Suffering at the Cross

story that is referenced in that song took place just before our Lord's death and it was Mary, one of the close friends of Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, was in their home where that event took place where Mary spilled out a whole lifetimes worth of savings in that that ointment jar and poured unsparingly upon our Lord and Jesus said she has anointed me for my burial and so she was looking forward to the cross. Today we take something that we hold in our hands and we use it to remember looking back on the cross and what Jesus did. But for a few moments before we do that I want us to stand at the cross and actually listen to Jesus as he speaks. If you really want to understand what was happening at the cross, listen to our Savior speak. Jesus utters seven sayings from the cross. They're not lengthy sermons or teachings from the Old Testament. They are just very brief sayings. Seven of them in all. The first three of them were stretched out over six hours. The last four of them took place just before he died. But they help us to understand what was going on in Jesus' heart and mind as he died for us on the cross and so they give a unique window into the meaning of the cross and what was taking place there. When Jesus said Father forgive them, well they know not what they do. Jesus was demonstrating the forgiveness that was taking place for us there at the cross. When Jesus said this day thou shalt be with me and paradise to the thief on one side of him. He was demonstrating illustrating the grace that is offered for us at the cross. When Jesus looked at his mother and said behold your son looked at the Apostle John said, behold your mother even as he suffered he was expressing his love for his mother from the cross demonstrating love at the cross. When Jesus near the end of the time on the cross said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He was illustrating the judgment that was taking place at the cross because he was he was talking about the Father being separated for him in those hours of darkness where the wrath of the Father was poured out on Jesus. But it is the fifth of those seven sayings. I want to take a few moments to focus on this morning. It's found in John's Gospel chapter 19 verses 28 and 29 later knowing that everything had now been fulfilled and so that scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus said, I am thirsty or simply I thirst. A jar of wine vinegar was there so they soaked a sponge in it put the sponge on a stalk of the hisa plant and lifted it to Jesus lips. If my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Highlights the spiritual agony of Christ on the cross, his separation from his father, this simple saying, I thirst, illustrates his physical agony, his physical suffering on the cross. Jesus is suffering physically with an intense physical pain and agony that creates thirst. What a scene this is, how expressive, how tragic, how full of meaning the creator with parts lips. The Lord of glory, thirsty. Jesus, by the time he had been on the cross for six hours now almost would be suffering from a fever. He would be extremely thirsty. His mouth, his throat, his lips would be parts dry and just to anticipate those very circumstances which were common in crucifixions, there was a jar of wine vinegar at the base of a cross. Just as described here, if someone needed to have their lips and mouth moistened a bit, a sponge would be dipped into that wine vinegar and it would be extended on the stalk of the hisa plant to the lips of the sufferer much like we might do for a loved one in the hospital as they're dying with ice chips or with a swab to moisten their lips. That's what they were doing for Jesus here. But as Jesus says, I thirst, it is so expressive of what's happening there at the cross, how he is dying, quickly four things it expresses for us. First of all, it's an expression of his humanity. Jesus was fully God and fully human and there are times when his deity is what shines so boldly that you can't miss it when he heals a disease, when he calms the storm, when he raises the dead, when he looks at someone and knows what's in their heart before they even speak, when he claims to be God as he lives a pure, perfect, holy life, it is those times his deity shines forth. But on other occasions it is his humanity which is seen most clearly. As Jesus grew up as a child, he grew in stature and in wisdom. As an adult, he was weary, he was hungry, he slept, he marveled at things that were said to him. He groaned in his spirit and wept at the grave side of a dear friend. He prayed, he rejoiced and now he thirsts. God doesn't get thirsty. Angels don't get thirsty. Saints in heaven don't get thirsty. But Jesus the God man, as he suffered on the cross, suffered extreme intense physical agony and thirst. And it's an expression of the fact that he became man was made like us in every way. It's an expression of his humanity. Secondly, it is an evidence of a willing death that he voluntarily willingly gave his life. Notice again, what verse 28 says, later knowing that everything had now been finished. And so that scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus said, I am thirsty. You see, this is not some deranged sufferer on the cross of bewildered person who is no longer in control of his thinking. He is in full possession of his mental faculties, even after being on the cross in this excruciating, humiliating form of suffering for six hours and all of the torture that led up to that. Jesus is not being crucified by others as much as he is willingly laying down his life. And this is an evidence of that. He is in full possession of his mental faculties. Toward the end of those six hours on the cross, it is as though he scans the gamut of Old Testament