The Death Of Jesus Christ – Rev. John de Hoog

 

Text – John 19:28-37

Reading – John 19:1-27

Suggested music: RES 512, BOW 305, 301, 302, 309:1

 

Vs 31 “Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.”

It is Friday afternoon, and when the sun sets the Sabbath will begin. The Jews have a law that says that bodies left on a tree overnight are cursed, they will desecrate the land. And the next day is a special Sabbath – it is the Sabbath of the Passover feast. They would see it as being doubly offensive if the desecration of the land happened on a special Sabbath! So they send a message to Pilate: “Look here, we can’t leave these people on the cross on the special Sabbath we are having tomorrow. Let’s kill them and take them down, so that we can celebrate our Sabbath with a clear conscience.”

Ah, how clear their consciences will be! They will have prepared their houses for the Sabbath. Being a Passover they will have gotten rid of any yeast that remains in their houses. They will keep the feast of unleavened bread which will follow. They will eat the Passover meal making sure that there is enough lamb for each person in the house, but not too much, they will roast it whole and be careful not to break any of its bones, they will have the right bitter herbs ready and the correct number of cups of wine. Everything will be ceremonially pure and clean. And as an added bonus, they will be rid of that trouble-maker, that Jesus. Ah, peace at last! Yes, it will be a very satisfying Passover this time around, everything will be just right.

It’s so horribly ironic. The details of the ceremony of Passover were designed by God to point people to the Saviour who would come to fulfil all the ceremonies. Now finally the Saviour has come, and he is actually fulfilling the ceremonies. The Son of God is on the cross, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the ultimate Passover Lamb is dying. But the Jews are so concerned about keeping the details of their ceremonies that they miss the very event to which all their ceremonies are supposed to point!

It’s as if you are there on the foreshore at the beach on New Year’s Eve with a front row seat for the fireworks. But instead of watching the fireworks themselves, you are watching a live telecast of the fireworks on a tiny screen on your mobile phone. You complain that the screen is too small and the telecast doesn’t get enough detail, but all you have to do is look up!

All the Jews at that time had to do was look up, look up to the cross, and understand, and believe! But mostly they were caught up in the details of the ceremonies. But John looked up and he saw, and finally, John understood. Here is the reason John wrote this all down, so that we can look up. So that we won’t get lost in the details, but see Jesus, and believe.

 

Pause

 

Pilate gives the OK to the request of the Jews. The soldiers work from each side of Jesus and then come to him. Vss 32 34 “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”

The normal Roman practice was to leave people on the cross until they died, which could take days, and then to leave their rotting bodies hanging there for the vultures to eat. But now, because of the request of the Jews, the soldiers come with a mighty hammer, and they smash the legs of the two thieves. Not just fracture them, but smash the bones to bits, so that they can’t possibly support their weight any more. That way they’ll sag down from their arms, the chest cavity will close up and they will soon die of asphyxiation.

Then they come to Jesus and find he is already dead! That’s truly surprising. They wouldn’t have expected that at all – three or four days was the normal time for a death by crucifixion. The two thieves are still very much alive. But Jesus is already dead.

Here is the point: they did not actually kill him. He was dead before they had an opportunity to kill him!

And we remember what Jesus says a bit earlier in this gospel. John 10:11-18 (passim) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”

Jesus, the good shepherd, has sacrificed himself! He has lain down his life for his friends. And he will take it up again! No one takes his life from him, he gives it up himself, and on the third day he will take his life back again when he rises from the tomb.

 

Pause

 

Now let’s step back from the story for a moment to ask why it was so important to John to record these details. It is very important to him – he tells us so in vs 35. “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and testifies so that you also may believe.”

John wrote his whole gospel that we might believe. In Chapter 20:30-31, John summarises his reason for writing. “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

John wrote for a particular evangelistic purpose. That you might believe certain things about Jesus. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name.

This is his solemn and serious purpose. And there is one place in his gospel where he emphasises this purpose of his again. It’s right here in his account of Jesus’ death!

For John, it is in his account of the death of Christ on the cross that most clearly needs a restatement of his purpose. “Believe this!” he is saying to his readers. “I saw it, I testify to it. Believe it, know the truth, and so receive life!”

Why was this so important for John? I’d like to give you a couple of reasons.

The first reason has to do with the kinds of false teachers who were attacking the church in the very early days. John’s gospel was probably written in the late ‘80s of the first century, that is, about 50 years after the death of Christ. In that first fifty years of the church’s life, there were already many kinds of false teachers. These false teachers hated Christ and hated the message of the gospel, and particularly they hated the message of the cross and the resurrection.

Two kinds of false teachings in particular became prominent in those early days. The first was this. This is going to sound very familiar. It’s not only very ancient false teaching, it’s also very 2008ish.

This is how it goes: Jesus didn’t really die on the cross; he fainted, he went into a dead swoon. It looked as though he was dead, and his disciples were allowed to take him down from the cross, but he hadn’t really died, he had only gone into a swoon, into deep unconsciousness. His disciples took him away and afterwards he recovered and was fully restored to health. But his disciples kept him hidden away, because they were ashamed of him. He hadn’t fulfilled all the marvellous teachings he had given, he hadn’t fulfilled all the great expectations of the people, and they were embarrassed for him.

