THE KING’S BUSINESS
547
and by the weight of man’s sin, Jesus for gets Himself and His pain, and thinks of her He loved, His mother. The sword is now. piercing through her soul, just as it was prophesied that it would (Luke 2:35) and Jesus turns to her to comfort her. Up to that moment He had looked after her. Now, humanly spèaking, she will need another. Her own children are not fitted for the work, for as yet they did not believe on Jesus (ch. 7:5). Who then shall look after her? Among the whole company of our Lord’s disciples there is none so fit as John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Jesus gave a last proof of His love to that disciple by committing to him His most sacred trust. How tenderly John must have carried out that trust. Now and again in the Gospel that he wrote so many years afterwards we find little touches that must have resulted from his intimate acquaint ance with the mother of Jesus and from her telling him things that she had seen and known. John who is writing the Gospel does not tell us here, nor does he tell us anywhere, who “the disciple whom Jesus loved” was. Never once is his own name mentioned in the Gospel, nor the name of his brothers, nor mother, though they are mentioned in the other Gospels. Whenever a John is mentioned it is John the Baptist. How wonderfully he sank himself out of sight and what a clear indi cation it is that this Gospel was really written by John. If someone who was not John the disciple had written the Gos pel with the desire to make people think that it was by John when it was not, he certainly would not have taken this means of doing it. vs. 28-30. "After this, Jesus (A fter this Jesus,) knowing that oil things were now accomplished (are now finished), that the Scripture might be accomplished (ful filled), saith, I thirst. Now there was set (There was set there) a vessel, (omit ,) full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it (so they put a sponge full of vinegar) upon hyssop, and put (brought) it to His mouth. When
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished, and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost (His spirit).” The wonderful prophetic picture found in Psalms and Prophets of the coming suffer ing Messiah is fulfilled down to the small est detail. In the picture that we have of this suffering One in the 69th Psalm, 21st verse, we read “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” and Jesus now says “I thirst” and He is given vinegar to drink, fulfilling the prophecy so many hundred years old, to the very letter. And then comes that wonderful utterance of our Lord before He gives up His spirit, viz. “IT IS FINISHED”. What was finished? (1) His own sufferings were finished. From the beginning of His ministry the shadow of the cross darkened the Saviour’s life. Now it was all over. The dread hor ror of all these years was over at last. There is no longer suffering and shame before Him, but joy and glory. Thank God! ( 2 ) The mission upon which the Father had sent Him into this world was finished. The Father had given the Son a certain work to accomplish (John 5:36). It was His very meat to finish this work which the Father gave Him to do (John 4:34). Now the death by which that work was to be completed was right at the door and in anticipation of the completion of that work on the cross Jesus cried “It is finished. ’ (3) The prophecies concerning the sufferings and death of the Messiah (things into which angels and the prophets themselves had desired to look, ( 1 Peter 1:11-13), were finished. This is the imme diate thought of the context (note vs. 28, 29). The Old Testament prophets, cen turies before, had set forth step by step the sufferings the coming Messiah would meet in redeeming His people. One by one Jesus had fulfilled the details of those Old Testament prophecies. The last pre diction of the long list of sufferings and dishonor which Jesus had doubtless often conned until they were indelibly printed upon His mind was fulfilled and with a cry of relief He exclaims, “It is finished.”
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker