John 19:36-37
“These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘None of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another passage of scripture says, ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced.’” [1]
Of all that is said by the writer of the Gospel of John regarding Good Friday, this is amongst the most surprising and the most revealing.
As we gaze upon the Crucified on this day, the Lord nailed to the Cross, John’s Gospel proclaims, “These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”.
According to John the saving purposes of God, revealed over centuries in the Scriptures of Israel, what Christians call the Old Testament, reach their fulfillment here, on this day, at the Cross, in the Crucified Lord.
The scriptures of the Old Testament tell of God’s saving purposes - in a world broken and shadowed by sin and death - revealed first to Abraham; the saving purposes of God which moved the Psalmist to sing God’s praises; the saving purposes of Israel’s God, proclaimed afresh by the prophets in face of bitter defeat and exile.
These saving purposes of God, declares John in his Gospel, find their fulfillment on Good Friday, in the Crucified Lord: here God’s saving purposes, proclaimed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, come to pass, they are accomplished, they are fulfilled in the Crucified Lord.
This understanding echoes throughout the seven chapters of John’s Gospel which narrate the Lord’s Passion - the betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus.
When John opens this account in chapter 13, the night on which Jesus is betrayed, he tells of words spoken by Jesus Himself regarding this betrayal: “it is to fulfil the scripture” [2]. It is a phrase repeated by John as Jesus is stripped of His clothing at the Cross, and as He thirsts upon the Cross [3].
And now, as his account of the Lord’s Passion draws to its close, we again hear John declare, “These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”.
At this point, Jesus is dead upon the Cross, His side pierced by a Roman spear, blood and water pouring forth. Because He is dead, there is no need for the usual, brutally efficient Roman practice of breaking the legs of those crucified, hastening their death.
John here turns to the Psalms, to Psalm 34, a reflection on God’s faithfulness to the Righteous One enduring bitter death; even then, in the bitterness of death, the psalm states, “The Lord … keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken” [4].
John at this point also has in mind another pronounced echo from the Scriptures of Israel: when the book Exodus tells of the institution of the Passover meal - the meal which proclaimed Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt - it says of the Passover lamb which is sacrificed for that meal, “you shall not break any of its bones” [5].
Now the true Passover Lamb, the One who brings redemption to the world, is upon the Cross, not one of his bones broken.
As the pierced body of the Crucified Lord hangs upon the Cross, John now turns to another passage from the Scriptures of Israel, from the prophet Zechariah: “They will look on the one whom they have pierced” [6].
The prophet was addressing the people of Jerusalem after the bitterness and shame of their exile, and he declares that God’s saving purposes will be seen in One who is pierced for their transgressions, whose sufferings will be a source of forgiveness.
“These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”: for long centuries, from God first revealing Himself to Abraham in the mists of time, through Israel’s slavery in Egypt and then entry into the land flowing with milk and honey, from the kingdom of the great king David to the shame of bitter, sorrowful exile from the Promised Land, the Scriptures of the Old Testament told of God’s saving purposes, that humanity would be redeemed from the powers of sin and death, restored and renewed in God’s kingdom.
Now, on this day, gazing upon the Cross, John proclaims, “These things [the Lord’s Passion] occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”: the saving purposes of God set forth in the Old Testament, are fulfilled - find their centre, their true meaning - in the Crucified Lord.
This is the surprising, revealing declaration of John and of the entire New Testament: here, at the Cross, in the very midst of death, and malice, and cruelty, and pride, and violence, amidst the abject failure of humanity, here God is delivering His creation from sin and death; here God is redeeming, reconciling, making new.
When on Good Friday, we gaze upon Christ Crucified, what is it that the Christian faith sees?
We see a scene of cruelty and horror, yes, compelling testimony to the inhumanity of humanity: but this is not the meaning of Good Friday and the Cross.
We see those with secular and religious power misuse that power, to unjustly condemn: but this is not the meaning of Good Friday and the Cross.
We see how costly love is: but even this is not the meaning of Good Friday and the Cross.
Rather, as John declares, the death of Jesus on the Cross “occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”.
When, on this Good Friday, we gaze upon Christ Crucified, we behold God’s saving purposes coming to pass in the Cross, redeeming us from the darkness of sin and the bitterness of death.
How is this so?
It is so because of who the Crucified One is.
In the Creed we are about to say - the Nicene Creed, composed 1,700 years ago this year - we will confess that Jesus Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God … of one Being with the Father”; and so on the Cross, in the One who is “God from God … of one Being with the Father” [7], God’s saving purposes are fulfilled, even in the very darkest depths of sin and death.
As we hear the Passion of the Lord proclaimed on this day; as we gaze upon the Cross; as we sing the praises of the Crucified Lord, we do so knowing that on the Cross He who is “of one Being with the Father”, has descended into the deepest, darkest pit of sin and death, bringing to us - amidst our sins and our experiences of death - God’s saving purposes, forgiving and redeeming us, bringing to us, to all, the very life and light of God.
“These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled”: may we who observe this Good Friday be renewed and deepened in our faith in Christ Crucified, the One who is “God from God”, in whom God’s saving purposes, set forth in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, proclaimed in the Scriptures of the New Testament, are fulfilled, “for us and for our salvation”.
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[1] John 19:36-37. BCP 2004 appoints the Passion of John - 18:1-19:42 - to be read at the Principal Service on Good Friday.
[2] John 13:18.
[3] John 19:24 and 19:28.
[4] Psalm 34:19-20 (RSV).
[5] Exodus 12:46.
[6] Zechariah 12:10 - and see 13:1.
[7] From the version of the Nicene Creed in Holy Communion Two, BCP 2004, p.205.
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