This was one kind of false teaching that was being spread in the early days of the church, and today as well. So what does John do? He records his own eye-witness account of the death of Jesus Christ. When the soldiers got to Jesus intending to break his legs, they found he was already dead. One of the soldiers pierced his side, and blood and water flowed out. It seems that the spear pierced his heart, and blood flowed out from it, as well as perhaps some water from his stomach. He literally died.

John records the fact very carefully. It wasn’t a faint, he died. And John emphasises the fact – “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.”

The second kind of heresy that was developing in the early church was a more subtle kind of false teaching. It said: “Yes, the eternal Son of God really did come down from heaven, but he never really became a man truly. He never really had a body of flesh and blood, it only seemed as if he had a real body. He had a kind of phantom body, he was a kind of ghost. It is inconceivable that God should unite with flesh and blood. Jesus was never really born as a flesh and blood person, he only gave the impression that he was. And because he never really had a body, he didn’t die either. He just left the phantom body.”

John’s account debunks this heresy also. Jesus was a flesh and blood person, his body was pierced by the sword, blood and water flowed out, his heart was pierced. His heart stopped beating, he actually died.

For John, providing proof of Jesus’ actual death was absolutely crucial. And we can see, can’t we, how important it is. Without a real death there could be no real sacrifice. Without a real death there is no real resurrection. Without a real death and a real resurrection, the whole Christian faith is built on sand, it has no foundations. Thank God that Roman soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side! Little did he know that his action would be a powerful part of the evidence of the truth of our faith.

Here is something very important to take note of. Our faith is based solidly on facts and events in history.

When you read John 19, you are back in history. There is no true Christianity without the cross, and two thieves with broken legs, and the spear and the pierced side. Christianity is not a philosophy or a teaching only. It is a declaration and a proclamation of historical facts. At a certain time in history, when the time was exactly right, the Son of God came into the world, and he was crucified, he died and was buried, and on the third day he rose again!

Here then is the first reason why John is so concerned to record the facts as they happened. He is answering the enemies of the church. The heresies that were being taught then, and are still being taught today, deny the saving and atoning work of Jesus Christ. John records the fact so that we might believe.

There is a second reason why John records the facts as they happened, and he states it in this passage. Vss 36-37 “These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.’” Here is John’s second reason: he records these things to show amazing and remarkable fulfilment of prophecy.

This is not just John’s concern; it concerns Jesus himself! Did you notice that in vss 28-30? Vs 28 “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.”

Why did Jesus say, “I am thirsty?” No doubt he was thirsty, but he also did it, says vs 28, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus knows that there is a statement in Psalm 69:21, written about 1000 years earlier, which speaks of the enemies of the psalmist giving him wine vinegar to drink. Jesus knows that that particular verse points to him and his suffering at the hands of his enemies. Jesus spies a bottle of wine vinegar there (cheap sour wine that soldiers drank) and asks for a drink so that the verse from Psalm 69 might be fulfilled before he dies!

Just think of it! In the moments before his death, in the moments of his greatest agony, Jesus is concerned to fulfil the Scriptures, and so he says those words, “I am thirsty.” Vs 30 “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Those words, “It is finished”, are themselves an allusion to Psalm 22:31. Psalm 22, that Psalm that begins with the words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” To the very end, Jesus maintains a concern that the Scriptures regarding him be fulfilled.

Why is this so important to Jesus, and why is it so important to John? The answer can best be given in terms of the purpose of John’s gospel. The purpose is that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus was a missionary. He was the first, great missionary. He came to seek and to save the lost. And right to the very end of his life, in his greatest agony, he worked as a missionary. He says “I am thirsty” so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Why does he do that? For his own benefit? No, he does it for the benefit of his disciple John who is watching it all, and for us, who will read this account of John’s.

Effectively Jesus is saying, “My dear disciple John, my dear people who will hear John’s story, this is why I came. I came as a missionary. I came to fulfil God’s plan and purpose, and I came to do that perfectly. All that the Scripture has written about me is true, and I want you to know that it is true. Why? Not to prove myself for my own benefit, but so that you might believe and have life! Believe these facts, believe the Bible, and trust me, and have life in me.”

Right to the very end, Jesus is working as a missionary, for that is why he came.

 

Pause

 

In vss 36 & 37, John mentions two prophecies fulfilled at Christ’s death. To close, let’s look at the first one: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” It’s a quote from Exodus 12:46, an account of the very first Passover.

At the original first Passover, when God’s people were about to be delivered from the slavery of Egypt, there was a special instruction that the bones of the sacrificial lamb should not be broken.

It’s Passover time again, and the Jews, each in their households, are carefully handling the lambs that have been killed for the ceremony so that not a bone will be broken.

Now here is the Lamb of God, presented at the time of the Passover, and not a bone of his body is broken. All the Jews have to do is look up, and understand, and believe.

That’s what John does. And that’s what we can do as we read John’s account.

Jesus came as a missionary. John’s gospel has a missionary purpose.

In speaking from this passage today, my purpose is the same. It is the purpose of this passage – that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.

Amen