John 19:28-37

John 19:28-37 … Here are the last moments of our Savior’s life, solemn beyond our understanding, but still so real that we should be deeply affected by it. After some hours of incredible suffering on the Cross, Jesus, “knowing that all was now completed” spoke of His thirst and then “gave up His Spirit.” He had said previously that he had authority to lay down His life and authority to take it up again (John 10:18), and so He had. The great commentary of Scripture on the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ is in Romans 6:1-11, indicating that our own sins are taken with Him in death and that we are enabled to walk in newness of life through Him. “It is finished!” All things required for the salvation of the world have been accomplished. Jesus has finished all things required of Him by God the Father, who loved everyone who will ever be born so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s the great gift of God: eternal life in Him! Roman 8:1 tells us that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We should also note that, at the instant of His atoning death, when He gave up His Spirit, His body was dead and without life, just as ours will be at our own moment of death.

Then, because of the impending Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed immediately after Passover, the Jews insisted that the crucified bodies be removed and buried before sundown (based on Jewish Law, Deuteronomy 21:23). Pilate evidently issued orders for the breaking of legs, most think because the legs, even though feet were nailed to the cross, could be used to raise the sufferers’ body to prevent immediate suffocation. But Jesus was already dead, as the soldier’s spear confirmed, and His legs were not broken, thus fulfilling prophecy (Exodus 12:46 and Psalm 34:20), just as the pierced side fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10. All this is recorded by His reliable eyewitness, the Apostle John (John 19:35), so that by this testimony, we might truly place our trust in the Living Lord Jesus.