NOTES for Joh 19:31-37

In asking for the legs of those crucified to be broken, the Jews display what seems like astonishing inconsistency. To the Roman Pilate, this was yet another sign that the religious zeal of the inhabitants of Palestine bordered on madness. The situation would seem just as strange today. A criminal who had been accused with such difficulty and sentenced to death ought to suffer as long as possible; he ought to bear his prescribed punishment to the very end. Yet for religious reasons that seemed strange and incomprehensible to an uninitiated pagan, they wanted to ease his execution by ending it early. But Jesus turns out to be already dead. Christ dies before the other criminals hanging beside Him. It appears that the Jews’ fears were groundless: the dangerous criminal they had condemned was not a mighty king, but merely a solitary man who did not even have enough physical strength to endure until the end of the execution. For Christians, however, this weakness of Christ reveals the profound mystery of the God-man.