The Pulpit Commentary on John 19:31-37

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The breaking of the legs.

It was usual for the Romans to leave the dead on the cross to the ravages of wild beasts. A providential event changed the usage in this case.

I. THE ANXIETY OF THE JEWS FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE BODIES. "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."

1. The Jews had accomplished their purpose, and were now anxious to carry out the letter of the law. The bodies ought, in any ease, to be removed before night'; but there was a special necessity on account of the day of the Crucifixion preceding a great festival.

2. Mark their hypocrisy. They regarded themselves as strictly bound to observe the outward ceremony, but they had no scruple in crucifying the Son of God. The ceremonial part of religion was of greater moment to them than the moral.

II. PILATE'S CONCESSION TO THEIR DEMANDS. "Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him."

1. Though a cruel act, it was designed to shorten the sufferings of the crucified. Gangrene was the immediate result. The breaking of the legs, together with crucifixion itself, was abolished by Constantine, the first Christian emperor.

2. The soldiers treated Jesus in an exceptional manner. "But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs."

(a) It could not be said hereafter that he had merely swooned, and that his disciples had come in the night and taken him away.

(b) The pierced side was the subject of prophecy. "They shall look on him whom they pierced?

(c) The blood and water had a figurative application. "This is he who came not by water only, but by water and blood" (1 John 5:6).

( α) The blood indicated life sacrificed.

( β) Water was the symbol of the spiritual life. The death of Christ secured at once the cleansing away of sin, and the quickening of dead souls by the Spirit.

III. THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLE JOHN TO THESE FACTS. "And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true."

1. It was the testimony of an eyewitness.

2. It was designed to support the faith of the world in the facts of our Lord's death.

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