When I found out what was going on there - it broke my heart - and it's going to break yours; because the story of the cross is two-fold. The story of the cross is about us receiving mercy, receiving hope, receiving our hope flowing through suffering, receiving forgiveness. But the cross is also about offering something back, about living a life that's different. Here's what was going on there.
In the First Century, they had public toilets, just like they do here; and look, all of us, even driving cars, have had moments where we just couldn't make it home right, and you have to find a toilet really fast. The same would have been true back then, because they walked everywhere, and they ate lentils all the time. Okay, so when they did this, a public toilet was somewhere - I could show you a picture of it. I have it on my machine. A public toilet was about as high as this stage is off the ground (3 feet?), and it was made of stone. Where the corner was, they would cut a hole this way around the flat part, and they would cut a hole this way around the bottom part so you could do either one with ease, okay.
So what would happen, every three or four feet was another hole - and this was all out in the public, like this was just right there in public sight. They had no shame about this okay. Now here was the problem. If you had to go and do something serious, like let's - we're all adults - if you had to have a bowel movement, how would you clean yourself? You really only had four options: you had a fig leaf, which isn't very absorbent right? You could find a handful of moss, and give it a go that way. That's kind of disgusting and messy right? You could use your left hand, which is equally disgusting, alright? Okay - or what happened was, is the beggars found a way to make extra money with tips; and what they would do is, they would find sponges, and they'd put them on the end of sticks. They'd come up behind people and after they were done, they would clean their rear ends for them. Now here was the problem: One sponge, 100 rear-ends - you've got a problem right. I mean seriously, can you imagine the guy at the end of the line: hey, can you at least turn it around? Can you do something?
So you had all kinds of problems; so what they did is, they found a way to sterilise the sponge between uses. They used it with spoiled wine and vinegar. They would mix spoiled wine and vinegar together in a bucket; and between uses, they would put the sponge into that bucket, and the bucket would kill the bacteria, and it would sterilise it okay. So when Jesus said: I'm thirsty; someone was cruel enough at the foot of the cross to say: You're thirsty? I'll get You something to drink; and he went to the public toilet, and he found a sponge on a stick, that was soaked with sour wine and vinegar. What did that mean? That it was a used one! They went and found used toilet paper, soaked it in sour wine and vinegar, and they shoved it up toward His face. Do you see now why someone had enough compassion to go: leave Him alone, that's enough? Do you see why now that is the moment where Jesus went: it is finished, I can't do anything more?
Let me ask you a question: Is there any place in your life, where you're receiving the benefits of the cross, but your offering back to Jesus is a dirty Roman sponge? Listen, when you come to the cross with a humble heart, wanting what the cross has to offer you, and deeply desiring to give that message to the world - then hope will always flow through suffering. But the way the Jews thought is this: any time you're at an altar, it's about what the sacrifice can do for you - but it's also about what you're offering back.
My question is this: is are you receiving mercy for all of your sins, yet your offering back to Jesus, actually is a dirty Roman sponge? If I could show you the imagery of it - if you take a dirty Roman sponge, soaked with sour wine and vinegar, and put it on the end of a stick, and you lift it up to Jesus, and shake it in His face, all it does is come back on you. That's all it does. When your offering back to Jesus stinks, it only affects your life. You still get the effects of the cross. These are the people that Jesus is going: Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing.