John 19:31-37

00:00:00:25 – 00:00:33:45
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us. Glad you’re with us. As we start this week, Monday of what we call Holy Week. And Michael and I were reflecting earlier. We came very close to timing this perfectly, but we’re slightly ahead of schedule, which we’ll probably maybe change through the week. But, the events of Holy Week, we have kind of been covering with John, and we’re now moving quickly to Easter, but the timing is not not bad.

00:00:33:50 – 00:01:04:50
Clint Loveall
We were close. So today we’re in chapter 19, and, Jesus has just declared it is finished. He has given up his spirit. And we pick up the story in verse 31. We’ll read a few verses here, read through this passage and come back to talk it through. Since it was the day of preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath, especially because that Sabbath was a day of great solemnity.

00:01:04:55 – 00:01:26:58
Clint Loveall
So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other, who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear, and at once blood and water came out.

00:01:27:03 – 00:01:53:46
Clint Loveall
He who saw this has testified, so that you may believe his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth. These things occurred so that Scripture might be fulfilled. None of his bones shall be broken. And again, another passage of Scripture says, they will look on one whom they have pierced. As we, move into the text, the Gospels agree.

00:01:53:51 – 00:02:29:29
Clint Loveall
The Gospels that mention other people being crucified with Jesus agree that Jesus is the first to die on the cross of the of the three men there, and typically this is attributed to the treatment that Jesus has had the night before, the beatings that he took, the way that he was abused, what he’s been through. And it also has to do with this idea that these other men’s legs are broken and that Jesus bones are unbroken.

00:02:29:29 – 00:02:55:14
Clint Loveall
There’s a reference in the Old Testament that says something along that line, or John quoted here that his none of his bones shall be broken. And so this is a part of storytelling, but also, again, for these gospel writers, and certainly here for John, it it checks the box of things that were expected of the Messiah, of a thing that was predicted.

00:02:55:19 – 00:03:26:31
Clint Loveall
And now, through John’s eyes, has been fulfilled. Michael and I don’t know what’s here in terms of maybe theological material, but certainly it is of interest to us. We’ll work our way down to the piercing of the side. But, for John, these these details matter, but they matter. I think more in a way of telling the story.

00:03:26:32 – 00:03:38:26
Clint Loveall
I don’t think there’s a lot of doctrine at stake here. I think this is John just making sure that he conveys the events that he thinks are vitally important in this story.

00:03:38:31 – 00:04:04:43
Michael Gewecke
But that’s the detail that I think really matters here, Clint, is that the benefit of doing a study this way is now we’ve spent months together going through the book of John. We began to get a sense of John’s cadence, the storytelling elements that John comes back to time and time again. We’ve begun to see some of these details and characteristics that make John the unique teller of Jesus’s story.

00:04:04:48 – 00:04:35:12
Michael Gewecke
And what is so important about that characterization, as we now get to the end of this story, is we have all heard or read or been exposed to that the story of Jesus’s crucifixion. And what happens for most of us is these details sort of merge together and we we make one story out of four. But what I think is really interesting when we look at this story from John’s perspective is that now and you mentioned this last study.

00:04:35:16 – 00:04:44:49
Michael Gewecke
Now suddenly somewhat of the woodwork, we’re getting these scriptures fulfilled passages which we just quite frankly, have not seen a lot of.

00:04:44:49 – 00:04:46:13
Clint Loveall
It’s not been important to John.

00:04:46:13 – 00:05:21:23
Michael Gewecke
No, not throughout this entire book. And that has a theological lesson. John believes that this is a moment we’re looking what we would call backward, looking at the scriptures of that day, that there needs to be a case made, that what’s happening here is not a detached reality. For John, this is an important teaching element that what Jesus is doing here is not made up afterwards, but rather it’s prefigured, even predicted previous to when Jesus is going to do it.

00:05:21:23 – 00:05:43:23
Michael Gewecke
So that’s where I think this idea of the the breaking of the legs that does have some physical import, there’s some just telling the story as it happened, but I think far more so the idea that John is now wanting us to see that the story of what happened to Jesus and the power displayed when Jesus gives up his spirit.

00:05:43:28 – 00:06:12:01
Michael Gewecke
This isn’t just sort of a glossing over of of what happened there, sort of a rosy picture of a bad situation to try to resurrect Jesus. Now, John wants us to know deeply, I think, that this is rooted inside what God said was going to happen. And Jesus fulfilled what was always going to be the case that Jesus not only demonstrated the kingdom, but he fulfilled what the promises of what that kingdom would be.

00:06:12:01 – 00:06:19:35
Michael Gewecke
And John’s trying to tell us that in, I think, a new kind of emphasis with new, certainly a new language based on what we’ve seen previously in the study.

00:06:19:40 – 00:06:52:37
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think there’s almost a sense in which this is an act after action report. We have the culmination. John tells us that Jesus cries out that he gives up his spirit, and then we just kind of get a little bit of a clean up story. And one of the things that makes this interesting is that John is still attributing a lot of what happens to the voices, or at least the action of the Jewish people.

00:06:52:42 – 00:07:19:33
Clint Loveall
You know, the idea here that the Jews didn’t want there to be people on the cross during the Sabbath. So we’re here on a Friday, Good Friday, and the next day being the Sabbath. And they didn’t want them left up there. So they wanted to sort of hurry that process along. And they then go to the Romans and for whatever they ask, Pilate to hurry it up.

00:07:19:33 – 00:07:50:37
Clint Loveall
And and Pilate agrees. Maybe the idea that Pilate is still here, navigating, trying to keep this large crowd of Jewish people who are in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, happy to ease, trying to keep them from being upset. But anyway, they go through with that. And, not not to be gory here, but if you understand crucifixion, the mechanism of death, as I understand it, is eventually suffocation.

00:07:50:42 – 00:08:19:21
Clint Loveall
And so when a person, when that is taking longer than they want in this case, by having legs broken, that limits the amount of, of, ability that a person would have to sort of stand up and keep themself from drooping on the cross and therefore would speed up the process. And, you know, that’s what they do.

00:08:19:21 – 00:08:45:28
Clint Loveall
But John’s telling us that as a way of telling us that they didn’t do that to Jesus, it’s easy to get fascinated by that detail and think, whoa, but the point is that when they come to Jesus and then this is, I think, interesting, Michael, they see that he’s already dead. So they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.

00:08:45:28 – 00:09:10:26
Clint Loveall
And and you ask the question, well, why would they pierce his side if they already saw that he was dead? And John’s answer would be because that was predicted, that was prophesied of the Messiah. That’s the only reason that John needs is because it fits the expectation and because that’s what was always going to happen. And so here he’s giving us an explanation of those two things.

00:09:10:39 – 00:09:24:57
Clint Loveall
Yeah, they broke the legs of the other people, not of Jesus. Instead, Jesus, for some reason unexplained was was, pierced with a spear because that’s what Scripture said would happen.

00:09:25:01 – 00:09:52:24
Michael Gewecke
And so I think that this is actually an interesting glimpse into some of the more academic Johannine scholarship. You know, the people who really work hard to word by word to understand original language in context. This is a good example of that work, I think, because here the word that we have translated pierced could, in its original context, actually have a little bit of a different force.

00:09:52:24 – 00:10:09:55
Michael Gewecke
So, you know, and I think we have some of that in our own language as well, you know, where you can cut into a tomato. You can. Yeah. Cut into it a little bit, which just means you make a little cut or you can cut a tomato. Right. You can cut all the way through it. You’re. Pierce has that sense.

00:10:09:55 – 00:10:35:38
Michael Gewecke
It could be, more of a prod or it could be more of a severe thrust. And so here there’s some ambiguity in the language. There’s some interpretation that’s allowed based upon what is happening here. And what’s fascinating about that is what follows. And let’s make sure that we all see this, because the moment that he’s pierced at once, there’s blood and water that come out and so much ink has been spilled.

