Power

In verses 28-30 we read…

“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. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Before this point, Jesus had been brutally beaten, and he is now hanging from a cross by the nails in his hands and feet. That is excruciating. Yet, he still had the power to think clearly and intentionally as he approached death. He told John to care for his mother, and now he intentionally asked for a drink in order to fulfill a prophecy. 

If my back was torn up from being whipped and I was crucified, my mind would be screaming from the excruciating pain. I wouldn’t be able to think logically or calmly. Yet, here Jesus is doing just that.

What power!

It also shows Jesus’s power over death. He wasn’t fighting death or scared of it. He commanded it. Once he completed everything he needed to do, he said, “It is finished,” and “gave up his spirit.” He was in control. Death had no power over him. 

What a testament of Jesus’s strength and deity!

Only God could have that kind of power over death.