Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.10 – March 1999
Wine Mixed with Myrrh
Sermon by Rev C.W. Oppelaar on Matthew 27:34 & Mark 15:23
Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:32-44
Beloved Congregation of our Lord.
The Word of God brings us to Golgotha. Our Saviour is the focus of attention in the sad group which has just arrived. Preparations are made for the crucifixion. The crosses are laid ready on the ground. Hammers and nails placed alongside.
AT THIS MOMENT THE EVENT OF OUR TEXT TAKES PLACE. The soldiers hand Jesus a cup. Jesus tastes from what is in the cup. BUT THEN DECIDEDLY REFUSES TO DRINK THE CUP EMPTY. I proclaim to you God’s Word about the SUFFERING CHRIST and the CUP OF SATAN.
We see:
1. The Satanic Temptation;
2. Christ’s Obedience as Mediator; and
3. Our Calling in All This.
1. THE SATANIC TEMPTATION
“They offered Him wine to drink mixed with gall.” What our text says, was common practice in those days. Criminals – condemned to death – upon arrival at the place of execution by crucifixion were first given a specially prepared drink.
MATTHEW DESCRIBES IT BY ITS TASTE. Wine mixed with gall. That is: mixed with a substance as bitter as gall. Mark tells us that this bitter substance was MYRRH. To give this mixture to someone to be executed by crucifixion was meant to be an ACT OF MERCY. This drink would QUENCH THIRST, the terrible thirst caused by the heavy load of the cross carried up the difficult road of the hill of execution.
BUT OFFERING THIS DRINK WAS AN ACT OF MERCY FOR ANOTHER REASON as well. It was well known how TERRIBLE were the PAINS OF CRUCIFIXION. How body and spirit on a cross had to endure horrific hellish agony. SO HORRIFIC THAT MANY WOULD GO INSANE WITH PAIN. And to REDUCE THIS PAIN SOMEWHAT this wine mixed with myrrh was offered. For myrrh worked as a PAIN KILLER, A SEDATIVE.
Hour by hour the sufferings of a crucified person would increase and get worse. But the myrrh would gradually make him go drowsy and would dull the pain. AND VERY GRADUALLY THE CRUCIFIED would slip into a state of drowsiness, unconsciousness and then death. That was the idea of this act of mercy.
And so they offered Him – Jesus – wine mixed with myrrh. An act of mercy? Really? Our Saviour could have accepted it as such, if He had been what His enemies said He was: a blasphemer, a revolutionary, who deserved death. Or – what in our age many have said He was – a religious genius who died as martyr for his convictions. BUT HOW DIFFERENT ALL THIS GETS TO BE IN THE CLEAR LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE, shed on Christ and His sufferings. Scripture says: Christ is THE MEDIATOR between God and man. The Mediator Who came – in our nature – here on earth to bring about RECONCILIATION between the seriously offended God and seriously guilty man.
This reconciliation can only be effected by the Mediator BY ENTERING INTO THE JUDGMENT which His guilty people deserved, and entering that judgment in the place of – instead of – His guilty people. IT IS A JUDGMENT OF A MOST BITTER AND MOST SHAMEFUL SUFFERING UNTO DEATH. A suffering unto death on a cross.
This judgment the Mediator must undergo fully and clearly conscious, WITHOUT ANY PAIN KILLERS OR SEDATIVES. In perfect conscious and willing surrender of the heart to the justice of God. In full acknowledgement: “Your doing is pure, your verdict is just, oh God.”
Now, congregation, in the light of all this, that cup of wine mixed with myrrh: THAT IS SATAN’S CUP. For that cup emphatically means to kill the pain of the crucified and to make them drowsy. IF CHRIST DRINKS ALL OF THAT LACED WINE, GRADUALLY HIS FEELINGS OF PAIN WILL BE DULLED. His spirit will get drowsy, His sufferings will decrease, and unconsciously He will slip away into death.
And here that means that the Saviour – come to earth to fully carry away the total judgment of God in the place of His guilty people – AT THE LAST MOMENT, IN A STATE OF INTOXICATION AND DROWSINESS, WITHDRAWS HIMSELF FROM CARRYING THAT JUDGMENT. It would have been a RUNNING AWAY FROM God’s punishment.
In the Old Testament there was a commandment from God: a priest who in the temple was about to bring a sacrifice to God, was TO REFRAIN FROM THE USE OF ANY ALCOHOL OR WINE. The sacrificial service had to take place with THE FULL UN-intoxicated devotion of the heart.
Here, on Golgotha, is God’s true Priest. He will bring the true sacrifice for His people. If this Priest dedicates His sacrifice to God in a state of intoxication, HE WILL BE MORE GUILTY THAN EVER IN ISRAEL A PRIEST WAS GUILTY. With His sacrifice He would have been an abomination unto God.
Yes, this cup of wine mixed with myrrh is Satan’s cup; HIDDEN BEHIND THE HUMAN HAND OF PITY, hides Satan’s hand. And there is a huge grin on the face of the Prince of darkness. Oh, if only the Christ will drink. Then he, Satan, has won. THEN the salvation of the world has been prevented. And hell can break forth in jubilation.
Congregation, don’t you think that at THIS MOMENT, when they offer Jesus this cup, ANGELS AND DEMONS HOLD THEIR BREATH to see what Jesus will do?
2. CHRIST’S OBEDIENCE AS MEDIATOR
Our text shows Jesus’ perfect obedience as Mediator. “AFTER TASTING THE CUP, HE REFUSED TO DRINK IT.” Jesus takes the cup. He takes a small sip. If only it is a refreshing drink of ice-water or something. He would gladly have taken it. It would have revived His spirit. It would have enabled His bone-dry parched tongue with vigour to speak the words which He planned to speak from the cross. But He does NOT get any further than a small sip. He tastes and smells the myrrh in the wine. And He knows its pain killing effect, WHAT A TERRIBLE TEMPTATION.
Remember, how in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus had prayed? Three times, “Father, if possible, let this cup – this cup of bitter suffering – pass Me by.” Even THINKING of the sufferings ahead of Him, His body profusely perspires sweat and blood. And HERE IS THE CHANCE TO MAKE THOSE SUFFERINGS LESS BAD. The demons whisper in His ear: “Come on, Jesus, close your eyes, don’t think, just drink, drink. It will DO YOU GOOD.”
What a temptation! But praise God… Jesus DOES NOT GIVE IN TO IT. He hands the cup back to His executioners. What they offer Him, He won’t drink! Even if they persist: “Come on, man, drink!” HE SHALL NOT DRINK, FOR IN THIS CUP HE HAS TASTED HELL! The temptation of Satan – in the LAST MOMENT, TO WITHHOLD FROM the Father His Right and His Honour, by evading and avoiding the suffering.
The sufferings He hates are NOT to be compared with the honour of the Father, the salvation of His people, the defeat of Satan. All that is worth much more. AND JESUS… refuses the cup of Satan and ACCEPTS THE CUP OF HIS FATHER, THE CUP OF WRATH, to drink it, to empty it, to the last bitter drop.
IN FULL AND CLEAR CONSCIOUSNESS, brothers and sisters, what a GREAT and GLORIOUS Saviour we have here. Great and glorious. A PERFECTLY OBEDIENT MEDIATOR. Purposely, fully, consciously and willingly, He has fulfilled all God’s righteous demands. Great and glorious. AS THE SECOND ADAM.
The first Adam’s debt and THAT of his kind – his descendants – He has fully wanted to pay, to the very last penny. When the Heavenly judge comes to the First Adam – after his fall into sin – in the Garden of Eden, then Adam hides himself. And the Judge has to call the unwilling man: “Adam, where are you?”
Here, on Golgotha, the Judge of heaven and earth COMES TO THE SECOND ADAM to put to His account the sins of His people. But THIS SECOND ADAM DOES NOT TRY TO EVADE HIS JUDGE, although tempted to do so. He refuses the cup of myrrh. And meets His Judge. Head on! And in His heart it lives: “Behold, I come, On God, to do your will.” Yes, your Saviour is great and glorious.
3. OUR CALLING IN ALL THIS
And what about our calling in all this? First, that with HUMBLE, REPENTANT HEARTS WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JUDGMENT OF GOD. That really we deserved it, on account of our sin. Our sin and God’s judgment on it was so serious, that even the least self-endured lightening of the suffering in connection with it, was rejected by Jesus. His bitter suffering, therefore, first of all says: YES, THAT IS WHAT WE DESERVED.
But then, and above all, that bitter suffering of Jesus says THAT GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD that the judgment deserved by sinners in its full, full weight, WAS CAUSED BY HIM TO COME DOWN ON THE HEAD OF HIS BELOVED SON, SO THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN THAT BELOVED SON, WILL NOT BE CONDEMNED, but will have full forgiveness and full life – forever, glorious and wonderful.
So the calling is: to put your full faith and full trust in what your Saviour has done for you. Every day put your full faith and trust in Him. He will not let you come out second-best, for He is a Perfect Saviour.
What He did – refusing the cup of Satan and fully accepting the cup of God’s wrath for you – He did, so that forever, for always you may drink: THE CUP OF SALVATION – with full forgiveness, and renewal and peace and joy and blessedness.
Amen.