The Death of Jesus

May 14th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Matthew 27:48, 50 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink… 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

In Psalms 22 and 69 (circa 1000 BC), David penned the prophetic words that Jesus would fulfill on the cross. He cried out to God, saying, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws... You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; all my adversaries are before You. Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (22:15; 69:19-21).

The scene David described was played out in Jesus’ passion right down to the letter, fulfilled during the closing moments of His life. Though Matthew does not record it, John says that the reason someone came to Jesus with a sponge filled with sour wine was because He said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). Of course Jesus’ thirst is logical. After His vicious scourging, He had endured at least six hours of unimaginable suffering on the cross. Add to that the loss of blood and the shock His body was enduring, Jesus would have been extremely dehydrated. He needed a drink because He had something important to say before willingly giving up His spirit.

Jesus was no feeble man robbed of His wits. In fact, He was controlling each moment of His suffering. While His followers mourned, thinking that their Messiah and Lord was leaving them, He was working for them! John 19: 28 says that Jesus knew that “all things had already been accomplished” (cf. 17:4). This is an odd thing for John to write with a past tense verb given that Jesus had not yet died, risen from the dead, or ascended into heaven. But John knew, in hindsight, that God’s will is accomplished even before it has come to completion in man’s eyes.

The only thing left for Jesus to do at that time was die. Before doing so, He announced that He was thirsty in order to whet his whistle, have sour wine offered to Him (Ps. 69:21), and cry out one final proclamation. Though the Synoptics do not record what Jesus said, John’s Gospel says Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished!”—literally paid in full. So, in calling for a drink, Jesus put in motion the fulfillment of Psalm 69:21. Having previously refused the dulling sedative of wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23), now, in order to fulfill David’s prophecy and reveal Himself as the Christ, Jesus drank the sour wine in order to announce the payment for sin in full.

“It is finished” is a perfect tense verb (Gr. tetelestai) signifying a full completion of a given task with no further work needing to be done. This Greek word has been found in ancient papyri on tax receipts that had been paid in full. Therefore, it was a common word used in Koine Greek to signify one’s full payment of taxes. This is foundational in relation to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, for Jesus paid man’s sin debt in full! So Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient and lacks nothing. His shout was the triumphant cry of victory from the God-man, Jesus Christ, who had fully accomplished the work of man’s redemption—having lived man’s life and died his death. So in His death Jesus willingly gave up His spirit in His perfect time.

Food for Thought
What an insult to God to assume that we can add to Christ’s finished work! It is finished means that we can add nothing to what Christ did for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins in full with His death. There is nothing to add to it, and the very idea that we can add something to it actually cheapens it. We simply receive Christ by faith for salvation. No works are needed, and none are accepted. Whatever we offer God beyond our faith is simply worship. So let us offer our lives as a living sacrifice unto God for what He has done for us through Jesus Christ!