By Jim Nieman
Crucifixion is a grisly business, especially when the executioners are in a hurry.
Jesus not only was on the cross, he was on the clock.
Jesus had to die before sundown so God’s people—the Jews—wouldn’t blaspheme the Day of Preparation, which that year was a special Sabbath.
In other words, the anniversary of the day when the enslaved Jews in Egypt prepared for Passover so that none of their firstborn sons would die, just so happened to occur on the Sabbath during the year of Christ’s crucifixion.
For that reason, the Jews decided to speed up the execution of the firstborn Son of God so they could celebrate the holiday commemorating the time God spared the lives of the firstborn sons of the Jews.
How incredible!
Jewish religious leaders asked Pilate to authorize barbaric actions to ensure the three men on the crosses died faster.
The guards broke the legs of the two criminals condemned with Jesus, but when they turned their attention to the Lord, they discover he was already dead, so breakage wasn’t necessary.
Instead, a guard stuck a spear into Jesus’ side.
These events—not breaking Jesus’ legs, but piercing him with a spear—fulfilled Old Testament Scripture.* Jesus was crucified and pierced—not just by the sword, but also by the nails.
It’s almost unfathomable that God took the worst thing that could have been done to his Son and turned it into the greatest blessing and gift God ever gave to humankind!
In their rush to honor God and celebrate his great Passover gift of long ago, the Jews killed God’s Son.
But, incredibly, through these events, the old Passover was supplanted with the new Passover—and the old Passover lamb was replaced by the new and forever Passover Lamb, God’s very own Son.
At the first Passover, when the angel of death arrived, he saw the lamb’s blood and spared from death the firstborn male Jews—God’s people—for a single night.
But the dynamic of God and man changed forever with Christ’s crucifixion.
Now, when earthly death arrives for Christians—God’s people—God sees they are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and he passes over their sins forever, and they live eternally in Heaven.
Today, and every week—in an unhurried way—we remember our Lord’s blood, shed for us, and his body, sacrificed for us (but not broken)—through these emblems: the juice and the bread.
On the eve of his death, Jesus asked us to remember him in this way, and so we do.
Jim Nieman served as managing editor of Christian Standard for 26 years before retiring in 2024.
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*These Scriptures offer relevant insight: Exodus 12:46 (see also John 1:29, 36; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Psalm 34:20); Numbers 9:12; Zechariah 12:10.
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