"16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’, but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfil the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished”, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
John 19:16-30
Three of the seven 'words' that Jesus spoke from the cross are recorded for us by John. The first of these is in 25ff, 'Woman, behold thy son' and 'Behold thy mother'. This may be simply interpreted as our Lord's loving concern, even in His suffering, for His mother and for His specially loved disciple. It is as if He had said, 'Look after John for Me' and 'Look after My mother for Me'. It is interesting - although perhaps idle - to speculate why Jesus should have committed Mary to John's care, rather than to His brothers. They, of course, at this point were not believers, as John was, and it was perhaps an indication that Mary was to find her comfort and her rest in a fellowship deeper than that afforded by purely natural ties. One recalls in this connection what He once said (Mark 3.34ff) about whom He regarded as brothers, sisters, and mother: He was in fact pointing out that not natural relationships of blood, but the spiritual relationships of discipleship mattered most.
The second 'word' from the cross is in 28 'I thirst'. John alone of the four gospel writers records this word. Is it an accident that it is he who also records so much of our Lord's words about living water, and of His gift of the water of life to those who trust in Him? Here is the fountain of life - and He says, 'I thirst'. Do we see John's point here? Jesus gives of Himself, until there is no more to give, draining Himself for our sakes. But perhaps there is more than this in the word. Thirst is the symbol of deprivation and loss, as the parable of Dives and Lazarus in Luke 16:24 makes clear. It is the burden of the world's sin that Jesus is bearing here, He is standing in for man the sinner, and He is saying, as it were, 'I am tormented in this flame' - 'In my place condemned He stood' - and said, 'I thirst'.