Third Sunday of Lent - Thirsting and Forgiveness

Today is the third Sunday of the season in the Church calendar called ‘Lent.’ During this season we’ve been focusing attention on the seven last words of Jesus as He hung dying on Calvary’s cross. Each statement gives us insight into His heart as He hung on that cross.

I started this series focusing on the Lord’s cry to the Father: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Last week we turned our attention to His promise to the thief hanging next to Him: “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

This afternoon I want us to look at two more of His last words. First, “I thirst.” And then, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

The gospel writers tell us Jesus was twice offered something to drink during His horrific ordeal. The first time was just before they nailed Him to the cross. Matthew tells us (27:33-34): “And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.”

The wine – actually a weak vinegar mixed with a bitter substance St Mark called ‘myrrh’—acted like a narcotic. Roman soldiers often gave it to those they were about to crucify to deaden their pain. Both Matthew and Mark record that Jesus refused the drink.

We should not miss that point. Jesus would not drink the narcotic and thereby AVOID the full and painful wrath of God for our sins. He would not diminish in any way His sacrificial suffering in your place and in mine.

You’ll perhaps remember what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane when soldiers surrounded Jesus. Peter pulled out his sword and sliced off the ear of the high priest’s slave. But what did Jesus tell Peter? (John 18:11) “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

For the sake of time, I don’t want to belabor this point. We have a lot to cover in today’s message. But let me just add this: God the Son experienced the SAME agony of physical torture as anyone in this room would experience it. God loved us so much – each and individually, so much – that He would drink the full wrath of the Father so that all who come to Christ by obedient faith will NEVER have to bear that same wrath.

But then, just before Jesus gave up His spirit, John tells us (19:38-40) “After this, 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.”

This second offering of wine did NOT contain any narcotic mixed in with the vinegar. It was THIS drink which Jesus received. But – one might ask – “Why drink THIS one when He knew He was about to take His last breath?”

Why? Because, in addition to the prophecies of Psalm 22 – we looked at those a couple of weeks ago – Jesus was about to fulfill yet another Messianic prophecy, this one from Psalm 69:20-21: “Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

As I studied this ‘Thirst’ text for today’s message, I thought it once again strange that the Pharisees and other theologians – many of whom had memorized huge swaths of Old Testament Scripture from Moses and the Prophets – and yet THEY DID NOT RECOGNIZE THAT THEY WERE FULFILLING THOSE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES BY CRUCIFYING JESUS.

This is an extremely important point with serious application to everyone in this sanctuary at Ashwood Meadows – including me your pastor.

Listen as St Paul preached to the religious clergy and laity in the synagogue in one of the cities they’d visited: (Acts 13:27, 29-30, 40-41) “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. . . . When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead . . . Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; For I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’”

Let me repeat this point: The well-educated theologians of Jesus day MISSED the prophecies that they’d known from childhood. They missed the prophecies that they’d memorized. They missed them even as they were fulfilling them.

We don’t have time to examine those prophecies in detail, but here are only a few of the prophetic texts that were fulfilled on Calvary: Psalms 22, 31, 34, 69, Isaiah 50, 52, 53, Daniel 9, and Zechariah 12.

Nine prophetic texts. And they missed them all.

I know I am repeating myself, but as I realized they’d missed what they SHOULD have known, I was astounded. AND – it all gave ME reason to pause, for if THEY missed the messages – then is it also possible for ME to miss some of the messages of Scripture that I desperately need to see?

Listen, no one in any pew, or in any pulpit or seminary is so smart as to know all there is to know about God and His word. It was St Paul himself who, after many years of serving Christ and authoring half a dozen epistles, wrote to the Christians at Philippi: “[T]hat I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-12)

“That I may know Him . . ..” Oh, there is SO much about God that we do not know – and our ignorance of God is NOT because He hasn’t told us what we need to know because He HAS told us – repeatedly – EVERYTHING we need to know about Him and about walking a Christ-centered life.

Our problem is – okay, MY problem is – I too often see what I want to see and disregard the rest. And this point is a good segue into the next statement of Jesus that I want us to focus on because these next last words of our Lord are typically missed over and over again by multitudes of Christians, even though we hear them again and again. That proverbial ‘forest for the trees’ has to do with God's utter forgiveness of our sins – of His wiping them completely off the face of time, space, and eternity.

I have spoken to this subject many times, especially in the last several months since I came to better understand this remarkable truth about forgiveness and the ‘remission of sins’ – wherein God CHOOSES to absolutely, and utterly forget our confessed sins. That they are GONE; Like the difference between the Magic Slate and the Etch-A-Sketch illustration I shared with you several weeks ago.

Luke records it this way: (Luke 23:33-34): “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

It is absolutely vital to our spiritual health, our spiritual maturity – AND our fruitfulness for the Kingdom that we remember the context in which Jesus spoke those words of forgiveness.

By this time Jesus had been whipped so mercilessly, strips of skin hung from his back, thighs, and buttocks. His blood alternately clotted and then with each movement oozed from his torn capillaries, veins, and even small arteries. Jesus was a mass of welts and bruises and torn flesh. Isaiah tells us: “His appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being.” (Isaiah 52:14, Christian Standard Bible)

And then there was the emotional agony of knowing He had come to His own, but they rejected Him. His own crucified Him.

