“But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.” John 19:33-35
Of all the apostles, we know of only one who followed Jesus to Golgotha’s cross. John stood there by Mary, Jesus’s mother, even conversing with Jesus briefly (Jon. 19:27). Both witnessed firsthand the cruel and inhumane act of crucifixion. Finally, John saw the soldier jab the spear into his Lord’s dead body. The unimaginable horror of it all! This apostle, whom Jesus loved, recorded these events “so that you also may believe.”
That Sunday morning, John would rush to the tomb, stand inside, and gaze upon the empty grave clothes, and “he saw and believed” (Jon. 20:7-8). The apostle John wanted you and I to stand where he stood, to see what he saw, and believe his testimony that Jesus died on the Cross and was raised from the dead. He wrote of these things “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (Jno. 20:31).
-Dennis Doughty
