CHAPTER 11 The Cross

An obscure Hindu holy man named Rao flirted with worldwide fame in 1966. An eccentric, pompous mystic, Rao became convinced that he could walk on water. He was so confident in his own spiritual power that he announced he would perform the feat before a live audience. He sold tickets at a hundred dollars apiece. Bombay’s elite turned out en masse to behold the spectacle.

The event was held in a large garden with a deep pool. A crowd of more than six hundred believers and curiosity-seekers assembled. The white-bearded yogi appeared in flowing robes and stepped confidently to the edge of the pool. He paused to pray silently. A reverent hush fell on the crowd. Rao opened his eyes, looked heavenward, and boldly stepped forward.

With an awkward splash he disappeared beneath the water.

Sputtering and red-faced, the holy man struggled to pull himself out of the water. Trembling with rage, he shook his finger at the silent, embarrassed crowd. “One of you,” Rao bellowed indignantly, “is an unbeliever!”

A Show of Strength in Dying

All this world’s so-called holy men contrast sharply with the One who really did walk on water. Jesus Christ performed many miracles, but He never staged them just for show. On the contrary, His greatest display of spiritual authority was when He died on a cross.

That is hard to comprehend but nevertheless true. Jesus did not fall victim to anyone or anything. He had come for the specific purpose of dying to atone for sin (Luke 19:10; John 1:29). His crucifixion was a vivid display of His authority over circumstances, men, and even death. Far from being a tragic end to His earthly ministry, it was the culmination of all He had set out to do.

That biblical truth, unfortunately, is often overlooked. People have for centuries argued about who was to blame for killing Jesus. Sadly, some have even used the issue to justify anti-Semitism, blaming the entire Jewish race for Jesus’ death.

Certainly the Jewish leaders who condemned Him were culpable. They plotted, concocted false charges against Him, and blackmailed the Roman governor Pontius Pilate into carrying out their will. They were by no means innocent.

And the Roman government must share the guilt. Those who represented Rome in Jerusalem set aside justice to appease an angry crowd. They executed an innocent man.

But Jesus was not ultimately a victim of either Rome or the Jewish leaders. The apostle Peter says in Acts 2:23 that Jesus was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” The Jewish leaders and the Roman officials who carried out His crucifixion undeniably bear guilt for the sin of what they did, but God Himself had foreordained how Jesus would die.

Thus Jesus’ death was an act of the Son’s submissive obedience to the Father’s will. And Jesus Himself was in absolute control. He said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:17-18).

Do not think for a moment that anyone could kill Jesus against His will. The divine plan could never be short-circuited by human or satanic plots. Jesus even told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). Mobs tried to murder Jesus. They once sought to hurl Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29-30) and repeatedly attempted to stone Him (John 8:59; 10:31). Again and again He simply passed through their midst because His time had not yet come (cf. John 7:30; 8:20).

When the hour of His death finally did come, Jesus knew it (Matt. 26:18). Fully comprehending all it would entail in terms of the pain and agony of bearing the sin of the world, He nevertheless submitted Himself willingly. John 18:4 tells us that when the soldiers came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth, and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” He willingly surrendered Himself to them. It was His hour now, the time foreordained by God.

Control over Every Detail

No passage of Scripture speaks with more force about Jesus’ omnipotence in the midst of His agony on the cross than John 19:28-30: “Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

Throughout the crucifixion, Jesus Christ was on a divine timetable. God was sovereignly directing every incident. Step by step, each detail of Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 in particular outlined prophetically the specific features of His death. All of them were carried out precisely.

As He hung on the cross, Jesus knew that “all things had already been accomplished” (John 19:28)—all, that is, but one final prophecy. Psalm 69:21, where Christ speaks prophetically of His own death, says, “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” And so “to fulfill the Scripture, [He] said, ‘I am thirsty’” (John 19:28). The soldiers responded. They were under divine impetus; God was moving to fulfill the prophecy.

Some have maintained that Jesus was simply a man who purposely engineered details of His life and death to coincide with selected Old Testament prophecies. A well-known book of the 1960s made precisely that argument. The author pointed to phrases like “to fulfill the Scripture” (John 19:28) as proof that Jesus manipulated circumstances to give the appearance of fulfilling Scripture.