I’ll say it again for emphasis: His own crucified Him.

But were you there when they crucified the Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Oh, it ought to ALWAYS cause us to tremble, tremble, tremble. And so, I ask it again: Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

Uhhh, yes. You were there – I was there – when they crucified the Lord. Indeed, ALL humanity was there, guilty of driving one nail after the other into the flesh of our Lord because there is not a man or woman alive now or then whose sins did not need atonement.

Isn’t that what St Paul tells us in his letter to the saints at Rome: (Romans 5:8-9) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” And yet, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

But what about those who knew precisely what they were doing when they crucified Him? Was there hope for forgiveness for them? And more to the point, what of those today who also know precisely what they are doing when they decide to go their own ways and ignore God's call on them to repentance? Is there hope for forgiveness for them?

Yes, of course there is. God doesn’t want ANY to perish, but that each man and woman come to deep repentance leading to salvation. Listen to His appeal to the murderous, immoral, and idolatrous nation of Israel: ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11)

I myself am a good example of God's remission of my sins, even though I knew precisely what I was doing as I repeatedly rejected God and His call on my life to repentance. Some of you have heard this story before, but for the sake of those who have not—and to make the point about God's forgiveness of ANY penitent, regardless how often that person has willfully turned away from God – here quickly is my story:

In 1969, when I was 19, I stopped at a traffic light on the corner of Mott Avenue and Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway, New York. And from nowhere the thought dropped into my mind, “What if there is a God?”

I let my thoughts percolate a moment on that idea, but then – the light was still red – I realized if there was a God, He did not approve of my sex-drugs-rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. If there was a God, I would have to change. But I didn’t want to change. I liked my life the way it was. So, when the light turned green, I pushed the question from my mind.

In that moment, I made a conscious decision to turn away from God.

But God was not yet done with me. Several months later as I walked toward my apartment building, I spotted an ant hill at my feet. I don’t know why I stooped to examine it, but the tiny creatures intrigued me as they scurried in and around the mound. Then I remembered my high school science teacher telling us ants are an important component of the ecosystem. Without ants and insects like them, the earth could not sustain plant life.

Such intricacies in life clearly meant we live in an ordered world. But an ordered world means the existence of One who did the ordering. I knew where that thought was leading, and I didn’t want to go there. I still wanted to live life MY way. So, I quickly pushed those thoughts from my mind and continued on my way.

Those are only two of the MANY conscious decisions I made to keep God out of my life. And let me be as honest as I can with you without disclosing too much of my evil past – I am not engaging in hyperbole when I say I am a good example of God's MERCY toward someone who consciously and repeatedly rejected His call to repentance.

That is why this prayer of the Lord Jesus from the cross can be of such HOPE for everyone who wants to repent of their earlier rejection. It is because of Christ’s prayer for our forgiveness that ANYONE can come anew, each day, to Jesus. Our Lord’s prayer for our forgiveness demonstrates that truly there is no sin so grievous, so dark, so vile that we have ever committed that God's grace and mercy cannot – and will not – cleanse with Christ’s blood. 

Listen to God's message through St. John: If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).

Forgiveness. Oh! Forgiveness. It is because of His forgiveness that anyone can come to Him. And it is because of His forgiveness that anyone can stay with Him.

But how sad it is that I’ve met so many people in my 51 years of walking with Christ – Christians and non-Christians – who do not believe God would forgive them for the things that they’ve done. Just last week I communicated with Christian on Facebook who told me he stopped going to church because he feels like such a hypocrite. He told me he’s trapped in the sin of pornography, and he can’t believe God continues to forgives him, even though he continues to repent each time he falls.

Do you think similarly about God's forgiveness? Do you think you have sinned so many times that God is fed up with you? Have you MISSED the message of the gospel? Listen to this text in Matthew 18:21-22 – “Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Please listen: If God REQUIRES us to forgive others EVERY TIME they repent, don’t we think God will forgive us in the same way? He’s not going to require of us something that He Himself will not do. That makes absolutely no sense for a holy righteous God.

My brothers and sisters, I can appeal to you from the Scriptures all day long. I can give you information from the Scriptures all day long. But only the Holy Spirit can give you revelation into those Scriptures.

And so, I beg you: Please ask Him for revelation from the Scriptures that assure every penitent of complete, undiluted forgiveness. Assurance from those messages of Scripture that God has really, actually, and forever cast each one of your confessed sins as far from His memory as east is from the west.

Don’t miss this message. Don’t miss this truth.

Today we looked at two more of the Lord’s words as He hung dying on Calvary’s cross. The first we looked at was, ‘I thirst.” It was this cry of the Lord that should have again reminded the Pharisees and other theologians at the cross of the Messianic prophecies they were fulfilling by crucifying Jesus.

The second word – related directly to the first – Jesus asked the Father to forgive their sins.

Let me conclude this message in this way, and as a reminder once again – “Don’t be like the Pharisees and theologians who all missed the message of the scriptures.” The prophecies that pointed to Jesus’ thirst AND to the many other events surrounding Calvary ALSO point us to His offer for complete, total, unchanging forgiveness for our confessed sins.

If we do nothing else during this season of Lent – let’s begin our day each day to thank God for His indescribable gift of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Amen.