“The Sounds of Lent: Pounding Hammer,
Spurting Water and Blood, and Confessing”
John 19:31-37
Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Lent Service VI—April 10, 2019
“The Sounds of Lent: Pounding Hammer”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
John’s Gospel says, “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place
called The Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is Golgotha. There they
crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the
middle.”
Good Friday began as a day of gruesome, grim, routine for the Roman
centurion. In the regular rotation of officers’ duties in the garrison at
Jerusalem, today it was his turn to command a squad in carrying out the most
distasteful task required of a Roman solider.
Crucifixion was, on the one hand, the most cruel method of execution
ever devised; and, on the other hand, a routine reality of Roman life.
Especially in the occupied provinces like Palestine, this harsh, public
punishment was regularly meted out for all kinds of crimes and all sorts of
criminals, such as the two thieves on either side of Jesus that day.
Crucifixion was the Roman way of maintaining strict control, especially over the
multitude of conquered nations that they ruled. In this way the Empire
sent a clear and unmistakable message to keep potentially rebellious populations
in line: obey or else—or else this will be your horrible fate.
Crucifixion was also the Roman way of toughening their soldiers and
desensitizing them to killing and death. That was why they had to take
their turn rotating on this distasteful duty.
For each condemned man there was a crucifixion detail, made up of a
centurion in charge of about four soldiers. The centurion checked out from the
quartermaster some very valuable army equipment that must be returned at the end
of the day or his pay will be docked: the iron spikes, used to nail the
condemned men to the cross.
That was the worst part, the nailing to the cross. Surely even
the toughest soldiers had nightmares about that, haunted by the horrible sound
of the hammer striking the nails, as they were cruelly driven through victims’
hands and feet.
But, although it was a gross miscarriage of justice, although it was a
shameful rejection of the Messiah, although it was horrible blasphemy by
humanity against the Son of God, it was actually the fulfillment of God’s plan
for the salvation of the world. As Peter says in Acts, “This man was
handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the
help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Jesus prophesied his crucifixion, and explained its purpose: “I, when I
am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. . . the Son of Man
must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”
It is the custom in some churches to erect a large, rough-hewn wooden
cross in the sanctuary during Lent. And on Good Friday the parishioners
write on a slip of paper a sin that is troubling them and nail it to the cross.
That symbolizes what Christ has done for you by being nailed to the cross, as
Paul says in Colossians, “He forgave us all our sins . . . he took it away,
nailing it to the cross.”
Amen.
“The Sounds of Lent: Spurting Water and Blood”
John’s Gospel says, “The next day was to be a special Sabbath.
Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath,
they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The
soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been
crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to
Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden
flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his
testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that
you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be
fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture
says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.’”
An important part of the centurion’s duty that day as the officer in
charge of the crucifixion detail was to confirm the death of the victim.
It was not uncommon for crucifixion victims to linger on the cross for three or
four days. That was one reason for the severe flogging they received prior
to crucifixion, to weaken them and shorten their time on the cross, so that a
centurion and squad of soldiers weren’t tied up for three or four days guarding
a lingering victim in a round-the-clock vigil while he slowly died.
On Good Friday there was a special urgency to getting the job done.
Because the point of crucifixions was to serve as a warning to the local
populace, they were conducted in the most public, highly visible place. It
Hebrew it is Golgotha, in Latin Calvary; both mean, “The Place of the Skull,” an
apt name for a horrible place of execution. It was probably located just
outside the main gate to the city, which was called the Joppa Gate because it
was the main road into the city from the port of Joppa. So, instead of
visitors being welcomed by a cheery chamber of commerce sign saying “Welcome to
Jerusalem,” they were confronted by a gruesome place of execution, which is
exactly what the Romans wanted, as a warning to all those entering the city.
