V. Lastly, the cry of "I thirst" is to us THE PATTERN OF OUR DEATH WITH HIM. Shall the servant be above his Master, or the disciple above his Lord? Come let us pour out full flagons, until his joy is fulfilled in us. The "I thirst" was the bearing of the last pang; what if I say it was the expression of the fact that his pangs had at last begun to cease, and their fury had spent itself, and left him able to note his lessor pains? It was most fitting that every word of our Lord upon the cross should be gathered up and preserved. Spurgeon left this earth for his heavenly hope in 1892. I cannot give you more than a mere taste of this rich subject, but I have been most struck with two ways of regarding our Lord's last words. Come hither, ye lovers of Immanuel, and I will show you this great sight the King of sorrow marching to his throne of grief, the cross. That impenitent thief went from the cross of his great agony and it was agony indeed to die on a cross he went to that place, to the flames of hell; and you, too, may go from the bed of sickness, and from the abode of poverty, to perdition, quite as readily as from the home of ease and the house of plenty. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. souls, I do beseech you, by the agonies of Christ, by his wounds and by his blood, do not bring upon yourselves the curse; do not bear in your own persons the awful wrath to come! 1. Therefore while he thirsts give him to drink this day. Amen. Metaphorically understood, thirst is dissatisfaction, the craving of the mind for something which it has not, but which it pines for. Hail, everlasting King in heaven, thou dost admit to thy paradise whomsoever thou wilt! We thought sometimes that we loved him as we heard the story of his death, but we did not change our lives for his sake, nor put our trust in him, and so we gave him vinegar to drink. The woes which broke the Savior's heart must crush theirs. Did not the high-priest bring the scape-goat, and put both his hands upon its head, confessing the sins of the people, that thus those sins might be laid upon the goat? Henceforth, also, let us cultivate the spirit of resignation, for we may well rejoice to carry a cross which his shoulders have borne before us. Well, then, what means this cry, "I thirst," but this, that we should thirst too? Our glorious Samson had been fighting our foes; heaps upon heaps he had slain his thousands, and now like Samson he was sore athirst. The soldiery mocked and insulted him in every way that cruelty and scorn could devise. Oh! Then comes the "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" All this is a blessed clog upon us, and a means of keeping us more near the Lord. We should love the cross, and count it very dear, because it works out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Christ does exempt you from sin, but not from sorrow; he does take the curse of the cross, but he does not take the cross of the curse away from you. I claim for the procession of my Lord an interest superior to the pageant you are now so anxiously expecting. That man is a fool and deserves no pity, who purposely excites the disgust of other people. For a biblical, reformed, and historic collection of commentaries, the Geneva Series is unsurpassed. 1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. In the same song he speaks of his church, and says, "The roof of thy mouth is as the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." The utterance of "I thirst" brought out A TYPE OF MAN'S TREATMENT OF HIS LORD. Will your Prince be sumptuously arrayed? The last expiring word in which he commended his spirit to his Father, is the note of acceptance for himself and for us all. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. "We, whose proneness to forget Thy dear love, on Olivet Bathed thy brow with bloody sweat; "We whose sins, with awful power, Like a cloud did o'er thee lower, In that God-excluding hour; "We, who still, in thought and dead, Often hold the bitter reed To thee, in thy time of need.". Oh! May the Holy Spirit often lead us to glean therein. He thirsted to pluck us from between the jaws of hell, to pay our redemption price, and set us free from the eternal condemnation which hung over us; and when on the cross the work was almost done his thirst was not assuaged, and could not be till he could say, "It is finished." Add to Cart. John 19:28 . Let us muse upon the fact that Jesus was conducted without the gates of the city. sinner, if God hides his face from Christ, how much less will he spare you! They would be very proper, very proper; God forbid that we should stay them, except with the gentle words of Christ, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me." Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. why hast thou forsaken me?" We all know that a different dress will often raise a doubt about the identity of an individual; but lo! Your heir of royalty is magnificently drawn along the streets in his stately chariot, sitting at his ease: my princely sufferer walks with weary feet, marking the road with crimson drops; not borne, but bearing; not carried, but carrying his cross. I am ashamed of some professed Christians, heartily ashamed of them! Remember, dear friends, that what Christ suffered for us, these unregenerate ones must suffer for themselves, except they put their trust in Christ. Nor is this all. Did not the prophecies say that man would give to his incarnate God gall to eat and vinegar to drink? " And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. What a cataract of immortal souls dashes downwards to the pit every hour! The power to suffer for another, the capacity to be self-denying even to an extreme to accomplish some great work for God this is a thing to be sought after, and must be gained before our work is done, and in this Jesus is before us our example and our strength. We are not sure that Simon was a disciple of Christ; he may have been a friendly spectator; yet one would think the Jews would naturally select a disciple if they could. points to the anguish of his soul; "I thirst" expresses in part the torture of his body; and they were both needful, because it is written of the God of justice that he is "able to destroy both soul and body in hell," and the pangs that are due to law are of both kinds, touching both heart and flesh. A new edition of Spurgeon's classic devotional using the ESV. London shall see the glory of the one: Jerusalem beheld the shame of the other. Barrabas may go free; the thief and the murderer may be spared; but for Christ there is no word, but "Away with such a fellow from the earth! John, the gospel of faith by Harrison, Everett Falconer, 1902- from Everyman's Bible Commentary series. The great agony of being forsaken by God was over, and he felt faint when the strain was withdrawn. How truly man he is; he is, indeed, "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," for he bears our infirmities. There can be no shadow of doubt but that our Lord was really crucified, and no one substituted for him. May the Holy Ghost help us to hear a fourth tuning of the dolorous music, "I thirst." "His way was much rougher and darker than mine; Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?". For the thousands of eyes which shall gaze upon the youthful Prince, I offer the gaze of men and angels. "Deliver him to the tormentors," was the word of the king in the parable; it shall be fulfilled to you "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The lictors executed their cruel office upon his shoulders with their rods and scourges, until the stripes had reached the full number. Let the sympathy of Christ, then, be fully believed in and deeply appreciated, since he said, "I thirst." As for yourselves, thirst after perfection. There is bread upon your table to-day, and there will be at least a cup of cold water to refresh you. Let us magnify and bless our Redeemer's name. are they not more like sharp vinegar? Calvary was like our Old Bailey; it was the usual place of execution for the district. Fathers and confessors, preachers and divines have delighted to dwell upon every syllable of these matchless cries. They place the cross upon Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country. Coming fresh from the country, not knowing what was going on, he joined with the mob, and they made him carry the cross. Hate sin, and heartily loathe it; but thirst to be holy as God is holy, thirst to be like Christ, thirst to bring glory to his sacred name by complete conformity to his will. Go ye, then, like the Master, expecting to be abused, to wear an ill-name, and to earn reproach; go ye, like him, without the camp. I think that Roman soldier meant well, at least well for a rough warrior with his little light and knowledge. Among other things methinks he meant this "If I, the innocent substitute for sinners, suffer thus, what will be done when the sinner himself the dry tree whose sins are his own, and not merely imputed to him, shall fall into the hands of an angry God." I suppose that the "I thirst" was uttered softly, so that perhaps only one and another who stood near the cross heard it at all; in contrast with the louder cry of "Lama sabachthani" and the triumphant shout of "It is finished": but that soft, expiring sigh, "I thirst," has ended for us the thirst which else, insatiably fierce, had preyed upon us throughout eternity. We do not know what may have been the color of alimony face, but it was most likely black. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was born in Essex, England. "Women, behold thy son!" He who stood in our stead has finished all his work, and now his spirit comes back to the Father, and he brings us with him. I saw the other day the emblem of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and if I carry it a little beyond the artist's intention the symbol may set forth appetite swallowing up itself. Will ye raise a clamor of tumultuous shouting? The last of his last words is also taken from the Scriptures, and shows where his mind was feeding. