WHEN the Roman soldiers deemed their task on Golgotha ended, they proceeded to break the legs of the crosslings.
This was so prescribed to them; partly as an act of mercy, in this way to make an end to the nameless sufferings of the crosslings. So they did this only, when in the crucified persons there was still some sign of life; but not, when it was convincingly apparent, that the crossling was already dead.
Yet it was not purely merciful. There also spake in it conceited coarseness. The death of the sentenced persons had to be certified. And cruel wantonness took pleasure in striking with an iron bolt, or anything else that was at hand, the legs of the crosslings, till they were broken. An unholy mockery, as though to make sure, that they would no more be able to run away from the cross.
Now Holy Scripture expressly states, that in the case of the Lord Jesus this breaking of the legs, as superfluous, did not take place. He was already dead, and thus with Him this was not done.
And with respect to this the Evangelist observes, that here was fulfilled a word, that ages ago had been proclaimed by the Psalmist, when he sang: “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Ps. 34, 20).
Something that from the nature of the case does not mean to say, that David foretold this exclusively with an eye to Jesus.
On the contrary, his statement is altogether general. They are the “servants of the Lord” (v. 22); “the broken of heart and contrite of spirit” (v. 18); in brief, the righteous, of which he says: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (v. 19); and then immediately adds: “He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken,” without any mention of the Messiah.
But, of course, when the Lord shows such tender care extending even to the hidden skeleton of His servants, in highest measure the same care must come to the good of “the suffering servant of the Lord,” i.e., the Messiah; and in that sense only on Golgotha has the full, deep significance of this glorious word been confirmed.
The danger was that with rough violence the body of Jesus would be broken. And this would certainly not have stood in the way of His resurrection.
But yet, it could not be.
Divine solicitude watched against so shocking a maiming of Jesus’ body.
And when the soldier passed Jesus by, it was God, Who from on high kept watch over His holy child Jesus.
Thus on that cross He kept all His bones, and not one of them was broken.
And only so is also this Scripture fulfilled in Jesus.
BUT so there lies likewise in this statement, that the Lord keeps all our bones, real comfort.
In Scripture the dissection of our body is by no means scientific anatomy.
What Scripture says regarding it, is reckoned purely after the practical sense, that every one of us has of his own body. Consequently the main distinction is, that we consist of a skeleton, and that this skeleton is clothed with flesh.
In the vision, which Ezekiel had of the valley of dry bones, this is most strongly evident. This distinction also is altogether natural; for when one has died, and his corpse is decomposed, the skeleton, or, if you like, skull and crossbones, is all that remains.
So these bones form the hidden part of our body. What we see with the living body is flesh with blood, which shines through in the face. But that flesh has no existence by itself. Flesh is merely the covering of that, wherein consists the real structure of our body; and that structure is our skeleton, as it is called with the dead, or, what with the living may be called, the internal framework of the body.
Bones therefore are the hidden part of our body, which we ourselves never see. For the form of it may be apparent underneath skin and flesh; and through skin and muscle one may feel his bones; but, apart from dreadful mutilation, no one has ever seen his own bones.
To our skin, and even to our flesh, to a certain extent we can impart care; but not to our bones.
They have been constructed outside of our knowing; independently of us they are cared for and maintained.
Scripture concerns itself a good deal about our body; far more than one would infer from preaching in general. We incline, as soon as we enter the sacred domain, all too readily to lose ourselves solely in the spiritual, and leave alone everything that concerns our body. Something that, in ordinary life, usually avenges itself in lack of dominion over the body.
But Scripture does not do so.
She comes back every time to your body again, to remind you, how wonderfully that body has been wrought by God, when as an embroidery you were woven in your mother’s womb. To tell you, that it was God, Who has implanted your ear, and that same God, Who granted you your eye. To point out to you, that it is God the Lord, Who has determined the height of your body, so that you can neither add to nor detract anything from it. And that it is the same God, Who day by day feeds and sustains your body. To declare unto you, that God knows every tear that flows from your eye, and has numbered all the hairs on your head. Yea, that it is the Lord your God Who, in times of pestilence and distress, commands His angels to watch over your body. And Who, when once your body becomes a prey of death, even as a corpse still keeps it in His protection, in order presently, when the day of glory dawns, to restore the same to you in glorified beauty.
And in this sense, Scripture also points you to your hidden frame, and assures you, that to this also extends the protection of God’s almightiness.
He keeps not only your body, but in that body also all your bones.
God sees them.
And He it is, Who as the God of our life, also keeps this hidden part of our body.
AND this operates upon our inner sense.
God’s word always wills that you should think of your God not only in His loftiness and majesty, as He is enthroned high above you in the heavens; but that your God shall also be to you a God near by.
Real piety discovers ever more clearly, that in Him we live, and move and have our being.
And you should not thoughtlessly glance at that word move, but understand well, that you never move yourself, except as your bones pass over from one position into another.
The apostle therefore wills just what David wills, and urges you to become aware of God’s omnipotent power in yourself, and also in your body.
That you shall not think: “Here I live, and yonder far above me lives God,” but that you shall know, and in your own perception shall be aware, that you yourself live, and move and are in your God, and that it is the power of His life, that inworks and reveals itself in your breathing, in the glow of your blood, and also in the motions, in the feeding, in the resistance-power of your bones.
Also your body is an instrument of the Lord, that surely must serve you, but in the first place must serve Him, to make Himself known to you, and in your own perception of life to make you aware of the working of His almightiness.
Again and again the body leads you away from God. This cannot be otherwise. This is our sin. But this does not take away, that your body just the same retains the calling, of leading you to God. Not only by meditating on God’s wonder-working power, that created and maintained you, but much more yet by discovering your God in yourself, as the One, Who also in the hidden part of your body, from moment to moment, inworks with His Divine power.
Only so is the life of your body taken up into the life of your piety, and it will become ever less-strange to you, to believe in the resurrection of your body after death.
Even though in death you must let your body drop away, and with your soul separate from it, God does not for this reason abandon it.
He, Who all the days of your life keeps all your bones, also keeps them in sickness and accident. He is that wondrous God, Who, also when your dead bones are given a prey to dissolution, does not cease to preserve you also after the body, and Who shall once gloriously also after your body bring you out again.
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