"But when He tasted of it, He would not drink...."

I'm making my way through the Gospels currently.  The Gospel message never ceases to amaze me even after so many years of being a believer (as I'm sure is the case for folks who have been believers decades longer than myself.)  As I read today in Matthew 27, I came across an interesting observation, as noted by Pastor John MacArthur, that I'd like to pass along.  It is found in Matthew 27:33-34:
^"33 And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, ³⁴ they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink."
If you're anything like me,  at some point in time when you read over this passage, that's exactly what you did....just read over it and then onto the scene where the crucifixion took place.  I mean, the crucifixion is in fact where 'it all goes down' so to speak, and it most certainly is THE MOST important act in all of Scripture.  However, there are lessons to be learned in the events leading up to this history-altering, life-changing event....one of those lessons being found here in our Matthew 27 text.

Why is this significant?  What's the big deal with Jesus refusing the wine-vinegar concoction the Roman soldiers were offering to Jesus?  For starters, part of God's wrath being satisfied on the cross is the fact that it needed to be fully experienced and fully felt.  God's wrath is no joke.  It's full, it's all powerful, and it will be completely satisfied.  So, had Jesus taken the mixture (which was used as a pain-dulling narcotic), the fullness of God's wrath would not have been fully experienced and satisfied through Christ's suffering.  However, I don't necessarily want to focus on this aspect of the passage today.  Rather, I'd like to focus on an aspect that I've overlooked each time I've read this....up until today that is.  It's the fact that God's character, His heart for mankind, is even further illustrated here in this gruesome scene before His death.  How? 
Think of the thief on the cross.....

Jesus, although fully man was also fully God, so He foreknew every event before their occurrence.  Therefore, knowing that He would have the opportunity to lead the repentant & believing thief to salvation at the crucifixion scene, Jesus would need to be fully cognitive.  He would need to be aware of what was going on, which would not be possible if He were under the influence of the narcotic, numbing mixture offered to Him via the soldiers.  What does this reveal to us about God's heart/character?  Even in His most devastating and dreadful hour on earth, Christ still put the lost and dying thief (ultimately, a sinner like you and I) before Himself.  
In every sense of the physical nature of Jesus, do you think He would have loved to have had the mixture to dull His senses and to numb the pain?  You better believe it.  Would He have wanted to be 'out of it', so to speak, so as to avoid hearing all of the horrible, blasphemous things the crowd was shouting at Him?  Of course.  However, He put all of that aside for the sake of winning a soul to salvation.  That's a love greater than any of us can express or comprehend.  That's God's love.