耶稣身体的见证

Title: The Testimony of Jesus’ Body
Date: 6th Apr 2023
Preacher: Rev. Wong Siow Hwee

We have been preaching from the Book of Revelation, and in the very first chapter, the second coming of Jesus Christ was described in this way: Revelation 1: 7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
This imagery is actually a combination of Daniel 7:13, and Zechariah 12:10. While the use of Daniel for the second coming in the first half, which described the glorious heavenly entry of the Son of Man, is easily understandable, what is interesting is the use of Zechariah in the second half. In Zechariah, it was God who was pierced by Israel who repeatedly turned away from him [1], but how does this description of being pierced apply to the second coming of Jesus?

As it turn out, the piercing of Jesus is a key detail about Jesus’ body on the cross as exemplified by the doubting of Thomas in John 20: 25 “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later, 27 Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” to express his belief in the resurrection of Jesus.

Tonight, I will be sharing a story about Jesus’ crucifixion that can only be found in the Gospel of John. It is about how Jesus’ bones were not broken and why his side was pierced at the Cross. Though the state of Jesus’ body on the cross may seem like an insignificant detail, “does it really matter if he was scratched, burned, sliced, or kicked?”, John had this to say about his testimony: 35 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. This means that this story about Jesus’ body is not just a minor detail for John, and if I do my job right tonight, hopefully you will become a believer just like Thomas; and if you are already one, then may your faith be reinforced.

What I will do tonight is to explain clearly what happened at the cross, and then we can further explore its significance. The incident first started because the Jewish leaders asked for all the bodies on the crosses to be taken down by the end of the day. The reason for this request is due to a law in Deuteronomy 21: 22 If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. We know that the Jews were especially concerned about ritual cleanliness, and a dead body by itself is already unclean, even more so the public display of the dead body of a person cursed by God [2]. So they did not want the bodies on the crosses to be left overnight.

Normally, the Romans would not be bothered with such a request, because taking down the bodies quickly would take away the point of crucifixion itself, which was prolonged public humiliation. People who were crucified would typically take up to days to die, and then the bodies would be left there for the vultures. You must understand that “crucifixion was most frequently used to punish political or religious agitators” [3] who so dared to challenge the authority of Rome. So bodies would only be taken down when the Romans were satisfied with the success of their shock and awe punishment against these rebels. But in this case, the next day happened to be the Sabbath immediately after the Passover and since it was a special Sabbath, the Jewish leaders must have come to an understanding with the Romans on making exceptions for religious reasons.

Now that we understand why Jesus’ body had to be taken down from the cross that very day, we can talk about the taking down process. For the Romans, the most important consideration before taking down the bodies from the crosses is to make sure that they are dead. To allow an escape from a death penalty will be a misappropriation of justice, which the soldiers might have to pay for with their own lives [4]. Here is where I need to explain how crucifixion works as a capital punishment. We often think that crucifixion kills by blood loss, but that actually only applies to a minority. For most of the other cases, crucifixion kills by suffocation, or organ failure due to the lack of oxygen. Being hung by the arms would mean “the victim would have no choice but to bear his weight on his chest. He would immediately have trouble breathing as the weight caused the rib cage to lift up and force him into an almost perpetual state of inhalation. Suffocation would usually follow.” [5] To alleviate the situation, the victim will have to repeatedly push himself up with the legs to breath better. But eventually, he will be exhausted, and when he no longer has the strength or consciousness to prop himself up to breathe properly, that is when he will die from asphyxiation. [6] This was a deliberately long and painful process to die, but it also meant that most of the crucified will not die so quickly.

So it is no surprise that when the Roman soldiers went around checking on the bodies to make sure they are dead before taking them down, they discovered that the two “robbers” crucified beside Jesus were not dead yet. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. Breaking the legs was the standard way they would quicken their deaths. “The soldiers would smash the legs of the victim with an iron mallet (a practice called, in Latin, crurifragium).” [7] If you can only hang purely using your arms, then the maximum you can last is about 18 minutes. I witnessed that on the Korean variety show Physical 100. So without the ability to push themselves upright to breath with their legs, those on the crosses with broken legs would die in less than half an hour. But when the soldiers came to check on the status of Jesus, Jesus had already died. Presumably it was because Jesus was no longer lifting up his body to breath.

