A messianic prophecy
Not One of His Bones Broken
The promise
Psalm 34 is a song of praise for the Lord's care over those who trust him, written by David and celebrating how God delivers the righteous out of all their troubles. In the midst of promising that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and redeems the soul of his servants, it makes a remarkable and specific pledge: Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
The promise is that the righteous one is watched over by God so closely, so carefully, that even in the midst of many afflictions not one of his bones is broken. It speaks of a protection that reaches down to the very framework of the body, a preservation so complete and so intimate that it extends to the bones themselves, the last and deepest structure of a person.
There is a second and older stream of Scripture flowing quietly behind this fulfillment, from the very night of Israel's deliverance. The law of the Passover commanded that the lamb whose blood, painted on the doorposts, caused death to pass over the houses of Israel in Egypt, must be eaten with none of its bones broken. Neither shall ye break a bone thereof, the Lord commanded. The unbroken lamb was a fixed and solemn rule of the feast of freedom.
So two ancient words waited to converge in a single death: the psalm's tender promise that the righteous one's bones would all be kept, not one broken, and the Passover law that the saving lamb's bones must never be broken. The one spoke of God's care for his suffering servant, the other of the perfect lamb of deliverance, and both would meet, unexpectedly, at a Roman cross on the eve of a Passover.
“He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.”Psalm 34:20
The fulfillment
John records the practical reason the fulfillment came about. Because it was the day of preparation, and the bodies were not to remain on the cross over the high sabbath of Passover, the religious leaders asked Pilate that the legs of the crucified might be broken and the bodies taken away. Breaking the legs would hasten death, for the crucified could no longer push up to breathe. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other man crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs. There was no need; he had already given up his spirit. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear to be certain, and blood and water flowed out. The two criminals had their legs broken; Jesus, already dead, did not.
John, an eyewitness who insists on the truth of his testimony, saw the meaning at once and recorded it. These things were done, he writes, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. Jesus, spared the breaking that the others endured, fulfilled in that single moment both the psalm's promise about the righteous and the Passover law about the lamb, the two ancient words coming true together in his unbroken body.
John had already, at the very beginning of his Gospel, pointed to Jesus through the words of the Baptist: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now, at the end, the Lamb of God died at the very hour the Passover lambs were being prepared, and died with not one of his bones broken, exactly as the law required of the lamb and the psalm promised of the righteous one. The whole feast of Passover had been pointing to this.
“But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.”John 19:33-36
Why it matters
This fulfillment binds Jesus to the Passover with a precision that reaches all the way back to Egypt and the night of the exodus. The lamb whose blood marked the doorposts so that death passed over Israel had to be without blemish, and its bones were not to be broken. Centuries later, at the very feast of Passover, the Lamb of God died unbroken, and the church saw with wonder that the whole ancient ritual had been quietly pointing forward to him all along.
It came about through nothing more dramatic than a Roman soldier's decision not to bother breaking the legs of a man already dead. A small efficiency, or perhaps a rough mercy, preserved the fulfillment. Once again the prophecy came true not by anyone's design or intention but through the ordinary, unthinking choices of men who knew nothing of the Scriptures they were completing. God's word was kept through the routine motions of an execution detail.
The unbroken bones say something quietly tender about God's care even in the midst of death. The promise that not one of his bones would be broken was kept at the very moment of his greatest suffering and apparent abandonment. The Father who had seemed so silent while his Son cried out from the cross was still watching over the body of his beloved, down to the bones, keeping his ancient word to the last detail even as the darkness lifted.
And it points forward to hope. A body kept whole, its bones unbroken, is a body prepared for resurrection rather than final ruin. The care that preserved his frame in death was a sign that death would not have the last word over him. The Lamb was slain, but not destroyed; his bones were kept, and on the third day the God who had kept them raised the whole man from the dead, the first fruits of all who trust in him.
Questions people ask
Why were Jesus' legs not broken at the crucifixion?
Breaking the legs hastened death by making it impossible to push up for breath. When the soldiers reached Jesus he had already died, so they saw no need. John reports this so the Scripture would be fulfilled that not one of his bones would be broken, connecting Jesus to both Psalm 34:20 and the Passover lamb, which Israel ate without breaking a bone.
How is Jesus connected to the Passover lamb?
The Passover lamb was to be without blemish and eaten with no bone broken. John, who calls Jesus the Lamb of God, notes that his bones were not broken at the cross and points to Scripture. By this the gospel presents Jesus as the true Passover, the unblemished Lamb whose blood spares God's people, fulfilling what the ancient feast had pictured.
Why were Jesus' legs not broken like those of the others crucified with him?
The soldiers broke the legs of the two criminals to hasten their deaths before the sabbath, but finding Jesus already dead they did not break his. John saw in this the fulfillment of both the psalm's promise that the righteous one's bones would be kept and the Passover law that the lamb's bones must not be broken. The Lamb of God died at Passover with not one bone broken, exactly as both texts required.