00:10:35:38 – 00:10:55:05
Michael Gewecke
So much time and thought has been been put into this. Doctors are interested by this because most of the time after someone has died, this would not be what you would expect. Then others have come forward and say in traumatic situations, you know it’s possible. You can look up the arguments on on all different sides of this. It’s well recorded.

00:10:55:06 – 00:11:27:25
Michael Gewecke
The Well-Argued theologians, however, can’t help but look at a text like this and point out that we’ve already had Jesus give to his disciples a cup that he says is shed in his blood, and we also already have a book in which the institution of water as a purifying reality has been made clearly at several different turns the idea that upon Jesus’s death, the thing that comes from him is blood and water certainly brings with it.

00:11:27:30 – 00:11:53:34
Michael Gewecke
In a book that is filled with theological subtexts and meanings that that range in such beautiful harmonies. This sort of text blurs the line between what is the physical description that John wants us to know? Certainly connecting back to the prophecy that is being fulfilled in this moment. But also what is John trying to teach us about what the body of Christ given for us provides?

00:11:53:45 – 00:12:03:51
Michael Gewecke
And here we see blood and water. And theologians do see in that some potential theological teaching, on top of the practical details of a story.

00:12:03:55 – 00:12:32:54
Clint Loveall
I think it’s always good to remember that, maybe John in particular of the Gospels is not only telling us what happened, there’s always an undercurrent of what it means. There’s some symbolism, and certainly you want to be careful reading too much into. Minor ish details in the story, but I certainly think in this case that’s probably well founded.

00:12:32:54 – 00:12:56:35
Clint Loveall
And I think those who who have noticed it and looked into it, I mean, I think they help us read the text there. I just think there’s a sense in which John is always preaching to us, I don’t know what else we do with this. Michael. This is a pretty straightforward text. I think in most ways.

00:12:56:40 – 00:13:23:40
Clint Loveall
Jesus, now the Son of God, the Messiah. John has told us all these things. It is now dead. And that is that is official now. It is noted. It it has happened. John knows it’s happened. The Romans know it has happened. Presumably the Jews know that it has happened. And in its happening, it has, I think three occurrences.

00:13:23:40 – 00:13:52:55
Clint Loveall
Now, if I’m remembering correctly, fulfilled the prophecies of Scripture. So even as John looks at it and tells the story, he points out those places where Jesus is, showing forth the plan of God in the coming of the Messiah. Even here, John is making his case for, yes, that he dies. There’s death. He gives up his spirit.

00:13:53:00 – 00:14:11:39
Clint Loveall
But if you’re paying attention, you know why. And here are some key indicators as to what all that means. So I think John is just, in some ways a simple telling of the story. I mean, relatively condensed, but really loaded with important details.

00:14:11:43 – 00:14:53:06
Michael Gewecke
We got to be careful with this, Clint. And certainly there’s there’s probably little value in rank ordering, you know, Scripture per se. But and I do think this is an understated but incredibly visceral telling of the crucifixion in that here Jesus’s hanging on the cross, dead. I think in terms of, you know, some of our imagination, like I even think of some of the movies that have been made, you know, there’s a lot of time spent exploring the abuse given to Jesus before his death, but the the suffering and the shame of Roman crucifixion was not done with death.

00:14:53:06 – 00:15:15:30
Michael Gewecke
And in fact, this story is trying to tell us that the idea that the Jews are going to get an exception, to get the body down, means that the Romans were the very ones who left bodies on crosses, that crucifixion was not just for the suffering of the living, it was for the demonstration in the dead to the living of what happens when you cross Rome.

00:15:15:30 – 00:15:35:13
Michael Gewecke
The Romans were happy to leave bodies there in the visceral, gory display, while nature takes its course and the reality is here that it’s the Jews coming, an exception to get this body in the ground because of Passover, because of Sabbath, because of all of these religious rituals and some of the the ways that they interpreted the law.