Why was the death of Jesus much faster than those at his left and right at the crucifixion? Some say it was because of the abusive physical ordeal he had to go through during his trial, especially the beating from the soldiers. So his trauma and exhaustion might have resulted in his inability to survive longer on the cross like the others. I prefer another explanation which suggests that Jesus knew his mission was finished (John 19:30), and hence, soon after he was crucified, he willingly committed his spirit into God’s hands (Luke 23:46), instead of struggling and fighting on till his last breath like the others. Therefore, since Jesus was already dead when the Roman soldiers came to check on him, they did not need to break his shinbones to quicken his death, unlike what they did to the two on his left and right.

We have come to our first pit stop in our quest to understand what happened and why it happened. We were informed of the significance of the unbroken bones in John 19:36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” Thank you John, except we cannot really find this exact quotation from the Old Testament scriptures. Since the quotation is not exact, we have to find the verse that is the closest in terms of wordings, and that is Psalm 34: 19 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. If this verse in Psalm 34 was what John was referring to, then the unbroken bones of Jesus would imply God’s protection of the righteous man.

But the final verse of Psalm 34 also stated that “22 The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. So it would seem counter-productive to save just the bones of Jesus, but yet there’s no rescue for his actual life. The word “condemned” meant being found guilty, and that is also the reason why those who were executed on a pole were considered cursed by God. So if there was no immediate deliverance for Jesus which might imply guilt, for the righteousness of Jesus to be preserved as stated by Psalm 34, we need to add on a second meaning for the unbroken bones.

Thankfully, the second reference to the unbroken bones can be found in the references to the bones of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12.
Exodus 12: 46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
Numbers 9: 11 They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones.

So the unbroken bones of Jesus actually reinforced the symbolism that he is the Passover Lamb sacrificed for our salvation (see also 1 Corinthians 5:7). “He is the Passover lamb who causes death to skip over the Israelites in Egypt who have painted its blood upon their doorposts (Exod. 12:23) and, in doing so, makes possible the birth of a new people, the children of God.” [8] He is still righteous despite his death on the cross, and that is because even though he is without blemish like the Passover lamb, his death was not a punishment for his guilt, but rather it was a willing sacrifice for our sake.

Now that we have understood the full significance of the unbroken bones, we shall conclude the sharing by reflecting on the piercing. Since Jesus was presumed to be dead, we were told that 34 one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. This was probably out of kiasu-ism [9] of that particular soldier than an actual SOP to confirm death. We must be thankful for this kiasu soldier because this helped to dispel some skeptical ideas that Jesus merely fainted or appeared dead, or that Jesus was not a real human being. Over the years, many medical professional had suggested various theories to explain this phenomenon of blood and water, and you can let me know if you are interested in reading them [10]. Nonetheless, its significance lies in John stating that this act fulfilled 37 another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the sermon that this verse comes from Zechariah 12:10.

We shall let Zechariah’s verse be our application for tonight. Look at the one on the cross, the one who was pierced for our sake. His unbroken bones were a sign of his righteousness and God’s protection. But he was sacrificed as the Passover Lamb so that we may be saved. And when he was pierced, out flows water and blood, both of which are symbols of life in the Gospel of John. [11] In Zechariah and Revelation, the people mourned when they see how they have pierced the savior. In Acts 2: 37 when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart. I hope tonight’s story elicit a similar response from you. Jesus died so that we might have life. 2 Corinthians 2: 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Brothers and sisters, if you see the unbroken bones and pierced side of Jesus, and you believe, I invite you now to pray together with me.

[1]https://www.jubilee.org.sg/sermons/?sermon_id=880
[2]https://equip.sbts.edu/publications/journals/journal-of-theology/anyone-hung-upon-a-pole-is-under-gods-curse-deuteronomy-2122-23-in-old-and-new-covenant-contexts/
[3]https://www.britannica.com/topic/crucifixion-capital-punishment
[4]Wright, N. T. (Ed.). (2004). John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11-21. Westminster John Knox Press. p 134
[5]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/apr/08/thisweekssciencequestions?CMP=share_btn_tw
[6]Habermas, G., Kopel, J., & Shaw, B. C. (2021, November). Medical views on the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings (Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 748-752). Taylor & Francis.
[7]Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel According to John: The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[8]Brant, J. A. A. (2011). John. Baker Academic. p. 258
[9]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiasu
[10]For example, see Wilkinson, J. (1975). The Incident of the Blood and Water in John 19.34. Scottish Journal of Theology, 28(2), 149-172. doi:10.1017/S0036930600034876
[11]For blood, see 6:53–54 and 1 Jn. 1:7, while for water, see Jn. 3:5, 4:14 and 7:38, 39.

Maundy Thursday Service Video Link: https://youtu.be/JsikQEzTvqs