Scripture Reading: John 19
In this chapter we will continue to consider the signs in John 19.
If we pay attention to the details as we read this chapter, we will see that from the time that Pilate scourged the Lord Jesus until the time He stopped breathing and delivered up His spirit, there was a process. As He passed through this process, the Lord behaved Himself in a way that is significant. His behavior in passing through the terrifying process of death is a sign that He is life and resurrection.
Using the present tense, the Lord said to Martha in 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” When I read this verse many years ago, I was bothered by the fact that the Lord Jesus put resurrection before life. Furthermore, He used the definite article before both life and resurrection. In this verse the Lord said that He is the resurrection and the life. Even before He was resurrected from the dead, He already was resurrection. If we read chapter 19 carefully, we will see that the One who passed through the process of death was a person who is resurrection and life.
The fact that the Lord Jesus had no fear of death is an indication that He passed through the process of death as the One who Himself is resurrection and life. In chapter 19 we cannot find any trace of the fear of death with the Lord Jesus. The reason He was not afraid of death is that He is resurrection. If He had been afraid of death, then He would no longer have been the resurrection and the life. Because the Lord is the resurrection and the life, in His behavior as described in John 19 there is nothing of the fear of death.
John 19:1 says, “Therefore at that time Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.” The Lord Jesus did not do anything to avoid Pilate’s scourging. He did not walk away or turn away. Instead, He willingly suffered this scourging. Because He is the resurrection and the life, death could not affect Him in any way.
After the Lord Jesus had been scourged by Pilate, He was mocked by the soldiers: “The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they threw a purple garment around Him. And they came to Him and said, Rejoice, King of the Jews! and slapped Him” (vv. 2-3). The soldiers mocked the Lord Jesus when they put the crown of thorns and the purple garment on Him, but He accepted their mocking.
We should not think that the Lord was weak in quietly accepting the insulting mocking of the soldiers. No, He certainly was not weak. Actually, He was strong. The fact that He could withstand this mocking indicates that He was strong. As the One who is the resurrection and the life, He could withstand this mocking.
According to 19:7, the Jews said to Pilate that according to their law the Lord Jesus ought to die “because He made Himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this word, he became frightened and asked the Lord Jesus where He was from (vv. 8-9). Roman rulers were known to be superstitious and fearful of so-called gods and spirits. Hence, when Pilate was told about Jesus’ being the Son of God, he became frightened and asked the Lord concerning His place of origin. However, the Lord Jesus did not answer him (v. 9). Pilate then said to the Lord, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and I have authority to crucify You?” (v. 10). Here Pilate was threatening the Lord with death. But not being afraid of this death threat, the Lord answered, “You would have no authority against Me if it were not given to you from above; for this reason, he who has delivered Me to you has the greater sin” (v. 11).
Here we see that because the Lord is the resurrection and the life, He was bold in facing the threat of death. If we had been on trial before Pilate, we probably would have been fearful and said, “Sir, let me tell you that I’m an honest person. I would not do anything to damage you. I beg you to release me.” The Lord Jesus, on the contrary, was not at all afraid of offending Pilate.
John 19:17 says, “Bearing the cross for Himself, He went out to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” When the Lord Jesus was forced to bear the cross Himself, He did not reject it, even though He had not slept the previous night and had not eaten anything. He did not protest, as we might have done, saying that He had done nothing wrong or complaining that He had to bear His own cross. The Lord behaved in such a way as to show His opposers and His disciples that He is the resurrection. In His behavior the Lord showed that as the One who is the resurrection, He could pass through the process of death without being afraid of anything.
Those who were persecuting the Lord Jesus first took off His garments and then mockingly put a purple garment on Him. Later, they took off the purple garment and put His own garment on Him. Eventually, when the Lord was crucified, He was stripped of His garments (vv. 23-24). Silently He tolerated this stripping. Then after they nailed Him to the cross, the soldiers took His garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier (v. 23). But because the Lord is the resurrection and the life, He did not have any reaction to being stripped of His garments.
Even while the Lord Jesus was suffering on the cross, He cared for His mother: “Jesus, seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, said to His mother, Woman, behold, your son. Then He said to the disciple, Behold, your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home” (vv. 26-27).
We also see the Lord’s care in the garden when He was arrested: “Jesus answered, I told you that I am; if therefore you seek Me, let these go away” (18:8). Even under the suffering of the betrayal of His false disciple and the arrest of the soldiers, the Lord still took good care of His disciples. This reveals His easy manner in passing through the process of death. The principle is the same with His caring for His mother while He was undergoing crucifixion.
Once again we see that the Lord was not afraid of death or weak in the presence of death. He was bold, strong, and vigorous because He is the resurrection and the life.
When the Lord Jesus said, “I thirst,” He was given vinegar to drink (19:28-29). The vinegar was offered to Him in mockery. Nevertheless, the Lord took the vinegar that was offered to Him in this way.
Every aspect of the Lord’s behavior in this chapter indicates that He was strong, bold, and not afraid of death. He passed through death and overcame it, manifesting the fact that He is the resurrection and the life.
John 19:34 says, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.” Here we have the sign of the blood and water flowing out of the Lord’s pierced side. The blood signifies redemption, which deals with sin for the purchase of the church. The water signifies the impartation of life, which deals with death for the producing of the church.
Because the Jews did not want the bodies of those crucified to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken (v. 31). The soldiers came and broke the legs of the two who had been crucified with the Lord. But when they came to Him, they saw that He had already died. Then instead of breaking His legs, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear.
Some teachers have claimed that, medically speaking, the separation of blood and water here signified death. Perhaps this understanding is correct medically. Our concern, however, is with the real significance of this blood and water. The blood signifies that Christ accomplished our redemption by dying for our sins. The water signifies that the divine life flowed out of Him who died for us.
