Moses mentioned in the Law, “If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse on a tree, his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead, you must make certain you bury him that same day, for the one who is left exposed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not defile your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Here in John the Jewish authorities had come to Pilate, requesting that those who had been crucified would have their legs broken to hasten their deaths, and that they should be taken down and buried before the Sabbath (John 19:31).
That Sabbath was an annual Holy Day, the Feast Day of the Passover, or the first day of unleavened bread. It was part of the spring Holy Days called the Passover, an eight-day festival, commemorating the Lord taking the Jews out of Egypt. The Passover lamb was sacrificed on the 14th of the month (not a Sabbath) and eaten after sundown, on the 15th of the month (the Sabbath Day). The Preparation Day was the 14th of the month, whereby every Jewish household had to remove all leaven from their homes before the beginning of the 15th day of the month. Many scholars try to say Friday is the preparation day of the 7th day Sabbath, while one does prepare for the weekly Sabbath, the Preparation Day was the 14th of the first month of the year. It occurred annually only once during the year, not weekly as so many believe today.
Pilate consented to the will of the Jewish authorities, and sent soldiers to break the legs of those he had crucified that day. Although they did break the legs of the two criminals crucified with Jesus, when they came to him, he was already dead. Therefore, they didn’t break his legs, because there was no need (John 19:32-33), thus fulfilling the scripture, which said: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken (Psalms 34:19-20; cp. John 19:36). This would also show how the Passover lamb was to be eaten, it wouldn’t be left until morning, and not a bone would be broken during its preparation or during the meal (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12).
One of the soldiers, when he had come to Jesus and found him dead already, thrust him through with his spear to make certain Jesus was dead, indeed (John 19:34). What occurred next seems quite unexpected by John who witnessed the event. If the corpse of a dead person is pierced, there should be no blood coming from the wound. All the blood of the dead corpse settles in the lower extremities. Since Jesus was hanging on the cross, his blood should have begun to settle into the lower extremities of Jesus’ body, because his heart, no longer beating, couldn’t pump the blood into other areas of his body. Moreover, it would have begun to coagulate, becoming jelly-like until it had completely hardened. Therefore, John’s surprise is well noted (John 19:35
Many explanations of this phenomena have been offered by scholars, indicating the ‘necessity’ to explain why such physical laws had been interrupted. To say this one is more believable than that one or that one more than this would be mere conjecture, because none of them are physically possible. Therefore, if Jesus were truly dead, and there is no reason to believe the text says otherwise, John’s witness of the event and his surprise in seeing it must be explained as a miraculous sight that points to the unexpected fulfillment of scripture, and that this explanation is true seems evident from 1John 5:6. Most likely the miraculous event points to the fountain that would spring forth in the day the Messiah would come (Zechariah 14:8; cp. 1John 1:7; John 4:14; 7:38).
Thus, because Jesus legs weren’t broken, when the Roman soldiers were sent out to do that very thing, and because, instead a soldier pierced the side of Jesus’ body, those things point to the fulfillment of scripture (John 19:36-37). Namely, the bones of the Lord’s Passover lamb wouldn’t be broken (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12), nor that of a righteous man (Psalm 34:19-20), and they will look upon him whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:10).
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