Psalm 34:20
He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.
Psalm 34 is a song of praise attributed to David, composed when he feigned madness before Abimelech to escape death. It is a hymn celebrating God’s deliverance of the righteous from affliction.
The crucifixion of Jesus, an event that was the epitome of human cruelty and chaos, was indeed God’s redemptive plan. The Jewish authorities, wanting to hasten the deaths of the crucified men before the Sabbath and the Passover, requested that the legs of the three victims be broken, a practice known as crurifragium. Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should 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. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs (John 19:31-33).
This seemingly routine historical detail is presented as a direct fulfillment of Psalm 34:20. John immediately and explicitly connects this event to the divine plan: For these things were done THAT THE SCRIPTURE SHOULD BE FULFILLED, ‘Not one of His bones shall be broken’ (John 19:36).
Additionally, this act also fulfills the regulations for the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:46, In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, NOR SHALL YOU BREAK ONE OF ITS BONES and Numbers 9:12, They shall leave none of it until morning, NOR BREAK ONE OF ITS BONES. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.
1 Corinthians 5:7b explicitly confirms the identity of Christ: For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. The flawless, unbroken Passover lamb was a shadow pointing to the sinless, unbroken Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Jesus’ sacrifice was not a martyr’s death that happened to him; it was a priestly offering that he willingly gave. God the Father preserved the bodily integrity of His Son to demonstrate that the sacrifice was perfect, complete, and acceptable. The breaking of bones would have symbolized a kind of corruption or incompleteness, but Christ’s body, though wounded for our transgressions, … bruised for our iniquities; … chastised for our peace …, (Isaiah 53:5), was preserved from the specific violation of broken bones, signifying the wholeness and sufficiency of His atoning work. It was a sacrifice that needed no addition and could suffer no diminishment.
Every detail of God’s redemptive plan, down to the smallest bone, was accomplished with divine intentionality. The victory was won not in spite of the cross, but through it, and God’s protecting hand was manifest even in the midst of the suffering. The Scriptures were fulfilled to the letter.
It is here, at the foot of the cross where bones were preserved, that the true meaning of the manger in Bethlehem shines. The Christmas story is the beginning of this divine mission. The baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger is the same Lamb of God, marked for sacrifice from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).
The Christmas story is the inauguration of God’s perfect plan to redeem humanity, a plan that would culminate thirty-three years later on a Roman cross. The innocence of the Christ child, heralded by angels and worshipped by shepherds, is the innocence of the spotless Lamb whose bones would be protected to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.
Our Christmas joy is not isolated from the harsh reality of Golgotha. We celebrate the birth because we know the destiny. We rejoice in the arrival of the One who came to die, so that through His death we might truly live. The manger points to the cross, and the cross gives the manger its meaning. This Christmas, as we reflect on the gift of God’s Son, let us remember the scope of God’s love; a love that planned every detail, from a virgin’s womb to an empty tomb, and a love that ensured that not one bone of our Passover Lamb was broken, so that through faith in Him, not one of His promises to us will ever be broken either.
The hope of Christmas is the assurance that the God who orchestrated every detail of our salvation can be trusted with every detail of our lives.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Soli Deo Gloria – to God alone be the glory! Rev. Luke Haisa