But, this was Passover week, the Hebrews’ high holy days. The
next day was to be a special Sabbath, which according to their custom actually
began at 6:00pm on Good Friday evening. For both religious and political
reasons, they did not want the pilgrims flooding into Jerusalem to pass by the
spectacle of Roman soldiers watching over Jewish execution victims hanging on
crosses. That would be not only distasteful religiously during the
Passover celebration, but a humiliating reminder to all those pilgrims of the
subjugated status of their Hebrew nation.
“Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during
the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken
down.” In addition to flogging before crucifixion, breaking the legs of
victims was the other common way of hastening their death. The weight of
the body pulling down on the arms makes proper respiration impossible and
results in slow suffocation. The victims hanging on the cross would try to
counter this effect by pushing up on their legs. But, once the legs were
broken, death came very quickly.
“The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who
had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they
came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.”
From a physical perspective, Jesus probably died more quickly because of the
extreme, unending torment he had endured all through the night and day.
And, spiritually, he was bearing the burden of the sins of the whole world.
As he told the disciples the night before the Garden of Gethsemane, “My soul is
overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”
“One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a
sudden flow of blood and water.” The centurion did this not as a final
wound against Christ, but to confirm his death. As an experienced
executioner, he knew that the shallow breathing caused by crucifixion led to a
buildup of fluids in the pericardial sac around the heart, resulting in
congestive heart failure. It was this pericardial sac that he expertly,
precisely pierced with his spear. Used by Roman soldiers, this special
spear was called a “pilium,” like a javelin with a wooden handle and a long,
thin, iron head, sharpened to a surgically precise tip. This deft maneuver was
carried out by the centurion to officially confirm Jesus’ death by the spurting
out from the pericardial sac of the accumulated blood and water.
The water and blood flowing from our Savior’s side also have a symbolic
significance: the waters of Holy Baptism, and the blessed stream of our Savior’s
blood in Holy Communion. As the hymn “Rock of Ages” puts it:
Let the water and the blood from Thy riven side
which flowed
Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Your sins have been washed away by the river of blood flowing from your
Savior’s side. Be cleansed and soothed by the water and the blood, which
in the Sacraments continue to flow out to us today from our stricken Savior’s
side.
Amen.
“The Sounds of Lent: Confessing”
What an unusual day it has been for the Roman centurion and his squad
of soldiers. They have never before conducted an execution like this one,
or seen such amazing things. The condemned man crowned with thorns and
declared by the sign above his head to be a king. The ominous darkness
over the whole land for three hours. The prisoner crying out for his
tormentors, even as he being nailed to the cross, “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.”
What effect do all these events have on the Roman centurion? In a
surprising twist at the end of the Passion story, the Gospels report the
centurion’s confession of faith in the man he has just crucified: “Seeing what
had happened, the centurion praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous
man. Surely he was the Son of God!’”
But, if he was a righteous man, if he was the Son of God, then why?
Why did Jesus suffer so, and die such a horrible death?
The Roman philosopher Seneca lived about the same time as Jesus.
This is what Seneca wrote about crucifixion: “Can any man be found willing
to be fastened to the accursed tree? Can any man be found who would waste
away in pain, dying limb by limb, losing his life drop by drop?”*
Seneca didn’t know it, but a thousand miles away in the Roman province
of Palestine there was indeed found a man willing to be nailed to the accursed
tree, willing to waste away in pain, dying limb by limb, losing his life drop by
drop. There was indeed found a man willing to endure all this torment, for
you. “No one takes my life from me,” Jesus said, “but I lay it down of my
own accord. . . For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Why did Jesus suffer so, and die such a horrible death? He gave himself
for you, taking your sins upon himself, dying in your place. As Paul says in
Romans, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement . . . he was
delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our
justification.”
“Seeing what had happened, the centurion praised God and said, ‘Surely
this was a righteous man. Surely he was the Son of God!’” As you
ponder the events of Good Friday, like the Roman centurion praise God that his
righteous Son died for your salvation.
Amen.
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