We have pointed out that the blood is for redemption and for the purchase of the church and that the water is for life imparting and for the producing of the church. We were fallen away from God, but through the blood of Jesus we have been brought back. Moreover, in addition to being fallen, we were dead. We were under both sin and death. Therefore, the Lord released His life to enliven us, to make us alive. In this way the problem of death is solved, and the church as the new creation is produced.
On the one hand, the church was bought by the Lord’s blood; on the other hand, the church was produced by His life, which He released and imparted to us. The Gospel of John is not mainly for redemption but is mainly for life impartation so that we sinners may be regenerated and become the many grains that are blended together to form one loaf, the church.
According to 19:33, the Lord’s legs were not broken. Verse 36 explains, “These things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘No bone of His shall be broken.’” Here we have the sign of the unbroken bones signifying the Lord’s unbreakable resurrection life for the producing of the church.
In the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — we do not have a record of the blood and water flowing out of the Lord’s pierced side; neither do we have a record concerning the fact that the Lord’s bones were not broken. Why is it that these matters are recorded only in the Gospel of John? The answer is related to the fact that the blood and the water are concerned with the producing of the church. The Lord’s bones not being broken is also concerned with the producing of the church.
In order to understand why John points out that none of the Lord’s bones were broken, we need to consider the type in Genesis 2, where the word bone is mentioned for the first time in the Bible. Genesis 2:21 and 22 say, “Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man.” Here we see that the rib, the bone, taken out of Adam was built into a woman, Eve, Adam’s counterpart. Ephesians 5 indicates that this is a type of Christ producing the church. As Eve came out of the side of Adam, so the church comes out of the side of Christ.
The bone in Genesis 2 is a type of the Lord’s resurrection life, which is unbreakable and which was released through His death. This unbreakable resurrection life is for the producing of the church, the spiritual Eve, the spiritual wife to match Christ.
When some hear that the bone in Genesis 2 is a type of the unbreakable resurrection life for the producing of the church, they may say, “Brother Lee, this kind of allegorization of the Scriptures is according to your imagination.” On the contrary, this teaching has a solid basis in the Scriptures.
John 3:29 says, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” Christ is the Bridegroom, and the church is His bride. How does Christ as the Bridegroom obtain His bride? The best way to answer this question is to refer to the clear type in the Old Testament. Ephesians 5 reveals that Adam producing Eve to be his wife is a type of Christ producing the church to be His counterpart.
Genesis 2:20 says, “The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of heaven and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper as his counterpart.” The living creatures were brought to Adam, and he named them, but he did not find among them a counterpart. Therefore, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and then He took a rib and built a woman and brought her to him. When Adam saw the woman, he said, “This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken” (v. 23).
As the last Adam, Christ obtained His wife in a similar way. He “slept” on the cross, and while He slept, His side was pierced. The water that flowed out of His pierced side signifies His resurrection life, which is typified by the unbroken bone. By this unbreakable resurrection life the church is produced and built up. The church, then, is Christ’s Eve. It is in this way that Christ, the Bridegroom, gains His bride, the church.
We have emphasized the fact that John 12:24 reveals that Christ as a grain of wheat did not remain alone. Instead, He fell into the ground and died, and then He rose up to produce many grains. Where in the Gospel of John do we find the fulfillment of this verse? The fulfillment is in 19:34. Through the piercing of the Lord’s side to release the flow of His life, the Lord’s word in 12:24 was fulfilled.
John 3:29 and 12:24, two great verses, have been fulfilled. The many grains have been produced to form the church, and the church is the bride to match the wonderful Christ as the Bridegroom. Only in the Gospel of John, not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, do we see these mysterious divine matters. Here we have the depths of the truth in John’s Gospel, the extract of the divine record in this book.
We have seen that when the Lord was dying on the cross, He was working for the accomplishment of God’s purpose. Eventually, His work on the cross issued in the outflow of His resurrection life to produce us as the many grains and the many members to form His Body. The Lord’s Body is also His wife, His counterpart to match Him. The church as Christ’s counterpart, therefore, is produced through His death and by His resurrection life.
John 19:40 says that Joseph from Arimathea and Nicodemus “took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews for burying.” This also is a sign. The binding of the Lord with linen signifies that the old creation was buried with the crucified Christ.
Suppose Joseph and Nicodemus only buried the Lord with the spices and did not bind the Lord’s body with linen. In that case, after the Lord’s resurrection nothing would have been left in the tomb. Then Peter and the other disciples, seeing the empty tomb, might have thought that someone had stolen His body. There would not have been a sign of His resurrection. But as we will see more fully when we come to chapter 20, the disciples saw in the tomb the linen cloths with which the Lord’s body had been bound. This caused them to realize that the Lord Jesus had resurrected from the dead. Even more important is the fact that the linen signifies the old creation, which was buried with the Lord Jesus and left in the tomb when He resurrected. I believe that this is the main significance of the Lord being bound with linen.
God is sovereign, and every matter related to the Lord’s crucifixion happened under God’s sovereignty. God even prepared Joseph and Nicodemus, honorable men, to bind Him with linen as a sign that the old creation was buried with the crucified Christ. When He was buried, He was not buried alone but was buried with the old creation. When He was resurrected, He left the old creation, signified by the linen, in the tomb. Then He came forth as the Head of the new creation with the ability to impart His divine life, which had been released through His death, into His disciples. In this way His disciples became His brothers (v. 17). These many brothers are also the many grains for the Lord’s glorification. Therefore, the old linen was left in the tomb, and outside the tomb, in resurrection, we have the Lord, the elder Brother, and the many brothers forming the new creation. This new creation was made possible through the Lord’s marvelous all-inclusive death. Praise the Lord for what He accomplished through His all-inclusive death!
