Wednesday

The book of the Prophet Zechariah (12:10; 13:1)
"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
"One that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity."

The Gospel according to John (19:33-37)
But when the soldiers 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. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of His bones will be broken." and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the One they have pierced."

The First Letter from John (1:7)
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.

Homily
Two thoughts stand out most from these passages. One, God uses the most unlikely of servants to fulfill His plan. The Roman soldiers were probably not privileged to know the Hebrew scriptures regarding the Messiah's death as they accomplished that work. Jesus Himself asked His Father to forgive them for they did not know what they were doing. Yet they gambled for His clothes, they proclaimed Him the 'King of the Jews', and here they refrained from breaking His bones while they broke the legs of others, and they stabbed Him with a spear causing a sudden fount of blood and water. God is relentlessly faithful to His promises, and He is matchlessly sovereign of all His creation. Second thought, Jesus' blood is described as cleansing us from our sin. If you do your own laundry, you know that blood is a remarkably difficult stain to remove oftentimes. Yet that persistence is illustrative of how it covers our sinstained soul, making us spiritually clean in the eyes of God.

Prayer ...

Postscript
The Revelation of Jesus Christ as given to John (1:7)
"Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen."