John 19:31-42….Dead and buried.

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Comment: One of the arguments used to minimize or destroy the story of the resurrection is that Jesus never really died. The theory is that he was exhausted, barely alive, everyone mistook him as dead – soldiers, people who carried him to the tomb, rolled him and turned him smearing with spices and wrapping his body up, made a great mistake. And by about 36-40 hours later he was well enough to walk from the tomb. The record states that Jesus body was pierced in the side. Blood can come from a decent skin cut, but anything which would be described as ‘water’ would have to have come from the bladder (unlikely if pierced from below and described as a side entry) or hydrothorax or water surrounding the heart which can collect in the pericardium in heart failure. Both of these collections could be easily entered by the wound described. To say that he was not dead is to say that the story is a purposeful deception!

Prayer: I trust Your word, the Bible, Father!