In Jesus Holy Name March 19, 2023
Lent IV John 19:29 Redeemer
Words from the Cross: “I Thirst”
It’s Friday morning, 9 A.M. Outside the Damascus Gate there is a road leaving the city on which three men were carrying their crosses. One fell. A 4th man from the crowd was grabbed to finish the task. The one who fell was suffering from the scourging and loss of blood. On his head was a crown of thorns.
In the city, merchants were stirring and rushing around and opening their stalls to make ready for another busy day. This was the beginning of Passover. Lots of last-minute shopping and preparations to be accomplished. The bleating of lambs could be heard as they were being lead into the city for the coming sacrifice. Lots of talk in the city. As the three men were paraded through the streets a hush would come over the visitors and shoppers. Eyes would turn away as the Roman soldiers pushed the criminals.
Outside the city walls they were making ready for another round of crucifixions. Two criminals and a fellow named Jesus of Nazareth. The sun was beating down on their heads as the soldiers placed the beam into the holes in the ground and made ready the stakes, the hammer, the nails. Ropes might be needed if the nails fail to hold.
Some from the city had come to watch. Mostly women who had supported the ministry of Jesus, His mother, Nicodemus and a few Pharisees and soldiers. Three hours have elapsed. Suddenly at twelve o’clock. Darkness. No light from the sun. No light from a moon. Complete darkness. Confusion. There is the sound of panic as feet shuffle. The gambling for clothes stops. Then silence. Thick, oppressive silence upon the land. Three hours pass, an eternity of darkness. City merchants, Pilate in his palace. knows something is different. Is the world as they know it, coming to an end? In a sense, yes.
It’s been dark for 3 hours now. Knowing that all was now completed, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so the soldiers soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on the stalk of a hyssop plant, and lifted it to the lips of Jesus.
There are mysteries here which no man can explain. We must never minimize the horror of human sin. Sometimes we laugh at sin and say, “The Devil made me do it,” as if sin were something to joke about. But it was our broken commandments that Jesus carried to the cross that day. It was our broken ethics that caused, God the Creator, to turn away from His Son.
This was the plan from the beginning of creation when Adam and Eve disobeyed their Creator. A rescue plan was needed to restore the harmony and peace that was lost. Death came into our world. Jesus was God’s rescue plan. Without the cross there would be no forgiveness. Without the cross there would be no salvation. Without the cross we would be lost forever. Without the cross our sins would continue to alienate us from our Creator. It cost Jesus everything to redeem us. Let us never make light of His suffering and death, for He was the true Lamb of God sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.
So the soldiers took a sponge, dipped it into the sour vinegar wine, and put it on a stalk of the hyssop—Oh, you’ve heard of the hyssop before. You remember, don’t you, that in the book of Exodus, it was the hyssop plant that was dipped in blood and the blood of the lamb was put on the doorpost. Now the hyssop is used again when the sponge dipped in the sour wine.
The soldier stretched it out. A little would moisten the lips. Moisten the tongue. Moisten the throat. Just enough so you could say one or two more words. Now Jesus is almost dead. Moments will pass and He will be gone. Having moistened His lips He cries out “It is finished.” Another second passes and then “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He bowed his head and died. In that moment the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom.
Josephus, the first century Jewish historian wrote that “the veil which separated the Holy of Holies from the temple proper was 4 inches thick, 60 feet long and 30 feet wide and even horses tied to each side could not pull it apart.” (The Thickness of the Temple Veil posted by chuckbamgardner April 6, 2010 as quoted in the Ryrie Study Bible, The Orchard Keeper).
The temple curtain maintained the separation of God’s presence in the temple from the priest. The priest could only enter the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement with the sprinkled blood of the lamb. Now with the death of Jesus, the True Lamb of God, every believer has access to God’s presence.
(Colossians 1:21-22)
John Stott in his book “The Cross of Christ” writes; “Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ. Why did God take our place and bear our sin? This was the rescue plan. The cross rescued us from God’s wrath against our broken commandments. In His death and resurrection, He defeated the powers of evil…and takes away Satan’s power to hold people in the grip and fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14)
If you run the clock back from 3 o’clock in the afternoon—the moment of his death—back to about 3 o’clock in the morning what you discover is that Jesus has just been through 12 hours of torture. Arrested in the middle of the night. Crowned with thorns. Scourged with the cat o’ nine tails again and again with straps of leather studded with bits of bone, stone and metal.
No wonder He was thirsty. Loss of blood. Exposure. Heat. Exhaustion. Dehydration. He’s been on the cross now for 6 hours. It’s hot. The crowds taunting him. The blood mixes with the sweat as it pours off his body. In the end dehydration sets in. You know what dehydration is like? First it gives you a fever. Then it gives you a terrible throbbing pain in your head. And then cramps in your abdomen. And then nausea sets in.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he knew that God’s plan for the redemption of humanity had been completed. He knew that He had borne the sins of the human race. He knew that He was taking the punishment of God’s wrath so that all who placed their trust in Him would once again know harmony, peace and forgiveness with their Creator.
Jesus. Lips cracked and mouth of cotton. Throat so dry he couldn’t swallow, and voice so hoarse he could scarcely speak. He said: “I thirst”.
Thirst was part of the genius of crucifixion. The Romans tormented their prisoners, in part, by denying them water. Then they forced the prisoners to carry their heavy crosses quite a distance. Then they hung the prisoners on their cross to suffer through hot days and cold nights—with no clothing, food, or water. Roman soldiers stood guard to insure that family members couldn’t come forward to help the prisoners.
This was a terrible death. Jesus could have come down from the cross, that’s what the Pharisees shouted. If you are the Messiah come down and we will believe in you. Did he not cause jugs of water to be jugs of wine? Did He not make two walls out of the Red Sea when the Children of Israel left Egypt. Didn’t He, with one word, banish the storm, the wind, the rain and calm the waves on the Sea of Galilee? Of course He did.
He didn’t have to suffer thirst. Six hours earlier he’d been offered drink, but he refused it. Jesus if fulfilling prophecy. He is the rescue plan.
Earlier in His ministry Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. John records His words in chapter 10. Jesus, referring to the prophecy in Ezekiel 34 said: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I make take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. (John 10:14)
Jesus spoke these words in Solomon’s Colonnade in the Temple during the winter Feast of Dedication. Six months later He was dead on the cross.
No one took Jesus’ life from Him. God had given him a specific task. That task was to lay down His life on behalf of the world as the Lamb of God.
John 20:30-31
