John 19:23-24 • The Jots and Tittles

The John Project

In the fall of 2008, my wife was away on a personal retreat seeking the Lord in prayer regarding his plans for the next season of her life, and she felt her heart drawn to Isaiah chapter 41. Several parts of that passage spoke to her deeply, especially the phrases, “Fear not, for I am with you,” and “Those who war against you shall be as nothing.” While meditating on those prophetic promises, she sensed the Lord was comforting her in advance of a challenging trial. Two weeks later, she was rushed into the operating room at our local hospital for emergency abdominal surgery that revealed a bleeding, ruptured lesion the size of a football and a diagnosis of stage-four, untreatable, incurable, terminal, adrenal cancer. And although I’m thrilled to be able to jump to the conclusion of that story and tell you she experienced a miraculous healing in the end, that wouldn’t happen until after a five-year period of holding tightly to those promises the Lord had highlighted for her in Isaiah. They would anchor both of us through the toughest season of our lives. But it was a tiny detail from that passage that would ultimately affect me the most. Referring to God’s triumph over Israel’s adversaries, the first part of Isaiah 41:12 says, "You shall seek them and not find them." So, you can imagine the explosion of joy I experienced when during Sue’s final surgery – after having seen with my own eyes the results of two different types of medical imaging that revealed the return of this aggressive disease – her surgeon left the operating room to tell me that although he could offer no logical explanation, he hadn’t been able to locate the cancer anywhere. Since then, I read John 19:23-24 differently. It describes how the soldiers tasked with Christ’s crucifixion went about dividing up his clothing among themselves and determining which of them would get to keep his seamless tunic. At first glance, this sad bit of subplot doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the redemption narrative. But in verse 24 when John quotes from the book of Psalms (22:18) to remind his readers that these details had been specifically foretold 600 years earlier, suddenly, the impact and importance of this seemingly insignificant part of the story become clear and demand attention. In Ezekiel 12:25, the Lord says, “I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass." This is true not only in generalities. It’s also true in specifics. Matthew 5:18 quotes Jesus saying, “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” The word translated into English as 𝘫𝘰𝘵 refers to the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the word 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 refers to a small stroke that distinguishes one Hebrew letter from another. In other words, Jesus meant that even the tiniest details of God’s promises will be fully realized. As someone who has experienced the glory that can be packed into those tiny details, I bear witness that our God is extremely careful with his words. In the best sense of this colloquialism, “he sweats the small stuff.” The jots and tittles matter to him. I’ll be forever grateful they do.