CHAPTER XLVIII.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.—Psalm xxii. 18.
The circumstances attending the disposal of the garments of the crucified Jesus, are in themselves trifling and insignificant, but when viewed in connexion with this prophecy, it is no longer a matter of little importance. It is equally necessary that the small, as well as the great and conspicuous parts of prophecy should be fulfilled; and it is highly satisfactory to trace, amid the more minute events connected with the life and death of Jesus, so striking a correspondence with the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. In fact, if these were wanting, the whole, as an evidence, would be incomplete. How satisfactory is it to find, in this instance, the very raiment of Jesus become a witness for the truth that he is the Messiah. It was not the disciples, or friends of Jesus, who parted his garments among them, and cast lots upon his vesture: but it was the Roman soldiers, who, ignorant of the Jewish prophecies, could not be supposed to have divided the garments among them in that particular way, for the express purpose of fulfilling this prophecy; which might have been imagined, had it been the disciples instead of the soldiers. These men, alike ignorant and unconcerned about the fulfilment of prophecy, could not even be anxious to possess the garments of Jesus from their intrinsic worth; no, it was only the humble dress of a poor jew: nor were they led to attach any particular value to the clothes, from love to its late wearer, for whom they felt neither affection or respect. It is probable they were severally desirous to possess some part of the apparel, that they might exhibit it as a trophy that they shared in the destruction of the King of the Jews.
CHAPTER XLIX.
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.—Psalm lxix. 21.
It was not unfrequent that cordials or opiates were given the unhappy objects sentenced to crucifixion, to blunt the severity of their agonies, and shorten the period of their sufferings. But, at the crucifixion of Jesus, no friendly hand presented the soothing draught. When faint from loss of blood, and parched by burning fever occasioned by excessive pain, the dying sufferer exclaimed "I thirst;" a sponge is conveyed on a reed to his parched lips; but, alas! it is absorbed in a liquid too nauseous, even for one in his famished state, to drink. Unfeeling wretches! thus to sport with the sufferings of such a distressed object; thus to mock the wishes of one in the last agonies of death!
When the son of Jesse, in the cave of Adullam, longed, and said, "O that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is by the gate," three of the mightiest heroes in his valiant little band broke through the opposing ranks of the Philistine's army, to fetch the wished-for draught; but when the Son of God required the refreshment of a little water; when his tongue, from very thirst, clave to the roof of his mouth, and his strength was dried up as a potsherd, he was insulted with a mixture of vinegar and gall. But little did the thoughtless multitudes who surrounded the cross of Jesus imagine, that he was then drinking to the very dregs, the wormwood, and the gall, of Jehovah's wrath, which was far more bitter to his soul, than their offensive present to his taste. He was then redeeming his church from hell, that black abode of wo, whose wretched inhabitants are deprived of a drop of water, to assuage their tormenting thirst: and the horrors of the crucifixion were greatly augmented by the darkness that shrouded the scene, when the meridian sun was enveloped in the gloom of night. Blessed Jesus, though Lord of all, thou wast treated worse than earth's meanest slave.