John 19:30

ἔλαβεν. He had refused the stupefying draught (Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23), which would have clouded His faculties: He accepts what will revive them for the effort of a willing surrender of His life.

τετέλεσται. Just as the thirst was there before he expressed it, so the consciousness that His work was finished was there (John 19:28) before He declared it. The Messiah’s work of redemption was accomplished; His Father’s commandment had been obeyed; types and prophecies had been fulfilled; His life had been lived, and His teaching completed; His last earthly tie had been severed (John 19:26-27); and the end had come. The final ‘wages of sin’ alone remained to be paid.

κλίνας τ. κεφαλήν. Another detail peculiar to the Evangelist who witnessed it

παρέδωκεν τ. πν. The two Apostles mark with special clearness that the Messiah’s death was entirely voluntary. S. Matthew says, ‘He let go His spirit, (ἀφῆκεν); S. John, ‘He gave up His spirit.’ None of the four says ‘He died.’ The other two have ἐξέπνευσεν; and S. Luke shews clearly that the surrender of life was a willing one by giving the words of surrender, ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.’—‘No one taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.’ It was the one thing which Christ claimed to do ‘of Himself’ (John 10:18). Contrast John 5:30; John 7:28; John 8:28; John 8:42. Thus the spirit which He surrendered, and the water and the blood (John 19:34), bear witness to his Messiahship.

For ‘the seven words from the cross’ see Appendix C and notes on Luke 23:34; Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:48. Between the two words recorded in these verses (28–30) there is again a marked contrast. ‘I thirst’ is an expression of suffering; the only one during the Passion. ‘It is finished’ is a cry of triumph; and the ‘therefore’ in John 19:30 shews how the expression of suffering led on to the cry of triumph. S. John omits the ‘loud voice’ which all the Synoptists give as immediately preceding Christ’s death. It proved that His end was voluntary and not the necessary result of exhaustion. Quis ita dormit quando voluerit, sicut Jesus mortuus est quando voluit? Quis ita vestem ponit quando voluerit, sicut se carne exuit quando voluit? Quis ita cum voluerit abit, quomodo cum voluit obiit? (S. Augustine).