Why Did Jesus Receive the Vinegar?

Tom: We’re continuing with the gospel. We’re in the Gospel of John. John:19:28After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
See All...: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Dave: A very interesting passage of scripture, Tom. And I don’t want to try and read too much into it. The scripture had to be fulfilled. Thirty pieces of silver betrayal, you know, all the whole thing—crucified, gambling for his clothes. There was one thing that was lacking. He had to say “I thirst.” Now, I think it was more than that.

Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Isaiah 55, “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters,” and so forth. The rich man in hell said he was thirsty, and he wanted a drop of water on his tongue. I don’t think he needed H₂O, and one drop isn’t going to help him. There is a thirst that is deeper than that, and so the psalmist said, “As the hart pants after the water brooks, [that is h-a-r-t, the deer], so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God. God made us for Himself. And we only find our satisfaction in Him. And hell will be a place of torment, of burning thirst for the God for whom we were created. And Jesus had to endure that. He tasted death for every man and death includes the second death, which is the lake of fire and he had to suffer that for everyone. An eternity’s worth of the thirst for God. He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

So I think it was a deeper fulfillment of scripture.

Tom: Well, Dave, the other side of it would be if it was just a physical thing, what would—Jesus says very few words from the cross, and I think all of them not just lines, not just things that He would express physically. I agree with you. I don’t know somebody who sees the end of their life as not thirsting just for physical water.

Dave: Well, it was a time of triumph actually. Because when He received this vinegar, and that was in fulfillment of the scripture—the psalmist said, “They gave me vinegar to drink.” Then he said, “It is finished,” and the Greek word is Tetelestai. We’ve commented on that before. It was the statement that was stamped on promissory notes in that day. It meant “Paid in Full,” and Jesus now has paid in full the penalty.

Now you have people like Hagen and Copeland and various of these teachers who say, no Jesus didn’t finish the work on the cross. Our redemption comes because Christ sank into hell and there he was dragged up and down, like Copeland says, “His emaciated spirit body was dragged up and down the halls of hell.” You have a popular song by some of the soloists or music groups, I don’t know if you remember it, Tom, “Holiday in Hell.” And Jesus is dead and now the demons are all rejoicing.

Well first of all, Satan….

Tom: I don’t remember that one.

Dave: You don’t remember that one?

Tom: No.

Dave: Okay, I can tell you who I heard, but I don’t want to anyway, name the person. Very….

Tom: I don’t think I want to know.

Dave: Right. Very popular, very popular singer today. Well, Satan is not in charge of hell. He’s going to be one of the inmates when he gets put in there in the lake of fire. And the demons are not running a torture chamber down there. They will be tortured; they will be tormented when they are there, okay? And they will be locked up. So the whole idea is wrong.

Furthermore, Jesus said, “It is finished.” But these people—it’s a popular teaching in the whole positive confession movement that Jesus was tortured by Satan three days and three nights and this is where our salvation comes from. Well, I think Satan is intelligent enough. He wouldn’t quite punish Christ enough.

Are we to appreciate Satan as our co-redeemer? We have to give credit to Satan. Well it’s because you punished Jesus that we’re saved now. It’s very much like the film, Tom, and I don’t want to get back on that, here and the man that wrote the book, but were the Roman soldiers the executioners of God’s justice? And they were guided by God as to how many blows they should hit Jesus with? And how hard they should hit Him? And this is what paid for the penalty of our sins? No!

Tom: But, Dave, I’ve already gotten letters based on the article we did in May saying that just as God used the Babylonians, just as God used other peoples, as the Egyptians, and so on, to punish his people, he used the soldiers to punish Jesus.

Dave: Tom, there’s a big difference. And common sense would tell you that instantly. It’s one thing to give a physical, temporal punishment on this earth to the Jews for disobedience, and to bring some destruction upon them. It’s another thing for Christ to pay the penalty of God’s infinite justice upon sin. This is sin itself. This is the penalty for Adam’s sin. This is the penalty for the sins of all the world, and that will be paid by them in an eternal torment in the lake of fire. Now you can’t say that the Roman soldiers, with the scourging, that they meted out that kind of punishment. It simply is not rational and is not biblical.

Now in Isaiah 53, when it says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, with his stripes we’re healed,” who says those—in fact the Hebrew word is singular. Stripe. “With his stripe we are healed.” Who says that that was meted out by Roman soldiers?

Now you have the NIV, I think it is, that calls it scourging. No, scourging wasn’t even known when that prophecy was stated by Isaiah. It says, “It pleased Yahweh to bruise him. Thou hast put him to grief.” This is what it’s talking about. The infinite penalty for our sins that God meted out upon His Son, and it was not meted out by Roman soldiers.

But anyway, Christ is saying, “I thirst”—not physical thirst, as you mentioned. It’s that thirst for God: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This is what is happening. And Christ on the Cross, He paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross.

Now the scourging had something to do with it. This was in fulfillment of scripture of the crucifixion, and so forth. But He says, “I thirst. My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” And now, He gives His spirit into His Father’s hands, and He cries out in triumph.

Well, verse 31 is a very important one Tom, and I guess we’d better defer that. You know, we did pretty well last week. This week we just got through one, was it? Oh no, we did three of them!

Tom: Yeah, but in the last minute or so, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar…” So he cries out, “I thirst,” and He does receive the vinegar. It that…?”

Dave: A fulfillment of prophecy.

Tom: …a fulfillment of prophecy.

Dave: Right.