How the Lord Christ John commanded his mother, and the soldiers did not break the legs of the Lord Christ, but opened his side with a spear, and at the same time blood and water flowed out.
John 19:25-37.
And by the cross stood Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister Mary, Cleophas' wife, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Afterward he saith unto the disciple, Behold, this is thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her unto him. After this, when Jesus knew that all things were finished, that the scripture should be fulfilled, he said, I thirst. There was a vessel full of vinegar. And they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it about hyssop, and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said, "It is finished," and bowed his head and died. But the Jews, because it was the preparation day, lest the dead bodies should remain on the cross through the sabbath (for the sabbath day was great),
They asked Pilate to break their legs and take them off. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other that was crossed with him. But when they came to Jesus, seeing that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he that saw it hath borne witness, and his testimony is true; and he knoweth that he speaketh the truth, that ye also may believe. For these things have come to pass, that the scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break his leg. And again another scripture saith, They shall see in whom they have bruised.
1. St. John reports three pieces at the end of the Passion, since the other evangelists do not write anything about them, and yet they are particularly useful for teaching and comfort. Therefore, so that we may have this history in its entirety, let us also take it with us.
The first is that the Lord on the cross commanded his mother to John, and again John to his mother, that they, as mother and child, should be minded toward one another, love one another, and show all goodness. As John says, he took the mother of the Lord into his care and kept her as his mother.
(3) Such history is commonly referred to the fourth commandment, which says: "You shall honor your father and mother, and God will grant you long life and happiness. As John, who is praised here for this good work, lived longer than other apostles, namely sixty-eight years after the resurrection of Christ. Although this is not wrongly interpreted, it is much too narrow. For what the Lord does and says here on the cross is not to be reduced to a few or individual persons. With his work and words he covers the whole world, but especially his Christian church.
(4) Therefore, although Christ speaks this word to Mary and John alone, we must also let it be a common command to all Christians and the whole church, that we should all be like mother and son to one another (because Christ hangs on the cross and redeems us all from sin and death through his death), who love one another dearly, and help and counsel one another in whatever way they can. So that it is the same with what the Lord repeated very often in the last supper: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I love you.
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." For you will not find a more heartfelt and higher love than that which exists between mother and children.
5 But especially because the Lord uses the little word "mother" and "son", he looks at the church government, that is, at both parts. First, to those who speak the word, and then to the hearers. For just as a mother nurtures a child and waits with all her diligence until it grows strong, so do righteous preachers, taking pains and labor until they teach the people and make fine Christians out of them. That is why Paul calls his disciples children, whom he raised with toil and labor like a mother. Where things are right in the church, those who lead the preaching ministry should have a mother's heart toward the church. For where such a heart is not there, one becomes slothful and discontented, and especially unwilling to suffer; as the Lord very finely shows in John 21, when he makes Peter a preacher, and first asks him three times, "Simon Johanna, do you love me?" As if to say, "Unless your heart is toward the sheep, as a mother's heart is toward her children, running through a fire, only that she may save her children, you will not be fit for any preacher: toil, labor, ingratitude, hatred, envy, and all manner of suffering will meet you in such a ministry; where then the mother's heart, the great love, is not there to drive the preachers, there the sheep will be in for a bad time.
(6) On the other hand, those who do not have the ministry of preaching, but need to be taught and instructed, should be sons and let themselves be instructed, guided, nourished, and otherwise cared for, and especially treated like a godly child toward its mother. Love is well known in children.
Although love is not so great in relation to the mother, as the saying goes: Amor descendit, non ascendit, love is a herb that grows more under itself than over itself; yet nature drives pious children to have their parents in honor, to serve them gladly again, and to please them in everything that is dear and useful to them. So it is fine between mother and son, preacher and church.
But where there is a lack of one, that either the church servants do not have the motherly heart, or the listeners do not perform childlike faithfulness, it is not possible that it can go right, or God can have a pleasure in it. As we unfortunately experience with the pope, bishops and the whole bunch of them; they lack a motherly heart. They let themselves think that they have the office only because they are great lords and should have good days. For this reason, not only are the sheep badly cared for, but they also oppress them and slaughter them for their own pleasure in body, goods and soul, as is unfortunately evident. Again, there is also often a lack of listeners, that they, as unborn children, treat their pastors badly; as can be seen in our peasants, burghers, and especially in the nobility, that they are so exact, meager, and felt towards their pastors, and there is seldom one who willingly gives to the preaching ministry what he is obliged to give. Yet St. Paul seriously admonishes that one should not be sparing with temporal things toward those who communicate spiritual things to us. And it is not possible, such ingratitude must harm the Gospel very well, besides the fact that God does not want to let such naughty children go unpunished.
8 Therefore note this command of the Lord Christ, who on the cross provides both for the preachers and the sheep or church. He exhorts the preachers to motherly love, but the listeners and the church to childlike faithfulness, gratitude and obedience. This is how things are done, and God wants to be there with happiness and blessing. That is the first thing.
(9) The other two pieces, how Christ's leg was not broken and his side was not opened with a spear, do not look like something special. And yet, because the Evan
When St. John the Evangelist brings forth bright testimonies of the Scriptures, that Moses and Zechariah prophesied such things so many hundred years before, we must confess that such two pieces can be considered as small as they always want to be; for the Holy Spirit speaks nothing in vain nor in vain. And this is a special and true apostolic grace in St. John the Evangelist, that he so artfully guides and interprets the Scriptures everywhere.
(10) In Moses, as we have heard above, there is a clear command that no man shall be left hanging on the wood overnight, for, says God, the ground is defiled thereby. Since it was the preparation day and the Sabbath was to begin with the setting of the sun, the Jews asked Pilate to remove the bodies from the cross so that they could be buried before nightfall and before the celebration began. Pilate agreed to this with the Jews. But since the two murderers were not yet dead, John says, the soldiers, by the command of the Jews, helped them completely, smashed their arms and hands on the cross, so that they were dead. And they were willing to deal with the Lord Jesus in the same way. But before they could deal with the two murderers, he was different; therefore they did not break his leg. But one of the soldiers took a spear and opened his side; blood and water flowed out in different ways, so that everyone was amazed. This seems to have been an entirely innocent act; but, as I said, John testifies that it was not an innocent act, for Moses had prophesied long before that they would not break his leg, and Zechariah that they would stab him.
11 Now it is certain that Moses says this about the paschal lamb, in the 12th chapter of the second and fourth book. *) Now how does the evangelist John come to this, or what does he mean when he says: "This has happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break his leg"? Answer: This is what he means, and what he wants to point out to us, that we should
*2 Mos. 12, 46; 4 Mos. 9, 12.
There on the cross should look at and recognize as the right paschal lamb, which that in the law has only been a model or figure.
(12) For when God wished to deafen Pharaoh in Egypt with power, and to resist his stiff-necked will and nobility, and to save his people, he commanded his people the Jews to slaughter a yearling lamb in every house that night, and to roast and eat it, and to mark the posts of the door with the blood. Wherever the angel of strangulation found such a sign of blood on the door, he was to pass by and not strangle anyone in the same house. Again, where the door was not marked with the blood of the lamb, the angel was to choke all the firstborn of cattle and men throughout the land of Egypt that night. As Moses had told his people by God's command, so it happened. In the morning, dead men and cattle were found in all the houses of Egypt; only among the Jews the angel of strangulation had done no harm, for their doors were marked and insured with the blood of the lamb.
(13) Therefore behold our paschal lamb, the Lord Christ, who will punish Pharaoh and all Egypt, that is, sin, death and the devil, and will put an end to the tyranny of his Christian church; for this reason he lets himself be killed like the paschal lamb and roasted on the wood of the cross, so that he may sprinkle us with his blood, and the angel of strangulation, who brought us to death for our sins and gained power over us, may pass over before us and do us no harm. As Paul finely says, 1 Cor. 5:7: "We have a paschal lamb, which is Christ, sacrificed for us"; that is, that we should enjoy His blood, and that the devil, death and sin should find no power over us, nor do us any harm. This is what John wants us to learn here, because Christ, just like the paschal lamb, has not had a leg broken.
(14) But let us also look at the other circumstances, how the Jews kept the paschal lamb, so that when we see how it rhymes so finely with the Lord Jesus, we may take comfort in this sacrifice made for us, and accept it all the more diligently.
The paschal lamb had to be one year old, male, and without any infirmities, healthy and beautiful, otherwise it could not be taken as a paschal lamb. This means that this little paschal lamb, the Lord Christ, will produce and build a church for himself; for year-old lambs are fertile and can produce others. But the Lord Christ is without change, for he is the Son of God, and has not, as we have, sinful flesh and blood, but is holy altogether.
