but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.
A soldier's spear was the last thing done to the body of Jesus. John stops his story to insist that he saw what came out — so why did this small detail matter so much, and what do the blood and water mean?
John's care over this one detail is the first clue to its weight.
It is a historic fact recorded by the Apostle John (19:34) that a soldier pierced the side of the dead Christ, and "at once there came out blood and water." The Apostle pauses to confirm it in a solemn way, as a personal eyewitness (John 19:35). We might conclude that he attached very special importance to it, even if there were no further reference to it anywhere.
The blood and water came from a body that was already dead. One writer sees a deliberate sign from God in that.
It was really from the dead Man. God furnished this supernatural sign of a work belonging to the incarnate Son of God alone; and the Spirit of God thought it so significant for His glory and man's reconciliation as first to record it in the last Gospel, and then to apply it to us in the Epistle before us.
Could there be a physical cause behind it? One writer weighs a suggestion others have made, and finds it points the same way.
The separation of the liquid blood into blood and water showed that death had taken place: it is never so except after death. Some think the water here was what fills the sac in which the heart sits. Breaking that sac, they say, is what produces a broken heart. If so, then whether it was broken by the convulsions of sorrow or pierced by the spear, death must have taken place.
Blood and water flowed together, but they are not the same thing, and their order matters. One writer notes how often the second of the two gets forgotten.
Strange to say, this water is almost dropped out of the faith of Christendom, though it occupies quite as large a place in the Word, both in doctrine and in type, as the blood — the last for propitiation, the first for purification. The blood is the ground of everything before God, and is therefore put first in John 19:34. In 1 John 5:8 the order is that of their application to us.
Propitiation is the sacrifice that satisfies God about sin. Purification is the cleansing of a person's life.
The two also work in different ways. One is settled once. The other is needed every day.
In that way the blood of Christ is applied to us by God once and for all; the water is used by us for daily, hourly cleansing. Ephesians 5:26 tells us plainly what the water is: "the washing of water with the word." This is cleansing for the Christian, who already has a standing before God because of the blood. The blood is the atoning aspect of the death of Christ. The water is the death of Christ presented to the believer in a practical way, leading to the cleansing of his ways and habits.
Nothing made the soldier use his spear. Jesus was already dead. Yet what came out of the wound answered the very act that made it.
The wretched soldier knew he could insult the meek and lowly Jesus without any consequence, and in that cowardly weakness he pierced His side with a spear. By that disgraceful act he let out the water and the blood, which was able to cleanse even someone like him. Here God revealed His heart — what He is to the sinner — and this is our salvation.
No one can say what moved the soldier. But his spear served a purpose that prophecy had already fixed — and left a mark that outlasted the grave.
Was it a thoughtless act by the man who did it? Was it out of contempt for the King of the Jews? Who can now say what moved the man to use the spear? But we know that in that act provision was being made for the fulfilment in a coming day of the prophetic words of Zechariah (12:10). And John calls attention to this. The mark of that spear thrust also remained after His resurrection (John 20:20, 27). Will it not be a mark by which the remnant of His people will recognise Him when He returns?
- Witnessed. John stops the story to say he saw it himself. He attached very special importance to this one detail.
- Death. The blood and water came from a body already dead. It was God's sign of a work that belongs to the Son of God alone.
- Blood. Listed first, because it is the ground of everything before God. It makes propitiation, and God applies it to us once and for all.
- Water. Listed second here, first in John's letter. It cleanses a life by the Word, and the believer who already stands secure through the blood uses it every day.
- Grace. The last insult man could offer opened the wound that cleansing flowed from. It was enough even for the soldier who made it.
And he who saw it bears witness, and his witness is true, and he knows that he says true that ye also may believe.
John stood close enough to the cross to see a soldier drive a spear into the side of Jesus, and blood and water came out. Here he stops the story to affirm the truth of what he saw. His reason is plain: "that you also may believe."
One writer notes how much this eyewitness left out of his account, and what he chose to keep in.
From a dead Saviour flow the tokens of an eternal and perfect salvation — the water and the blood. The one cleanses the sinner; the other makes expiation for his sins. The evangelist saw it. His love for the Lord makes him glad to remember that he saw Him like this right to the end; he tells it so that we may believe. … How many things John witnessed which he did not relate! The cry of grief and of abandonment, the earthquake, the centurion's confession, the story of the thief — all these took place before his eyes. He kept his eyes fixed on his Master, yet he does not mention them.
Another writer names who else stood behind the record, and how long John carried what he saw.
We are sure that John never did nor could forget those sights. They stayed with him as an unforgettable, ever-present memory through the eighty years he lived after them. He often spoke of them, and at last wrote them down for our good. But it was not only a strong human memory that carried the record. The Holy Spirit also had His part in it (John 14:26).
His solemn words guard the fact everything else rests on: He truly died.
But the Evangelist fixes our attention on the result of that cruel deed — "at once there came out blood and water." In verse 35 he solemnly affirms that his record is true, so that faith may spring up in the reader. It is to this that he refers. First, this piercing of His side showed everyone that death had truly taken place. Second, it shed His blood. To see how important that is, we need only recall that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Heb. 9:22).
What John saw becomes the ground of teaching in his first letter, where the Spirit Himself steps forward as witness. One writer names what the water, the blood and the Spirit each answer to in us.
The historical fact behind the teaching is the one recorded in the Gospel, John 19:34. The next verse draws special attention to it, as recorded by John who saw it… Here, instead of putting that inspired witness forward, the Spirit takes this place. He is the greatest of all present witnesses for Christ. To take "the water" here as baptism is as childish as taking "the blood" for the Lord's Supper — which everyone admits is childish. Purification, propitiation, and power answer to the three. All of them flow to us in the death of Christ, the Son of God, or as a result of it.
Writers differ on how the blood and water came out. One allows a medical explanation while leaving room for a direct act of God.
Some say there is a sac near the heart that releases a large amount of water, but only in cases of extreme suffering. That, of course, is unusual. But on the other hand this may have been entirely a miracle of God. 1 John 5:6 comments on the blood and water, indicating its spiritual significance. Blood is for the judicial cleansing from the guilt of sins. Water, on the other hand, speaks of the moral cleansing that the word of God brings about in new birth.
Another rules out any natural cause, and corrects a popular idea about how Jesus died.
We look for no natural cause to account for this strange result of the piercing. It is said that the Lord died of a broken heart, and the blood and water were the proof of it. He did not die of a broken heart, He lived with a broken heart, but His death was unique. He yielded up His life, and the blood and water from His side was as unique as His death.
None of us were there. That is why the verse exists.
God has made a full revelation of Himself. He has shown men what He is. But when He did it, we were not there to see. If that revelation is to reach us and bless us, and if we are to believe and understand it, we must have a true record of it — a record inspired by God. And that is what we have here. … What was it that he saw? The Son of God hanging dead on a cross, with blood and water flowing from His wounded side. That was a great sight, and God commends it to our special attention.
- Witness. John left out the earthquake, the centurion and the thief. He kept his eyes on his Master, and records the pierced side.
- True. His memory carried the sight for eighty years, but the record is not memory alone — the Holy Spirit had His part in it.
- Dead. The spear proved to everyone that He had truly died, and it shed His blood.
- Flowing. From a dead Saviour come water and blood — one to cleanse the sinner, the other to make expiation for his sins.
- Believe. We were not there to see, so God gave a true record of what an eyewitness saw — so that we would believe.