City Life Starter

The Word

³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 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. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

Exegesis

You can picture the high priests staring at Jesus in disgust as he is dead upon the Cross. They felt that they were right to put Him to death and that their actions were justified in doing so. No remorse and no second thoughts. They believe that if Jesus truly was the Messiah, he would’ve come to conquer the Romans, not to simply die on the Cross as a humble servant.

All of the prophecies that were being fulfilled speaks to the dichotomy of the High Priests thoughts and to those of John, while looking at the Cross. John portrays this very important point, that the Scriptures were being fulfilled in everything that was going on. Not only were the bones of Jesus intact, but the look of disgust from those who crucified Him were also foretold.

A simple change of the High Priests to be humble and to let Jesus die in peace would’ve let the prophecy be undone. Instead, this was not the case. The High Priests had to look and they had to be there. They could’ve had the Romans break the bones of Jesus, or even done it themselves, but this didn’t happen. The chances to undo the prophecies were plenty, but instead, all came true, and all that was foretold, came to be.

Application

We cannot stop the plan of God, even though we may seem to have the power to do so, it will never happen. God is completely and fully in control of what is going on. He will not let one person leave this Earth who will get the chance to know who He is and what He came to do on the Cross.

This pandemic has brought with much uncertainty in the lives of many people. One thing is for sure, we have one steady ground and one person to rely on, and this is Jesus Christ. Let Him be your foundation and know that He was in the control of His own destiny, so He is fully in control of yours.