prophecy to make sure that all has been fulfilled. There's one remaining prophecy that his mind lights on that is not yet been fulfilled. It is in Psalm 69 and verse 21. One of the great Messianic Psalms, full of Messianic prophecy, says this, they put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. And as Jesus scans the scope of the Old Testament, making sure that everything has been done in exactly the way the Father wanted it, he cries out in fulfillment of this prophecy indicating that he was in full possession of his mental faculties. His mind is unclouded. He is not a deranged, semi-conscious sufferer. He is to the very last moment, willingly, laying down his life for us. Just as we saw last week in John 10, no man takes it from me. He says, I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it back up. I voluntarily offer my life. And this saying on the cross is an evidence of that. But thirdly, it is also an example in suffering. For this is not the cry for pity. This is not a cry for mercy. This is not a cry of murmuring or complaining. This cry was done for two reasons. Number one, to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures, to make sure nothing would be left unfulfilled. But secondly, to give his voice and mouth enough power to say the next words in a loud voice, it is finished! And Jesus needed the ability to articulate those words. And so he asks for his lips to be moistened, his tongue to be moistened so that he can utter those words. His time of suffering on the cross was an example to us of how to suffer. An example in suffering. Peter says it this way in first Peter 2. In talking about the cross, he says, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. Now speaking specifically of the cross, he says, when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. And when Jesus says, I am thirsty, it is not uttering a complaint. It is not in any way an expression of dislike or distaste for what he is going through. There is a remarkable degree of silence of Jesus on the cross, a majestic silence. The prophet Isaiah anticipated this would happen in Isaiah 53. He said he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shares his silent, so he did not open his mouth. Means he never said anything, but he never opened his mouth and complaint and bitter evidence of suffering. He utters this so that scripture can be fulfilled and so that he might have the ability to articulate those last triumphant words. There is no complaint in his suffering. And in so he leaves us, in doing so, he leaves us an example of how we should suffer in the purpose and plan of God trusting him, even in the midst of horrible pain and suffering. We have an example in suffering, but we also have fourthly, even in this saying, an encouragement in trial. Sometimes it's easy to ask, isn't it, does God really care? Does he notice? Does he even know what I'm feeling and going through? And does he really care about me? It doesn't seem so at times when we're in the midst of suffering. But this cry, I thirst, I am thirsty, is a memorial to the fact that he does care. He does here. He does know. The Lord is not unmindful of your distress because he has been there. The Lord is not indifferent to your pain because he's been there. He evidences that with this cry, the absolute agony physically of the suffering that he endured on the cross is expressed in this cry from the cross. And so he understands suffering, he understands pain, he understands the depths of that kind of agony. And for that reason, we can take comfort in what the Scriptures tell us, Jesus' suffering means for us. The writer of Hebrews articulates it well. Hebrews 4. When the writer of Hebrews says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin. Because he's been through all of that, the writer goes on to say, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may have received mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Previously in chapter 2, the writer has said this, for this reason, because he was giving his life for us. For this reason, he had to be made like them, like humans, fully human in every way. In order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, that he might make a tonement for the sins of his people. If we were to read verse 18, we would read that because he suffered being tempted, he knows how to help those who are in suffering. Jesus knows what it's like to suffer. And so with Peter, we can triumphantly say, as Peter says, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. And this is evidence of that. He knows the pain of suffering. He knows what it means to thirst. He knows what it means to suffer and have pain. And Jesus says he cries out in real physical suffering, identifies with everyone in this room and every human being that's ever lived. Truly, his death was unlike any other. His utterances from the cross indicate what his death was really like. And to cries out here as the God-man, because he is God, he lays down his life for us, because he is man, he suffers in doing so. And he thirsts. And so as we remember our Lord's death today, let's remember that he did suffer. He suffered for us. Let's pray together. And as we pray, I'm going to ask the men who will service to come, please take your seats here at the front and be ready to serve us in our communion service. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for our Savior, the Lord Jesus, the one who did give his life for us so that we might be saved. The one who suffered physically, his body broken, his blood shed, his lips parched, his throat dry, his mouth like cotton, all in the agony of suffering for our sins, and Lord, as we pertake of these elements today, we remember what he did so that we might have life. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.