Jesus Would Not Be Anesthetized
7/17 Reading Portions: Joshua 24; Acts 4; Jeremiah 13; Matthew 27
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
7/17 Reading Portions: Joshua 24; Acts 4; Jeremiah 13; Matthew 27
Matthew 27:34
they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when He tasted it, He would not drink it.
VINEGAR
The Lord Jesus not only willingly laid down His life as our atoning Substitute, He also willfully refused any mercy handed to Him by men. As barbaric as crucifixion was, the Romans were at least a little merciful to their victims; by allowing them to drink an intoxicating wine mixed with gall to somewhat ease the agony. The KJV renders the word as “vinegar.” In other words, the grape juice had not only become alcoholic, but it had soured (Luke 23:36). Moreover, this vinegar was mixed with gall, or myrrh (Mark 15:23), further making the concoction a mild, or even a somewhat potent anesthetic, depending upon how much myrrh was added in the mixture. Why did Jesus refuse it? Since He was receiving God’s wrath for our sakes and not for His, He must receive the infinite and eternal justice as the God-Man in full to satisfy the work of propitiating our sins. By the time Jesus went to the cross, He was up all night with His disciples, He was mocked, berated, and beaten during three Jewish trials and three Roman trials. His beard was pulled completely from His face (Isa 50:6) and was finally whipped with a Roman scourge until He was unrecognizable as a human being (Isa 52:14). All this was done so that while Jesus was at His weakest point physically, He would suffer God’s holy and just anger for sins He did not commit. More than that, when He was forsaken by the Father (Psa 22:1; Matt 27:46), Jesus suffered desolation and abandonment as a Son beyond what we could ever conceive because no man, including Adam before the fall, had ever walked as intimately with the heavenly Father as Jesus had (John 1:18; 8:55). So thorough was Christ’s atoning Sacrifice, that when YHVH God looked upon the gift of His Son, seeing “His Offspring” (Isa 53:10), the Father was once again, without explicitly saying so, “well pleased” (Matt 3:17; 17:5). Jesus only took a drink when He had accomplished all to fulfill Scripture (John 19:28-29), the atoning work being satisfied; and having paid our debt in full, Jesus declared as God,
“It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. John 19:30
Hallelujah! What a Savior!