Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, grant us to understand Your atoning suffering and to taste Your love. Amen.
Texts: John 19:28-29, Psalm 22:14-15, Psalm 69:21
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 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. … I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. … They also gave Me gall for My food, And for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.
All the wicked things which sin has brought in on us, Christ endured without asking for relief from men. The snares of death surrounded Him, the foods of the ungodly terrified Him, the sorrows of death overwhelmed Him, the water came over His soul, the foods overwhelmed Him. The Lord’s terror and fears came over Him, anger burned Him like fire. God forsook Him, but He held on to God. Filled with the sense of God’s wrath, being forsaken by God, and the torments of death, He still looked to God and remained in faith on the rock of God’s promises. What is written in the Psalms and the Prophets is His strength and hope, not to free Him from death – for that He should and would suffer with all its pain and torments – but to suffer it quietly and patiently and hold on to God in the midst of the fullest feelings of forsakenness and the darkness of death. First and foremost for Him, for the sake of His faith, it is written in the 22nd Psalm: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?” If He had not had such words of Scripture to cling to, then He could not have gone through death and become the Prince of our faith as He did.
But it is written also for the sake of our faith and for that reason He spoke these words. We should see that the Scriptures about the Messiah’s sufferings are fulfilled in Him in every detail. So also Psalm 22:14-15, 69:21, and therefore He now says: “I thirst.” If His torment of soul reaches its height with the previous words, then here we hear the expression of His most severe physical pain. For five or six hours He has hung on the cross. His wounds are burning; His blood is poured out. “He is poured out like water, And all His bones are out of joint; His heart is like wax; It has melted within Him.” Dryness and thirst overwhelm Him. But His faith and love gain the victory. When He receives the vinegar mixed with gall, it is the last drink God’s Son takes on earth. No one has anything else to give Him in death. I will be silent, my friend, and let the Holy Spirit Himself explain this to you.
Closing Prayer
But You, precious Savior, be eternally praised and honored! The living streams of paradise are Yours, but You thirst unto death and drink vinegar for my sinful pleasures, so that You can give me the water of grace while I live, the cup of comfort when I die, and the sweet and saving drink of eternal life in heaven. I say again from my whole heart: Praised be Your sweet name, Jesus! Amen.
Hymn
In Jesus I find rest and peace –
The world is full of sorrow;
His wounds are my abiding place;
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring what it may, There I can stay,
My faith finds all I need today,
I will not trouble borrow.
Until I found that crystal spring,
My way was dull and dreary;
I looked for peace in many a thing;
But still my soul grew weary.
Unsatisfied, All things I tried,
And yet my soul had not espied
The fount of life so near me.
In pity, then, Thou cam’st to me,
Thine arms to me extending;
I heard Thy voice: Come unto Me
And rest in peace unending.
Immanuel Loves thee full well,
He saves thy soul from death and hell,
In perils thee defending.
Unknown Danish author: L 298:1.2.4 ELH 437:1.2.4 tr. G. A. T. Rygh;
tune: I Jesu søger jeg min Fred