Not on the feast day  Matthew 26:5 KJV

Not during the festival Matthew 26:5 NASB

The chief priests of the Jews (said) ‘Write not The Kings of the Jews, but that He said … ‘ John 19:21 KJV

So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said….'”  John 19:21 NASB

The Jews … besought Pilate that their legs might be broken  John 19:31 KJV

Then the Jews … asked Pilate that their legs might be broken   John 19:31 NASB

They made His grave with the wicked  Isaiah 53:9 KJV

His grave was assigned with wicked men Isaiah 53:9 NASB

There were at least four things which the leaders of the nation intended for Christ: they would have placed His body in a common grave with other criminals. They tried to change the title above His head on the cross; they tried to have His legs broken; they intended for Him to be apprehended and crucified on some day other than the Passover.

But divine purposes cannot be thwarted. God had decreed both in typology and in prophecy that the Passover Lamb would be sacrificed on the Passover. God used Mary and her anointing to spur Judas to make his nefarious deal with the leaders, thus compromising their reservation.

He used the stubbornness of Pilate and his innate hatred for the Jews to thwart the demand of the chief priests to alter the title above the cross. It was as though he had finally had enough of their demands, and he had found a way to avenge himself of having been placed in the judicial “corner” into which they had painted him. He would have his own revenge at their expense and expose their “king” before their own eyes.

The soldier with his instrument to break the legs of those crucified came to the Lord Jesus and seeing He was already dead, did not bother to break His legs. Was it out of frustration or anger that he chose instead to pierce His side? We do not know. But God had decreed that no bone of Him was to be broken and God frustrated their desires once again.

Burial was an important ritual among the Jews. Even a cursory reading of the burial of kings – some with honor and others with dishonor – reveals that a burial reflected the thoughts of the nation on the one who had departed. Their intention was to give the Lord Jesus a shameful and dishonorable burial. The practice was to inter the bodies in a common grave. Had they done this, one of the essential pieces in the apologetic for the resurrection would have been frustrated. Little wonder then that Joseph of Arimathea had to go secretly to Pilate and beg the Lord’s body and provide Him with a kingly burial. God overruled once again.

Varied and unique were the instruments God used to fulfill His Word concerning His Son. Men’s efforts were impotent against the counsels of God. The Lord Jesus did nothing, and in two instances (while dead) could do nothing to fulfill these truths. God overruled in His faithfulness.

Consider

It is often pointed out how accurate Scripture is. In John 19:36 we have a Scripture fulfilled. But in v 37 it does not say it has been fulfilled because it is still future.

What other Scriptures were fulfilled in the trial, death, and burial of Christ in which He had no hand in fulfilling Himself?

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