16 Such a little lamb was taken from a flock and kept alone until the fourth day. So Christ came out of the host of God, the Jews, as he was named and called a son of Abraham, David etc.; that he was set apart in the four years before his suffering for the but ministry of preaching the kingdom of God among his people, the Jews.
(17) The paschal lamb was eaten in the evening to signify that Christ was to come in the last days, when the people of God, the Jews, were to perish, and Moses and his worship were to cease. For this reason the Lord sometimes compares his gospel to a supper or night meal; and the apostles call the time of the New Testament the last time and days.
The paschal lamb was neither boiled nor eaten raw, but roasted. The fire is called suffering and temptation everywhere in the Scriptures. So the roasted paschal lamb is Christ, who suffers death on the cross. It is not to be eaten raw, that is, whoever wants to enjoy it must not be crude, safe and godless; like our Epicureans, who think that if they do what they want, they will still be good Christians. But they do not eat the paschal lamb properly, they cannot enjoy it; just as little as those who eat it boiled in water, that is, those who do not keep the doctrine pure and counterfeit the doctrine of faith with the doctrines and statutes of men, as the pope does.
(19) For the paschal lamb also they had to eat unleavened bread and sour salts. So, says Paul, we should also keep Easter, not in the old leaven, so that we let sin have its reins and do not want to improve ourselves;
nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we should deal in hypocrisy, and not be converted from the heart: but we are to keep Easter in the sweet dough of sincerity, that we may keep ourselves in good conscience, and live in the fear of God; and in the truth, that it is not hypocrisy, but a right earnestness, that we should call upon God for his grace to such things, and desire from the heart to keep his word. This is unleavened bread and sweet dough.
20 The salse means the holy cross, because, as Paul says, it is not absent; all who want to live godly in Christ must suffer persecution.
(21) Nothing of the paschal lamb was to be left over; it was to be eaten whole, or what remained was to be burned with fire, and not a bone was to be broken in it. It is the same with the Lord Christ: whoever wants to be a true Christian must not eat this and leave that; he must accept and believe everything that Christ says, and not eat it piecemeal, as the fanatics and the mobs do. Arius put up with everything, but he did not want to believe that Christ was eternal God. Anabaptists do not put up with the baptism of children, despise such first baptism and seek a better baptism. Today's sacrament devotees accept everything that Christ says and make themselves believe that they are good Christians. But they do not like it and do not want to believe that Christ, when he gives the bread, says: "Take, eat, this is my body"; and when he offers the cup to them: "Drink from it, all of you, this is the New Testament in my blood. Such things are not to their taste, they do not leave them alone (since it is God's command that one should not overload anything on this little paschal lamb, but eat it all, or burn the rest with fire), but break the legs, that is, they torture, crucify and break the word of our Lord Christ as they please, only to make a pretense of their shameful error. Thus it is found in the Anabaptists, in the pope, and in all the mobs, that they eat what they like of this paschal lamb; the other, which they do not like, they leave over, or break.
22. But what was to be done with the blood is indicated above, namely, that this lamb's blood should serve us, so that neither sin, death nor hell should harm us, and Pharaoh the devil, with his Egyptians, the world, should no longer oppress or oppress us. For this is why Christ was offered up, that he might make us free, John 8, and dissolve and destroy the work of the wicked devil.
23 John reminded us of this when he said, "It is now fulfilled that Moses said, 'You shall not break his leg. In this way he wants to show us the whole custom and the true fruit of the suffering of our Lord Christ, that he was sacrificed for us, and that through his blood we are purged from sins and death and the devil, which, as Pharaoh held and afflicted the children of Israel in Egypt, always press us and afflict us and drive us. But through the blood of our paschal Lamb Christ JEsu they are satisfied, and we are pacified, so that we are freed from all burdens and come out of the shameful Egypt into the Promised Land and to eternal life.
(24) Now let us consider the third part, in which, as can be seen, the evangelist is particularly concerned, since he not only includes the testimony of the prophet Zechariah, who prophesied of such sideways stitching, but also with so many earnest words testifies to the miraculous sign that blood and water flowed out of the dead corpse. For both are unnatural: as soon as a man dies, his blood is also cold and dead, and no longer flows; and this is even more contrary to nature, that blood and water should flow differently from a dead corpse. Therefore John says, "He that hath seen hath borne witness, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe." The purpose of this miraculous work, as there was much to it, is that we may diligently meditate on it and finally learn to believe from it; that is, as we said above about the little paschal lamb, we may hope for forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the Lord Christ and his death. This is the main purpose of this story, and it is true
the prophet is extremely fine with the evangelist, as we will show hereafter.
