Afterwards Jesus, knowing that all things were accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: "I thirst." Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And immediately one of them, running, took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed of hyssop, and offered it to His mouth, and gave Him to drink. And others said: "Stay, let us see whether Elias will come to take Him down and deliver Him." When Jesus therefore had taken the vinegar He said: "It is consummated." - Matthew 27:48,49; Mark 15:36; John 19:28-30
1. His last word was a quotation from a psalm; in this He refers to another, Psalm Sixty-eight. This, like the Twenty-first, is full of prophetic allusion, and Our Lord's quotation of it seems to invite us to mingle our thoughts with His at this moment. Let us, then, take some passages. First the prophet sees the deluge which overwhelms Him:
"Save Me, O God; for there cometh
The water even unto My soul. . .
I am come beneath the deeps of water,
And the flood overwhelms Me. . .
My eyes have grown dim from hoping
In God, My God.
More than are the hairs upon My head
Are those who hate Me without cause."
2. Then, later, He gives the reason of the enmity, His very effort to do good.
"I am become a stranger to My brethren,
And an alien to the sons of My mother.
Because the zeal of Thy house hath eaten Me up,
And the reproaches of Thy reproachers have fallen on Me.
I humbled My soul in fasting,
And it was made a reproach to Me.
I made haircloth My garment,
And I became a byword to them.
They that sat in the gate spoke against Me,
And the wine-bibbers made Me their song.
But as for Me, My prayer is to Thee:
Let mercy one day come."
3. Then comes the second part of this great Psalm: the strong appeal:
"O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy hear Me,
Deliver Me from them that hate Me!
In the truth of Thy salvation draw Me from the mire,
And out of the deep waters!
Let not the flood of water drown Me,
Nor the deep swallow Me up!
Let Me not sink, nor let close over Me
The mouth of the pit!
Hear Me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is kind
For I am in trouble.
Look upon Me in the greatness of Thy tender heart,
Make haste to hear Me.
Come near to My soul and deliver it,
Save Me because of My enemies."
And this is followed by the prophecy:
"Thou knowest My reproach,
My confusion and My shame are in Thy sight.
All they, My oppressors, deride Me,
My heart is broken and in misery.
I looked for compassion, but in vain;
For comfort, and I found none.
They gave Me gall for My food,
And in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink."
He would see this last prophecy fulfilled before He died; now all is done; He has finished the work God gave Him to do.
Summary
1. Our Lord throws us back to the prophecy of Psalm Sixty-eight: first the trouble.
2. Then its cause; He suffers because of His zeal for His Father's house.
3. Then the effect upon Himself; the treatment at the hands of His enemies.
- from The Crown of Sorrow, by Archbishop Alban Goodier