Third Wednesday in Lent

Lenten Homily on Christ's Pierced Side
St. John's Lutheran Church
Third Wednesday in Lent
Sermon on John 19:31-37

In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Threw out history, public executions were used as a deterrent to not break the law, stop people from rioting/insurrection and to show the government’s power and authority. It is debatable if public executions were effective as a deterrent, as history shows that people still revolt against corrupt or inept governments. No, the one thing that execution was good at, beside killing, is that they were efficient – there is only one goal, death, and you could reasonably expect it to be completed on time.

This is what makes the Roman version of execution, crucifixion, so terrible. Execution by crucifixion could take up to a day or more for a person to die. Roman crucifixion was not meant to be a quick death. Death by crucifixion was meant to be slow, agonizing, and humiliating. This is why, as the guards prepared to break Jesus legs, as they did to the other two, they found Jesus has already died just after a few hours hanging on the cross.

We are uncertain as the exact cause of Jesus physical death. Was it due to loss of his blood covering the side of the cross, like the sacrificial blood that covered the sides of the altar that God commanded the Jews to due for the sin and guilt offerings done at the temple? Could it have been the weight of his own body pressing down on him causing asphyxiation? A combination of the two, with the blood loss making him too physically week to keep pushing up his body to take a breath? We do not know. What we do know is that Jesus died when He chose; He had declared “No one takes my life from Me; I lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.” What we do know is that the soldiers, checking to see if he was dead, took a spear and pierced his side.

Let me remind you, that it was because of our sins that Christ was upon that cross, it was because of our transgressions of God law, that a solder spear pierced the side of Jesus flesh. Because of our iniquities did that spear dig deep into the side of Jesus causing blood and water to flow out of his side.

What flows out of Christ side was not just blood and water, but God’s Grace and Mercy.

In the out flowing of Christ blood, we are reminded of the Lord’s supper and what Mark wrote that Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24). Similar to what happened during the Passover, where the Jews sacrificed a lamb and spread its blood on the door post and lintel, as a sing of devotion to God so that God’s wrath would pass over the people. So was Christ blood used for atonement of our sins and that God’s wrath pass over us.

In the water that flowed from Christ side, we are reminded of our baptism. How we are united with Christ death and resurrection, that our sins are washed away, and we are made anew in Christ Jesus. Like the waters that covered the earth, to cleanse it, and the water carried Noah and his family safely to dry land, to a new world, a new creation brought on by the power of the Gods cleansing water. The water of Baptism cleans us from our sin and carries us and delivers God’s Holy Spirit to us making us a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Like Adam, where God took from him a rib from his side and made Eve. So was Christ bride, the Church, formed from the Grace and Mercy that flowed from the pierced side of Christ. Unlike Adam who failed to intercede for Eve thus bringing both into sin. Christ continually intercede on behalf of his bride, the Church, so that we may live with him in a new Garden of Eden called, heaven.

Throughout the rest of Lenten and through Holy Week, contemplate on the pierced side of Christ. Contemplate the slow, agony death that Christ willingly suffered on the cross for you and for me. That through His pierced side Christ Love, Grace and Mercy flowed forth to cover us in the forgiveness of sin and bring us closer to Him, who intercedes on our behalf.

Amen.