(25) Therefore, first of all, you must drop these thoughts, as if it was a harmless (accidental) act that the one soldier went and stabbed the dead body. It was harmless to him, he had no special thought about it; but it happened out of God's special order, otherwise the Holy Spirit would not have prophesied about it so many hundred years before. Thus we see that the Lord Christ keeps such wounds in His body after His resurrection, and especially instructs His disciples that they should know Him thereby. Therefore it is not a harmless act, it should have meant something special, should have had an effect and should have had an effect, that the Lord was thus stabbed in the side and blood and water flowed out.
26 Therefore take heed that you do not do as crude men commonly do, and think, What is it to me what has flowed out of the Lord Christ's side? It is enough for me that I know that he died on the cross. So do not think, but for the honor of the Holy Spirit and for your comfort, listen diligently to what such a transaction entails, which John so faithfully describes and Zechariah so long before prophesied.
First, it is certain, and no one can deny it, that it is unnatural for a dead body to sweat or bleed. For as soon as the blood cools, it no longer flows, but stops. But here we have a special dead body; therefore it is different from others. He is flesh and blood, just like our bodies, and dies. But because his flesh and blood are without sin, he dies in such a way that even in death a sign of life remains. Otherwise the blood would cool down and stop, but in the body of the Lord Christ it remains warm and alive, so that as soon as the side is opened, it jumps, as if one were to open the vein of a healthy person. This is what John wants us to notice diligently, and to learn from it the right kind of blood of our dear Lord Christ, namely, that it flows, lives and has its effect even after death. Just as the blood of the paschal lamb was enjoyed by the
Jews not because it was alive, but because it had died and they had eaten it; for the angel went through Egypt by night and choked all the first births; but the houses of the Jews, when the lamb's blood was on, he left and choked no one in them. So the blood of our dear Lord Christ still lives and flows, it is not stagnant or cold; it flows and leaps after he is dead, and all who are sprinkled by it have forgiveness of sins and are children of eternal life.
28 Learn this. For this unnatural flowing indicates that the blood of our dear Lord Christ, the true paschal lamb, should have and retain its effect, power and virtue even after his death, that it should flow, leap around and mark the faithful standing by the cross, so that the devil, death and sin may leave all those on whom they find such a mark satisfied and not harm them. This is the true nature, power and virtue of the blood of our dear Lord Christ, and it remains in the church forever after his death.
29 Why is it that not only blood flows out, but also water? This was undoubtedly done to show that no one would sprinkle the blood of our dear Lord Christ except those baptized in his name. As our Lord Christ himself says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." That therefore both are together: where the blood of Christ is and worketh, there is the water, blessed baptism, also; again, where the water floweth not, that is, where holy baptism is not, there is the blood of Christ also not, it floweth not, as, among Turks, Jews, Gentiles etc. For and for blood and water will and should flow with each other and none without the other.
(30) Mark this very well, for much is at stake: not for those who died in the Old Testament and did not experience baptism, for they had their own baptism and were saved by faith in the Blessed Seed; nor for our infants, who in their mother's womb and before they are baptized are overtaken by death, who no doubt, because God has given them a baptism, are not saved.
But for our own sakes, that we should not slight such a sign of grace, nor keep ourselves and ours from it. For where the water of this baptism is, there the blood of our Lord Christ is; for here both water and blood flow from his side. But the purpose of his blood is shown above, namely, that we may be protected against the strangler angel, be cleansed from sins, and live forever. The prophet indicates this very finely and agrees with the evangelist. For thus he speaks in the 12th chap. V. 10: "Upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will pour out the spirit of grace and of prayer: for they shall look upon me whom they have bruised, and shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for a child, and shall be grieved for him, as one is grieved for a first child.
First of all, it is undeniable that the prophet speaks of the New Testament times and the grace that is to come to us through the death of Christ. But such grace is that God gives the spirit of grace and the spirit of prayer, that is, by his Holy Spirit he comforts our hearts, so that through Christ we provide ourselves with all grace and mercy to God, and in all troubles call upon him and seek help, as little children do to their father.
