Gall

January 2, 2012
The Life of Jesus; read today: Soldiers offer Jesus sour wine mix; Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23


ASV: Matthew 27:34. they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.

Wine was to be given according to scripture, to those who were facing death (Proverbs 31:6-7), but this was not a normal drink of wine.  They mixed with it gall, a bitter tasting drug.  wine would have deadened the pain He was in, the drug would have maid it so He would not have noticed.  It is much like what we do in the United States when we do death by lethal injection.  A drug is given to make the person unconscious, then the drug that will stop the heat is given. No pain is felt. If Jesus had taken that mixture He would not have lived the hell that He was about to go through.

He tasted it though.  The bitterness of the gall was a taste of the sin He was about to feel.  He could taste the bitterness and drink it down and not feel the pain, or He could live the pain.  The choice was to be His.  He rejected the drink.  He wanted to suffer so that I would not have to suffer.  Any thing less than full consciousness would not have brought the victory over death, hell and the grave.


Read for next time: He is crucified on the 3rd hour; Mark 15:25