CH Spurgeon on John 19 verses 32–37

Spurgeon on John chapter 19, verses 32–37

Verse 34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

What a wonderful conjunction of prophecy and providence! I want you to behold it, and admire it.

Two texts of Scripture, the one in Exodus the other in Zechariah (such a long interval having occurred between the distinct records), predict, the former that not a bone of the Paschal Lamb should be broken, the latter, that He should be pierced. How were these twain to be fulfilled in the minuteness of one incident?

The rough Roman soldier comes with the iron bar to break the bones of the three prisoners who have been crucified. He has orders to break their legs. Will not the soldier, therefore, break the legs of Jesus? No. Moved by some strange impulse, he marks that one of the three, Jesus, who is called Christ, is dead already. Though commanded to break His legs, he forbears, but most likely to clear himself of all doubt on that point, he pierces His side with a spear.

The willfulness of the soldier, wavering though wanton, thus fulfilled both the prophecies of which he must have been himself totally ignorant, and this was brought about first by his not doing what he was ordered to do, and secondly, by doing what he had not been ordered to do.

Oh! how inscrutable the mystery of providence! How marvelously does God rule the sons of men while He leaves them to their own free will! This was not an accidental circumstance, or a singular coincidence—it was providence—a sublime purpose of God brought to pass by simple means.

Verses 33–34. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Was it not enough that they had scourged His back? Did it not suffice that they had put a thorn crown on His head? Was it not sufficient that they had nailed His feet and His hands to the tree? And yet after they were satisfied that the life had been forfeited to the law, and the body was already dead, nothing could content human cruelty till His heart was pierced with the lance.

We too, after the Savior’s death have pierced Him. Shall I show you how? His Godhead is His glory. Deny His Deity and you not only detract from His dignity, but you make Him unworthy of our confidence. This is to thrust the spear into His very heart.

They pierce Him too, who attack the doctrines which He taught, and the testimony which He delivered. The truth was in Christ’s heart, it was written there. Whatever He preached with His lips He sanctified with His life.

How do they also thrust at His heart who persecute His people! Saul of Tarsus pierced His heart, for Jesus said, “Why persecutest thou me?” The sufferings of the men and women, hauled to prison, and beaten in the synagogue, and compelled to blaspheme, were injuries wantonly and wickedly done to Christ Himself.

I fear me, too, there is another class that pierces His heart—it includes those who refuse to believe in His willingness to forgive them. When under conviction of sin, it may be difficult to believe that one can be pardoned, but when the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us, and His infinite condescension that brought Him to suffer for us, it does seem hard that any should doubt Him.

Oh! do not doubt Him, the Son of God, who suffered for His enemies, surrendering His life for even the ungodly. Will you, can you still distrust Him? Were it not far better that you honored Him by casting yourselves at His feet?

Verse 34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

His heart is pierced, it is true, but with what result, my brethren? Does there flash from it fire? Does the peal of thundering wrath roll over the sinner’s head? Ah! no, it is like the sandal tree, that perfumes the axe that wounds it. Adown that spear, no sooner is it withdrawn from the wound than there gushes a fountain of blood and water. The attacks that are made upon Jesus Christ only display His virtues.

If truth be attacked, and the Gospel be assailed, what is the immediate consequence? Why, then, the saints search deeper into it, so they come to understand the doctrine better, they learn the arguments by which it is sustained, and they love the truth with fonder, as well as stronger convictions, till they feel moved to sacrifice themselves for it.

The heart of Christ was opened by the spear, and often the heart of truth is revealed by the opposition brought to bear against it. The March wind tears not up the oak, but roots it more firmly in its native soil.

Moreover, it often happens that when Christ is opposed by persecution, the Gospel is proclaimed with more zeal, and diffused with more rapidity. The saints who were, in early days, persecuted in Jerusalem, went everywhere preaching the Word.

Verse 34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Behold the open heart of Jesus! it is open that all the grace that is within it may freely flow to undeserving sinners. Think not, sinner, that you have need to open Jesus’ side. The blood has flown freely. Say now, will you come and wash in it?

You have not to beg for cleansing, as though it were a boon hardly to be obtained by importunity, it flows, still it flows. He is willing—as willing as He is able, and as able as He is willing, to cleanse you from your guilt.

His heart is open. It is open for the doubter to put his hand into it now. Where are you, Thomas? Do you ask some hard thing and say, “Except I see this and that, I will not believe”? Oh! trembler, weighed down by your sins and your weakness, do you not see Him this day in glory, with His heart still open towards you? Put your hand into the wound and say, “My Lord and my God.”

His heart is open to sympathize with the griefs and woes, the prayers and pleadings, the desires and longings of all His people. His heart is so accessible that you need not fear He will not hear you, or that He will not heed your faintest cry.

Say not, then, that no one sympathizes with you. Jesus does. He cannot fail to pity, solace, or to cheer. His pierced heart sympathizes far more quickly than the tenderest heart that ever lived before or after.

Verse 34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

That spear did, as it were, break the alabaster box and let out the sweet perfume. What, then, was there in the Savior’s heart? Men carry in their hearts that which is dearest. The true man is what he is at the heart’s core.

Hence I discern that in my Lord’s heart, there was, first, a strong determination to purge sinners from their guilt by His blood. The atoning sacrifice is not merely the hand blood of the Savior’s work, nor is it merely the foot blood of the Savior’s journeying through the vale of tears, it was His heart’s blood, indicative of heart-work—it was the blood of redemption shed for us.

Moreover, beloved, in Christ’s heart there was the water as well as the blood. He would have His people sanctified as well as pardoned, He would deliver them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin. His Spirit is working to this end.

My soul, glorify the pierced heart of Christ. Give Him to see in yourself the effect of the water that flowed from His heart. This can only be effected by the Spirit’s vital application of the Savior’s atoning death. Stay you at the cross foot, live under the influence of His passion, pray that you may rise out of this world’s fading, failing vanity into newness of life, through His pierced heart.

In fine, let us stand in penitence before the Crucified One, and mourn that we pierced Him, but let us stand in His propitiation, rejoicing that His piercing has procured our pardon. So let us go on our way, resolved, by His help, that we will glorify Him “in all manner of holy conversation and godliness.”