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Humble Hero
great wrong. When the darkness lifted, they made their way home
in solemn silence, convinced that the charges of the priests were
false, that Jesus was no pretender. A few weeks later, when Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost, they were among the thousands
who became converts to Christ.
But the Jewish leaders were unchanged; their hatred had not
subsided. The darkness at the Crucifixion was not more dense than
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the darkness that still shrouded their minds. Inanimate nature had
known Christ and borne witness to His divinity. But the priests
and rulers of Israel did not recognize the Son of God. They had put
Christ to death, but even in the hour of their apparent triumph, doubts
troubled them. What would take place next? They had heard the cry,
“It is finished!”
John 19:30
. They had felt the mighty earthquake,
and they were uneasy. They dreaded the dead Christ far more than
they had feared the living Christ. They dreaded any further attention
to the events surrounding His crucifixion. They would not allow His
body to remain on the cross during the Sabbath for any reason. It
would violate the Sabbath’s sanctity for the bodies to hang on the
cross. So, using this as an excuse, leading Jews requested Pilate to
speed up the death of the victims and to remove their bodies before
the sun set.
Pilate agreed, and the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves to
hurry their death. But Jesus was already dead. The coarse soldiers,
softened by what they had heard and seen of Christ, were restrained
from breaking His legs. This fulfilled the law of the Passover, “‘They
shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones.’”
Numbers 9:12
.
The priests and rulers were amazed to find that Christ was dead.
It was unheard of for anyone to die within six hours of crucifixion.
The priests wanted to make sure of Jesus’ death, and at their sugges-
tion a soldier thrust a spear into the Savior’s side. From the wound
flowed two distinct streams, one of blood, the other of water.
John states, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear,
and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen
has testified, and his testimony is true. ... These things were done
that the Scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of His bones shall be
broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him
whom they pierced.’”
John 19:34-37
.