Daily Devotions
Luke
Luke 23:32-49; John 19:28-30; Mark 15:35-36; Isaiah 53 "THE THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUFFERING OF JESUS"
Day 327 – Luke 23
Text: Luke 23:32-49; John 19:28-30; Mark 15:35-36; Isaiah 53
THE THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUFFERING OF JESUS
It is impossible to tell just how much Jesus must have suffered emotionally and spiritually, when He was crucified. Who can measure how much suffering He must have endured when His enemies nailed Him to a cruel cross?
The words of Isaiah must come back to remind us just why He had to suffer as much as He did.
1. He suffered for our transgressions and our iniquities
“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
2. He suffered as an offering for sin
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin.
By His knowledge My Righteous Servant
Shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.”
Isaiah 53:10-11
3. His suffering was not in vain
“Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many
And made intercession for the transgressors.”
Isaiah 53:12
Jesus did indeed pour out His soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors; two robbers were crucified with Him. Even as He suffered, He made intercession for the transgressors, saying, “Father, forgive them…”
Through the suffering of Jesus, He justified many, bearing their iniquities on Himself. This aspect of the suffering of Jesus is impossible to measure!
We can only bow our heads in shame and in abject humility that Jesus had to endure as much as He did, just to redeem us. Perhaps, we never fully understood just how heinous sin is in the sight of God!
THE FIFTH WORD: “I THIRST” John 19:28
Perhaps it is a little easier to understand the kind of physical suffering that Jesus endured. At the outset of the crucifixion, Mark noted Jesus was offered a wine that could have dulled the pain that would come from being nailed to the cross.
“Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh
to drink, but He did not take it.”
Mark 15:23
Jesus might not have spoken all that He said, had He taken this drugged wine. His senses could have been dulled too much to pray for people, to speak to His mother and His disciple whom He loved, and to offer a word of consolation to the thief crucified next to Him.
The hours passed slowly, each hour adding to the agony that He endured. He had gone without sleep all this while. He was arrested at night in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had to endure being marched from one court scene to another for at least six times! Finally at 6.00am in the morning, Pilate gave sentence that Jesus was to be crucified (John 19:14 – John used Roman time while Matthew and Mark measured time according to Jewish calculation).
The physical abuse that Jesus suffered under the hands of soldiers, the scourging, the crown of thorns forced on His head – these took a great toll on Him. But Jesus bore all these things silently.
John noted what Jesus said, perhaps because he stood quite near His cross with Mary, his new-found mother. Jesus’ work was almost done. He was now able to say, tiredly,
“I thirst!”
John 19:28
Mark noted a response to this plea for a drink of water,
“Then someone ran and filled a sponge
full of sour wine, put it on a reed,
and offered it to Him to drink, saying
‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah
will come to take Him down.’ “
Mark 15:36 (Cf. John 19:29)
This drink was different from the first one that was offered to Jesus earlier. “Sour wine” was essentially a cheap drink that many partook daily. This vessel could well be the drink that the soldiers would have used to quench their thirst.
John made this observation in his gospel.
“Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there;
and they filled a sponge with sour wine,
put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.”
John 19:29
Wouldn’t it have been kinder to give him the first drink? Jesus might have refused it the second time round, but that would have been kinder.
The sour wine would be what the soldiers drank. That was meant to slake thirst, but that would also mean reviving Jesus to a fresh wave of pain. The words recorded in Mark’s Gospel would suggest that the giving of the sour wine was not done out of kindness at all.
The people who had offered Jesus the drink had heard Him saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani…” and had mistaken that to mean Elijah was being called upon for help. Would Elijah indeed come to His rescue? The sense of unbelief is so thick that it is unlikely that this sentence could suggest any kind of faith.
A HINT OF THE PHYSICAL PAIN THAT JESUS MUST HAVE ENDURED
One of the Messianic Psalms sought to describe how Jesus felt physically,
“My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.”
Psalm 22:15
The physical abuse that Jesus endured had indeed taken a terrible toll on Jesus. His strength was all but gone. He was so thirsty that His tongue clung to His jaws. In other words, He could barely speak. He was so parched. He was brought to the very dust of death!
HOW WOULD YOU HAVE RESPONDED TO JESUS?
If you were His tormentor, would you give Him a drink at all? If you were an enemy, you might give Him a drink, only to deepen His pain, or prolong the agony felt.
But if you were one of those who loved Him, how would you have responded as He said those heart-wrenching words, “I thirst”?
If you were prevented from coming too close to Jesus, because of security reasons, and you saw an enemy giving to Jesus sour wine, how would you have felt?
What is the worth of the words of a dying person? Would you have tried your very best to honour those words? What if those were the few last words that Jesus spoke on the Cross.
Jesus had always given. He had always sought to bless. He had fed the multitudes, on two occasions. Now, He was thirsty, and they only gave Him the common, sour wine of the soldiers!
“THE GRACE OF GOD THAT BRINGS SALVATION…” Titus 2:11
Our salvation was blood bought. Let us learn how to treasure the salvation that Jesus has given to us. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to Titus.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared to all men…
Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us
From every lawless deed and purify for Himself
His own special people, zealous for good works.”