April 21

But one of the soldiers pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.—John 19:34.

How marvellously did Divine Providence secure the literal fulfilling of all that had been written concerning Jesus. It had been predicted, that “not a bone of him should be broken,” And the paschal Lamb, one of the most striking of all the types of Christ, was to be roasted whole, and not a bone of it was to be broken. Behold then how God preserves the Saviour, and realises the predictions of his word. To facilitate the death of the criminals, the executioners broke the legs of both the malefactors, but perceiving that Jesus was already dead, they broke not his legs. But there was another passage which had to be fulfilled. Zechariah had spoken of Jesus, as being pierced; he had referred to a fountain which should be opened for sin and uncleanness. While the soldiers therefore passively fulfil the first scripture, in not breaking a bone of the Saviour, one of them actively fulfils the other, in thrusting the spear into his heart, from which immediately flowed the predicted fountain of blood and water. Here then we perceive the cruelty and wrath of man fulfilling what God had aforetime determined should be done. Let it be observed however, that Christ had already yielded his Spirit into his Father’s hands, so that this did not at all interfere with the freeness and voluntariness of Christ's death. The wisdom of God secured all the interests involved in this mysterious, and all momentous undertaking.