Sermon -- Good Friday (April 18, 2025)

JOHN 19:31-37

BLOOD AND WATER POURED FORTH FROM THE LORD.

In the name + of Jesus.

     In the days of the Colosseum, the emperor sponsored gladiatorial games for the citizens of Rome.  Trained soldiers were given a variety of weapons to fight to the death.  After a brutal struggle, the dead and wounded would lie on the floor of the Colosseum.  Their blood soaked into the sand which covered the wooden floor.  Then, a jester would come out with a red-hot poker.  He would dance to amuse the crowd, but his real purpose was to prance up to each body and touch the red-hot poker to it.  If the man did not flinch, he knew that the man was dead.  If the man did flinch, a soldier would take a sword or spear and run him through to put the mortally wounded man out of his misery.  This practice seems to have been utilized by the Roman soldier who was overseeing the death of Jesus. 

     As Good Friday was winding down, three men hung from their crosses.  Crucifixions could last for days as a condemned man languished in a slow, torturous death.  The weight of one’s body would rest on his chest as his lungs slowly filled with fluid.  Breathing became labored.  Fighting for life, a man would push up with his legs to grab a small gasp of air and then slump down to languish some more.  Eventually, he would not be able to breathe any more, and he would expire.  But as long as he could push up for that breath, he would hang from the cross.

     “Since it was the Preparation Day, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses over the Sabbath (because that Sabbath was a particularly important day). They asked Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies taken away.  So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who was crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other man” (John 19:31-32).  With their legs broken, the men could no longer push up for that precious breath.  Death came quickly, and their bodies were removed from their crosses before the Sabbath.

     In the case of Jesus Christ, however, breaking his legs was unnecessary.  Jesus had yielded up his life already.  His life was not taken from him.  As Jesus had told his enemies, “I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.  This is the commission I received from my Father” (John 10:17-18).  So, Jesus intentionally went into death.  He did not lose his life; “he gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). 

     Therefore, when the soldiers broke their legs to hasten the death of the criminals, they did not need to do this for Jesus.  “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear” (John 19:34).  This was likely not an act of unnecessary cruelty or boredom.  This was likely standard operating procedure.  If Jesus had flinched, he was not dead yet.  But the thrust of the spear up into Jesus’ heart guaranteed that he was dead.  The Romans excelled at putting people to death by crucifixion, and this act ensured that their job was done right.

     St. John had been standing at the foot of the cross, and he had witnessed all that Jesus endured there.  He saw the soldiers nail Jesus to the beams of wood.  He saw the soldiers divide up Jesus’ garments and cast lots for his seamless tunic.  He heard the priests and Pharisees mock Jesus.  He heard Jesus speak seven times, although most of Jesus’ sufferings were endured in silence.  And John witnessed the soldier take his spear and thrust it into Jesus’ side.  This held significant interest for John, and he strongly asserted what he had witnessed.

     John wrote, “When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.  Immediately blood and water came out.  The one who saw it has testified, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe” (John 19:33-35).  There was no comment made to incriminate the soldier of barbaric behavior.  There was no propaganda which would inspire readers to resent the Romans.  John simply recorded the facts.  The spear in Jesus’ side confirmed his death.  But John saw something significant from this wound.  Part of it was the fulfillment of Scripture, “They will look at the one they pierced” (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10).  But what truly caught John’s attention was that blood and water poured forth from the Lord.

     John stated emphatically that he had seen it.  It is a historical account about the death of Jesus of Nazareth.  John’s Gospel is not a propaganda piece.  Nor is it a collection of fables.  John’s Gospel is a record of history.  He wrote about real people engaged in real events in documented places among historical figures at times that can be dated with relative certainty.  Even people who deny that Jesus is true God acknowledge that there was a Jesus of Nazareth who died by crucifixion.  The death of Jesus Christ is recorded even by historians who had no interest in defending or confessing the Christian faith.

     These events were as real as the sins we have committed against God.  When you are haunted by your sins, your guilt is real.  The devil does not vex you over things that never happened.  He accuses you with the truth.  You did say those terrible things.  You did try to cover up your sins with a lie.  You did try to pin the blame on someone else.  You did withhold your help from someone in need because you didn’t trust them, didn’t like them, or just didn’t want to be bothered by them.  You fantasized how harm would come to someone because that would somehow make your life better.  This guilt is real because those sins were real.  In order to find real relief from such guilt, you need historical, well-documented proof of salvation which was won for you.  A mythical Savior does nothing for you.  A historical and actual atoning sacrifice produces a real payment for sins.  But besides a well-attested act of redemption, you need a definitive way for that atonement to be applied to you.

     The historical death of Jesus is undeniable.  You can take a trip to Jerusalem and visit the place where Jesus was crucified.  Of course, present-day Jerusalem does not look exactly like the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day.  Archaeologists have taken their best guesses about which hill at Jerusalem is Golgotha.  In fact, there are two places which are presented as the possible site of Golgotha.  While the exact placement of Jesus’ cross is debatable, his crucifixion is not.  John saw it.  And John saw blood and water pour forth from the Lord.  

     If you go to Jerusalem, you can pose in front of the place where your forgiveness was won, but you won’t find forgiveness there.  The ransom price was made 2,000 years ago, but the benefits need to come to you now.  And this is why St. John was so emphatic about seeing blood and water pour forth from the Lord.

     John noted why the blood and the water pouring forth from Jesus’ side matter.  In his first epistle, St. John wrote, “This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ.  He did not come by the water alone but by the water and by the blood.  The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  In fact, there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one” (1 John 5:6-8). 

     Jesus won your salvation for you in his death at Golgotha.  But how does he get that salvation to you today, 2,000 years after he died on a hill 6,000 miles away?  It is by the Spirit, the water, and the blood.  The Holy Spirit guided the apostles to record the very words of God so that we can know what God demands, what God promises, and what God has done to save sinners.  God’s demands show our need for a Savior.  God’s promises assure us that he does not leave us hopeless in our sinful condition.  And God’s actions through Jesus are how our sins have been taken away.

     To give us greater assurance of this salvation, God has attached his promise to tangible things.  You are not left to wonder if you believe his words strongly enough, sincerely enough, or purely enough.  God applies his salvation to you.  He has washed you clean in your baptism and has marked you as his redeemed.  In holy communion, he pours into you the blood which was shed as the atoning sacrifice for your sins.  There is no need to wonder if God’s love and salvation are really yours.  Blood and water poured forth from our Lord, and now blood and water have been poured forth upon you.  This is how the salvation which was won for you on Golgotha is delivered to you here and now.

     Our Lord is the source of life.  He gave life to this world when he created the world and everything in it.  Most things the Lord summoned into being.  He spoke and gave life to the world.  Mankind, however, the Lord set apart from the rest of creation.  He formed the man from the dust of the earth.  He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.  When it came time for the Lord to make a helper suitable for the man, the Lord took a rib from the man and formed a woman.  The life of the bride came out of the side of her husband.

     Our Lord Jesus Christ has betrothed himself to the Church.  Jesus is the groom; the Church is his bride.  Just as the life of the first bride came from the side of the man, so also the life of the Church comes from the side of Jesus Christ.  Blood and water poured forth from the Lord.  It is through the water that the Lord gives life to his Church, and it is through the blood that the Lord sustains that life in his Church.  Regarding the water, we have the promise, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).  Regarding the blood, we have this declaration, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).  

     The blood and the water poured forth from the Lord’s body at the cross.  It was a real, historical, documented event.  Now the blood and the water are poured forth to the body of Christ in the sacraments.  Here, the Lord applies true forgiveness, grants real comfort, and bestows lasting peace.  Blood and water poured forth from the Lord.  It is for you.  For the forgiveness of sins.  For real.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.