A messianic prophecy
They Look on Him Whom They Pierced
The promise
Zechariah, prophesying to the restored community after the exile, delivers a startling and deeply mysterious word spoken by the Lord in the first person: And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son. God speaks of himself as one who is pierced, and of a future day of grief that turns into grace.
The verse is strange and profound, and its grammar has puzzled readers for millennia. God says they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and yet the mourning is for him, as if the pierced one is at once the Lord speaking and a distinct figure whom the people have wounded. The mystery is not resolved within the passage; it stands there, a word about piercing, about the Lord being pierced, and about a coming grief as deep as mourning for an only child.
The verse promises that this looking upon the pierced one will be accompanied by an outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplication, so that the mourning is not mere despair but the beginning of repentance and prayer. The sight of the pierced one breaks the heart in a way that leads to God, not away from him. Grief and grace are poured out together.
This oracle joined the prophets' larger portrait of a wounded, rejected figure through whom God would save his people, and its haunting image of a pierced one whom the people had wounded waited, like the others, for a day when its dark and beautiful meaning would become terribly and gloriously clear. Until then it remained one of the most enigmatic promises in all the Scriptures.
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”Zechariah 12:10
The fulfillment
John, standing near the cross, records the moment with the weight of an eyewitness who knows he has seen something momentous. To be certain that Jesus was truly dead, one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And John adds, with unusual emphasis, that he who saw it bare record, and his record is true, so that the reader might believe.
The spear thrust was the Roman way of confirming a death, and the flow of blood and water was, to those who saw it, plain medical proof that Jesus had genuinely died, not merely fainted. But John, who knew the Scriptures, saw far more in it than a confirmation of death. He saw the fulfillment of Zechariah's mysterious oracle, the pierced one of the ancient prophecy now literally pierced upon the cross, the wound that generations would one day look upon.
John draws the connection explicitly, joining it to the unbroken bones in the same breath: these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, and again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. The strange word of Zechariah, God speaking of being pierced, found its answer when a Roman spear opened the side of the Son of God.
The Book of Revelation, by ancient tradition also from John, extends the vision of Zechariah to the very end of the age: Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. The pierced one of Zechariah becomes not only the crucified Jesus but the returning Lord, seen at last by all the earth, and the looking and the mourning reach their final fulfillment when he comes again.
“And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.”John 19:37
Why it matters
This fulfillment takes one of the most mysterious words in the prophets and turns it into a wound that anyone can picture. Zechariah's strange oracle, in which God himself speaks of being pierced, found its answer when a spear opened the side of Jesus of Nazareth. In the crucified one, the church saw the mystery made flesh: the Lord himself pierced, God wounded by the very people he came to save, exactly as the prophecy had darkly foretold.
The mourning that Zechariah foretold is the turn from grief to grace, and it is meant to happen still. Looking upon the pierced one is designed to break the heart and then to heal it, to bring the spirit of grace and supplication that God promised in the very same verse. To look on the pierced Christ is to see at once what our sin cost and what God's love gave, and to be moved, like the people of Zechariah's vision, to genuine repentance and living hope.
The flow of blood and water from his side became, for the church, a rich sign of everything that pours from the cross. From the pierced side of the crucified came the very things the pierced one had promised to give: cleansing and life, forgiveness and the Spirit, the fountain opened, as Zechariah says in the next chapter, for sin and for uncleanness. The wound is not only a mark of death but a source of life for all who come to it.
And so the pierced side gathers the whole story into an invitation. Zechariah foresaw a people who would look on the one they had pierced and mourn, and be given grace. That invitation stands open to every reader. To look upon the pierced Christ, to see there the depth of our need and the height of his love, and to let the sight break and remake the heart, is the very response the prophecy was reaching toward. The wound Zechariah foresaw is a fountain still open, and it is open to you.
Questions people ask
Who is the pierced one in Zechariah 12:10?
In the prophecy God says the people will look on me whom they have pierced, then speaks of mourning for him, joining the wounded figure to God himself. John applies these words to Jesus, whose side was pierced at the cross. Christians read the passage as pointing to the crucified Christ, in whom the wounded one and God are bound together, exactly as Zechariah's striking language suggests.
Does the New Testament quote Zechariah 12:10 about Jesus?
Yes. After the spear pierced Jesus' side, John writes that another Scripture says they shall look on him whom they pierced, drawing directly on Zechariah. Revelation echoes it too, saying every eye shall see him, including those who pierced him. This is a direct application of the Old Testament text to Jesus, which is why it is counted a clear, quoted fulfillment rather than a loose echo.
What is the meaning of the blood and water from Jesus' side?
The spear thrust confirmed that Jesus had truly died, and the flow of blood and water was plain evidence of it. John, who saw it, points to Zechariah's mysterious word about looking on the one they pierced. For the church the blood and water became a sign of what pours from the cross, cleansing and life, the fountain that Zechariah says is opened for sin and uncleanness, still open to all who look upon him.