John's Postscript: the Piercing of Jesus

Driving home: Since I've never preached through any of the passion narratives as contained in any of the four Gospel accounts, and since the doctrine of Christ crucified is uniquely constant, constituted God's meat and drink for the s…

Martin describes a 'harmony of the Gospels' as a 'biblical jigsaw puzzle exercise' to explain why he chose not to expound the Gospels in that manner, but rather to focus on Mark's narrative primarily.

When we began our studies in the Gospel of Mark several years ago, I stated very clearly at the beginning of those studies, that it was not my intention to expound a harmony of the Gospels using Mark as our starting place. Now for some of you that term, a harmony of the Gospels, would be new terminology. And basically what is meant by the use of that term is this. People seek to bring together the witness of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and to put it together in a kind of sanctified patchwork, to get all of the details recorded in the four Gospels arranged in proper chronological order. It's ...

3:57 - 5:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Anyone who was hung up upon a tree, hanged around the neck, or put upon the tree, impaled as a public spectacle, if that person were not taken down and buried by sundown, God says the land would be defiled, because to be…

Martin references secular history to explain that the Roman practice of breaking the legs of crucified criminals ('crurifragium') was a known method to hasten death, providing context for the Jewish request.

carried off and buried according to the mandate of Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23. Now it's very interesting that though there are scriptures that indicate to come into such close contact with gentleness. was defiling, they did not scruple to come into contact with Pilate, but they go to the Roman procurator in order to secure from him an action that would hasten the death of the three crucified victims. And that request which they made was specifically that the legs of the crucified victims might be broken. Now this was not some strange or bizarre request that they concocted out of their own...

16:59 - 18:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Anyone who was hung up upon a tree, hanged around the neck, or put upon the tree, impaled as a public spectacle, if that person were not taken down and buried by sundown, God says the land would be defiled, because to be…

He uses the medical concept of compound fractures and shock to explain how breaking the legs would hasten death, by causing blood loss and immediate shock in an already weakened body.

The breaking of the legs would result in multiple compound fractures, which would take an already weakened body that had been hanging upon a cross and send it immediately into shock, and from shock into death. Compound fractures, as you know, are fractures in which the bone pierces the skin, and therefore any blood that had pooled in the lower extremities from which the body was still deriving some of its life, that blood would pool into the body and pour out through the wounds of the compound fractures. Others suggest that it hastened death by causing suffocation because while a man hung upon...

18:42 - 19:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Anyone who was hung up upon a tree, hanged around the neck, or put upon the tree, impaled as a public spectacle, if that person were not taken down and buried by sundown, God says the land would be defiled, because to be…

He explains another theory that breaking the legs hastened death by preventing the crucified person from pushing up to breathe, leading to suffocation, illustrating the cruelty of the practice.

The breaking of the legs would result in multiple compound fractures, which would take an already weakened body that had been hanging upon a cross and send it immediately into shock, and from shock into death. Compound fractures, as you know, are fractures in which the bone pierces the skin, and therefore any blood that had pooled in the lower extremities from which the body was still deriving some of its life, that blood would pool into the body and pour out through the wounds of the compound fractures. Others suggest that it hastened death by causing suffocation because while a man hung upon...

18:42 - 19:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the circumstances leading to the piercing: the existing Jewish custom (based on Deuteronomy 21:22-23) to remove bodies from crosses before the Sabbath, the…

Martin vividly contrasts the fate of the two criminals crucified with Jesus: one alive, waiting for paradise; the other alive, waiting to sink into hell, emphasizing the reality of their impending deaths.

One alive, waiting to join Jesus in paradise. The other one alive waiting to sink into hell with the rich man Abraham. Abraham, give me a drop of water to cool my tongue for I'm tormented in these flames. The text says they take their clubs, smash the legs of the one and one can only imagine the sound of the hard wood upon human flesh and bone the shriek of the deed is done on the one criminal the deed is done to the second when they come to the central cross the text is very clear it says when they came to jesus and saw that he was dead already was written all over unlike the other criminals ...

21:20 - 22:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the circumstances leading to the piercing: the existing Jewish custom (based on Deuteronomy 21:22-23) to remove bodies from crosses before the Sabbath, the…

He describes the imagined 'sound of the hard wood upon human flesh and bone' and the 'shriek' as the soldiers broke the legs of the other criminals, making the scene more visceral.

One alive, waiting to join Jesus in paradise. The other one alive waiting to sink into hell with the rich man Abraham. Abraham, give me a drop of water to cool my tongue for I'm tormented in these flames. The text says they take their clubs, smash the legs of the one and one can only imagine the sound of the hard wood upon human flesh and bone the shriek of the deed is done on the one criminal the deed is done to the second when they come to the central cross the text is very clear it says when they came to jesus and saw that he was dead already was written all over unlike the other criminals ...

21:20 - 22:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes the unique validation John provides for this event, asserting himself as a bona fide, competent, and self-consciously true eyewitness. The purpose of this…

John describes himself as not a 'Johnny-come-lately man who is known to have his head off in the clouds and claim to have visions of Christ,' contrasting his eyewitness testimony with unreliable sources.

the criminal to the right, the criminal to the left, under his ribs, the blood I saw, the water. The source of this validation is John as a bona fide eyewitness. Secondly, John as a competent, dependable witness. He uses the adjective, akinos, which speaks of a witness that is not powered on from another, but he speaks as a competent, dependable witness. I do not speak as some Johnny-come-lately man who is known to have his head off in the clouds and claim to have visions of Christ and supplemental information concerning the cross. No. No.

28:21 - 29:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He that hath seen, John speaking as an eyewitness validates the events. John speaking as a trustworthy witness validates the events. John speaking as a self-consciously true witness validates the events.

