A Soldiers' Spear

By David Bragg     Fantasy? Legend? The apocryphal “Gospel of Nicodemus,” written hundreds of years after the New Testament closed, sought to “fill in” the gaps in the inspired Gospels to satisfy people’s insatiable curiosity. It is there that we first encounter Dismas and Gestas, the two thieves crucified with Jesus, and Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus’ side. Even there, no names are assigned to the soldiers who hammered the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet.     The problem is that all this unwarranted speculation serves as a distraction to what is REALLY important. It is not the names of these criminals and soldiers that matters; else the inspired writers would have “filled in the gaps” for us. What is crucial is the fact that David prophesied that Jesus would be pierced 10 centuries before Christ was born (Psalm 22:16), and that John witnessed them as they were being fulfilled. And the REAL key, that Jesus indeed died on the cross, for the very ones who nailed Him there!     Why did Jesus die on the cross? For the sins of the world. Who nailed Him there? We did!

- David Bragg is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/ If you are in the Greensboro, NC area, please join us for worship: https://nwchurchofchrist.com/about/