Christ in the Scriptures

Jesus hung on the cross in the final hours before His death. Darkness covered the land from the sixth to the ninth hour. At the ninth hour (3 PM), Jesus cried out these words — the opening line of Psalm 22.

After His baptism and before beginning His public ministry, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He fasted forty days. Satan came to tempt Him with three tests: turning stones to bread (provision), throwing Himself from the temple (spectacle), and worshiping Satan for all kingdoms (power). Jesus responded to each with Scripture.

Jesus spoke these words to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to Him by night. This conversation contains the famous John 3:16, but it opens with Jesus explaining the necessity of His death through the typology of the bronze serpent.

The scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus to prove His authority. Rather than perform a spectacle on demand, Jesus pointed them to the only sign that would be given: His death and resurrection, typified by Jonah's three days in the fish.

After cleansing the temple of money-changers, the Jewish leaders demanded a sign of Jesus' authority to do such things. His response — "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" — was misunderstood by His opponents but later remembered by His disciples after His resurrection.

In His hometown synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah and read this passage. Rolling up the scroll, He sat down — the posture of a rabbi about to teach — and declared: "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." The audience was initially amazed, then turned hostile when He implied God's grace would extend beyond Israel.

The Pharisees had been testing Jesus with questions about taxes, resurrection, and the greatest commandment. Jesus turned the tables by asking them a question they could not answer: How can the Messiah be both David's son and David's Lord? They had no answer, and "neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."

On the cross, after hours of suffering, Jesus said "I thirst." This physical agony was real, but John explicitly notes that Jesus spoke "that the scripture might be fulfilled." A sponge soaked in vinegar was lifted to His mouth on hyssop — the same plant used to apply the Passover lamb's blood to the doorposts in Exodus 12.

These were Jesus' final words before His death. Unlike the cry of Psalm 22:1 earlier in the crucifixion, this quotation of Psalm 31 is a statement of trust and completion. Jesus died with Scripture on His lips, committing His spirit to the Father.

Jesus told the parable of the wicked tenants who killed the vineyard owner's servants and finally his son. The Jewish leaders realized He was speaking about them. He then quoted Psalm 118:22-23, identifying Himself as the rejected stone who would become the cornerstone.