On the other hand, John shines a true apostolic spirit in front of us and says: The stabbing, which the prophet further reports, was fulfilled at that time at the cross. But what will follow from such a stabbing, the prophet indicates, and says: "They will look at him", who have the spirit of grace and prayer, and "will mourn him, as one mourns for a child, and grieve over him, as one grieves over the first child. Such mourning and grieving is nothing else, but that we may rightly learn in our Lord Christ the sin for which he suffered on the cross. For the fact that they look upon him as he is bruised, and mourn and are grieved for him, is a sign that he is innocent and suffers all things for our sake.
(33) Such suffering causes us to recognize our distress and misery and to deal with it.
We must not go safely into the world in sins, but lament our sinful heart and evil life, ask God for forgiveness, hold on to the suffering of Christ and console ourselves with it, as the one who is holy and obedient to God, and for this reason was not guilty of such death, and yet took it upon himself and suffered it out of unspeakable love for our sake.
34 We need such compassion, sorrow and lamentation; Christ also needs it, for otherwise he has no Christian church. This church alone, as Zechariah says here, looks at the bruised Christ and weeps over him, not like the women of Jerusalem, who wept over Christ so that they did not think of themselves. But the Christians or Christian church weeps because it recognizes its sin, for which Christ suffered death. Thus the prophet finely points to the fruit of Christ's suffering. And soon after, in chapter 13, v. 1, he says: "At that time the house of David and the citizens of Jerusalem will have a free and open fountain against sin and impurity."
(35) Behold, how finely the prophet joins the sting and the fountain, that is, the blood and the water, or holy baptism. If then thou wilt rightly interpret this history, say, Out of the side of the Lord Christ flows blood for the washing away and remission of my sins, as the Lord himself testifieth in the Lord's Supper, when he offereth the cup; and water also floweth out. So that his body is an open fountain. For what purpose? Against sin and impurity. For through baptism the blood of our Lord Christ is administered to us, as St. Paul speaks of it, saying: "We were baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, that is, so that the death of Jesus Christ might be ours and that we might enjoy it, so that through it we might be freed from sin and death and live forever.
From this the holy fathers took the beautiful sayings. Augustine says: John uses the word "open" ("one of the soldiers opened his side") to indicate how the door of life was opened at that time, since the holy sacraments of the church flowed here, without which one could not attain to life, which is the right life.
cannot enter. The holy sacraments, he says; for he speaks not only of baptism, which is signified by water, but also of the supper, where one drinks the blood of the Lord Christ inside. As Chrysostom also says and says: "Since the holy mysteries have their origin here, when you go to the holy chalice, you should go as if you were going to drink from the side of the Lord Christ.
(37) Such a saying is not used by the sacramentalists, who boast that the whole ancient church held to its opinion that in the supper there is only bread and wine, and not the body and blood of Christ. But how does this rhyme with Chrysostom? For they cannot be so blind and foolish as to say that wine flowed from the side of Christ, just as they say that in the Last Supper one does not drink the blood of Christ, but only wine. Yet Chrysostom says: "Whoever goes to this cup should go as if to drink from the side of the Lord Christ; there they will find not wine but His blood.
(38) And hence it came to pass, that in the supper of the Lord the cup was mixed with water, because blood and water flowed together out of the Lord Christ's side. Cyprian argues strongly that such mixing should not be omitted as a special command of Christ, and the Armenians have been condemned as heretics for it. But because Christ did not command such, and
In the supper there is nothing more than that Christ took the cup and gave it to the disciples, it is unnecessary to make such a necessary commandment out of it.
(39) Therefore let us leave these things, and keep the doctrine to which the holy evangelist directs us, namely, that the blood of our dear Lord Christ shall keep its power and effect in us after his death, and preserve us against death and sin, if we are baptized with water according to the commandment of Christ. For there the blood of Christ is actually found, as it is indicated here, that blood and water flow together: where the blood is, there is the water also; and where the water is, there is the blood also, and accomplishes what it should, namely, that it washes away sin and makes completely clean. As Zechariah prophesied of the open fountain against sin and uncleanness.
40 Therefore we should thank God for His unspeakable grace and mercy, that He has allowed us to come to such a fountain, to be baptized in the name of Jesus, His Son, and thus washed away all our sins with the blood of our Lord Christ, so that from now on we may provide ourselves with everything good to God through the Holy Spirit and cry out to Him through the spirit of prayer in all kinds of distress; until finally the last fruit of Christ's death is found, so that through Him we may come out of this miserable life to eternal life. May God grant this to us all, amen.