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Commentaries
English
John
  
d) The consummation
(John 19:28-30)
28After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), "I thirst."29A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it to his mouth.


John, the evangelist had the gift of saying a great deal in a few words. He tells us nothing about darkness that covered the land, nor do we hear Christ’s cry of dereliction in God’s wrath over our sins. But we are informed, that at the end of his mortal struggle lasting three hours, he sensed the approach of death. John did not regard death as having swallowed Jesus, but that Jesus had willingly yielded to it. His soul was exhausted in completing the universal work of redemption. Jesus saw the perfect salvation available to all, how his death would free millions of sinners from their guilt and bestow on them the right to come to God. He saw the harvest and the fruit of his death beforehand.
At this point, a sigh escaped his lips, "I thirst." He, who had created the universe and walked on water that was compounded of oxygen and hydrogen, is thirsting. Love incarnate was longing for a Father’s love, who had hidden His face from His Son. This is a scene of hell, where man thirsts body and soul and cannot find refreshing. Earlier, Christ had mentioned the rich man in hell with a mighty thirst in the infernal fires, who begged Abraham to send Lazarus to put his finger dipped in cold water and soothe his swollen throat. Jesus was a true man, enduring natural thirst, but he did not admit his thirst till the work of salvation was accomplished. Then, the Holy Spirit revealed to him, that his redemptive ministry had been announced a thousand years earlier in Psalm 22:13-18, drinking vinegar was also mentioned in Psalm 69:21. We do not know if the soldiers offered Jesus the drink as pure vinegar or mixed with water, either as contempt or in lament. We know it was not pure water. The man Jesus, who is God’s Son, was at this juncture helpless.