The amazing odds of Calvary
Roy Sullivan is either the world’s luckiest man or the world’s most unlucky man, depending on your perspective. Mr. Sullivan worked as a park ranger in Shenandoah National Park, and still holds the Guinness World Record for being the person struck by lightning the most times. About 270 people are struck each year in the US, and 10 percent of those are fatal strikes. The chances of being struck by lightning once are 15300:1 and being struck twice in your lifetime is exponentially more unlikely.
From 1942 to 1977 Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning not twice, nor three times, but seven times! That sounds like he would be the unluckiest person on earth. But amazingly, he suffered no major injuries, besides a burn on his legs, a lost toenail, scorched eyebrows, and hair that caught on fire on five of the seven occasions.
Sounds pretty lucky to me.
Understandably, Roy developed a severe phobia of storms. After the fourth encounter, he began to avoid being in crowds, in order to keep others safe. When driving he would pull over and lie flat until the storm passed, and he took to carrying water with him to douse the flames when his hair caught on fire, after that time he struggled to extinguish the fire.
In June 1976, when a lightning storm was approaching his destination, he fled by car, but he claims the storm chased him. Eventually, thinking he was far enough away from the clouds, he got out of his car. Immediately he was struck. That was the sixth time. The odds of being hit by lightning seven times an unfathomable 1 in 1028 (picture the 28 zeros!)
And yet there is a statistic that is even more mind-boggling. The odds of all the prophecies concerning the events of Christ’s crucifixion being fulfilled as they were, is 1 in 84 x 10100.
6 MEANINGFUL OCCURRENCES AT CALVARY THAT SHOW CHRIST’S SOVEREIGNTY IN HIS OWN DEATH
1. CONFISCATION OF HIS CLOTHING
John 19: 23 – 24 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,
In Rome, crucified convicts were usually stripped bare, and it was a job perk of the jailer to keep the clothes. Since Jesus didn’t come from prison, but directly from his trial in Golgotha, he was still clothed by the time he got there. There were four Roman soldiers that day, responsible for the crucifixion, and then guarding them against rescue. They divvied up Christ’s clothing. But his under-garment was seamless, woven from one piece of material.
The fact that it was seamless prompted a good old-fashioned game of rock-paper-scissors. Or more accurately, they cast lots. “Winner takes all, short straw gets nothing.”
Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm was written 1,000 years earlier starts with the line: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus quoted this psalm as an expression of his sense of abandonment on the cross. But that doesn’t prove much. It’s fine for Jesus to claim that he is the Messiah by quoting a Messianic psalm: anyone can be in control of what one says. But do you know what no victim of crucifixion is in control of?
What do the soldiers do with the clothing? Psalm 22 continues in verse18: “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
The soldiers’ game of chance was proof that there is no such thing as chance. This was all scripted 1,000 years earlier.
2. CONCERN FOR HIS MOTHER
John 19:25 – 27 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
There was a prophecy made about Jesus when he was a baby. On the day of his presentation at the temple, Mary and Joseph met a prophet named Simeon. He said some glorious things about Jesus, but he also included this dark detail about Mary…
Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), …
I think, besides Jesus himself, the person suffering the most on Calvary that day was Mary. Can you imagine watching your own dear son treated and suffering that way?
Well, Jesus, always loving others, concerned for others, perfectly selfless, zealous to heal, comfort, and protect, see his suffering mother and takes care of one last act of protectiveness and provision. Mary was a widow, so Jesus had been the one to provide for her, as the firstborn. If he died, the responsibility would fall to a brother. But John 7:5 reveals that his own brothers did not (yet) believe that he was the Messiah.
Jesus wants Mary to be cared for by someone who knows and believes what Mary knows and believes: that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
It doesn’t really fulfill a prophecy but is a response to a prophecy he believed—that his dear mother would suffer a sword piercing her heart metaphorically, just as he would be pierced in the heart physically.
3. CONDITION OF HIS BODY
John 19:28 – 29 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
Jesus refused the gall earlier (Mt 27:34), but took the sour wine, because he died on his own terms, and he would submit to his destiny, as prophesied in Scripture…
Psalm 69: 20 – 21 Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.
The condition of his body showed his humanity, he got thirsty because he was human. And it showed his divinity: he knew it was time, which brings us to…
4. CONTROL OF HIS SPIRIT
John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus didn’t take three days to die, like the average crucifixion. He died after exactly six hours, by yielding up his spirit. Jesus predicted this too: John 10:17-18 For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
5. CONFIRMATION OF HIS DEATH
John 19: 31 – 37 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would 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. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
All of this was predicted too and fulfilled after Jesus died. The psalmist writes in Psalm 34: 19-20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
And we read this in Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him…
6. CONSIGNMENT TO HIS GRAVE
John 19:38 – 42 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Another occurrence that Jesus had no control over unless he was in control of all things was his burial. Like a common criminal, Jesus was assigned to be buried with the other wicked, cast into the city dump, known as Gehenna. But a turn of events would exempt him from that indignity, and he would end up in a rich man’s tomb.
Why? Because that is what Isaiah said would happen 700 years earlier.
Isaiah 53:9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
CONCLUSION
What are the odds of all these being fulfilled by chance? The mathematical calculation rendered was 1 in 10 x 84100 but the theological calculation is much easier: it’s 1:1. There was a 100% chance of all the prophecies being fulfilled perfectly because Jesus was indeed the Son of God.
As Peter declared on Pentecost in Acts 2:22 – 24 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
This Easter you are confronted with Jesus, God who became man to take the punishment for your sin on the cross. Don’t let this chance to turn to Christ slip by you.
C.Archer.
