I am thirsty (John 19:28)
The fifth saying is brief: ‘I am thirsty.’ At one level, this is no more than a desperate, agonised cry of suffering. We hear a man on a cross, close to death, suffering from injuries and loss of blood, expressing his need for something to drink.
It is a painful human request. In thinking of this we need to be reminded of the truth that, in Jesus, God has suffered with human beings and nowhere more than here at the cross. If we understand and believe the Easter story, however much we may suffer, we can never ever point the finger at God and say, ‘You really don’t know what this is all about.’
In Christ, God is acquainted with human pain at its most extreme. The God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who by a mere word created the very oceans, knew what it was to suffer thirst. Sooner or later most people find themselves in a place that is deeper, darker and more terrible than they thought possible. At such times the thought that God has been there can be an enormous comfort.
Yet, as with so many sayings in the Gospels, there is another meaning. In John’s Gospel Jesus frequently uses the image of water. In chapter 4 he declares that he is the giver of ‘living water’ to the Samaritan woman, and in John 7:37–38 we read, ‘On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”’
With this in mind we sense something of the appalling nature of the cross. The maker of all things has become someone who craves a cup of water. Christ became empty so that we might become filled and became nothing that we might become something. That’s what the cross is all about.
Ponder: We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. 1 Thessalonians 1:4, NLT
Prayer: Lord Jesus, as we see afresh what you went through on the cross for us, may we look beyond our circumstances and see that you are sufficient, that you are the well of water that never runs dry. Amen.
