The Legs of Jesus Not Broken

    How watchful is Providence in the fulfilment of the Scriptures! A bone of the Messiah is not to be broken; yet a general order was given to the soldiers on the occasion to break the legs of those who were hanging on the cross. How is Jesus to escape? Providentially he was already dead; and as the breaking of the legs was for the purpose of hastening death, by an equal Providence the soldiers took the liberty not to observe the letter of their instructions. Soldiers generally are machines, and it is seldom they fail in literally executing their orders. Surely none but God could so execute his purposes. Had not Jesus been dead, his legs must have been broken. How critical was the juncture! How seasonable was the order!

    The same thing was overruled to occasion the piercing of the side of Jesus, for the fulfilment of the Scripture, and the exhibition of a miraculous symbol of salvation. A soldier wantonly, without orders, pierced the side of Jesus with a spear. That the bones of Jesus might not be broken, the soldiers did not fully execute their orders: That the side of Jesus might be pierced, a soldier pierced him without orders, moved by some capricious but divinely appointed suggestion. What a complication of the wonders of Providence! Philosophy endeavours to lessen our astonishment, by telling us of the structure of the body. The pericardium, they tell us, was pierced, and this accounts for the issuing of the blood and water, without the help of any miracle. Down, driveller! Did not the blood and water come in two distinct streams? Is this to be accounted for by the structure of the heart?