To Fulfill the Scriptures

 

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst."  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.  --John 19:28-29

 Last week we looked at Psalm 22 and how, not only did Jesus quote directly from that passage on the cross, but He fulfilled the prophecies contained within the psalm.  Today I want to expand on that idea a bit, also starting from the cross.  In John's gospel we see another of what has been called the Seven Last Words of Christ.

The quote from Jesus is short.  He simply said, "I thirst".  It made sense.  He was dying, dehydrated and losing fluids.  On a physical level, he wanted water.  Oh, but John, the "disciple whom Jesus loved", saw something significant beyond the mere physical.  He knew that Psalm 69:21 said, "They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink."  

Slipped into this song written by King David a millennium before was this prophecy that John wanted the followers of Jesus to notice.  In this same song David wrote in verse 9, "For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me."  John had already cited this Psalm when Jesus drove the merchants out of the Temple (see John 2:17).  Here, though, John wanted to show yet another prophecy that the Master fulfilled.  The religious leaders of the day had rebuked Jesus, and held Him in reproach.  John wanted his readers to know that the Pharisees not only disrespected Jesus, but also His Father who had sent Him.  David wrote in Psalm 69:19 and 20, "You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to You.  Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none."  Did John intend to point us to this Psalm so that we could apply this passage to Jesus as well?  I think so.

Let's look at one more of the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross.  Luke 23:46 says, "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.'  And having said this He breathed His last."  This is a quote from Psalm 31.  Verse 5 says, "Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God."  Just before Jesus breathed His last breath, He spoke this prayer to God His Father.  It was a dying declaration of the fulfillment of His mission.  Jesus' death would become the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind.  When David spoke these words, he expressed ultimate trust in God, because he knew that God would provide a means of redemption for him, and that God was faithful.  I think Jesus knew this as well--God is faithful, and that He would provide a way to redeem us from our sins.  

Paul spoke of this divine plan of redemption in Ephesians 1:7-10.  "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth."  We therefore ask with David in Psalm 2:1, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?"  Why, when God has very clearly set forth this plan of redemption through the blood of His Son, Jesus--why do people "kick against the pricks?" (see Acts 26:14).

It is because they do not see that Jesus was the Anointed One that David wrote about in Psalm 2:2.  According to Chad Bird in his book The Christ Key:

The NT quotes, alludes to, or adopts the language of Psalm 2 about 17 times.  Most notably, the early Church quotes Psalm 2 after Peter and John were arrested for preaching Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 4:25-26).  These early Christians confessed that the Father "through the mouth of our father David...said [the words of Psalm 2] by the Holy Spirit" (Acts 4:25).  David the poet was the mouthpiece of the Spirit.  Their interpretation takes the form of this prayer: "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, a long with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28).  The Lord's Messiah of Psalm 2:2 is "your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed" (Acts 4:27).  The nations, peoples, kings and rulers of Psalm 2:1-2 who "rage...plot...set themselves...[and] take counsel together" are interpreted as "Herod and Pontius Pilate, a long with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel" (Acts 4:27).  In short, the Christians read this Psalm as a Spirit-inspired, poetic prophecy of specific events that happened during the Passion of Jesus.  

God has given us the good news of the Gospel, which is that Jesus was sent by God to live a perfect life and to die an agonizing death, taking on the sin of the world as the ultimate sacrifice; and that three days later He would rise again to new life, as will we who belong to Him by faith.  It is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone that this is accomplished.  Those who reject this message do so at their own peril, as they will die in their sins apart from the saving knowledge of Jesus.

If you read the Scriptures you will hear the very words of God Himself.  Do not stop up your ears and scream against those who speak the truth of God's mercy, as the Jews did who stoned Stephen (Acts 7:57).  If the world does decide to shoot the messenger, we can say with Stephen (who quoted the words of Christ on the cross), "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." (Acts 7:59). 

Christ is the Key

 

Then He said to them, "These are my words that I have spoken to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."  --Luke 24:44

When I was in Seminary I was offered a course called, I think, "Christ in the Old Testament."  I did not take it, not because I was not interested in the subject, but because it was not a requirement for my degree in Religious Education.  I was not in the Masters of Divinity track, and I certainly did not have the impetus or the intellect to advance to the PhD level. 

However, I have always wondered what the resurrected Jesus spoke of with the two fellows who were on their way to Emmaus.  This pair of disciples were on their way from Jerusalem to their home seven miles east.  When Jesus caught up with them, they were discussing the fact that Jesus, the rabbi who spoke as a prophet (who might have been the one to redeem Israel), was sold out by the priests and condemned to death.  Not only that, they had heard that some women had gone to the tomb, only to find it empty.  These women told stories of being met by angels, who told them that Jesus was alive.

When Jesus spoke, He opened up the books of Moses and the Prophets, explaining how all Scripture pointed to Himself.  I had always wondered what specific Scriptures Jesus quoted to them.  As we know, the New Testament had not been written yet, so the only Scriptures they had were the books in the Old Testament.  I was reminded of this area of study recently when I started reading a book by Chad Bird called The Christ Key.  I highly recommend it, and a lot of this study (and hopefully the blog posts in the near future) will rely heavily on Mr. Bird in their content.

