Cleansing Atonement

Psalm 34:1-3, 20-22                         Zechariah 12:10-13:1                                           John 19:31-42

Cleansing Atonement

I’m not sure how many of you non-Anglicans have ever heard of Maundy Thursday. It is the commemoration of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, the final Passover meal, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated on the Thursday before Good Friday.

Now, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it became tradition for the queen to show solidarity with the King of kings by washing the feet of a few hand-picked peasants. But legend has it that, one year, she was too proud to stoop to such a lowly task. So, instead, she hired an impersonator while she watched from behind the drapes.

Well, that same year, a young boy – embarrassed by his deformed and dirty feet – slipped away from the group and hid behind those very same drapes, hoping to avoid the queen’s gaze. But in his effort to remain unseen, he bumped straight into her! The queen was so ashamed that she immediately confessed her pride, stepped forward, and washed his feet along with the others. She then rewarded the boy with a silver coin and vowed never again to shrink from her duty.

In today’s Gospel passage, we see a similar turn of events. We are told here that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were secret believers. John 12:42 tells us that many Jewish leaders believed in Jesus, but “for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.” Yet, at Jesus’ death, these two men finally stepped out from behind “the drapes” and made their faith public. 

But before we rush on ahead, let’s step back and set the scene.

John tells us that the Jewish leaders were anxious to have the bodies removed before sunset. Why? Because the continued presence of these crucified men – either still dying or already decomposing – would defile the land on their sacred day. This concern comes from Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which states that a hanged man must not remain on a tree overnight because he is cursed by God.

John also notes that this was the Preparation Day – not only for the weekly Sabbath but also for the annual Passover. This made the coming Sabbath a high holy day, and the Jewish leaders were determined to follow their strict religious rules.

But look at the gross hypocrisy of it all!

In John 18:28, they refused to enter Pilate’s praetorium for fear of ritual defilement, yet they had no problem paying Judas to betray Jesus.

They orchestrated false testimony, violated their own legal procedures, and even declared Caesar their only king just to have Jesus executed.

They prided themselves on their outward purity while crucifying the only truly righteous man.

But before we condemn them too quickly, let’s turn the proverbial mirror toward ourselves. How often do we go through the motions of religious observance while neglecting holiness in our own daily lives? How often do we put on a pious face at church but fail to reflect Jesus in our actions elsewhere?

Jesus called us to live holy lives, to mirror him, to do as he would do. But until we deal with our hearts, we won’t reflect Jesus – rather we may very well reflect the ones who crucified Him.

Now, the Jews requested that the soldiers break the legs of the crucified men to hasten their deaths. Because victims of crucifixion would push up with their legs to breathe. So, once their legs were shattered, they would quickly suffocate.

But Jesus, John tells us, was already dead. So, instead of breaking his legs, a soldier pierced his side with a spear, and immediately, blood and water flowed out.

Now, medical experts have debated this phenomenon for years. Some suggest that hemorrhagic fluid – collected due to Jesus’ severe beatings – had accumulated around his lungs and chest cavity. So, when pierced, this watery substance…this watery fluid may have gushed out first, followed by the blood.

But John is not primarily concerned with medical explanations. He is concerned with theological implications.

Very early in church history, some denied Jesus’ full humanity. So, John may have had this denial in mind here and also later when he later wrote in 1 John 5:6-8: “This is he who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.”

But the blood and water also echo the sacrificial system of the Old Testament:

Priests were washed with water before being anointed with blood (Exodus 29:4, 10-21; Leviticus 8:6, 23-24).

The ashes of the red heifer were mixed with water to create the “water of purification” – which, when applied, included blood – to cleanse those who had been defiled by touching dead bodies (Numbers 19:1-22).

But also, in general terms, every worshiper approaching the Tabernacle and Temple (a ritual that actually started when God appeared to the Israelites at Mount Sinai) had to wash and consecrate themselves before meeting with God in the offering of their sacrifices. In this case, water may have represented the preparatory cleansing of sin offered through the shedding of the blood of the sacrifice.

Then consider also the prophetic element of being cleansed by a fountain that God would supply (Zechariah 13:1), water that Jesus indicated would flow from his “centre” (midst, belly, or heart) in John 7:37-38, and by a sprinkling of clean water on us that would cleanse us from all our uncleannesses prior to being given the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25). So, water and blood gushing out from our Lord’s side at the cross may be one more sign for us that his death is for the purification of our sins. This is why Augustine, Chrysostom, and Calvin among others saw the sacraments prefigured in this event:

Water as baptism representing our cleansing from sin, and blood as the sign of the Lord’s Supper that commemorates Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for our atonement. In many ways the two go together, the one leading to the other, baptism being the ticket to the Table.

