Alas, my brethren, I cannot say much on the score of man's cruelty to our Lord without touching myself and you. We shall perhaps know it in our measure in our dying hour, but not yet, nor ever so terribly as he did. You may think that this remark is not needed; but I have met with one or two cases where it was required; and I have often said I would preach a sermon for even one person, and, therefore, I make this remark, even though it should rebuke but one. The flood of his grief has passed the high-water mark, and began to be assuaged. The last of his last words is also taken from the Scriptures, and shows where his mind was feeding. He derived spiritual refreshment from the winning of that women's heart to himself. By contrast, the Christian faith is built on the . Here is the forgiveness of sin free forgiveness in answer to the Saviour's plea. John 19:1-16 - Glory Mocked and Condemned John 19:17-30 - Glory Crucified John 19:31-42 - Glory Buried A. Jesus is condemned to crucifixion. Come to him in prayer, come to him in fellowship, come to him by perfect consecration, come to him by surrendering your whole being to the sweet mysterious influences of his Spirit. There was nothing behind in the price, but there is something behind in the manifested power, and we must continue to fill up that measure of revealed power, carrying each one of us the cross with Christ, till the last shame shall have been poured upon his cause, and he shall reign for ever and ever. He loved the Gentile, but still Jerusalem was the city of the Great King. 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. What whips of steel for you, what knots of burning wire for you, when conscience shall smite you, when the law shall scourge you with its ten-thonged whip! The arrow which has lately pierced thee, my brother, was first stained with his blood. Commentary on John 19:31-37 (Read John 19:31-37) A trial was made whether Jesus was dead. IV. What a cataract of immortal souls dashes downwards to the pit every hour! 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? When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you; then remember, it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus? Either Christ must die for me, or else I must die for myself the second death; if he did not carry the curse for me, then on me must it rest for ever and ever. Separately or in connection our Master's words overflow with instruction to thoughtful minds: but of all save one I must say, "Of which we cannot now speak particularly." I think, beloved friends, that the cry of "I thirst" was THE MYSTICAL EXPRESSION OF THE DESIRE OF HIS HEART "I thirst." As he commends his spirit into the Father's hand, so does he bring all believers nigh to God, and henceforth we are in the hand of the Father, who is greater than all, and none shall pluck us thence. We may therefore come before him, with all the rest of our race, when God subdues them to repentance by his love, and look on him whom we have pierced, and mourn for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Cover it with a cloak? The most careless eye discerns it. A strong emphasis in Spurgeon's preaching was God's grace and sovereignty over man's helpless state. It was the common place of death. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was born in Essex, England. 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. It is the opinion of some commentators that Simon only carried one end of the cross, and not the whole of it. Have you repented of sin? God forbid! We gave him our tears and then grieved him with our sins. Behold, my King is not without his crown alas, a crown of thorns set with ruby drops of blood! It was, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!" No, no; we must not make a cross of our own. One would have said, If he were thirsty he would not tell us, for all the clouds and rains would be glad to refresh his brow, and the brooks and streams would joyously flow at his feet. 1089 - The Man Greatly Beloved . It is said that a German regiment was at that time stationed in Judea, and I should not wonder if they were the lineal ancestors of those German theologians of modern times who have mocked the Savior, tampered with revelation, and cast the vile spittle of their philosophy into the face of truth. How great the love which led him to such a condescension as this! We do not thirst after the old manner wherein we were bitterly afflicted, for he hath said, "He that drinketh of this water shall never thirst:" but now we covet a new thirst. Exposition of the Gospel according to John by Hendriksen, William, 1900-1982 (1953) 526 pages 19 ratings Beloved, let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, they cannot spare him the agonies of dying on the cross, they will therefore remit the labor of carrying it. It was a thirst such as none of us have ever known, for not yet has the death dew condensed upon our brows. If you will look, there is the mark of his blood-red shoulder upon that heavy cross. I will not say it is because we are unfaithful to our Master that the world is more kind to us, but I half suspect it is, and it is very possible that if we were more thoroughly Christians the world would more heartily detest us, and if we would cleave more closely to Christ we might expect to receive more slander, more abuse, less tolerance, and less favor from men. We are in the world, but we must never be of it; we are not to be secluded like monks in the cloister, but we are to be separated like Jews among Gentiles; men, but not of men; helping, aiding, befriending, teaching, comforting, instructing, but not sinning either to escape a frown or to win a smile. We shall by the assistance of the Holy Spirit try to regard these words of our Saviour in a five-fold light. Next Saturday all eyes will be fixed on a great Prince who shall ride through our streets with his Royal Bride. It is not fit that he should live." You carry the cross after him. Therefore while he thirsts give him to drink this day. A new edition of Spurgeon's classic devotional using the ESV. The conquest of the appetites, the entire subjugation of the flesh, must be achieved, for before our great Exemplar said, "It is finished," wherein methinks he reached the greatest height of all, he stood as only upon the next lower step to that elevation, and said, "I thirst." But how vast was the disparity! It is done. Oh! They are created in the minds of men. "I thirst, but not as once I did, The vain delights of earth to share; Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there. Our sinful tongues, blistered by the fever of passion, must have burned for ever had not his tongue been tormented with thirst in our stead. Romish expositors, who draw upon their prolific fancy for their facts, tell us that he had a rope about his neck with which they roughly dragged him to the tree; this is one of the most probable of their surmises, since it was not unusual for the Romans thus to conduct criminals to the gallows. Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. As Christ went through the streets, a great multitude looked on. It is not sorrow over Rome, but Jerusalem. Alas poor African, thou hast been compelled to carry the cross even until now. John 19 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. 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. Justice must fly the field lest it be severe to so deserving a being; as for punishment, it must not be whispered to his ears polite. Godly working-men, should your employers or your fellow-workers frown upon you; wives, should your husbands threaten to cast you out, remember, without the camp was Jesus' place, and without the camp is yours. Even now to a large extent the true Christian is like a Pariah, lower than the lowest caste, in the judgment of some. 19:1-18 Little did Pilate think with what holy regard these sufferings of Christ would, in after-ages, be thought upon and spoken of by the best and greatest of men. He poureth out the streams that run among the hills, the torrents which rush adown the mountains, and the flowing rivers which enrich the plains. That little rising ground, which perhaps was called Golgotha, the place of a skull, from its somewhat resembling the crown of a man's skull, was the common place of execution. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. NOTICE the connection, or you will miss the meaning of the words; for at first sight it looks as if our Saviour taught us that it John:6:29 The Marvellous Magnet 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. A second mode of treating these seven cries is to view them as setting forth the person and offices of our Lord who uttered them. The sorrow of these good women was a very proper sorrow; Jesus did not by any means forbid it, he only recommended another sorrow as being better; not finding fault with this, but still commending that. "It is finished" is the last word but one, and there you see the perfected Saviour, the Captain of our salvation, who has completed the undertaking upon which he had entered, finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in ever lasting righteousness. I claim for the procession of my Lord an interest superior to the pageant you are now so anxiously expecting. the people saw him in the street, not arrayed in the purple robe, but wearing his garment without seam, woven from the top throughout, the common smock-frock, in fact, of the countrymen of Palestine, and they said at once, "Yes, 'tis he, the man who healed the sick, and raised the dead; the mighty teacher who was wont to sit upon the mountain-top, or stand in the temple courts and preach with authority, and not as the Scribes." Secondly, we shall regard these words, "I thirst," as THE TOKEN OF HIS SUFFERING SUBSTITUTION. 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!" Great and worshipful being that he is, truth is to be altered for him, the gospel is to be modulated to suit the tone of his various generations, and all the arrangements of the universe are to be rendered subservient to his interests. Oh, wondrous substitution of the just for the unjust, of God for man, of the perfect Christ for us guilty, hell-deserving rebels. The sufferings of Christ should make us weep over those who have brought that blood upon their heads. There were, as you know, seven of those last words, and seven is the number of perfection and fulness; the number which blends the three of the infinite God with the four of complete creation. why hast thou forsaken me?" A refined and heavenly appetite, a craving for our Lord. Did we not do so years ago before we knew him? Now Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of his enduring the result of sin. John 19:28 J.R. Thomson This is both the shortest of all the dying utterances of Jesus, and it is the one which is most closely related to himself. Did he not tell his disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?" What knocks he for? He was innocent, and yet he thirsted; shall we marvel if guilty ones are now and then chastened? The Geneva Series of Commentaries include historic commentaries on biblical books written by some of the great theologians in the history of the church. Here, as everywhere else, we are constrained to say of our Lord, "Never man spake like this man." Oh, shame that men should find so much applause for Princes and none for the King of kings. Add to Cart. Commentators like Thomas Manton and John Calvin are represented in this series. Let each of us say "Tis all my business here below To cry, Behold the Lamb!" John 1:30-31. He pitied the sufferer, but he thought so little of him that he joined in the voice of scorn. When they had mocked him they pulled off the purple garment he had worn, this rough operation would cause much pain. Simon was an African; he came from Cyrene. Jesus thirsted, then let us thirst in this dry and thirsty land where no water is. Say not that the comparison is strained, for in a moment I will withdraw it and present the contrast. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" is the first. We will now take the text in a third way, and may the Spirit of God instruct us once again. Sit at his feet with Mary, lean on his breast with John; yea, come with the spouse in the song and say, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine." "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" here we see the Mediator interceding: Jesus standing before the Father pleading for the guilty. You and I have nothing else to preach. I will give you one of his thirsty prayers "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." Jesus is therefore hunted out of the city, beyond the gate, with the will and force of his oven nation, but he journeys not against his own will; even as the lamb goeth as willingly to the shambles as to the meadow, so doth Christ cheerfully take up his cross and go without the camp. The Holy Spirit took special care that each of the sacred utterances should be fittingly recorded. He saw its streets flowing like bloody rivers; he saw the temple naming up to heaven; he marked the walls loaded with Jewish captives crucified by command of Titus; he saw the city razed to the ground and sown with salt, and he said, "Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children, for the day shall come when ye shall say to the rocks, Hide us, and to the mountains, Fall upon us." When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. Oh! The nails were fastened in the most sensitive parts of the body, and the wounds were widened as the weight of his body dragged the nails through his blessed flesh, and tore his tender nerves. Complain not, then. Now we see Jesus brought before the priests and rulers, who pronounce him guilty; God himself imputes our sins to him; he was made sin for us; and, as the substitute for our guilt, bearing our sin upon his shoulders for that cross was a sort of representation in wood of our guilt and doom we see the great Scape-goat led away by the appointed officers of justice. As you look at the cross upon his shoulders does it represent your sin? When our Lord cried, "Eloi, Eloi," and afterwards said, "I thirst," the persons around the cross said, "Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him," mocking him; and, according to Mark, he who gave the vinegar uttered much the same words. O my hearers, beware of praising Jesus and denying his atoning sacrifice. In the former cry, as he opened Paradise, you saw the Son of God; now you see him who was verily and truly born of a women, made under the law; and under the law you see him still, for he honours his mother and cares for her in the last article of death. We can never forget the painful scenes of which we have been witness, when we have watched the dissolving of the human frame. crucify him!" What, then, dear friends, should be the sorrows excited by a view of Christ's sufferings? The last word but one, "It is finished." London shall see the glory of the one: Jerusalem beheld the shame of the other. A few times the sun will go up and down the hill; a few more moons will wax and wane, and then we shall receive the glory. Metaphorically understood, thirst is dissatisfaction, the craving of the mind for something which it has not, but which it pines for. "His way was much rougher and darker than mine; Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?". ye unregenerate men and women, and there are not a few such here now, remember that when God saw Christ in the sinner's place he did not spare him, and when he finds you without Christ, he will not spare you. May we not be half ashamed of our pleasures when he says, "I thirst"? Grant me only thus much of likeness: we have here a Prince with his bride, bearing his banner, and wearing his royal robes, traversing the streets of his own city, surrounded by a throng who shout aloud, and a multitude who gaze with interest profound. I have sometimes met with persons who have suffered much; they have lost money, they have worked hard all their lives, or they have laid for years upon a bed of sickness, and they therefore suppose that because they have suffered so much in this life, they shall thus escape the punishment of sin hereafter. 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. He sipped of the vinegar, and he was refreshed, and no sooner has he thrown off the thirst than he shouted like a conqueror, "It is finished," and quitted the field, covered with renown. In that cry there is reconciliation to God. 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. It is a blow at the fable of purgatory which strikes it to the heart. Nor is this all. Jesus is formally condemned to crucifixion, but before he is led away he is given over to the Praetorian guards that those rough legionaries may insult him. and they smote him with their hands. We would fain lift thy name on high in grateful remembrance of the depths to which thou didst descend! Thoughtful men have drawn a wealth of meaning from them, and in so doing have arranged them into different groups, and placed them under several heads. After preaching his first sermon at the age of 16, he became pastor of the church in Waterbeach at the age of 17. It was most fitting that every word of our Lord upon the cross should be gathered up and preserved. I have already told you that such was our Lord's mystical desire; let it be ours also. Are you so frozen at heart that not a cup of cold water can be melted for Jesus? Jesus, being a man, escaped none of the ills which are allotted to man in death. The reed was no mere rush from the brook, it was of a stouter kind, of which easterns often make walkingstaves, the blows were cruel as well as insulting; and the crown was not of straw but thorn, hence it produced pain as well as pictured scorn. Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in that point our Lord was put to pain. Once again, as we think of this "I thirst," which proves our Lord's humanity, let us resolve to shun no denials, but rather court them that we may be conformed to his image. You have, then, no true sympathy for Christ if you have not an earnest sympathy with those who would win souls for Christ. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." His wounds unstaunched and raw, fresh bleeding from beneath the lash, would make this scarlet robe adhere to him, and when it was dragged off; his gashes would bleed anew. "I thirst," ay, this is my soul's word with her Lord. 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