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The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ Seen from the Old Testament (3)
by Samson Hutagalung

He is given Vinegar and Gall (Ps. 69:21; ref. Rom. 15:3; Matt. 27:34)

When the Lord Jesus Christ was hung on the cross, hatred and mockery toward Him never ceased. His enemies were not satisfied spiting and smiting Him while He was in their hands, they continued expressing their hatred even when He was on the cross.

For six hours Christ was hanging on the cross with His wounded body facing the heart of the sun. How terrible the pain that He bore must have been to pay the penalty for our sins! It was at this time that He spoke His last words in a loud voice saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” (Mark 15:35), as an expression of the great pain He experienced. When the soldiers heard Him crying, one of them gave Him a sponge full of vinegar to drink (Mark 15:36; Matt 27:34). How painful it must have been when the vinegar flowed from His mouth onto His wounded body for He could not drink.[22] Nonetheless soon after this event, Jesus “cried with the loud voice and gave up the ghost” (v.37). He died a very terrible death.

Again, nothing is accidental in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Psalmist records this terrible real event saying, “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps. 69:21). Based on this study, it is important to take note what John the apostle said concerning the prophecy about this event. Calvin put it in another way,

But still the Apostle John justly declares that this Scripture was fulfilled when the soldiers gave Christ vinegar to drink upon the cross (John xix:28-30;) for it was requisite that whatever cruelty the reprobate exercise towards the members of Christ, should by a visible sign be represented in Christ himself.[23]

His Prayer for His Enemies (Ps. 109:4; ref. Luke 23:34)

The love of God toward sinners is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. What the Lord had required of man had been accomplished and fulfilled by Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. He kept all the commandments of God and led a holy life despite the sinful world which surrounded Him. Whichever commandment the first Adam had failed to keep, had been perfectly kept by the Messiah even unto death on the cross. He was obedient and faithful to finish His course and mission as His Father commended Him. This act of obedience is often called the Active and Passive obedience of Christ.

One proof that shows the endurance of Jesus Christ to finish His course is seen clearly while He was still hung on the cross. Despite the excruciating pain He bore on the cross, He gave Himself unto prayer for those enemies that were still waiting for His death. There was not a thought of revenge in His heart, but rather He saw the sinfulness and the sorrow of those enemies, living without God and obeying God. He prayed to His Father saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).[24] As Lockyer rightly said,

For the pains Jesus received, He responded with prayers for those who ill-treated Him; He met indignities with intercession, suffering with supplication. He had taught His disciples to pray for those who would despitefully treat them: and at the Cross, He practiced what He had preached. What incomparable magnanimity! . . . He never paid people back in their own coin. He overcame evil with good. It takes much grace to kiss the hand that wounds. Retaliation was not in our Lord’s vocabulary.[25]

How great the love of God toward sinners is! The intercessional prayer He offered to His father revealed that He had a very earnest longing for His persecutors to have another chance to repent of their sins. Jesus knew without this opportunity, His enemies would never taste victorious living and have eternal life. They will be lost in their sins and die without knowing their Messiah.[26] This act of offering intercessional prayer was clearly predicted by the Psalmist when he said “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer” (Ps. 109:4).

Soldiers Gambled for His garment (Ps. 22:18; ref. Matt. 27:35-36)

When the Messiah was being crucified on the cross, the women who followed Jesus were watching from afar with tears and lamentation while the Jewish leaders were rejoicing on seeing the Messiah on the cross, and the soldiers gambling for His garments. These people did not realize that what they were doing was actually fulfilling what the Scriptures said in the Old Testament books. How perfect the plan of God was, as can be seen from all these events being fulfilled and recorded for us!

The Psalmist ten centuries before Christ came in the form of a servant was able to note down the events that will occur during the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary. He said, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (Ps. 22:18). The Omniscience God revealed this truth through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost given the Psalmist and through the Omnipotence of God fulfilled this prophecy as recorded in the four gospels.[27] In particular Matthew recorded the account of the crucifixion of Christ in Matthew 27:35 “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” Thus, the gambling for the garments of Jesus was no doubt a fulfillment of the prophecy of David in the book of Psalm.

David expressed the condition of the Messiah in His first coming as the poor Servant of God. His last garment of earthly possession was gambled for the soldiers. Thus, when He came to this world He was absolutely poor in order that those who believed in Him might be rich.[28] As Lockyer rightly added, “The clothes Jesus wore were His only possession in the world, yet even these were taken from Him. Those coarse, heartless soldiers might have had the decency to leave His seamless robe to hide His emaciated body.”[29]

He is Forsaken by God (Ps. 22:1; ref. Matt. 27:46)

It was in the dark hour when the Messiah bore the sins of the world. In His last three hours of crucifixion the world was coved with darkness, and Jesus was facing the darkest situation as He bore all the sins of this world.[30] He was sinless and yet was made sin for us that man might be reconciled with God and that man might have direct access to God. Truly the suffering Jesus bore on our behalf was indescribable agony.

When Jesus Christ was being hung on the cross, He felt the loneliness. He was alone bearing the sins of the world. The multitudes that had seen the miracles He performed, the sick that had received healing from Him and His own disciples, had all forsaken Him, and left Him alone to be spat upon and smitten. The agonies of Jesus were great and indescribable when His own Father forsook Him. As Lockyer said, “It was heart-rending enough for Jesus to have disciples forsake Him and flee; but to be forsaken by His own Father was surely the crown of His anguish.”[31] God the Father forsook Him not in the sense that He stopped loving His Son but rather because He was the sin-bearer. Lockyer again commented,

The face of God was turned, not so much from His Son in whom He always delighted, but from what His Son was bearing, namely, the sin of a lost world, for He was of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. “God made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin.” Thus, it was more from Christ as the sin-bearer than from His actual Son that the Father hid His face. The strange enigma of God-forsakenness can only be understood in the light of Christ’s mediatorial office.[32]

Matthew knew that God the Father forsaking His Son (Matt. 27:46) was surely the fulfillment of what the Psalmist had prophesied when He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Ps. 22:1). It was the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross when He bore all the sins of the world.

He Has No Bones Broken (Ps. 34:20; ref. John 19:32-33,36)

After six hours hanging on the cross suffering intense agonies, the time had come when Jesus Christ must die. He died a terrible death. He had finished His work and accomplished perfectly what His Father had commanded Him then when Jesus said, “it is finished.”

It was on a Friday afternoon when the Lord Jesus Christ finished His work of Salvation. Since then, every believer in Him has direct access to the Father. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of man and for this reason He came to this world to accomplish what God the Father had planned for His people. Because Friday was a day of preparation for the Sabbath, the soldiers must remove the body of Christ from the cross. And when they saw Jesus had died they did not break His legs whereas the two persons crucified together with Him had their legs broken by the soldiers (John 19:32-33,36). The explanation is that if the person has not died yet, his legs must be broken to ensure death so that they could bury him before the Sabbath comes. It was the custom of the Jews that nobody can do works, including burial on the Sabbath.[33]

Why didn’t the soldiers break the legs of Jesus Christ? The answer was that God the Father kept His word. The prophecy that says, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Ps. 34:20) must be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The intense agonies that He suffered were much worse than the two criminals hung together with Him. Nevertheless what was written in the Scriptures must be fulfilled. As Lockyer said,

While it is true that onlookers saw His bones protruding from His naked and emaciated body- “I may tell all my bones; they look and stare upon me”- yet in a miraculous way not a bone of the suffering Messiah was broken, even although some were out of joint. God kept His word, no bone of His Son was broken. But His bones waxed old through His roaring all the day long. It was a miracle of divine providence that Jesus was already dead when the soldiers came to club Him and thus hasten His death and the sooner remove His body from the cross.[34]

His Side is Pierced (Zech. 12:10; ref. John 19:34,37)

Having seen that the Lord Jesus Christ was dead, the soldiers did not break his legs or any bone as prophesied by the Psalmist. On the other hand, the prophet Zechariah prophesied about this same occasion describing the action taken by the soldiers toward Jesus Christ. He said, “. . . and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness of his firstborn” (Zech. 12:10). The context of the verse explains the promise of God concerning the repentance of the Jews despite the long time they had been provoking God.[35] This same verse prophesies the piercing of their Messiah.       

When the apostle John wrote his gospel, he did see that the incident of the piercing of the Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament.[36] John recorded, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34).[37] This soldier was not content just to know that Jesus Christ was dead, he nevertheless pierced Him with a spear.

The crucifixion of Christ was a terrible mode of death. The great pain and torture that He experienced had caused Him to die sooner than the two criminals. As Lockyer commented,

Not only was it punctured by the soldier’s sword thrust, but the extreme mental and spiritual torture was so great that His heart was ruptured before the point of the sword pierced it. Appearance of blood and water indicated that the lymphatic fluid apparently had separated from the red blood, producing “blood and water.[38]

He is Buried with the Rich (Is. 53:9; ref. Matt. 27:57-60)

The death of the Messiah was a very painful death in order to pay the penalty for our sins. Despite the loneliness and His disciples and the Father forsaking Him in the time of His burial, He “was given an honorable burial after his dishonorable death because of his perfect innocence.”[39] The Lord Jesus was worthy to receive such honor. In fact prophet Isaiah had recorded through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ would be buried by a rich man after His death (Is. 53:9).

