Charles Spurgeon sermons from 1855 to 1891.
The Pierced Heart of Jesus.
Sermon number 3559. Delivered by Charles Spurgeon.
Published on April 12th, 1917 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England.
The Key Bible Verse for this Sermon is:
³²"Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. ³³But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
³⁴ but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
³⁵ And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true,that ye might believe.
³⁶ For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
³⁷ And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they have pierced." ~ John 19:32-37.
WHAT a wonderful conjunction of prophecy and providence!
I want you to behold it, and admire it.
Two texts of Scripture, the one in Exodus the other in Zechariah (such a long interval having occurred between the distinct records), predict, the former that not a bone of the Paschal Lamb should be broken, the latter, that He should be pierced. How were these twain to be fulfilled in the minuteness of one incident?
The rough Roman soldier comes with the iron bar to break the bones of the three prisoners who have been crucified. He has orders to break their legs. The well-disciplined soldier acts almost mechanically, according to orders. Roman discipline was of the very sternest kind. Will not the soldier, therefore, break the legs of Jesus?
No.
Moved by some strange impulse, he marks that one of the three, Jesus, who is called Christ, is dead already. Though commanded to break His legs, he forbears, but most likely to clear himself of all doubt on that point, he pierces His side with a spear. The willfulness of the soldier, wavering though wanton, thus fulfilled both the prophecies of which he must have been himself totally ignorant, and this was brought about first by his not doing what he was ordered to do, and secondly, by doing what he had not been ordered to do.
Oh! how inscrutable the mystery of providence! How marvelously does God rule the sons of men while He leaves them to their own free will! Did not this soldier act altogether as a free agent,whether following the dictates of his reason or the impulse of his temper, when he thus unwittingly, by his singular conduct, verified to the letter the words of prophecy as precisely and entirely as if he had been a mere puppet moved with wires at the instigation of another mind and another hand than his own? This was not an accidental circumstance, or a singular coincidence it was providence a sublime purpose of God brought to pass by simple means.
Irregularities among men do not disorganize the ordained purposes of heaven, and what we think to be chaos is a well-ordered system far beyond our ken, into which we vainly attempt to peer.
I need not detain you with any speculations arising out of the piercing of our Savior by the spear. It has been, I think, very soberly argued that in all probability the physical cause of our Savior's death was a broken heart.
In a scientific treatise by one who had studied the anatomy of the subject, and investigated cases which appeared after death to bear some resemblance to our Savior's case, it has been shown that when, on the heart being pierced, a small portion of blood and water has flowed, death has been traceable to a heart broken with intense grief. So, if we may assign a physical cause to the death of our Lord, it appears most probable to have been so occasioned. It was anguish that, in the first stage, produced a bloody sweat in Gethsemane, and in the last stage ruptured His heart.
Not, however, that I am inclined to attach any importance to such arguments or speculations. For my part I do not see that there is any analogy, or that analogy need be sought between the case ofthe Savior and the case of any common man. The anatomist would be baffled with an analysis. The body of any ordinary person would exhibit symptoms of corruption. From this, He that hung upon the cross was exempt. When death comes, and the vital spark quits the human frame,the process of decomposition speedily begins. But our Lord saw no corruption.
Overshadowed as was His virgin mother by the Spirit at her conception, His birth was predicted as "that holy thing which shall be born of thee.
Through the entire course of His life on earth, the Spirit rested upon Him in a special manner And even after His soul had left His body, the Spirit preserved and kept that body so that the prophecy was fulfilled, "Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Hence you search in vain for a parallel.
The disparity of any instances that might be sought for is so palpable that you really have not any data to start with, or any premises to reason upon, in the effort to judge of what happened in the anatomy ofthe sacred body of our blessed Lord. Instead of following speculations which rather belong to the physician than the theologian, I desire the Spirit of God to conduct us into some spiritual reflections arising out ofthe piercing of the heart of Jesus Christ by the soldier's spear.
One observation, I think, lies upon the very surface of the narrative.
I. EVEN AFTER OUR LORD'S DEATH, MEN RUDELY ASSAILED HIM. Was it not enough that they had scourged His back? Did it not suffice that they had put a thorn crown on His head? Was it not sufficient that they had nailed His feet and His hands to the tree? And yet after they were satisfied that the life had been forfeited to the law, and the body was already dead, nothing could content human cruelty till His heart was pierced with the lance. Say, now, was not this man who pierced Christ's heart a fair, though a foul, sample of our sinful race, his heartless act a type of our headstrong profanity?
We too, after the Savior's death have pierced Him. Shall I show you how? The crime is so common that you come to condone it. His Godhead is His glory. Deny His Deity and you not only detract from His dignity, but you make Him unworthy of our confidence.This is to thrust the spear into His very heart. Your tone is treacherous when you say, "He is but a man. Though an admirable teacher, I can only regard Him as a finite creature." Oh! how many people go up and down among us professing to be members of a Protestant church, and believers in the Scripture, who yet will not acknowledge the miracles of Christ to be authentic, wrought in token of His own personal authority, bearing the witness of His Father, and conveying a clear proof that He was the Son of God! The Lord have mercy upon those who in this respect pierce our dear Redeemer afresh. If any of us have been guilty of this sin, may we be converted from our dangerous error, and led to avow Him, like Thomas,"My Lord and my God." They pierce Him too, who attack the doctrines which He taught, and the testimony which He delivered. The truth was in Christ's heart, it was written there.
