5th Sunday in Lent “The Savior’s Side” cpr series: “Our Savior’s Wounded Body”
April 6, 2025 John 19:28-35 (cpr2010)
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
We continue our Sunday Lent series on ‘our savior’s wounded body’. On this college Basketball championship weekend, the coaches want the players to ‘give their all’ to win the prize for their team & school. The Son of God gave it all to win back to himself a whole fallen creation, and to save all mankind from sin, death & hell.
Let me read a portion of the Lord’s Passion-time from John 19:
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23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture),
“I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said,
“It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away . 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
35 He who saw it has borne witness —his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth— that you also may believe.
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Summer is coming (is that too soon to say?). In a few months you’ll have forgotten about all the winter chores & frustrations, and be busy with all the summer ones. There will be the sound of lawnmowers & boats. The leaves will be out, & new plants in the flowerbeds.
And instead of being cold, you’ll be — …hot. During a long, hot day of doing housework or yard work, nothing quite hits the spot like a large cold glass of …. … salt water.
Isn’t that what you were thinking? Of course not! When you’re already sweating out the water your body needs, the last thing you need is something to dry you out even more.
Salt ‘de-hydrates’ things. So, when you’re already perspiring =(that’s the polite word for when you’re ‘sweating like a pig.’)= what you need is to ‘hydrate’; that’s the over-used word.
After working hard, take a long drink of water; it can give you a second wind.
I suppose you could drink Gatorade with its ‘electrolytes’, or one of a dozen other sports drinks. You could drink a big glass of lemonade or iced tea & be ready for some more work. But all liquids are not the same. Vegetable oil is liquid, so is antifreeze; drinking those would be a bad decision for your body. Just because we could drink something doesn’t mean we should drink it. And if you think this is just obvious for someone who has ‘two brain cells to rub together,’ let’s remember that =by a sinful nature= our spiritual-brain-cells don’t work.
So, our Creator makes our physical lives an analogy for our spiritual lives. Just as drinking some things is very bad for our body, so taking-in some things is very bad for our souls.
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Some of the things we drink-in can be poison to our soul. ‘Gossip’ is one of those things. 1Tim.5: calls it being a ‘busy-body.’ The idea of sinful gossip is talking about someone in a way you wouldn’t if they were listening – because it’s degrading. But even just listening to such gossip will affect how we think of that person, & their reputation, even if what you heard is not true. Another toxic thing to our ears can be the information we hear from the news media & social media, when we believe what is said simply because those saying it are hollywood-famous or ivy-league-educated; when in reality, if they have a godless worldview, their opinion about life-things is not better than your own.
Our culture wants us to ‘drink’ things in; but our culture has gotten less & less influenced by Bible morals & values. TV shows & commercials are just as likely to show cohabitating couples as married couples; with an increasing amount of normalizing homosexual couples.
We’re told that ‘love is love’; that it doesn’t matter who or what you love. But, is that what our Creator thinks? [no] What we take-in can be poison to our soul
When the most popular shows & movies have to have graphic violence & crime, why are we surprised when real life imitates it more & more? Of course, some university study will come out & say that there’s no correlation between entertainment & life; but, since our sinful nature is already bent in the wrong way, it’s only logical that ‘we are what we eat.’ If the world around us is spiritually toxic, the more world we drink in, the more it will affect us.
And the world will not offer us a real antidote; there is no man-made surgery that can cut that poison out of the soul. Thanks be to God, we can fix the body fairly well. If I drank some motor oil, the ER staff could fix that. If a child drinks some poison, there’s hotline to call for help. (800-222-1222). But what can they do for your infected soul? We don’t have a scanning-device that can see the sin-infection & the spiritual tumors of the human soul.
