know both that there are preparations to be made and that there is a deadline, a time by which the preparations must be completed. The day on which Jesus was crucified was the day of Preparation, the Friday before the holy Sabbath day, but not before just any Sabbath day, at a minimum the day before the Sabbath day that fell in the extended festival of Passover, if not before a Sabbath that happened to coincide with Passover Day itself. As that day drew to a close, a delegation of Jews asked Pilate to have the legs of Jesus and the two others who were crucified with Him broken and their bodies taken away, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on that particular Sabbath. St. John does not tell us precisely why the Jews did not want the bodies to remain: maybe they were legitimately trying to keep Old Testament law (Deuteronomy 21:23), or maybe they were feigning piety and in fact were acting out of their own guilt over their role in Jesus’s crucifixion or out of fear that faithful Sabbath worshippers’ seeing Jesus crucified might create more of a problem for them. Regardless, they suggest what is called “cru‑ri‑frá‑gium”, the smashing of the crucified victims’ shinbones so that they cannot put weight on their legs, will have more trouble breathing, and die from suffocation sooner. Bible commentators differ as to whether or not cru‑ri‑frá‑gium shortened the victims’ agony and so lessened their sentence or whether such shortening and lessening were offset by the action’s brutality. (Imagine having your shinbones smashed!) Again regardless, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the other two, but, when they came to Jesus, since He appeared already to be dead, they remarkably did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced Jesus’s side. For them the piercing confirmed that Jesus was dead—dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. For believers, such as Jesus’s beloved disciple John, who is usually thought to be the Evangelist giving his own eyewitness testimony (see, for example, John 19:25-27), the not‑breaking of Jesus’s legs and the resulting piercing of His side meant and means so much more.
The not‑breaking of Jesus’s legs and the resulting piercing of His side took place, St. John writes, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The details matter! A number of Old Testament passages speak about “piercing”, such as Psalm 22(:16) that we heard last night as the Altar was stripped, which mentioned the piercing of Jesus’s hands and feet. Similarly, tonight’s Old Testament Reading from Isaiah (53:5) says that Jesus, God’s Suffering Servant, was pierced for our transgressions. The Jews and the Romans had obvious roles in Jesus’s crucifixion, to be sure, but so do we have roles, even if less obvious. As we heard, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his or her own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). By nature you and I are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5)—dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. We cannot save ourselves from the temporal death and eternal separation from God that we deserve. But, on the cross Jesus suffered that eternal separation from God so that, if or when temporal death comes, it is simply the gate to eternal life with Him, for all those who repent of their sin and trust God to forgive their sin for Jesus’s sake.
As our true Passover Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, not one of Jesus’s bones was broken (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; John 1:29, 36; 1 Corinthians 5:7). The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the man Jesus so that He could die for us. (No doubt a sword pierced through Mary’s own soul, as she watched Jesus die [Luke 2:35; John 19:25-27). God did not temporarily dwell in a man’s body, from his baptism to just before the crucifixion, as some mistakenly thought, but Jesus was God from water to blood (1 John 5:6), and He remains God still today. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us, not that there was anything inherently valuable about us sinners (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:5), but God loved us that much! As we are marked with His blood, the angel of death passes over us. In such unlikely ways as crucifixion and cru‑ri‑frá‑gium does God reveal His glory, for hidden behind the disgrace is our redemption. Revealed in the resurrection, where the pierced side is an important proof (John 20:20, 25, 27), is what we heard in the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9), that Jesus our High Priest was tempted as we are, so sympathizes with our weakness, and has become the source of salvation for us who approach His throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
When Jesus’s side was pierced, at once there came out blood and water. St. John the Evangelist essentially takes an oath testifying to the truth of the matter, that’s how important the event and its details were. In the immediate context, the details of the water and blood seem simply to confirm the death of Jesus and the fulfillment of the prophecy, but St. John writes elsewhere of how the Spirit, which Jesus gave up a verse earlier (John 19:30), the water, and the blood testify (1 John 5:7-8). The Spirit is active in preaching and words of individual Holy Absolution (John 20:22‑23). Water and the Word in Holy Baptism create faith that receives the forgiveness of sins, for such water of life flows from Jesus as the temple of God (John 4:10-15; 7:38-39; Ezekiel 47:1; Revelation 22:1-2). The body and blood of Christ are present, distributed, and received with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar to sustain the faith created in Baptism. As the first woman came from the side of the man while he slept (Genesis 2:21-22), so the Church, the Bride of Christ, in a sense came from the side of the Second Adam while He slept the sleep of death (Ephesians 5:31; Marquart, CLD IX:6). Church fathers, including significant Lutheran writers, have long understood that the Word and Sacraments that give us the benefits of Jesus’s death on the cross themselves flow from His death on the cross, seeing in the water and blood Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. St. John saw the blood and water and bore witness that we also may believe and have life in His Name (John 20:31; 21:24).
We—who turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better—we receive the forgiveness that He won for us with His death on the cross, through His means of water and blood that flow from the cross. Like St. John, we bear witness or confess the truth and love our neighbors (1 John 4:14-21), and, when we fail, with repentance and faith we live in the forgiveness of sins. All the extraordinary details of Jesus’s crucifixion that He brought about, all the prophecy that He fulfilled, everything He did, He did for you to be forgiven—that is the point, not only of Good Friday but also of His incarnation and of all of Holy Scripture. So that, on the Last Day, when every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, we will not as unbelievers mourn or wail in regret (Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7), but we will as believers rejoice in His salvation that we receive here by water and blood.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +