The Passion of Christ, Part 6: The Wages of Sin is Death

The Passion of Christ, Part 6: The Wages of Sin is Death

John 19:28-42

Introduction:  Part of the ancient Apostles Creed says that “I believe… in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried…”  In our sixth week in the study of the Passion of Christ in John we come to exactly that moment. Jesus dies, for us, and is buried.  When Paul was summarizing the “gospel” that He preached in I Cor 15:3,4, he began, “…Christ died for our sins according the Scriptures and was buried…” It’s that great “Gospel Fact” that we come to today, a day in which we’ll also celebrate the Lord’s Table which invites us to reflect on the great salvation we have in Christ. John wants us to know not only what happened, but he calls attention to what Jesus said on the cross. Last week we considered his “word” to Mary and John, as He showed his love and his power to care for his own. We’ll see today two more words of Christ that point to what He accomplished on our behalf.

The Big Idea: The holiness of God demands that sin be punished with death. Jesus solved our “sin problem” by taking that penalty for all who will put their trust in Him.

I. In accordance with the plan of the Father, Jesus chose to lay down His life for His sheep (28-30). The passage continues…

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’  ²⁹ 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.  ³⁰ When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”(John 19:28-30).

We have seen in John the truth that Jesus’ death has given us new life. That idea of substitution is present in John 19:28-29, even if it is not immediately evident   -  In John we have seen that Jesus is in total control during the Passion.  In John 10:18 Jesus said, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again."  When we realize that, what we see in this word from the cross is even more amazing, because Jesus, in his humanity, suffered for us (and chose to do so), in fulfillment of the Scriptures.  Jesus Christ was not a helpless victim; no, he was the almighty, sovereign Son of God voluntarily submitting himself to humiliation and suffering, laying down his life of his own accord.  From Matthew and Mark we know that earlier Jesus had refused a tranquilizing drink of Gall mixed with wine (Mt 27:34; Mk 15:23).  Now, the work was finished, the price was paid, and in order to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus speaks.
      First of all, it is clearly a cry to Fulfill Scripture:  "After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), 'I thirst.'" The picture again is one of Jesus in complete command, consciously fulfilling the agenda that the Father had set out for him.  John's reference to the fact that Jesus knew that all was now completed recalls his prayer in John 17:4, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." The work has been completed, his suffering was coming to an end, and so to fulfill Scripture Jesus said, "I thirst." The whole scene is one of total devotion and commitment to the Father's program for his life and total command of the situation.  Everything that happened was in accordance with the predetermined plan of God prophesied in the Scriptures.

       Two texts of the Old Testament especially show the prophetic picture of thirst during the death of the Messiah:  Psalm 22:15 says, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth."  Then we read in Psalm 69:21, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."

     Jesus, even in the midst of the most intense physical agony, fully aware of the word of his Father in Scripture and fully committed to order all of his life, even these last few moments, by it. He spoke so that action would be taken that would specifically “fulfill” the Scripture.  He knew that His statement would provoke that bystander to give a drink, precisely fulfilling the prophecy.

      This is not to minimize the agonizing thirst Jesus no doubt experience. This is a cry of very real human agony.  This is at least the second time in John that we see Jesus thirsty.  In chapter 4 at the well in Samaria, Jesus was thirsty and asks for a drink. In that context he spoke of living water flowing from the belly of those who drink of the life giving water He had to offer.  Though there was that important spiritual lesson, the text also certainly implies that Jesus was thirsty.  John clearly states the divinity of Jesus (from the very first verse!); but he also shows that he took on a real human nature: Fully God, and fully man. 

      At this point, Jesus has been hanging on the cross for nearly six hours (cf. Mark 15:25, 34). The combination of Jesus' loss of blood, physical exhaustion, and his exposure to the weather by now has generated a raging thirst. Jesus' cry, "I thirst," was not a polite and quiet request for a glass of water. It was a cry of agony. Jesus' thirst while hanging on the cross in our place showed the reality and intensity of his physical suffering. His thirst consummated his physical suffering and thus enabled Him to know that all was now completed. And so, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He cried out, "I thirst," knowing it would result in receiving a drink of wine vinegar from a sponge held up to his mouth on a stalk of hyssop.  Jesus, in his humanity, suffered for us, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. 

      But considering how John treats the idea of “thirst” earlier in the Gospel, we have to ask, was “spiritual thirst” an aspect of what Jesus experienced?  I believe that it was John Piper that alerted me to the possibility that in spite of the reality and intensity and significance of Jesus' physical thirst there may have been another kind of thirst that Jesus experienced in a deeper, more profound way on the cross — spiritual thirst. We see other words from the cross that imply separation from the Father, it may be implicit in this word as well.

     The verb "thirst" or "be thirsty" is found five times in the gospel of John in addition to our text here in John 19. All five are in contexts referring to spiritual thirst: John 4:13–15 (3x); 6:35; 7:37–38 .  Look at these texts:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’  ¹⁵The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’" (John 4:13-15).

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:35).

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37,38).