As it happens, I have been doing a study of the book of Psalms, so I thought what better way to transition into a study of biblical Christology than to start in this same Old Testament book.  I also thought that I would start with the low hanging fruit. That is why I will start my study with Psalm 22.   With the exception of the passage from Isaiah 53 that was quoted by the angels announcing the Nativity, no other Old Testament passage so directly lines up with the New Testament narrative.

Mark 15:34 says, "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"  The Jewish men standing there at the crucifixion would have recognized the quote directly from Psalm 22.  Let's read a portion of it now.

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  Why are You so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.  --Psalm 22:1-2

When David wrote these words, he was confessing his own separation from God.  This separation was caused by sin.  We know David was not a perfect man.  Not only was he separated from God by space and time, but also due to his own sinful nature.

Why, then, would Jesus allude to this agonizing cry of David?  Because "For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This, friends, is the Gospel.  That Jesus took upon Himself our sin on the cross so that we could clothe ourselves in His righteousness before God.  He became the sacrifice for us, so that at the time of Judgment God would see His holiness rather than our vile sinfulness.

Let's read more of the Psalm together:

All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; "He trusts in the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him deliver him, for he delights in Him!"  --Psalm 22:7-8

David often found himself in bad situations.  In these times of distress and trouble, his faith did not waver, even when others would mock him and make faces at him for his faith.  Their words of mockery went something like, "Only God can save him now."  Truer words were never spoken, even if their meaning was unclear to them.  God would deliver David, sometimes in ways that were unexpected--even miraculous.

When Jesus was crucified, it was a public spectacle.  Matthew 27:39-40 says, "And those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself." Later in verse 43, they said, "He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him."  Almost word for word what was written in Psalm 22.

Let's dig a bit deeper in our text:

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.  --Psalm 22:14-15

David's heart-wrenching words describe an emotional turmoil.  Perhaps from fear of his enemies, he felt like he was poured out, like he was out of whack.  He may not have been eating well, or maybe he was fasting, as he describes loss of strength and dehydration.  His enemies, or maybe even his "friends" (the ones who mocked him) had left him for dead.

Crucifixion was not a known form of execution in David's day, but it was torturous.  Hanging suspended by nails in His hands, Jesus would have suffered physical symptoms like bones being disjointed--His shoulders, elbows, and wrists dislocating from His body weight; the feet and ankles out of whack because of the single spike holding his feet to the cross.  In John 19:28 we read, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), 'I thirst'."  Jesus was obviously dehydrated and needed water, but John saw that as a fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture, where David said, "my tongue sticks to my mouth."  Also, John 19:34 says, "One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."  Jesus was officially pronounced dead when his body fluids had visibly separate like that.  With David He could say, "I am poured out like water."

We can read one more prophetic verse from Psalm 22:

They have pierced my hands and feet....They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.  --Psalm 22:16b, 18

 David was a warrior king. It is not unreasonable that he may have received some minor wounds to his extremities, cuts and scrapes if not actual puncture wounds.  We can't be sure.  What we can be sure of is the practice in warfare than when a soldier comes upon a casualty, even an enemy casualty, he will salvage anything he can from the body--ammunition, firearms, armor, etc.  David would imagine that if he, the king, were a casualty, the men who came upon his corpse would see more value in their plunder, and they might gamble to see who would keep it.

As we have mentioned before, crucifixion was not something David would have been familiar with, but this method of execution was explicitly described here: "They have pierced my hands and feet."  Matthew 27:35 says, "And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots."  I'll be they thought the tunic of this Rabbi would be worth a lot, more than that of the other common criminals crucified with Him that day.  Again we see this specific Scripture fulfilled.

I want to close by quoting from Chad Bird, on how the Scripture is layered, beginning with the Torah, through the Prophets, and even into the "writings", which include the Psalms, all of which laid the foundation for the New Testament and the good news.

Finally, we hear from the lips of Jesus Himself, on the day of His resurrection, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). Notice how He explicitly includes the Psalms here.  In saying this, Jesus "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." (24:45).  This Greek verb for "opened," dianoigo, was used by the Emmaus disciples when they described how Jesus "opened to [them] the Scriptures" (24:32).  "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets," He showed them that everything concerned Himself (24:27).  Luke will also use dianoigo to describe how, in Thessalonica, Paul "reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining [dianoigo] and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead" (Acts 17:2-3).  The Scriptures, including the Psalms, are opened to us by the Christ Key.  He alone unlocks the Old Testament and invites us in.  And He alone opens our minds to understand and believe in Him.  --Chad Bird, The Christ Key pg 162.

It is my desire to continue a study of the book of Psalms in this format, showing explicitly how Jesus was front and center on the minds of the authors and the readers in the early Church.  It is my sincere hope that this study will increase your faith and open up your heart and mind to know Him more, for His glory.