Who was this rich man? Matthew answered that he was a rich man of Arimathaea whose name was Joseph (Matt. 27:57). “He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed” (Matt. 27:57-60). Joseph, being a rich man, provided all the necessary things for the burial of the Christ, so that Christ would be buried in a proper way and even according to Jewish tradition. He was not just thrown as the two thieves crucified with Him were.[40]

Joseph together with Nicodemus prepared for the burial of Jesus Christ within a short time. These two disciples of God had shown their love for Christ. They were not one of the twelve disciples, but ordinary people who believed the Lord Jesus to be  the Messiah sent by God the Father to fulfill what was written in the Scriptures concerning Him. On the other hand, His own chosen disciples did not come back to see the dead body of Christ, except “Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulcher” (Matt 27:61). God had allowed events to happen in such a way that the prophecy might be fulfilled as it was written.

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[22]“Having tasted the  this mixture, Jesus refused to drink it, no doubt because he wanted to endure with full consciousness all the pain that was in store for him, in order to be our perfect Substitute.” Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, 964.

[23]Calvin, Commentary on Psalm, 65.

[24]Luke was the only one who recorded the prayer of the Crucified One for His enemies.

[25]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 151.

[26]“And how this prayer of this Crucified Redeemer reveals not merely His wonderful self-forgetfulness, but also His magnanimity and His earnest longing that his persecutors should be given another chance to repent before the otherwise inevitable judgment is executed on their sins! Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted 1983), 608.

[27]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 152.

[28]Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke,  609.

[29]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 152.

[30]Hendriksen said, “All we know is that during these three hours of intense darkness Jesus suffered indescribable agonies. He was being “made sin” for us (II Cor. 5:21),  “a curse” (Gal. 3:13). He was being  “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.” Jehovah was laying on him “the iniquity of us all,” etc. (Isa. 53). Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, 971.

[31]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 152.

[32]Ibid, 152. Hendriksen further explained, “The question has been asked, “But how could God forsake God?” The answer must be that God the Father deserted his Son’s human nature, and even this in a limited, though very real and agonizing, sense. The meaning, cannot be that there was ever a time when God the Father stopped loving his Son. Nor can it mean that the Son ever rejected his Father. Far from it. He kept on calling him “My God, my God.” And for that very reason we may be sure that the Father loved him as much as ever.” Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, 971.

[33]“According to Jewish Law the dead body of an executed criminal was not to remain all night “upon the tree” but was to be buried, “that thou defile not thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance” (Deut 21:23). Thus a body should be removed from a cross on any day before evening.” Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971), 817.

[34]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 155,

[35]John Calvin, The Commentary on Zechariah, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, reprinted 1984), 364.

[36]“John says that this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ, when his side was pierced by a spear, (John xix. 37;) and this is the most true: for it was necessary that the visible symbol should be exhibited in the person of Christ, in order that the Jews might know that he was the God who had spoken by the Prophets; and we have elsewhere seen similar instances. The Jews then had crucified their God when they grieved his Spirit; but Christ also was as to his flesh pierced by them.” Ibid, 364.

[37]“It is indeed true, that the side of Christ was pierced by a Roman soldier, but, as Peter says, he was crucified by the Jews, for they were the authors of his death, and Pilate was almost forced by them to condemn him (Act ii. 38). So then the piercing of his side is justly to be ascribed to the Jews, for they executed what their mad impiety suggested by the hand of a foreign soldier.” Ibid, 365.

[38]Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 156.

[39]Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. III (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 353.

[40]Lockyer said, “An important feature to be noted is that Jesus was buried, according to prophecy (I Cor. 15:3-4). The Roman custom in disposing of the corpses of those crucified was to throw them to the wild, roaming dogs. Hence, David’s phrases in the Calvary Psalm, “Dogs have compassed me…Deliver…my darling from the power of the dog” (Ps. 22:16,20). But Jesus did not share the fate of His companions, the two thieves, whose mangled bodies were fed to the hungry dogs. Joseph of Arimathaea, a secret disciple of Jesus, and receiving permission, Joseph, along with Nicodemus, took His body, washed, anointed, and clothed it, and buried it in the grave Joseph had prepared for himself.” Lockery, All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, 157.