Click here for the John 19:28-30 PODCAST
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ~ John 19:28-30
Most deaths, when they occur, come as a surprise. Not so with the Lord Jesus. At His cross, He fulfilled His obligations and did what He came to earth to do. He purchased God's forgiveness for all the wrong ever done or ever will be done. In addition, He substantiated and defined for us the truth.
John 19:28 reveals to us that even though the Lord Jesus had endured hell on earth to this point, He is still aware enough to know what all that had been prophesied has come to pass.
In the scene of the greatest hate, love prevails.
We are told that thirst is the most agonizing of all pain. It causes every cell in our bodies to cry out for relief, and the pain gets worse and worse as time goes by. At the end of v.28, the Lord Jesus says, "I am thirsty." These prophetic words are uttered by the Lord Jesus while hanging on the cross.
This statement is one of many indicators that the Lord Jesus controlled His death. As God, the Lord Jesus knew all things. He knew the plan of God exactly. He knew when every single detail would be accomplished. He knew that all scripture would be fulfilled in His dying. As He hung on the cross He knew He was near the end.
John 19:29 is fulfillment of Psalm 69:21. The promise of the Old Testament was that this would occur at the death of Messiah, “so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.” Earlier He had been offered gall, but He didn’t take it, because gall, which is different, was a pain killer to try to lessen His pain. He refused that, because he wanted the full impact of the suffering.
The sour wine the Lord Jesus did receive was there for the soldiers to quench their thirst. It was a cheap form of wine. It was not meant to prolong His life, it was only intended to fulfill the scripture. Once the scripture was fulfilled, He gave up His Spirit.
In Exodus 12, during the Passover night in Egypt when the death angel came, if he saw the blood of the sacrificed lamb applied on the door posts, he would not kill the firstborn therein. In obedience to God, the believing Jews applied to the doorpost the blood of the lamb using hyssop, using hyssop. Reminiscent of those Passover Lambs who shed their blood and secured the firstborn therein, the Lord Jesus is our Passover Lamb.
The Lord Jesus died much before anyone who had before been crucified. As mentioned before, many were known to hang on their cross for days, even weeks. The Lord Jesus died within six hours because He gave up His spirit.
In v.30, He said, “It is finished,” which is one word, Tetelestai in the Greek. When He uttered that most wonderful word, He meant that He had fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies that pointed to Him. He procured redemption, the forgiveness of sin, by His substitutionary death for all who would believe and receive His free gift of salvation. And, for three hours, from noon til three in the afternoon the sun hid its face and darkness covered the whole earth. Then, as John records, "he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
The Lord Jesus bore the wrath of God for every sin ever committed. It means that the work for our salvation is fully complete. There is nothing left to do other than to receive the benefits of His work, to put our faith in the one who offered his life as a sacrifice for sin. It means His work on the cross plus nothing equals His perfection applied to the believer.
The Lord Jesus came to secure for us what we could never secure for ourselves. He finished the work that God sent Him to do. The irony is that a dead man overcame sin and death. While being killed as a blasphemer, the Lord Jesus made it possible for the very people who blasphemed Him to be pronounced the children of God.
The Lord Jesus has the power over death. Later, He would rise from the dead, and since He did, He will raise me from the dead. He came to position God to forgive those who would position our hearts to believe. He interceded for us with the Father that we might be forgiven even of the worst of crimes. He offered that forgiveness to the very ones who killed Him.
In his book, Six Hours One Friday, Max Lucado writes, “What do you do with this day in history? What do you do with its claims? If it really happened…if God did commandeer his own crucifixion, if he did turn his back on his own son, if he did storm Satan’s gate, then those six hours that Friday were packed with tragic triumph. If that was God on that cross, then the hill called Skull is granite studded with stakes to which you can anchor. Those six hours were no normal six hours. They were the most critical hours in history.”
