Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The great mysteries surrounding the Cross.
Thursday, April 1, 2004
The darkness around the cross, from noon until 3 PM – the darkness of sympathy.
The Creator was dying on the cross, and all of creation was suffering with the Creator, and therefore enshrouding Him with darkness, ROM 8:19-24.
Secondly, this darkness at the cross was the darkness of gloom – the just was dying for the unjust, 1PE 3:18.
Thirdly, it was the darkness of secrecy – in those three hours Jesus Christ was accomplishing a great work that He alone could accomplish.
There is another great mystery identified with this statement – the blindness before the cross.
If these people had not been blind to the Scriptures, they would have recognized –
PSA 22:1 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
If these people had not been blind to the Scriptures, they would have recognized –
PSA 22:2 – the Messiah would cry by day, but God would not answer; And by night, but He had no rest.
On the cross, He did weep but He also bled; and He not merely bled, He died; He died spiritually being forsaken of God and then He died physically.
ACT 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for {His} name.
The fifth cry on the cross can be identified by the word suffering, JOH 19:28.
The thirst of Jesus indicates His humanity, for deity does not thirst.
This cry tells us of the intensity of what He had suffered during those three hours, the awful severity of the conflict through which He had just passed.
Even though His sufferings were like no other, His thirst was not just a desire for the relief of His body, there was a higher purpose that caused Him to open His parched lips.
The very fact that He did now “thirst” reveals His perfect submission to the plan of God.
The One, TLJC, who had caused water to flow from the smitten rock for the refreshment of Israel in the wilderness,
EXO 17:6, had the same power resources at His disposal now that He was on the cross.
The one who turned the water into wine by a word from His lips, could have spoken the same word of power here, and instantly met His own need.
In the volume of that Book which expressed the will of God, it was written that He should thirst, PSA 22:15; PSA 69:21.
HEB 10:7 “Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.”
PSA 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
PSA 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
In the wilderness when Satan tempted Him, He refused to provide for His own needs apart from the Word of God by which He lived; so now He makes known His need, not that it might be relieved, but that “the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”
The terrible thirst of crucifixion is upon Him, but that is not enough to force His parched lips to speak; but what was written is what caused Him to speak.
He simply says, “I thirst.”
The vinegar is extended and the prophecy is fulfilled.
He had hung on that cross for six hours, and had passed through undeserved suffering as never before, unparalleled; nevertheless His mind was perfectly clear and His memory entirely unimpaired.
This act recorded here must be carefully distinguished from the one mentioned in MAT 27:34, being the same one found in MAT 27:48.
The first drink of vinegar and gall, commonly given to criminals to deaden their pains, our Lord refused.
The ones who gave it to Him were most probably the Roman soldiers, who carried out the details of the crucifixion because it was customary to give criminals wine before their execution.
JOH 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master.”