Whatever He preached with His lips He sanctified with His life. His heart was a fountain whence came all those doctrines which reveal the Father to us. Do men attack any truth revealed to us by Christ, they do in effect what the soldier did in fact, they do spiritually as this Roman legionary did literally, they thrust at His heart. If you disparage the words that Jesus spake, or call in question the truth that He showed to His disciples and made manifest in the Word, what is there left of that mission in which He made known the will of God the Father? To proclaim this truth He came, to bear witness to this truth He died.
He witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. If you touch those doctrines, you touch the apple of His eye, nay, you pierce His heart again. How do they also thrust at His heart who persecute His people! And has He not often been wounded thus through all the centuries that have transpired since He ascended up on high to the Father's right hand? Saul of Tarsus pierced His heart, for Jesus said, "Why persecutest thou me?" The sufferings of the men and women, hauled to prison, and beaten in the synagogue, and compelled to blaspheme, were injuries wantonly and wickedly done to Christ Himself. And what shall we say of the martyrs, their groans in the prison house,their cries at the rack, their pangs at the stake, their blood so cruelly shed, have not all these touched the Savior's heart? So, too, every rude jeer and ribald jest, every hard word and bitter taunt aimed at a follower of Christ, is a reproach ofthe dear Lord and Master for whose sake it is meekly borne, but on their part"who whet their tongue like a sword,"it is aimed at the heart of Jesus, on whom they cannot otherwise wreak their vengeance now, for He cannot henceforth suffer, except in sympathy with the sufferings of His saints.
And there is yet another class of persons who, although Christ's sufferings are over, still continue to pierce Him. They are such as pretend to be His disciples, but they lie and practice a foul hypocrisy. Are there any such present? I tremble as I ask the question. As there were false apostles of yore, so there are foul apostates in these days. Their profession is only the prelude to their perfidy {the state of being deceitful and untrustworthy}. They make solemn pledge to obey Him, but like Judas Iscariot, they only wait a suited opportunity to betray Him.
They will sell the Savior for silver, only let the price be high enough, their principle is low enough, their conscience will not hesitate to "crucify the Lord afresh, and put him to an open shame." Oh! you inconsistent professors! Oh! you graceless men and women! How dare you come to the table of His fellowship? You have a name to live, and yet you are dead, you are crucifying Him, you are piercing Him, the guilt of the Roman soldier clings to you.
I fear me, too, there is another class that pierces His heart it includes those who refuse to believe in His willingness to forgive them. When under conviction of sin, it may be difficult to believe that one can be pardoned, but when the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us, and His infinite condescension that brought Him to suffer for us, it does seem hard that any should doubt Him. Yet some there are who link their chains, sit down in despair, and say,"He is not willing to forgive." So unkind, ungenerous a thought as that He is unwilling to forgive must pierce Him to the heart and cut Him to the quick. I know some of you do not mean this. You are startled now that you think what you are doing.
I pray the Lord you may humbly trust Him. Oh! do not doubt Him, the Son of God, who suffered for His enemies, surrendering His life for even the ungodly. Will you, can you still distrust Him? Will you doubt the testimony which God has given concerning His Son? Were it not far better that you honored Him by casting yourselves at His feet? Angels that sing His praises night and day unceasingly do not honor Him more than you will do, if, all black and defiled as you are, you will come and trust Him that He can wash you and make you whiter than snow.
Oh! do you this, and pierce His heart no more! Some men pierce the heart of Christ through their carelessness. They trifle and even scoff because they have not known Him, or sought by any means to learn what claims He has upon their homage. They disparage those divine features of His ministry which they have never properly understood. So they pierce the heart of Christ out of ignorant prejudice. They are unacquainted with the Gospel themselves.All that they have heard or read about it has been from the tongue or pen of opponent or satirist, and then,
catching their temper, they have joined in reviling it. Alas! too, there are some who malign the Savior out of mere malice. Though they know better, yet they willfully blaspheme His name. Stop, oh! stop, and pierce Him no more, I pray you, lest He that has meekly endured so long as the Lamb of God should suddenly stir Himself up as the lion of the tribe of Judah, and make you feel the terror of His power, who will not feel the majesty of His love. So much for our first point. Even after Jesu's death, there are those who still pierce Him. Our second thought is such as I am charmed to give you.
II. THESE ATTACKS UPON THE SAVIOUR ARE OVERRULED TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE THE BETTER.
His heart is pierced, it is true, but with what result, my brethren? Does there flash from it fire? Does the peal of thundering wrath roll over the sinner's head? Ah! no, it is like the sandal tree, that perfumes the axe that wounds it. Adown that spear, no sooner is it Withdrawn from the wound than there gushes a fountain of blood and water. The attacks that are made upon Jesus Christ only display His virtues. Observe how this is brought about.
If truth be attacked, and the Gospel be assailed, what is the immediate consequence? Why, then, the saints search deeper into it, so they come to understand the doctrine better, they learn the arguments by which it is sustained, and they love the truth with fonder, as well as stronger convictions, till they feel moved to sacrifice themselves for it. The heart of Christ was opened by the spear, and often the heart of truth is revealed by the opposition brought to bear against it. They think to confute our doctrines, they do but confirm our faith in their verity.