But a mere man trying to mislead people could not have had the kind of sovereign control over events Jesus repeatedly displayed. This verse proves why. It was not Jesus alone, but everyone around Him-His enemies included—who fulfilled precisely the details of Old Testament prophecy: “A jar full of sour wine [vinegar] was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth” (John 19:29). Exactly as the prophecy had predicted.

Note that the sponge was lifted to His mouth on a branch of hyssop. Hyssop, a long reed with a bushy end, had a history of significance in the Jewish sacrificial system. Exodus 12:22 prescribed hyssop as the tool by which lamb’s blood was to be applied to the doorposts and lintel during the first Passover. Hyssop was used in many of the Levitical sacrifices (Lev. 14:4, 6, 49-52; Num. 19:6, 18). It was so closely tied to sacrifices for sin that when David wrote his great psalm of penitence, he said, “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean” (Ps. 51:7).

How fitting, then, that hyssop should be the tool at the sacrifice of the true Passover Lamb! Do you think the Roman soldiers understood the relevance of what they were doing? I am certain they did not. But Jesus sovereignly saw to it that they carried out every detail, although they surely thought they were displaying their power over Him!

It Is Finished!

John 19:30 says, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’” The Greek expression is only one word—tetelestai. It was not the groan or curse of a victim; it was the proclamation of a victor. It was a shout of triumph: “IT IS FINISHED!”

The wealth of meaning in that phrase is surely impossible for the human mind to fathom. What was finished? His earthly life? Yes, but far more. Every detail of redemptive prophecy? Certainly, but not that alone.

The work of redemption was done. All that the law of God required, full atonement for sins, everything the symbolism of ceremonial law foreshadowed—the work that the Father had given Him to do everything was done. Nothing was left. The ransom was paid. The wages of sin were settled. Divine justice was satisfied. The work of Christ was thus accomplished in toto. The Lamb of God had taken away the sins of the world (John 1:29). There was nothing more on earth for Him to do except die so that He might rise again.

Here it is appropriate to add a crucial footnote: when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it. Nothing can be added to what He did. Many people believe they must supplement His work with good deeds of their own. They believe they must facilitate their own redemption through baptism, other sacraments and religious rituals, benevolent deeds, or whatever else they can accomplish through their own efforts. But no works of human righteousness can expand on what Jesus accomplished for us. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5). The beginning and the end of our salvation was consummated by Jesus Christ, and we can contribute nothing.

What would you think if I took a pen and tried to add more features to the Mona Lisa? What if I got a hammer and chisel and offered to refine Michelangelo’s Moses? That would be a travesty. They are masterpieces! No one needs to add to them.

In an infinitely greater way, that is true of Jesus’ atoning work. He has paid the full price of our sins. He has purchased our redemption. He offers a salvation from sin that is complete in every sense. “It is finished!” Nothing we can do would in any way add to what He accomplished on our behalf.

Having finished His work, our Lord “bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). There was no jerk, no sudden slump. He bowed His head. The Greek word evokes the picture of gently placing one’s head on a pillow. In the truest sense, no man took Jesus’ life from Him. He laid it down of His own accord (cf. John 10:17- 18). He simply and quietly yielded up His spirit, commending Himself into the Father’s hands (Luke 23:46).

Only the omnipotent God who is Lord of all could do that. Death could not claim Jesus apart from His own will. He died in complete control of all that was happening to Him. Even in His death He was Lord.

To the human eye Jesus looked like a pathetic casualty, powerless in the hands of mighty men. But the opposite was true. He was the One in charge. He proved it a few days later by forever bursting the bonds of death when He rose from the grave (1 Cor. 15:20-57).

And He is still in charge. “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9).

This, then, is the gospel our Lord sends us forth to proclaim: that Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, humbled Himself to die on our behalf. Thus He became the sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty of our guilt. He rose from the dead to declare with power that He is Lord over all, and He offers eternal life freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith. This gospel promises nothing to the haughty rebel, but for broken, penitent sinners, it graciously offers everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).