“I thirst” (John 19:28). And no wonder. From the flogging He had received (John 19:1), not to mention having His hands and feet nailed to the cross (John 19:18), Jesus had lost a lot of blood, which caused Him to have a raging thirst. But all His tormentors gave Him was sour wine to drink (John 19:29). To say that He suffered is truly an understatement.

“Woman, behold your son” (John 19:26). The sad truth is that, as He went to the cross, Jesus gave up not only His life and health, but all the human relationships that we hold so dear. And of course, He gave up every shred of dignity, as those who crucified Him gambled to see who would take His shirt home (John 19:24).

But John reminds us that even such a callous display of disregard only served to fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures. For in Psalm 22, David not only foresaw the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ clothes (Psalm 22:18), but also the nails that pierced His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16), and even Jesus’ exhaustion and thirst (Psalm 22:14-15). Yes, one thousand years beforehand, David knew that God the Father would forsake God the Son (Psalm 22:1) in words that both Matthew and Mark record Jesus crying out as He died – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)

But in the last words that John records from the cross, Jesus explained why He had to go through all of this: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus had to suffer all that pain, all that loneliness, and all that humiliation in order to finish, to pay in full the debt, the penalty that all our sins have earned. But because Jesus died on the cross, there is nothing any of us need to do to add to His saving work. It is finished for all who trust Him as Savior and bow the knee to Him as Lord.

So, even as we rest in His saving grace, let us thank Him for His tremendous sacrifice as we seek to obey the One Who is not only the King of Jews (John 19:19), but the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). Surely, the One Who gave up everything for us deserves nothing less.

John 19:17-30 (ESV)

So they took Jesus,
17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.'”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom,
24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.