by Timothy W. Burnett
After Jesus bowed his head and died, the Jewish leaders were itching to finish the job because a special sabbath day was fast approaching. It was against Jewish policy for the bodies to remain on the stakes during that day. It should be noted that the Jewish calendar day began every 24 hour period at sunset. This means that Jesus died near the time of sunset. The special day was the Passover. How ironic...the same Jewish leaders who were so fervent about keeping the ordinance about letting dead bodies stay on the stakes, were the same ones who killed God's beloved son.
The Jews requested to speed up the death of the condemned men by braking their legs. This would have kept them from being able to hold them selves up by their legs, and sped up the suffocation process because all their weight hung by their nailed hands.
The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then the other who was crucified with Jesus. In other words, the soldiers broke the legs of one of the robbers, and then did the same to one of the malefactors who were led in with Jesus. By the time they came to Jesus, they found him dead and his legs were spared.
Next, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side only to see blood and other fluids come out. We might wonder why it is so important to mention the blood and the fluids. This was proof positive that he was truly a man of flesh and blood. It also emphasized the spilling of Jesus' incorruptible blood as the perfect Passover sacrifice. Remember that according to Mosaic law, an important part of the Passover sacrifice was the blood. This may sound grotesque, but a closer study of the Old Testament law related to Passover sacrifices will help to understand the significance of Jesus' blood.
Jesus' unbroken leg and pierced side fulfilled the scripture in Psalms 34:20 and Zechariah 12:10.
Some time during or after the braking of the legs and piercing of Jesus' side, the veil of the Temple ripped from top to bottom, the land began to quake, the graves appeared to open and many bodies of the saints which were dead appeared to many people in the city of Jerusalem. After all this was done, one of the Roman centurions and all who watched Jesus became extremely afraid and said, "Truly this was the son of God." Wow! God sure knows how to get people's attention!
Next week we will study the record of the saints rising from the graves after Jesus' resurrection, and appearing to many in the holy city. Our underlying research question will address whether or not this event was a literal resurrection of the saints, or a vision given to many people in the holy city meant to symbolize the true resurrection which has not yet occurred.
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