The four Gospels, in great detail, answer the questions of who, what, when, and where concerning Jesus’ death and burial. (Matthew 26:47-27; Mark 14:43-15; Luke 22:54-23; John 18-19) Apostle Paul directly answers the “why,” whereas the Gospels indirectly answer the why through Jesus’ predictions of his death and burial. (Matthew 12:40; 26:28, 61; John 1:29, 2:19; Mark 10:33-34, Mark 14:24; Luke 9:21-22; 17:25; 18:31-33, 20:13-18; etc.)
Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian congregation that Christ died for our sins and was buried according to the Scriptures. The why is that Jesus died for our sins. Paul passed that on as of first importance. Even before the first century AD ended, Jesus’ death for our sins and burial were part of our tradition of the highest importance.
Apostle John records a seemingly strange, insignificant fact we might overlook concerning Jesus’ death for our sins, “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.” (John 19:32-35)
John then states that Jesus’ legs were not broken to fulfill scripture. Why then tell us of the sudden flow of blood and water when Jesus’ side was pierced, a seemingly strange, insignificant fact? Not so. It undoubtedly shows Jesus had been dead for at least half an hour, perhaps even one whole hour, before his heart, which is in the center, slightly on the left side of our chest, was pierced. His heart was pierced at the bottom.
When the heart stops pumping, the blood stops circulating. Blood consists of translucent plasma, white blood cells, clear platelets, and red blood cells. When stagnant, these separate.The heavy red blood cells sink to the bottom of the heart, the lightest translucent plasma rises to the top of the heart, and the white blood cells and clear platelets are in between. The separation in the heart begins immediately upon death and is visible within half an hour and complete by two hours, considering crucifixion. Even if Jesus were completely healthy at his age, the appearance of a flow of blood and water would have happened no later than an hour after the heart stopped pumping, a part of postmortem lividity. The blood looks like blood, then water flows out.
Jesus was dead, dead, dead, his heart emptied of blood, and any left in his body completely separated when he was buried. There was no chance of recession, to the shame and ignorance of those who suggest it. Jesus indeed died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