00:15:35:15 – 00:15:57:44
Michael Gewecke
The point here is, though, John is in a gospel that is often talked about as being the spiritual gospel, Jesus giving us all these behind the scenes spiritual kind of lessons, I just want to point out how visceral and physical and tangible and real this story is that at the end of the day, Jesus not only physically dies, it is proven with a spear that is thrust into his.

00:15:57:46 – 00:16:22:54
Michael Gewecke
I mean, that that is a moving, maybe even a repulsive image if we’re willing to to live with that for a moment. And John is making sure that we do not miss that this is a Jesus Christ dead, not missed. The Roman execution machine has done its job, and everybody agrees that it’s been effective. So what happens next can only be miracle.

00:16:22:55 – 00:16:26:30
Michael Gewecke
I mean, John has set the story up to make that clear.

00:16:26:34 – 00:16:51:56
Clint Loveall
I think I would add to that, Michael, to that list of qualifiers. Simple. That John tells us are relatively simple. If we talk about the other three gospels, what we call the Synoptics, we have things like the temple curtain tearing. We have a reference to the dead coming out of their graves. We have a reference to a, a massive earthquake in in John.

00:16:52:01 – 00:17:21:34
Clint Loveall
We have none of that in Mark. We have the Roman soldier who looks at Jesus and says, this man was the Son of God. John is having this intimate moment between the reader and the crucified Christ that the only thing John wants us to look upon, I think, is the one on the cross. And John doesn’t need earthquakes and signs for other people, because John has spent this entire book bringing us to already understand who Jesus is.

00:17:21:34 – 00:17:49:57
Clint Loveall
And so there’s not there’s not the big crescendo reveal at the end of the the crucifixion narrative, the way that I think maybe is more true in the other gospels. John never wavers from his focal point. The spotlight here is always on Jesus, and he gives us really none of the other kind of details that the other stories include, and there may be reasons for that.

00:17:49:57 – 00:18:07:19
Clint Loveall
John’s written later. John, whatever it is, it’s clearly John’s intention to to give us what he considers the most important part of the story and not let us get distracted by other things.

00:18:07:24 – 00:18:30:28
Michael Gewecke
You spend the entire story making it abundantly clear Jesus is who he says he is, and the whole story. He says, I’m the Son of God. I’m the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Now on the cross. The question that hangs over him is literally, is he the King of the Jews? And at this moment that is all put to rest.

00:18:30:28 – 00:18:55:57
Michael Gewecke
This body is now still. And so the question that will remain is, is this indeed the fulfillment of the scriptures? Is this the Messiah? And if so, what kind of Messiah is it who dies on the Roman cross? John has delivered us to this point with unbelievable accuracy and effectiveness. We are here caught in that question and now we continue.

00:18:55:57 – 00:19:20:00
Michael Gewecke
We have to we we force ourselves to move through the reading, even with this, this grief and and bruised body and on the horrible image. We have to keep reading because the question remains, is this the end of the story? And John has set it up the whole time so that we would be caught here, even if this isn’t that that moment where everything needs to have a grand, sort of display.

00:19:20:15 – 00:19:43:46
Michael Gewecke
This is the moment where we’re now hooked to ask what then comes next? And John has done that on purpose, because I want you to note, this is the witness moment. The question that hangs over this will be, what are we witness to what is actually happening here? Is it just spear or is it something else? And we’re going to have to go on to see how John leads us there.

00:19:43:51 – 00:20:06:28
Clint Loveall
And we can talk more about this in the coming days. But it seems to me that John has the simplest story for us of the cross and the most elaborate stories of what happens afterwards. Yeah. Which is is telling. We can will reflect on that later. But, some great stuff coming up. Thanks for joining us today.

00:20:06:28 – 00:20:20:17
Clint Loveall
Hope you can continue to be with us. Hope there’s something in this that’s been helpful or new or thought provoking. We’re very grateful that you would spend this time working through this, wonderful gospel with us and and hope that it is helpful to you.

00:20:20:22 – 00:20:20:56
Michael Gewecke
See you next time.