So, although water and blood physically flowed from our Lord’s side, spiritually they declare that through Jesus’ death, we are washed, cleansed, and forgiven…so then, while the phenomenon may have a very simple physiological explanation, the image carries a weight of theological meaning, which is often lost on those who don’t know the Old Testament background.

Now, it is interesting that John felt it necessary to tell us that he was an eyewitness to this phenomenon. We need to remember that he was writing at a time when most of the characters mentioned in his Gospel were still alive. It does seem strange then that we do not hear of any Jewish anti-Christian writings until much later in history. If Jesus was as false as they claimed, why not write a rebuttal to the Gospels as they were being written and distributed throughout the known world?

And then, as if to seal his statement with an unquestionable witness, John quoted from the Scriptures, to show that what he had witnessed was nothing short of a fulfilment of what had been predicted before. The first reference is to the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, and perhaps Psalm 34:20. Not one bone of the lamb was to be broken. John took this to be an indication that Jesus was the reality of what the Passover Lamb was a symbol. 

The second Scripture comes from Zechariah 12:10. The context in which this verse is found deals with God’s promise to deliver his people from captivity once again. Then he said: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

Now, of course, there are echos of images from the Exodus in Zechariah’s prophecy, such as the reference to the death of the firstborn, and John, no doubt, wanted to bring all these images to the minds of his readers. However, the primary reference is to the result of the piercing…once the Spirit was poured out, eyes would be opened, and many would publicly mourn for their deeds.

We see this beginning with the response of the pilgrims in Jerusalem following Peter’s rousing sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2:37. “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” 

But, as I briefly mentioned in the beginning of my talk, we also see this earlier in the actions of Simon of Arimathea and of Nicodemus. That John calls them “secret believers” here is no compliment! Remember what he wrote in John 12:42-43? “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” Ouch!

That both Joseph and Nicodemus were leaders and members of the Sanhedrin is clear from references in Mark 15:43, Luke 23:50-51, and John 3:1, so this degrading remark included them. But while neither of them are ever mentioned again in the New Testament, they are the ones who bravely came out of the woodwork, so to speak, willing to risk their positions and reputations and perhaps even their own lives, to play this leading role in the burial of the one they were once too afraid to openly acknowledge much less follow. It seems that they had been absent from the trial because Mark 14:64 seems to indicate that all present were consenting to Jesus’ sentencing and perhaps it was this underhanded method of trial by exclusion of possible dissenters that served as the final straw.

But whatever the reason, the two previous cowards now performed a task which, if not done, would have resulted in the Roman soldiers discarding Jesus’ body in a much less dignified manner. Together with the thieves, he would have been pitched over the cliff into the garbage pit in the Kidron Valley. 

John tells us that Nicodemus brought a staggering amount of spices with him. Now, these spices were not used to embalm the body as with the Egyptians, but rather to delay putrefaction until they had more time for a proper burial. We read in the Mishna, Shabbat 23:5, that if a body needed to be preserved because they could not perform the proper rituals during the Sabbath, it could be laid out on sand or cold materials to slow decomposition until after the holy day had passed. The spices, perhaps in granulated or powdered form, were probably a more effective preservative than sand, and if the corpse was underlaid and surrounded with these spices, as their binding with linen cloths may suggest, well then, a considerable amount would have been required.

Now John also tells us that Jesus was buried in a garden – a detail rich in significance. Where did sin and death first enter the world? In a garden. And where did Jesus’ body lie before his resurrection? In a garden. The place of humanity’s fall becomes the place of humanity’s redemption.

Now, though it is true that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had been cowards, afraid of what others might think, but when the moment truly mattered, they stepped forward.

As we have seen, had they not acted, Jesus’ body would have been discarded like garbage, thrown into the Kidron Valley together with the two criminals. But they risked their positions, reputations, and possibly even their lives to give Jesus the burial he deserved.

Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Queen Elizabeth I, and countless others, including me, have discovered that following Jesus can be costly.

Have you? Or to be more precise:

Have you ever hidden your faith out of fear or shame?

Have you preferred comfort over courage?

Have you hesitated to stand up or speak up for truth when it really mattered?

The good news is that true faith is not measured by a perfect track record. It is measured by perseverance – by the courage to step into the light when the time comes.

So perhaps today, it’s time for you to step out from behind “the drapes”, to stop worrying about comfort and approval, and to let the world see that you belong to Jesus.

I pray that the same Spirit that moved Joseph and Nicodemus to take a brave and courageous stand will move in all of us, compelling us to live boldly for the One who died for us.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W. H. van der Bijl, 2025