The Burial of Jesus. John 19,31-42.
The piercing of the side: V. 31. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath-day, (for that Sabbath-day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. V. 32. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with Him. V. 33. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs.
The Jews, that is, their spiritual leaders, concerned, as usual, more about the keeping of the traditions of their elders, in which they had applied Deut. 21, 23, than about committing murder and other heinous crimes, now sent a delegation to Pilate with a request.
It was Friday, the day of preparation, and the Sabbath which. was now coming was unusually great, being the. day on which the first-fruits of the field were waved before the Lord and offered as a sacrifice. The Jews, therefore, did not want the bodies of the crucified hanging on the cross on that day, for fear of polluting their great festival day. Accordingly, their request was that Pilate should resort to a method sometimes employed for the speedy killing of the crucified, namely, by breaking the bones of their legs with a heavy bar or mallet.
Here was evidence of the most despicable hypocrisy with a vengeance. Without compunction in condemning the just and innocent Christ, but when they fear a Levitical impurity existing largely in their own imagination, they guard against a possible contamination by providing for a forcible death and a speedy removal of the dead bodies.
Pilate having given his consent, the idea broached by the Jews was carried into execution. The soldiers broke the legs first of one and then of the other malefactor that was crucified with Jesus. But coming to Jesus as the last one, they found that He was dead, that He had already expired.