John Calvin Commentary John 19:37

"And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced." — John 19:37 (ASV)

They shall look on Him whom they pierced. This passage is violently tortured by those who attempt to explain it literally as referring to Christ. Nor is this the purpose for which the Evangelist quotes it, but rather to show that Christ is that God who formerly complained, by Zechariah, that the Jews had pierced His heart (Zechariah 12:10). God speaks there in human terms, declaring that He is wounded by the sins of His people, and especially by their obstinate contempt of His word, in the same manner as a mortal man receives a deadly wound when his heart is pierced. As He says elsewhere, His Spirit was deeply grieved,

Now, as Christ is God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16), John says that in His visible flesh was plainly accomplished what His Divine Majesty had endured from the Jews, so far as it was capable of enduring. This is not because God can be affected at all by human outrages, or that the reproaches cast at Him from the earth ever reach Him. Rather, by this mode of expression, He intended to declare the enormous sacrilege with which human wickedness is charged when it rises in rebellion against heaven.

What was done by the hand of a Roman soldier the Evangelist John justly imputes to the Jews, as they are elsewhere said to have crucified the Son of God (Acts 2:36), though they did not lay a finger on His body.

A question now arises concerning this passage from the prophet: Does God promise the Jews repentance leading to salvation, or does He threaten that He will come as an avenger? For my own part, when I closely examine the passage, I think that it includes both. Namely, that out of a worthless and unprincipled nation God will gather a remnant for salvation, and that, by His dreadful vengeance, He will show despisers with whom they are contending. For we know that they were accustomed to treat the prophets as insolently as if the prophets had told nothing but fables and had received no commission from God. God declares that they will not go unpunished, for He will eventually maintain His cause.