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou ? This very plainly sets forth the true and proper humanity of Christ, who to the end recognised his human relationship to Mary, of whom he was born. The world has in former days counted it God's service to kill the saints. Those pictures which represent our Lord as wearing the crown of thorns upon the tree have therefore at least some scriptural warrant. Dear friend, if you think that you suffer all that a Christian can suffer; if all God's billows roll over you, yet, remember, there is not one drop of wrath in all your sea of sorrow. They put on him his own clothes that the multitudes might discern him to be the same man, the very man who had professed to be the Messias. By contrast, the Christian faith is built on the . Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. These are silken days, and religion fights not so stern a battle. Have you prayed for your fellow men? He also knew well the terrible joy that comes only through suffering as he lived quite afflicted (both by illness and slander). Jesus said, "I thirst," and this is the complaint of a man. Behold, my King is not without his crown alas, a crown of thorns set with ruby drops of blood! So he was thirsting then. I cannot think that natural thirst was all he felt. This is a kind of sweet whereof if a man hath much he must have more, and when he hath more he is under a still greater necessity to receive more, and so on, his appetite for ever growing by that which it feeds upon, till he is filled with all the fulness of God. John 18:19-40 - Glory on Trial A. who would stand in your place, ye richest, ye merriest, ye most self-righteous sinners who would stand in your place when God shall say, "Awake O sword against the rebel, against the man that rejected me; smite him, and let him feel the smart for ever!" What but for the juice of the vine that he might be refreshed? I wonder he has ever received them, as one marvels why he received this vinegar; and yet he has received them, and smiled upon us for presenting them. And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." If he carried all the cross, yet he only carried the wood of it; he did not bear the sin which made it such a load. Some of us, indeed, confess that, if we had read this narrative of suffering in a romance, we should have wept copiously, but the story of Christ's sufferings does not cause the excitement and emotion one would expect. The Holy Spirit took special care that each of the sacred utterances should be fittingly recorded. Usually the crier went before with an announcement such as this, "This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, who for making himself a King, and stirring up the people, has been condemned to die." When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid: It shows he was afraid all along the coward the vacillating coward and now a fresh superstition seizes upon him. Do we not see here the truth of that which was set forth in shadow by the scape-goat? Then thy sin lies not on thee; not one single ounce or drachma of it lies on thee; it has all been transferred by blessed imputation to Christ, and he bears it on his shoulder in the form of yonder heavy cross. Then the goat was led away by a fit man into the wilderness, and it carried away the sins of the people, so that if they were sought for, they could not be found. No blood but that which He has spilt, no groans but those which came from His heart, no suffering but that which was endured by Him, can ever make a recompense for sin. His most fruitful years of ministry were at the New Park Street and later the Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit in London. Glorious stoop of our exalted Head! Cover it with a cloak? As Christ went through the streets, a great multitude looked on. Exposition of the Gospel according to John by Hendriksen, William, 1900-1982 (1953) 526 pages 19 ratings There are no passages in all the public ministry of Jesus so tender as those which have regard to Jerusalem. Nay more; he is banished from their society, as if he were a leper whose breath would be infectious whose presence would scatter plague. IV. What was he looking for from his vineyard and its winepress? He wants you brother, he wants you, dear sister, he longs to have you wholly to himself. Is not this a fertile field of thought? He must love, it is his nature. According to the sacred canticle of love, in the fifth chapter of the Song of Songs, we learn that when he drank in those olden times it was in the garden of his church that he was refreshed. John 1 19-51 Spurgeon's Bible Commentary John 1:19-51 John 1:19. In the multitude there was a sparse sprinkling of tender-hearted women, probably those who had been healed, or whose children had been blessed by him. Holy Scripture remains the basis of our faith, established by every word and act of our Redeemer. and they smote him with their hands. Some of them have no objection to worship with a poor congregation till they grow rich, and then, forsooth, they must go with the world's church, to mingle with fashion and gentility. Established by every word of our DEATH with him and Levites from to! Through suffering as he lived quite afflicted ( both by illness and slander ) may have been the of... The craving of the vine that he might be refreshed Christian faith is on! 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