     In these contexts Jesus was speaking about is a spiritual craving for God, a longing that operates deep within the heart of every human being created in the image of God, a thirst that Jesus and Jesus alone can satisfy for all eternity.
So it is also a word of substitution: The truth of this word on the cross is that our thirst for God can be quenched because Jesus was thirsty for us: we don't need be thirsty forever, precisely because Jesus was thirsty for us. Because he was thirsty, we can receive from him living water to quench our thirst for all eternity.
   In the next word of Jesus we see that His death fulfilled perfectly the plan of the Father (19:30).  The connection with the prophetic “drink” in v.29 is clear:   the Scriptures were fulfilled – All things had been accomplished – and so Jesus said, “It is finished.” The price had been paid – the Lamb had been sacrificed.  John, like the other Gospel writers, quotes from the Old Testament to show that the cross was not the result of the failure of Jesus’ kingship. In fact even in the details all that occurred was in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.
      The text unequivocally says that Jesus’ death paid the price in full: “IT IS FINISHED” Tetélestai - The price was paid. You see this word was common in the first century.  According to Mouton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, it was found written on “receipts” for payments that had been made. It signified “Paid in Full.” The debt had been satisfied. An obligation had been met. Remember the word of Paul, “The wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6:23a). That is what Jesus did for us. And then, still in control, no one took His life but He laid it down of His own accord, He “…bowed His head, and gave up His spirit…”  Do you see why orthodox doctrine insists that we are saved by grace alone, through faith in the finished work of Jesus? If we say we need to add to what He did in any way we are saying that Jesus’ work alone was not enough to do the job.  However, His work was sufficient. The holiness of God demands that sin be punished with death. Jesus took care of our “sin problem” by taking that penalty for all who will put their trust in Him.

II. As the Lamb of God He was slain, pierced for us, yet his bones unbroken in fulfillment of Scripture, and so He became the source of life (31-37).

             The Romans would normally allow someone to suffer for days on the cross, dying a slow, torturous death. There was an acceptable protocol on the rare occasion it was necessary to hasten the death of condemned criminals who were crucified. To make it impossible for them to push themselves up with their legs in order to breath, their legs would be broken, and very quickly they would suffocate. The Jewish leaders ask Pilate to do exactly that, as they didn’t want the bodies lingering there on the special Sabbath of the Passover week.  They needed to get on with their religious activity, they wanted to be done with this dirty work and get about the Passover celebration.  Here we see another detail that had to be fulfilled exactly as it had been pictured in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the instructions regarding the Passover lamb in Exod 12:46 (also Num 9:12) it said: “…nor shall you break one of its bones.” Similarly it says of the Righteous Sufferer in Psalm 34:20, “He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.” The Lamb would be slain, but His bones would not be broken.

            Even as the Passover lambs were being prepared, the legs of the criminals alongside of Jesus were broken. But not Jesus’ legs.  He was already dead. A spear was thrust into his side, blood and water poured out. The prophet Zechariah had written, “They shall look on the One they have pierced…” The nails in His hands and feet, the spear in His side, fulfilled that Scripture.

It seems that John, who alone records this detail of the blood and water pouring from Jesus’ side, wants us to see not only the confirmation that Jesus was in fact dead, but also the spiritual significance of what had happened. Remember He is constantly thinking of how Jesus fulfilled to Old Testament Scriptures, and expects his readers to make the same connection. This week I exchanged emails with my professor Moises Silva, and he reminded me that this scene recalls the incident in Exodus 17:6-7,   

⁶ "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.  ⁷ He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"

      To be sure that we don’t miss the connection remember that the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:4,  “…and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” Here we are, in Jerusalem, at the time of Passover, and the Rock, Jesus, is struck, water and blood pours from His side. I’ll let our medical people discuss the physiology of what happened – but John surely wants us to consider that once more Jesus is the One and only source of life, as He pours out his blood for us. Recall the word of Jesus, “I thirst.”  As water pours from his side along with the blood, can the reader miss a connection with the life giving water that comes through faith in Jesus? The hymn writer made this connection when he wrote, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be for sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure…”

The holiness of God demands that sin be punished with death. Jesus solved our “sin problem” by taking that penalty for all who will put their trust in Him. He was pierced for us, and He died and was buried, so that we could have life!

III. Jesus died, and was buried in a Garden Tomb (38-42). As the ancient creed summarizes, “He was crucified, died, and was buried…” There was no question about the death of Jesus.

 In Isaiah 53:9 the prophet wrote that though Messiah’s “grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death.” How would that detail be fulfilled? Jesus had no wealthy family members, so would this be a detail that went unfulfilled? God is in charge. This would prove to be one more confirmation, one more fulfillment of prophecy that left no doubt about Jesus’ identity. It also shows us that not everyone in the Jewish leadership had hardened their hearts against Jesus, some were believing, even if they didn’t yet have the courage to make it known. So we see Joseph of Arimethea providing a grave for Jesus, and with him Nicodemus, who had come to Him at night (John 3), bringing a wealth of spices to properly prepare the body. For fear of the Jews, they were secret disciples.

Before we are too hard on these men, who did not stand up for Jesus while He was alive, are there times when we, because we are either intimidated or afraid of what people might think, don’t speak up and be a witness for Him?  Even something as simple as bowing our head to give thanks for a meal in a restaurant: what might people think? What is the waitress comes at exactly that moment. How much more weighty is the need for people to know that Jesus, the Passover King, died for us. Will we take a stand for Him?

What is God saying to me in this passage? The holiness of God demands that sin be punished with death. Jesus solved our “sin problem” by taking that penalty for all who will put their trust in Him.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? This plan, this amazing grace, was planned by God, even from the foundation of the world, with you (and me!) in mind. As we have spent six weeks looking at the passion of Christ in John, I pray that the Spirit of God has led you into a deeper understanding of what He did for you. I hope it also has deepened your understanding that every person you know, every person you meet, desperately needs Jesus. He is their only hope. Does your love for Jesus and your fear of others sometimes conflict?  Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is promoting an outreach called “My Hope for America.” The idea is that we will seek to establish relationships with the intention of sharing Christ. Do you remember Matthew when he turned to Jesus? He threw a party in his home with the hope of introducing his friends and family to Jesus. Will you be a “Matthew”?  We’ll talk more about that, but be praying for those in your sphere of influence. Because you love God, reach out to them, be a friend, and let us see what God will do.    Think about that.    AMEN.