After this Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst.” Now there was set there a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished.” And He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. -- John 19:28-30 (KJ21)
Crucifixion was intended to be painful, prolonged, and humiliating. The Roman soldier was not offering a kindness to a dying man, but rather he was getting in a final humiliation to the man they were torturing to death. For understand, the Romans used a sponge on a stick to wipe themselves.
