It is finished. (John 19:30)
The Word of Triumph
There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on the cross. It is not a quiet death, over in an instant to one glorious moment of martyrdom like being torn apart by lions. A cross is as much an instrument of torture as it is a gallows from which to hang. And as the day wears on seconds stretch into minutes which stretch into hours until there comes a point when time can no longer be measured except in the gradual weakening of the body and its ever more insistent demands for the substance which is so vital to life, so foundational to all living things, so basic to existence as we know it - water.
Water to moisten the parched mouth, water to free a swollen tongue, water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air, water to keep hope alive, to keep life alive just a few moments longer. Water, to a crucified man, is life.
Scripture
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:14-17)
Reflection
The solders give Jesus what they have, some sour old vinegar. It probably tasted disgusting but it is what poor soldiers drank and so they shared it. They could not afford decent wine. Jesus accepts what they have to offer. At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus asked the disciples what they had to give to the crowd, and they reply, "Just five loaves and two fish." It is not much. It is all that they have and so it is enough. Faced with our hungry world, with millions who are starving, we may not feel that we have much to give. If we give what we have, then it will be enough.