John refers to his future exile to the Isle of Patmos and the heavens opening, contrasting future visions with his present, factual eyewitness account of the cross.

Whatever I may obey or may May yet be privileged to see when I'm exiled to the Isle of Patmos and the heavens are open. When I write that they did not break his legs. And when I write that they jabbed him with the spear. And when I write that blood and water came forth.

29:26 - 29:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section reveals God's overarching intention: the fulfillment of Scripture. Martin identifies two specific prophecies: 'A bone of him shall not be broken' (Exodus 12:46…

Martin imagines the soldier's sadistic mindset, yet highlights that he was 'restrained from taking his club' to Jesus' legs, illustrating God's sovereign intention to fulfill prophecy.

To take an obvious dead man. And jab him with a spear. He was restrained from taking his club. And reasoning a dead man.

39:59 - 40:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not demean, denigrate, or dilute the reality of Christ's true humanity, as it is essential for his role as a sympathetic high priest and a real Savior.

He uses the metaphor of an 'eviscerated half-savior' to describe what is left if Christ's true humanity is denied or diluted, emphasizing its necessity for our salvation.

He was a true man. He was a true man. He was a true man. He was what you have left. No assurance that one in my condition kept the law and has credited that obedience to me. No assurance that one in my condition died upon a cross and took upon himself all of the hell-deservingness of the guilt of my sin in the language of Peter, carrying in his own body up to the cross. I have known you. sympathetic high priest who can bear with me in my infirmities, who can understand me in my felt weakness, take away the humanity of Jesus, and we are left with an eviscerated half-savior? We do no honor to th...

48:08 - 49:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Find comfort and hope in Christ's real death and resurrection, knowing that our future resurrection will be patterned after his.

Martin personalizes the reality of Christ's death and resurrection by reflecting on his own future death, stating that his comfort and his loved ones' hope will not be resuscitation, but a real resurrection patterned after Christ's.

was laid in a tomb and several days later came forth. It was no resuscitation. It was a real resurrection from death. And it better be that because my friend, when I go, my death isn't going to be a swimming when the mortician takes over for me, he will be handling a dead body.

51:07 - 51:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Find comfort and hope in Christ's real death and resurrection, knowing that our future resurrection will be patterned after his.

He uses the analogy of God the Father intervening with his hand, even if a soldier's club moved with the speed of baseball player Don Mattingly, to prevent a bone of Jesus from being broken, illustrating God's meticulous care.

blessed be God we know it is true our paschal lamb was sacrificed in perfect conformity to the shadow and to the type not a bone of him was broken consider what the piercing reveals concerning the father's care over his son in all his work what a marvelous field of contemplation this passage opens up for us why should the soldiers refrain from breaking his leg in a dead man the judgment and the actings of pagan Romans if they had lifted the club and brought it within one thirty second of an inch with the speed of Don Mattingly the father and the son of the father The father would have stuck hi...

52:59 - 54:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses the Jewish leaders' scrupulous concern for ceremonial purity while simultaneously murdering an innocent man to expose the hypocrisy of decadent formal religion. He…

He uses the vivid metaphor of the Jewish leaders' hands 'dripping with the blood of the Lord of glory' to highlight their profound guilt despite their ceremonial concerns.

And the very people whose hands in the eyes of God. Are dripping with the blood. Of the Lord of glory. And that's biblical language.

59:22 - 59:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of empty, decadent formal religion, which prioritizes external morality and religious details over a broken heart and genuine love for Christ.

Martin uses the strong metaphor 'Makes God vomit' to express God's disgust at empty, formal religion and hypocrisy within the church, drawing a parallel to the Jewish leaders.

People very meticulous. About external morality. Oh yes. You polish the outside of the cup and the platter.

61:28 - 61:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of empty, decadent formal religion, which prioritizes external morality and religious details over a broken heart and genuine love for Christ.

He alludes to Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees for polishing 'the outside of the cup and the platter' (Matthew 23:25) to illustrate external morality without internal purity.

People very meticulous. About external morality. Oh yes. You polish the outside of the cup and the platter.

61:28 - 61:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be concerned with form, places, time, and ritual if you know nothing of a heart broken before the sight of the cross.

Martin quotes John Calvin on the 'miserable scrupulosity' compatible with 'utmost deadness of conscience,' and the 'straining at a gnat and swallowing a calf,' to underscore the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders.

About a dead body remaining on the cross on the Sabbath. At the very time they had just murdered an innocent living person. With the most flagrant injustice and monstrous cruelty. It is a specimen of straining at a gnat.

63:38 - 63:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that there are no rational grounds or excuses for unbelief, as the scriptures and eyewitness testimony provide ample evidence.

He alludes to the story of the rich man in hell asking for someone to be sent to his brothers, and Abraham's response, to argue that unbelievers lack no evidence, but rather love of sin.

You remember. The man who was in hell. And he tried to convince Jesus. The reason he was in hell is.

65:14 - 65:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Find strong consolation in the fact that Christ died a real death, so that you might not die the death you deserve.

He quotes Augustus Toplady's hymn 'Rock of Ages' ('Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save me from its guilt and power.') to illustrate the symbolic meaning of blood and water as cleansing agents.

All things are cleansed by blood and without the shedding of blood is no remission. Water was the great instrument of ceremonial ablutions and cleansings. And some say that this was a sign miracle included among John's many that people would know that from a crucified immolated Christ there comes forth every divine agent to cleanse us from all defilement and to purify us before the living God. Toplady had that in mind when he wrote the words that are familiar to many of us.

68:23 - 69:02 Read in full sermon