And by the way, where is our soul; our spirit? The soul doesn’t reside in the brain, altho our souls certainly makes use of the brain to affect our attitude & actions. The soul is not in the blood-pumping-heart, altho the Scripture uses that heart-term to relate to our old or new natures. And the soul is not in our lungs, altho the word ‘spirit’ and ‘breath’ are interrelated; and when you finally stop breathing, it’s a sign that your spirit -or soul- has departed this life to stand before the Creator = & be accountable.
But, put those philosophical things aside. The point was: thru God’s wisdom shared with man, we can fix the body pretty well; but what can man do to fix the soul? The soul is real, & our spirit relates to God = who is spirit. Our physical & spiritual disobedience against God is sin, & is poison to us, and infects & stains our soul and dooms our body. The world is full of this poison; and man has no medicine or surgery that can fix that.
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However, there is one thing that can get rid of this spiritual poison, and it is already done. It was when Jesus was nailed to the cross. The Son of God never drank-in the poison that the world offers; he remained holy & pure. And that’s how he was qualified to substitute for you & me, & for all souls who drink this spiritual poison, & by it are dead to the God of life.
That’s another way to express the Gospel message: for all the poisonous drink that we take-in, Jesus went to the cross to cure us = soul & body.
As we heard, since it was the day of Passover-Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on this particular, holy Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came & broke the legs of the two criminals that had been crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. (vv 31–34)
When Pontius Pilate learned that Jesus was already dead, he was surprised. But Jesus hadn’t eaten or drank since the night before; in the Garden he had sweated drops of blood;
he was hit & punched repeatedly by the guards; the scourging tore open his back. Most criminals did not suffer all these various things altogether, that’s why most of them hung for days on a cross. And besides his body, Jesus’ soul was suffering under the poison of our sin & the sin of the whole world; so he died more quickly than most.
To make sure that Jesus was truly dead, one of the soldiers took a spear & pierced Jesus’ side between his ribs, all the way into his lungs & heart. “At once there came out blood and water” “He who saw it has borne witness,” says John; he was the one apostle we know was at the cross. John gives this testimony so that you may believe that, with Jesus’ death pays for the death you owe. Your forgiveness is assured by his blood & water.
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With the water of Baptism, Jesus washes off all the poison we are covered in, & he neutralizes what we’ve taken-in, & gives us a new birth to life in Him. By the blood that came from the Savior’s side, Jesus continues to flush away the poison that gets inside of us & threatens to keep our souls dead.
And this redemption-work of his is not just in a spiritual way, since to be human is to be both spiritual & physical. To show this, Jesus instituted his own physical and spiritual Meal of his own body & blood, as another great blessing to cleans us – inside & out. The entire Jesus has become the anti-venom and the healer of our whole self before God. His blood cries out to God for our souls, like the blood of Abel cried out to God & was heard. As Hebrews 12 says, ‘Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, and his sprinkled blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.’ Jesus’ blood is the only blood that quenches the thirst of God’s Law against us; it cries out for God’s mercy to be ours. And for Jesus’ sake, the Father agrees.
Jesus is the embodiment of the forgiveness that saves us by grace. By our poison,
he dies; by his wounds , we are healed. He takes all that unhealthy junk that we drink in, and he neutralizes it with his own blood. Bood & water. Those physical things flow from our Savior’s body when his side is pierced. And they speak a gospel message about the promise of God to save us, both our soul & body.
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Our Savior’s side is mentioned again in the Bible’s final book: Revelation, chpt.1. Why is that side-wound still there in his perfect & resurrected body? It is a permanent witness to the whole world that he alone is the Savior for all men, promised since the fall of all mankind.
In Rev.1, we are assured that he gave it all, & has won for us the prize. The Savior’s wounded side is now wrapped in a golden sash, showing that he is the living Lord & king. The promise is that he is the first-fruits of the resurrection, and all who believe & are baptized in him will rise from the dead.
In that Day, our body & soul will be new, restored, & cleaned for our eternal living with him. By his spiked hands, his battered back, his faithful feet, and his pierced side ==
by his wounds – we are healed.
Amen.